Sacha Runa Collective offers two Month-long Shamanic Intensive Training Courses a year
(Jan/Feb and August) in the Bolivian Andes& Amazon (www.sacharuna.com).
The course is indeed Intensive and deeply transformational.
It is intended to help train those people who trully want to entrust themselves to Spirit
and dedicate themselves to Service.
No prerequisite is necessary, except the absolute determination to face oneself
and do what is needed to allow spirit to flow through us and bless creation.
The next one is August1-30.
Have to fly in and out of la Paz, Bolivia.
Application letters are due ASAP.
The next course is Jan/Feb 2009

For serious apprentices who intend to become full fledged shamans and
conduct medicine ceremonies, at least 4 courses are recommended but it
ultimately dependes on everybody's skills.

For a description of the course, please visit www.sacharuna.com
Blessings:
Miguel A. Kavlin
posted by:
Miguel
Bolivia
  • Is it in Quechua?
    • Considering their website is only in English in Spanish, I doubt it.
      • I didn't actually think so, that was just a gentle way of commenting on how this was not really on topic.

        Let's see, in Bolivian Quechua I think it probably would be "Bolivia Punapi Antisuyupi Yachaqmanta Sinchi Yachachikuna."
        • I think I actually disagree. the tribe description is "For discussion of Quechua language and linguistics, and related subjects such as the culture, history, and struggles of Quechua-speaking peoples, both highland and lowland. " So maybe the "shamanic retreat" is not relevant, if it is notbased in the traditions or practices of the Quechuan culture. However, if it's teachings are based in traditional Quechuan medicine or healing, then it fits into "related subjects such as the culture...": I know many younger generation quechuas who do not speak the language, but still consider the culture a part of them: the traditions, music, dances, medicine, stories, etc.
          • "I think I actually disagree. the tribe description is "For discussion of Quechua language and linguistics, and related subjects such as the culture, history, and struggles of Quechua-speaking peoples, both highland and lowland. " So maybe the "shamanic retreat" is not relevant, if it is notbased in the traditions or practices of the Quechuan culture."

            Since it is not, then why do you disagree? The people running this do not speak Quechua and have no Quechua blood or heritage whatsoever. And have spammed this message all over. I wasn't making a big deal out of it, only posted the gentle question "Is it in Quechua?" to which I already knew the answer.

            "if it's teachings are based in traditional Quechuan medicine or healing, then it fits into "related subjects such as the culture...":"

            Yes, it would, if that were the case.
            • "Since it is not, why do you disagree?" I have no idea if it is or if it's not, I haven't seen proof of that one way or the other. It does not say on the website whether their teachers have any Quechua blood or heritage or if they speak the language or not. All they say is that there are several teachers who practiced and learned shamanism and traditional medicine in areas I know to be Quechua. I don't know any of them, not interested in it.
              I am not defending this retreat at all, I am addressing what your question implies. I don't think something has to be in Quechua to be relevant to the Quechua tribe. As long as its subject matter is relevant. I don't think the organizers have to be Quechua, although some of them maybe. If I were to organize an panel about the history of coca chewing in Peru and Bolivia that touched on the culture and history of Quechuas, I would think that would be ok to post even though i myself am not Quechua.
              I think that saying that they have spammed this message all over the place is a valid complaint. I think the poster and maybe event itself deserve to be called out. If their practices and teachings have nothing to do with traditional Quechua teachings or practices, good job for calling out their phony-non-quechua-culture-selves
  • imp info - esp for women - watch out

    Sun, July 27, 2008 - 1:19 PM
    check out this posting by Bhudevi
    Re: Has anyone worked with Don Miguel Kavlin? This is a response to the original question. Miguel was recently in ceremony for 3 ceremonies in NC. He lied down with 2 women (separate ceremonies) after the ceremony, but while the women were still strongly affected by the medicine. I was one of those women, and while his affection helped to settle me down and work through a difficult time, I couldn't help but think that it felt strange. I could sense that if I was open to it the situation could turn sexual, and that was interesting to consider, since the altered state was just that, altered, and because I was with the Shaman, and that made me feel special. But if I had ventured that way, the next day would have been a mess, a nightmare, and would have changed my life in a negative way forever. I trusted the Shaman I had gotten to know over 4 intense days, and I needed him to comfort me, not to come on to me. Miguel left here and traveled to Oregon and Washington, knowing that he had stirred things up here, but went ahead and seduced a woman there while she was on the medicine. She was completely willing but I personally think that this is a strong mis-use of power, and no matter how consensual the other person is, the Shaman is supposed to hold the safe space, right? Consensual sex while on any medicine seems to be a contradiction to me, especially when it is the Shaman that is involved. As I have worked through this I am greatly saddened. I loved working with Miguel, we had 3 ceremonies together. I loved his music, and I admired him as a Shaman, and a man, until the last night when I was struggling and he suggested we lie down together, and I trusted him. Now I know from reading others information that use words like "womanizer" and "trantric shaman" that he is not the man that I thought I was working with. This will not bother some people, and others might decide not to work w/ him, I just think it is important to let people have all the information. Blessings
    • Re: imp info - esp for women - watch out

      Wed, July 30, 2008 - 8:12 AM
      Yes, he has a reputation for seducing women who are under his ceremonial care, or who are apprentices, students, or patients of his -- which is not only an unethical abuse of trust, as it would be for any therapist or person in such a position of power, but very contrary to Ayahuasca practice specifically. That was why I wasn't exactly comfortable when I saw that this notice appear here among its general spamming.

      But all I did in response was to point out that no one involved in this speaks Quechua or is of Quechua heritage.
      • to Gayle - unethical abuse

        Wed, July 30, 2008 - 5:28 PM
        I totally understand your discomfort about seeing his post here, Miguel basically spammed tribe. When I saw his advertising blitz, I felt compelled to put a warning response. I was so surprised that out of all the tribes he posted on, he only got called out on a couple, here & one other in which the moderator responded. Yet another warning sign of this person..........no respect.........
        • Re: to Gayle - unethical abuse

          Wed, July 30, 2008 - 7:01 PM
          not to play the devil's advocate here, and yes i have heard about this guy's totally unacceptable behavior, but many traditional ayahuasca songs (icaros) are sung in one dialect of quechua or another. so technically, it would be appropriate to post it in the listings section as an event, not as a discussion topic.

          however he seems like the type of person that if you give him an inch, he'll take a mile. i'd delete it.
          • Re: to Gayle - unethical abuse

            Thu, July 31, 2008 - 8:53 AM
            Well, yes, and the name of his center is Quechua -- Sacha Runa, which means Forest People (or Forest Person). He told me himself that he got the name from the title of a book, "Sacha Runa" by Norman Whitten, a very excellent (but unfortunately out of print) book about the Pastaza Runa aka Canelos Quichua of the Ecuadorean Amazon, a people whom he has never visited but I have. (If you watch the video "Shamans of the Amazon," which is on the net, Rafael and his son Flavio are members of the extended family among whom Whitten did his fieldwork in the 1970s.)

            BTW, Miguel Kavlin is from LaPaz, but his parents were Russian Jewish immigrants (or Polish? can't remember) -- anyway, no Indian blood, and his Ayahuasca apprenticeship was with a mestizo (who, interviewed for a book, expressed a rather obnoxious but typically mestizo sense of superiority to Indians).

            Maybe the thread should be deleted, but, on the other hand, if it is not even being discussed on the other tribes where it was spammed, maybe it should be left up, at least as a warning to women.

            Thoughts?