miércoles, 28 de diciembre de 2016

Perú: El hallazgo de una pirámide inca abre nuevos horizontes

Un equipo de investigadores de la Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal (UNFV) y la Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo han descubierto una pirámide escalonada en el sitio arqueológico inca de Pueblo Viejo, en la provincia de Recuay (Áncash, Perú), informa el diario 'La República'.

Los especialistas han realizado este hallazgo gracias a técnicas no invasivas, como la elaboración de un plano total del sitio con la ayuda de drones para realizar isometrías y modelos en 3D, además de ortofotografías aéreas y otros recursos tradicionales, incluida la elaboración de croquis con lápiz y papel milimetrado.

La estructura ronda los 10 metros de altura y se encuentra parcialmente enterrada en un bosque de eucaliptos y espesa vegetación. A pesar de su ubicación, los científicos han constatado que algunos saqueadores conocían el lugar, que también está modificado por actividades agrícolas.

Ante este descubrimiento, la Municipalidad de Recuaydestinará recursos para preservar el patrimonio histórico y construir un museo en la zona.

La importancia del Callejón de Huaylas

Se trata de una pirámide ushnu, un inmueble ceremonial donde se celebraba la Fiesta del Sol o Inti Raymi. Este descubrimiento podría cambiar la manera en que pensábamos cómo operó el antiguo imperio del periodo Tahuantinsuyo en sus provincias principales y permitirá conocer cómo se comportaba la civilización inca en el Callejón de Huaylas, ha indicado el arqueólogo Miguel Aguilar.

Este especialista ha asegurado que, en principio, pensaban que se trataba de un asentamiento "de rango inferior", pero la presencia del ushnu, un elemento destacado "en la planificación de las capitales provinciales", les obliga a cuestionar "el papel del Callejón de Huaylas en la organización social inca".

Así, Aguilar ha especificado que en ese ushnu "se observa un concepto social donde prima la identidad cultural local en armonía con ciertos elementos imperiales". Además, en el lugar hay otras estructuras incas: kanchas, callanca, un templo de mujeres escogidas y consagradas al inca, una red hidráulica, terrazas agrícolas, depósitos para almacenar alimentos, cementerios y varios caminos.

martes, 27 de diciembre de 2016

Blue Collar in Ancient Peru

Blue Collar in Ancient Peru





Fabric scrap dyed with indigo

 

Indigo, the blue dye used in modern times to make the first blue jeans, may have been associated with ordinary folk in ancient Peru as well. Archaeologists led by Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University discovered textiles at the Huaca Prieta mound that date from as far back as 5,800 years ago and, after being washed by conservators, revealed a blue tint. Laboratory tests confirm the coloring is indigo, a dye made from the leaves of a shrub of the pea family, says Jeff Splitstoser of George Washington University, a textile specialist who conducted the tests with Jan Wouters of University College London. It is the oldest known use of indigo in the world, he says. “Blue from sources other than indigo is rare, so it has always been assumed it was indigo, but until now we never had the proof.” Huaca Prieta has been notable for its lack of high-class goods, a pattern that extends to indigo-dyed fabric, too, according to Dillehay. “I don’t see its early use associated with elites or high-status people,” he says. “In fact there is no evidence of artifacts or contexts of high-status people at Huaca Prieta. The data suggest egalitarianism.”

viernes, 23 de diciembre de 2016

10 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Drinking Ayahuasca

It seems like the whole world is talking about Ayahuasca these days. Once a mystery medicine sought out by intrepid Anthropologists and wayfaring authors who had to bribe locals and follow tip-offs to find a shaman willing to prepare the brew, it's now sold in plastic Coke bottles by hustlers on the streets of Peru and Colombia. Those original Western seekers believed Ayahuasca could give you telepathic abilities, but you don't need any special foresight to realise that drinking a bottle of murky, theoretically psychedelic liquid sold to you by a stranger probably isn't the smartest move you'll ever make, especially if - as many stories recount - they then leave you alone for a few hours to have the 'trip' and then toss you out on the street, regardless of the state you're in.

But we can't just blame the street-hawkers; they wouldn't exist if there wasn't a demand. Ayahuasca tourism is a growing trend, with increasing numbers of people - inspired by trite media and movie coverage of this sacred plant medicine - travelling to South America to get 'high' rather than to get healed; there's even stories of people taking Ayahuasca as a party drug, although I'm not sure what kind of party involves projectile vomiting.

