Shamanism in Peru is not one tradition but two, living side by side in one country. There is the plant-based curanderismo of the Amazon lowlands, where a curandero sings icaros to guide ayahuasca ceremonies, and there is the mountain practice of the Andean paqos, who work through ayni, reciprocity with the earth, rather than through visionary plants at all. Both are genuine, both are still practised today, and treating them as one thing is the most common mistake outsiders make.
I have written elsewhere about how shamanism was never one thing, and Peru may be the clearest single example of that inside one country’s borders. What follows goes deeper into both of its traditions, and gives ayahuasca the dedicated, honest treatment it deserves, including the real risks of the retreat industry that has grown up around it.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Curanderismo | Amazonian plant-based healing tradition led by a curandero or vegetalista |
| Icaros | Sacred healing songs a curandero sings to guide a ceremony and direct its energy |
| Ayahuasca | A vine-and-leaf brew used ceremonially to reach visionary states, prepared and held by a trained curandero |
| Paqo | An Andean ritual specialist working through ayni, reciprocity with the land |
| Despacho | A ceremonial offering bundle given to Pachamama, the earth, and the Apus, the mountain spirits |
What is Amazonian curanderismo?
Curanderismo is the healing tradition of Peru’s Amazon basin, practised by mestizo and indigenous healers known as curanderos, or more specifically vegetalistas: those whose knowledge comes directly from plant teachers rather than from inherited ritual alone. A vegetalista’s training is long and physically demanding, built around the dieta, a period of isolation, dietary restriction and sexual abstinence spent in close relationship with one plant at a time. Ayahuasca is the best known of these teacher plants, but it is far from the only one; chiric sanango and bobinsana are two others commonly worked with, each said to teach something different.
At the centre of a curandero’s practice sits the mesada, an altar table holding the tools of the work: perfumes, tobacco, blades, stones and other objects charged through years of use. The anthropologist Luis Eduardo Luna documented this tradition closely among mestizo vegetalistas near Pucallpa, and his fieldwork remains one of the clearest outside accounts of how the role is actually learned and lived. Curanderos treat physical illness, but also conditions the Western framework has no real equivalent for, including susto, soul fright caused by shock, and brujeria, harm believed to come from sorcery, which calls for a different kind of diagnosis and a different kind of response.
What is the Andean paqo tradition, and how is it different?
High in the Peruvian Andes, a completely different tradition survives: the paqos, ritual specialists sometimes called Andean priests, whose work has nothing to do with visionary plants. The Q’ero, a community living at altitude in the Cusco region, are widely regarded as keepers of ritual knowledge reaching back to before the Inca empire, and many paqos trained in that lineage.
The paqo’s central principle is ayni: sacred reciprocity. Nothing is simply taken from the land without being given back. This is made physical through the despacho, an offering bundle of coca leaves, seeds, sweets, llama fat and other symbolic items, assembled with care and then burned or buried as a gift to Pachamama, the living earth, and the Apus, the mountain spirits who watch over a particular valley or peak. Where Amazonian curanderismo works through altered states and plant allies, Andean practice works through right relationship and attention, offered in a completely sober state. The two traditions share a country and little else in their method.
What actually happens in an ayahuasca ceremony?
Ayahuasca is a brew made from two plants, prepared together because neither works the same way alone. The ayahuasca vine itself, Banisteriopsis caapi, contains compounds called MAOIs. The second plant, usually chacruna, Psychotria viridis, contains DMT, a substance the body normally breaks down before it can take effect when swallowed. Combined and brewed for hours, the MAOIs in the vine let the DMT in the leaf reach the brain, which is the entire reason the two plants are always used together and neither alone produces the same effect.
Preparation usually includes a dieta in the days or weeks before: restricted food, no alcohol, no salt or sugar in some traditions, and sexual abstinence, intended to make the body and attention clear before the ceremony. The ceremony itself is usually held at night. Participants drink a small measured cup, and the curandero sings icaros throughout, not as performance but as active navigation: the songs are described, within the tradition, as steering the ceremony’s energy and offering protection to everyone present. Purga, vomiting or other purging, is common and is treated within the tradition as release rather than a sign anything has gone wrong. A ceremony typically runs several hours.
