THE DIET

Don Guillermo is a traditional Quechua healer from a long lineage of healers in the Amazon. He is very well known in the area where he lives, and the word has spread. Many people travel to see Don Guillermo and receive help from him every year from all over South America, North America, and Europe. The protocol is to stay with him on his land for eight days. During that time, you eat a special non-allergenic diet and drink a plant medicine he prescribes for you, three times a day. 

Here is my experience as I've already written to Kirk in an email:

Dearest Kirk, 

We just had the most intense and magical experience with one of Eda's traditional teachers, Don Guillermo. 

I haven't slept in three days because of ridiculous amounts of mosquito bites on the inside of my legs and we've just arrived at our hotel after a very long day, which included trudging through a swollen river with rushing waters that reached above our waists - at six different points of the river. 

Don Guillermo works with many different plant medicines. I received one called Sanango, along with two other women, Elizabeth and Jeni. Liz received medicine for her asthma - Bachufa and Sangre de Grado. They have an absolutely awful taste. While taking the Sanango for five days we had to be on a special diet of yucca root, white rice and green bananas with no spices or salt at all. Because of the need for protein Eda made sure Mama Dorita (Don Guillermo's wife) also included lentils, split peas or chicken once a day. Very bland, but my body felt so much better on this diet!

Every morning we would wake up to Don G. coming to serve us our cups of medicine. We took it three times per day. My reaction was very strong. I would become nauseous right after drinking and remain so for ten to twenty minutes. Usually I would also break down crying. This didn't happen to anyone else for two days. Later when Liz started receiving two medicines rather than just one, she also started having strong reactions. Elizabeth began reacting after two days. Don Guillermo said this was because the medicine was taking the pain on the inside and putting it outside. My crying release was always accompanied by memories or familiar feelings from childhood such as alienation, feeling unlovable or heart break.

I started having nightmares every night as well. Every one was about my family and the past. I was always angry in my dreams and lashing out. By the fourth morning I was feeling very vulnerable. All my usual defenses were broken down. When Eda and Don G. arrived at our shelter (where Liz, Elizabeth and I slept) I was crying already. They decided that since I am so sensitive they thought I should only take half a cup in the mornings from now on. But the next morning I woke crying from another disturbing dream about my family. I made the decision to take no more Sanango and just work with the spirit already inside me. Eda agreed. She helped me to see how the nightmares were showing me where my spiritual path is blocked. 

While taking the Sanango medicine I received very deep healing for my heart. I saw the ways my inner-child was suffering and the ways she tries to get her needs met. I worked a lot with letting go of attachments (Naka-Ima work) which was so powerful during the intensity of the detox process. More and more I felt my whole Adult consciousness, my essense. I began to have expanded states of consciousness. And most days were a combination of expanded states and contracted painful states. The more fluid I was, not controlling my emotions during contracted states, the quicker the energy would move through, allowing me to expand again.

When we completed our "diet" with the medicine, Mama Dorita had us break the fast with onions, tomatoes and salt. Then we hiked back to Chazuta Village, a one hour hike through mud and river. Don Guillermo and Mama Dorita have a house in the village as well as the land where they do their medicine work. At their village house, Don Guillermo did the final ceremony of sealing up our energetic bodies so we wouldn't take in any negative energy because we were/are so open. He had a pipe filled with tobacco which he used to blow onto us. For me, as he blew smoke into my head, hands, front and back, he was singing the sacred song to Sanango. What an amazing man! He's 72 and so strong and alive!

Don Guillermo prescribed a post "diet" diet. This diet is restricted according to the ways the medicine will be working in our bodies for the next month to three months. He said that if we don't respect the diet, the medicine may have adverse or no effects. If we respect it the medicine will keep strongly working with us, healing us. 

The restrictions include:

For 30 days-

No sugar, spicy food, red meat, turkey, pig, sweet potatos, mushrooms, fruit

For 90 days-

No sex

During our stay with Don Guillermo I had the honor of receiving a doctoring from him. I had asked him about my head twitch from the car accident. He took out his pipe and sang the Sanango song into my head. He could see the exact places in my head where I received "blows" during the rolling of the car. He blew smoke into these places and put his lips right against the skin to sing the medicine song, which he sang in a loud voice. I could feel the medicine awaken in me and respond to his singing. It was amazing! I really feel such hope for healing my head now. More than ever before. It has so much to do with trust and surrender.

Meeting Don Guillermo and Mama Dorita was such a gift. At so many points during our stay I had to pinch myself. "I'm sitting in a kitchen with a dirt floor and chickens running around. There's a beautiful old woman cooking me yucca root, barefoot. There's a cat sitting under the palm thatch roof meowing at me. There's a monkey on a leash swinging on the tree branches outside. I'm in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon receiving medicine from the most amazing healer I've ever met. How did I get here???"

Much thanks to Eda Zavala! Much thanks for Creator for bringing us together.

Missing you -

Love, 

Maria