But despite its growing prominence, even if you do your research and find a responsible place to work with this profoundly (inner) eye-opening medicine, the general picture of what drinking Ayahuasca is like - especially the difficult process of integration afterwards, which can last for months - is often not only limited, but positively misleading.

About 18 months ago I made the decision to travel to Peru and drink Ayahuasca. I've suffered with depression for most of my life, even attempting suicide on a couple of occasions, so when I began to hear tales of people being cured of addiction, depression, or anxiety issues after a single ceremony (not just improved, helped, or made to feel a little better - cured), I knew I had to find out more.

I did my research; I listened to dozens of personal accounts; I read and watched interviews with the shaman I decided to work with; and I read half a dozen books on Ayahuasca. Surely that made me prepared, right?

Wrong.

And not just because it's impossible to be truly prepared for a psychedelic which hauls you through the doors of perception and unceremoniously throws your sense of self and reality off the edge of the world. No - there ended up being quite a list of things I wish I'd known before I set out to meet Mother Ayahuasca. Some were pleasant revelations, but others were more serious. So I've gathered them together here to help people be at least a little more prepared than I was. Like a bucket of water over the head, it's still going to make you jump, but hopefully you'll be a little more ready for it.

#1. Everything You Expect of Ayahuasca Will Be Wrong

This is a tough one to get your head around, because expecting the unexpected is still an expectation. But just as hearing the plot of a great movie is a far cry from seeing, experiencing and feeling it, the same applies, on an exponentially greater scale, to the difference between hearing other people's accounts and drinking Ayahuasca yourself. Especially if you've never taken a psychedelic before, conventional language is about as close to the experience as a child's drawing of a snowflake is to being in the middle of a blizzard. I'm not trying to make things sound scary; the point is only that it's important to recognise that you inevitably do have expectations and that you must be willing to let them go. That being said...

#2. Letting Go May Be The Biggest Challenge

In my first ceremony I found myself facing a huge demonic wall covered in gnashing teeth. I knew that the insights I needed were on the other side of the wall, but clearly my mind wasn't keen on letting me past its toothy defences.

I was trapped in a nightmarish series of abstract images pulsing in lurid neon; I was completely overwhelmed by the visuals and the sensations. But the real problem was my desperate attempt to press 'pause' on the experience and try to understand it then and there. What did that mean? No, wait, can I just look back at that again? What does this mean? I'd heard so many people tell stories of visions which seemed to make perfect narrative sense that I was sure things were somehow going to unfold in front of me in a linear narrative. But that wasn't happening, and I couldn't get past the wall and its hellish teeth. Panic rose higher and higher until I let out a mental howl of desperation: 'Please, please, please help me!'

Letting the desperation out left me in a moment of calm, and only in that space was I able to take a breath and begin to uncurl my fingers from the compulsion to take control of the situation and admit to myself that I was terrified of letting go and not being able to calmly analyse what was going on.

I wasn't the only one. The next day, just about everyone else in the group told the same kind of story: we all got our asses kicked because we tried to control the experience and make sense of it as it happened. We were stuck in our heads, trying to control the flow of the river rather than floating wherever it took us. We knew we were supposed to let go, but we didn't really understand what that meant until we failed to do it. It's a bit like sitting on a moving train, looking out of the window. If you're looking up ahead, you can see the wider picture, but if you turn side-on, trying to focus on things just as they pass by, it's ungraspable; gone in a flash. With Ayahuasca, it's about allowing things to come to you. So, be prepared to find out the hard way and try to recognise if you're attempting to steer the experience.

#3. You Will Experience Meaningful Vomit

Ayahuasca gets messy. But although most people mention the vomiting, there's quite a bit more to the experience than just nausea and discomfort. Some part of your mind tries to make sense of why you're vomiting... And it's not just a vague 'let's cleanse your insides'; it becomes woven into a meaningful story in your mind, like those moments between waking and dreaming when your brain turns the sound of your alarm into some part of the dream. For some people, this can end up being a full on redemption story: Mother Ayahuasca told one friend of mine that she'd been medicating with alcohol for years, so now she'd got to throw it all back up. This can be liberating in the end, but my own experience of choking into a plastic basin trying to cough up a chunk of my own personality that was holding me back in life was quite a long way from my idea of fun.