How big is the ayahuasca retreat industry around Iquitos and Pucallpa, and what are the real risks?
Since the 1990s and 2000s, a large retreat industry has grown up around the Amazonian cities of Iquitos and Pucallpa, built almost entirely on foreign demand for ayahuasca ceremonies. The range inside that industry is wide. Some centres are run by curanderos with genuine decades-long lineages and real community standing. Others are opened by people with a few weeks of training, built mainly to sell a marketable experience to tourists who have no way to tell the difference from a glossy website.
That gap has produced real harm. Journalists and researchers have documented deaths linked to drug interactions and to misidentified or adulterated plant material, and multiple credible reports, including investigations by international news outlets, have described sexual abuse carried out by unlicensed operators calling themselves shamans at retreat centres with no accountability to any lineage or community. None of this means the tradition itself is unsafe. It means the tradition, practised properly, takes years to earn, and a weekend of training followed by a tourist-facing retreat is not the same thing, however similar the marketing photos look.
If you are considering this, vet a centre the way you would vet a surgeon, not the way you would book a yoga retreat: ask how the curandero was trained and by whom, whether they have standing in their own community rather than only online reviews, what their screening process is for your own health history, and whether anyone there can explain the plant’s risks to you plainly rather than only its benefits.
Is ayahuasca legal in Peru, and is it safe for everyone?
Ayahuasca use within a traditional or ceremonial context is legal in Peru. In 2008, Peru’s National Institute of Culture formally declared ayahuasca shamanism part of the nation’s cultural heritage, recognising it as a legitimate indigenous practice rather than a controlled substance to be policed.
Legal does not mean universally safe. Ayahuasca carries serious, well documented contraindications: combining it with SSRIs or other serotonergic medication can cause a dangerous and potentially fatal condition called serotonin syndrome, and it is not advised for people with certain heart conditions, a history of psychosis, or during pregnancy. This article is not medical advice, and no dosing information is given here on purpose. If you are taking any psychiatric medication or have a relevant health condition, that is a conversation for a doctor who knows your history, before any ceremony, not during one.
| Amazonian curanderismo | Andean paqo tradition | |
|---|---|---|
| Setting | Jungle lowlands around Iquitos and Pucallpa | High Andes, especially the Cusco region |
| Core practice | Plant diets, icaros, ceremonial ayahuasca | Ayni, reciprocity, despacho offerings |
| Role title | Curandero / vegetalista | Paqo |
| Main tool | The mesada altar and teacher plants | The despacho bundle |
If this has you curious about shamanic practice without plant medicine at all, core shamanic journeying reaches a working trance through drumming alone, and the Elements of Shamanism training is where I teach it from the beginning. For how Peru’s two traditions sit among the world’s other living practices, see Shamanism Was Never One Thing.
Frequently asked questions about shamanism in Peru
Amazonian curanderismo works through plant diets and ceremonial ayahuasca guided by icaros, while the Andean paqo tradition works through ayni, reciprocity with the earth, expressed mainly through despacho offerings and no visionary plants at all. They are related by country, not by method.
Yes, within a traditional or ceremonial context. Peru’s National Institute of Culture declared ayahuasca shamanism part of the country’s cultural heritage in 2008, recognising it as a legitimate indigenous practice.
Ask how the curandero trained and with whom, whether they hold real standing in their own community rather than only online reviews, what health screening they do before accepting participants, and whether they discuss the plant’s risks as openly as its benefits. A glossy website is not a credential.
The Q’ero are a community living at high altitude in the Cusco region, widely regarded as keepers of Andean ritual knowledge reaching back to before the Inca empire. Many paqos trace their training to this lineage.
The ceremony is traditionally held by a trained paqo, who carries the specific knowledge of how the offering is assembled and given. It is not a self-guided ritual, though some centres offer participation alongside a paqo as part of a retreat.
About the author. Carolin Mallmann is a shamanic practitioner and teacher and the founder of One Shamanism. She trained in Mongolian and Siberian lineages and in Core Shamanism with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, and teaches practitioners internationally.
Shamanic work supports, but does not replace, medical or psychological treatment. This article is not medical advice.
