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TESTIMONIES

RANDY'S ADVENTURES

Here's the testimony written by Randy, an explorer who, on his stay in Peru, has decided to contact Norma Panduro Navarro, a shaman woman (Curandera) of the Amazon forest. You can read the original version at: http://www.longsstrangetrip.com/

Medicine, Coincidence and a Hole in the Head.

Norma Panduro calls herself a Medico Naturista. She uses medicinal plants of the Amazon, along with ceremonies she learned from the Shipibo Indians, in her practice. As a child Norma had gotten cancer, which had been declared uncurable by the traditional doctors of Iquitos, so her mother took her to see the shaman of the Shipibo tribe. There the Shaman drank ayahuasca with her, in order to see if she could be cured. After determining that yes, she could be cured, he spent the next 3 months treating her with plants, as she lived alone in the jungle. She later came back for a year to train with the Shaman. Today she is trying to set up a natural healing clinic in Iquitos. She was the leader for our Ayahuasca ceremony.

To drink Ayahuasca means entering visions, prophecies, and looking at the truth we all keep in ourselves.

JOHN BERNHART

I arrived to the hut in the forest (maloca) ; Norma was there. I had a conversation with her and from the beginning, I met only her kindness. I had the opportunity to ask her a lot of questions and she didn’t hide anything from me.

She invited me to an Ayahuasca session that was planned for the very night. I didn’t ingest anything in order to be able to take part in the ceremony. Everything started at 9pm (night-time), and lasted up to 1 am. It was an extraordinary experience.

It was a very quiet session until Norma started singing and whistling her icaros (sacred songs/rhythms inspired by Ayahuasca), which are beautiful. I felt like a boy to whom she sang a nursery rhyme.

I’m not trying to convince you of anything with my account; I’m rather trying to describe my own experience. It seems to me that the experience we received is worth much more than the price of the ceremony.

One other thing I can bring from my adventure is that I can call that place a mystical place. I saw that Norma has two shaman apprentices: two grand-daughters of her blood: Jaury, 14 years old (whom I call Gugu with affection) and Celeste Maria (the little genius) who’s 10 years old, and to whom I wish that they keep on their way and that they can become good apprentices and better shaman women.

I also noticed that for this ceremony, Norma used special food and adapted the aliments to the visitors’ diet, adding “panllevar” products from neighbouring farms to every meal. Jaury was the one in charge for preparing Ayahausca and other plants, according to Norma’s directions.

What can be felt in Norma is her humility, sharing her table with both her employees and her visitors, in a family-like manner. While discussing with her, I could notice her desire to establish a center of conservation for all medicinal species of plants, and especially for the ones in danger of extinction. She told me she has much respect for pharmaceutical medicine.

Norma is aware that her clinic is lacking many things, but she also believes that patience, humility, perseverance and the help of good people can improve the actual state of the clinic’s infrastructure.

I could observe that Norma prepares medicinal plants and aphrodisiacs, using barks, roots, fruit, latex and so on. She does share her science with visitors since she never refuses to answer questions or to let us watch her work.

I believe that, as myself, you readers of my present testimony, will approve of this project, and if you want to collaborate with Norma and feel the joy of contributing with anything so that your life can change in the future, please come and acquire your own experience.

Norma is one of the rare Ayahauscera women in the Amazon and her knowledge originates in her indigenous ancestors from the large Shipibo tribe, spread over the whole gigantic forest. The ceremony she leads is really authentic, wonderful and unforgettable.

JOHN BERNHART

john@etecc.org