Read this: Ayahuasca: A Story of Death, Rebirth and Love

#4. The Ayahuasca Visions Don't Make Sense Until Later

People always talk about the visions when they talk about Ayahuasca. Given how colourful, wild and revealing they can be, that's no surprise. But by the time you hear them, a complicated process has already taken place and the person recounting the tale has had to do quite a bit of work.

The morning after each ceremony, my group and I stumbled around, glassy-eyed and almost mute, unable to express what had happened to us the night before. Things still seemed beyond words. Only later in the day did the images, moments and feelings even start coming together; in fact, the meaning came through the process of sharing them with each other. It was in the act of putting things into words or writing them in a journal that we began, to quote Alan Watts, 'to eff the ineffable'. The story comes out in the tellings, and not without quite a bit of effort and frustration.

Part of the difficulty is simply that in the psychedelic space, completely contradictory things - thoughts, pictures, feelings - can peacefully coexist without logic or reasoning getting in the way. But when we try to describe them in conventional language, the cracks start to show and those moments of absolute emotional clarity become impossible to nail down. What we share afterwards is just a rough simulacrum of the actual experience - an approximation specifically shaped to tell to other people.

#5. ... And you might not 'see' visions at all

Despite all the stories and often-beautiful artwork, not everyone gets visions. And 'visions' might not be the best word for what happens, anyway. You might not actually see anything at all, but instead perceive things in some subtly different way. So, while someone might tell you emphatically that they didn't have any visual experience, they might go on to say, with fire burning in their eyes, that they had the experience of being eaten alive by a giant anaconda, finding themselves at the end of the universe, or experiencing the death of everyone they've ever loved. So what the hell does that mean?

In short, the experience doesn't unspool in front of you like a movie; it's more like a waking dream or a vivid reverie created in your imagination, but over which you have very little control.

#6. You won't get what you want and you might not know what you need

I went to Peru with questions like: What should I do with my life? and What am I even good at? Ayahuasca gave me a firm slap in the face and said, 'No, bitch, we need to deal with the fact you hate yourself first!'

I wasn't entirely oblivious to this, but I thought I could skip to the endgame without going back to the beginning. I was trying to build on top of foundations that were rusted and collapsing, and Ayahuasca wasn't going to let me be so foolish. We often don't realise the source of the pain we feel; tracing back the convoluted route it takes through the psyche, back to the root, can seem impossible. We think we don't know, but at a deeper level we do; Ayahuasca reveals and reconnects us with the source, but, to the conscious mind at least, this can come as quite a surprise.

#7. People who're prepared to be vulnerable and address their issues are truly beautiful

Some of the most powerful moments when drinking Ayahuasca don't happen in the ceremonies themselves; they happen in the times between, sharing stories, experiences, hopes and fears with the people around you. That kind of honesty and openness is all too rare in everyday life; sharing such intense experiences - baring our souls to each other - quickly turned us into a fellowship.

When I think of my time in the jungle, it's not drinking the Ayahuasca that I dwell on, but being there with those courageously vulnerable people in an atmosphere where everything was aimed at healing and helping and valuing ourselves.

#8. It's worth looking in the mirror to see who's there

I've heard people talk about getting 'stuck in the mirror' when they've taken mind-altering substances, and they didn't seem to look back on the experience too fondly. It was different for me.

After a trip to the bathroom mid-ceremony, I looked into the mirror and saw someone else there. I mean, it was me, but it was also someone separate - someone who spoke to me. He looked pretty nice. Friendly. Open. We spoke to each other and, for the first time in my life, I really felt like I was on my own side.

I was able to tell myself that I love myself, and in a way which actually felt real, rather than mouthing the words because some self-help book told me I should. I felt like I really reconnected with my heart. More importantly, since then I've kept the ability to have these conversations with myself - to be able to check in and ask with compassion, 'Are you OK?', and to answer honestly, instinctively, and to be able to feel that I'm on my own side, rather than my own worst enemy. For me, this is the only way I seem to truly connect with my emotional self, without getting tangled up in thoughts, fears and rationalisations.

So, this might not be for you, but it was such an important moment for me that I wouldn't want you to miss the chance of having a similar experience.

#9. Most people back home who haven't worked with Ayahuasca will treat you like a freak.

They might not moralise and remonstrate (although some will), but they'll be disturbed at some level by your actions. This can feel pretty alienating, even hurtful, so it's worth preparing for. It's not necessarily even about the 'drug-taking': a distant reception from people back home is a side-effect of travel in general.

T.S. Eliot once wrote that, 'And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time', but, as Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding, points out, '"knowing" your home for the first time means that you'll feel a stranger in a place that should feel familiar'.

Coming back from a long journey to discover that nothing much has changed and people are unwilling or unable to get excited about your stories because they lie too far beyond the horizon of their own experience, as well as the mundanity of what they've been up to in your absence (familiar patterns that you may've been trying to break out of), mean that you can feel remarkably lonely on you return.

Drinking Ayahuasca is a journey in itself, and it's one you can't expect most people - even those closest to you - to understand. They might say 'Wow', or 'That sounds crazy', but their eyes will then either glaze over or search deeply into yours, looking for signs that you're about to grab a knife and go totally off the cheeseboard. So we must remember, as Potts notes, that 'travel should always be a privately motivated undertaking. Try as you might, you simply can't make the social rewards of travel match up to the private discoveries', and, therefore, 'remember to keep your stories short and keep the best bits for yourself'.

Share what you want, of course, but don't become disheartened when these intense, possibly life-changing experiences fall lifeless at the feet of your puzzled audience.

I also found that the more I told even the most profound, deeply affecting part of my Ayahuasca experience (where I'd been able to meet and embrace my inner child), the more I felt it diminish in intensity. By exposing it to the light, I was allowing it to fade a little each time. As recent research into memory shows, the more often you recall an event, the more you are only recalling the last time you told the story, rather than the events themselves - and given you'll be describing some deep emotional experiences that lie far beyond words, this can severely limit and degrade those original experiences.

I also didn't want to retell that moment without feeling the depth of the emotions it conjured up, but I also didn't want to burst into tears and find that emotional place on demand whenever anyone asked me about my experiences. So, if you do want to share your stories, I suggest recording them in some form - written, spoken, filmed - soon after they happened, and then share the recording instead. You can also prepare some sound-bite answers like, 'It was probably the most important thing I've done'. For most people, that's about as much as they actually want to hear; you can always go into greater detail if someone truly wants to know more.

#10. Integration of Ayahuasca is much harder and much longer than you think.

This is the most important point of all. There's so much stuff online which makes it sound like a cup of Ayahuasca is a magic potion that provides an instant transformation: a sudden clarity which resolves all emotional and mental difficulties. It doesn't.

Just about everyone in the group I drank with has talked about how difficult they found it to understand and integrate what happened in Peru. For some, myself included, life seemed even more of a mess than before; in many ways we felt like we'd 'done it wrong' and promptly started beating ourselves up because we 'couldn't even drink Ayahuasca properly'. I still experienced depression at various levels of intensity and was still very confused and anxious about where my life was going - but now I'd also had a bunch of my core beliefs and ideas thrown into disarray by the medicine. Having your life, habits and values called into question is going to be massively destabilising, even if it ultimately leads to positive results.

This might sound obvious, but it's not what any of us had expected. People usually speak about their Ayahuasca experiences while they're still in the immediate afterglow and everything seems peacefully rosy. But it's taking the experiences and insights back into everyday, 'normal' life which is the real challenge. You may enjoy a powerful clarity when you're under the medicine, but to replicate that clarity and sense of 'rightness' without it, you need to make practical changes to your life outside the maloka. And change is a tricky thing: it takes time, it can be scary, and often it hurts.

Ayahuasca raises more questions than it answers; you'll likely spend months and even years finding ways to answer those questions. Getting an Ayahuasca tattoo after your experience is not the same as taking the feelings and knowledge of the ceremonies away with you and making real and likely painful changes to your life.

The ceremony is the first step, but integration is the journey; the ceremony is merely the prologue of a much longer story. This is why people often talk about 'working with', rather than 'taking', Ayahuasca. It's an active and ongoing process that requires effort from your side, too.

Read this: The Joys and Pains of Visionary Medicine: Why the Ceremony of Life Comes Before the Ayahuasca Ceremony

So, if you're going to work with the brew, I wish you well on your travels and hope these pointers help you along the way. We can never be truly 'ready', but at least we can walk into the unknown with our eyes and hearts open.

But even if you disregard all of the above, then take these four words with you instead:

Be kind to yourself.

UNEARTHING THE INCA'S LOST SUN PATH


ISLAND OF THE SUN HOLDS THE ANSWER

The chronicler Bernabé Cobo recorded two Inca origin myths and both took place on Lake Titicaca on the Island of the Sun. In the first myth the ancient people of the province were said to have been without light for many days and Inca Manco Cápac, son of Inti the sun god, emerged from a large sandstone outcrop known as Titi Qala which they believed to be the Sun's dwelling place thereafter.

Titi Qala, on the Island of the Sun is one of the Inca's most sacred sited.

In the second version a great flood hit the region and the sun was said to have hidden under Titi Qala. The Island of the Sun was the first land to appeared from the flood waters and the people watched the sun emerge from Titikaca to illuminate the sky once again.

With the conquest of the southern Titicaca region by the Inca, the Titi Qala area became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the Inca state, or par with the famous oracle at the Temple of the Sun at Pachacamac, about 25 miles south of Lima. The Inca's built a vast Temple of the Sun on the western side of the Island of the Sun, so that the astronomers, priests and worshipers could watch the setting solstice sun across the lake.

Created with The GIMP

Colonial sketch of the Temple del Sol, on the Isle del Sol

Over several months I had been consumed with understanding Inca cosmovision. I had become conscious that within every Inca creation myth a common theme exists, a golden thread if you will. They are all structured around the creation event of the solstice sun rising from beneath the Island of the Sun, and setting far to the northwest.

THESE INCA CREATION MYTHS ARE METAPHORICAL FOR THE SOUTHEAST TO NORTHWEST PASSAGE OF THE SOLSTICE SUN.

From the Temple of the Sun, on the Island of the Sun, on Lake Titicaca, on the June Solstice, the rising sun is observed at 65 degrees east of north, and it sets at 295 degrees. I plotted the Temple of the Sun onto my map and drew in the 295 degree northwest solstice alignment. I was following the footsteps of Viracocha who from Lake Titicaca "journeyed northwest until he reached the Pacific Ocean".

The result was crude as I was drawing freehand on a paper map at Inca Wasi, 14'00 ft in the Andes, but the primary result of my speculation was astounding. The 295 degree June solstice alignment precisely locates the sacred sun complex at Pachacamac (pronounced: pah cha kamak) 25 miles southeast of Lima.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE PACHACAMAC TEMPLE IS THE DIVERSITY OF COMPARTMENTS DEDICATED TO VARIOUS SEPTS WITHIN THE CULT OF THE SUN.

Was this 295 degree, June solstice alignment, seen as a solar spinal column supporting the Inca's entire cosmovision? And as far as a ceke lines go, this alignment could be compared to a national highway.

There is no doubt that a physical Golden Sun Disk existed, but the Incas lived in an Imaginarium where metaphor and codes underlay every Temple, huaca, and shrine. Legends of the Golden Sun Disk describe an actual disk, but they also talk about its otherworldly secrets, which I believe are related to the discovery presented herein.

"THE WISDOM VIRACOCHA SPREAD FROM LAKE TITICAKA TO THE PACIFIC" IS SEEN MANIFESTED IN THIS 295 DEGREE SOUTHEAST - NORTHWEST SOLSTICE ALIGNMENT.

Had I discovered that the Viracocha creation myth, and his Golden Sun Disk, were metaphorical for the sun cycle as it scratched its southeast to northwest track in the summer sky?

Having turned the Inca's golden key, a flow of subjective evidence presented itself, to support my discovery.

  •  Pachacámac means "Pacha" world, and "camac" to animate - "The One who Animates the World." Therefore, at the northern and southern terminal points of the June solstice alignment, we have the 'creator of the world' at one end, and the 'animator of the world' at the other.

  •  The image of Viracocha carved on the Tiwanaku's Gate of the Sun shows him holding two staffs. Albeit these are most often interpreted as thunder and lightning, is it possible that they represent surveyors measuring staffs? Therefore Viracocha founded The Temple of the Sun on the Island of the Sun, travelled to the northwest and founded Pachacamac at the opposite end of the solstice alignment which defines the entire Inca Empire from north to south.

  •  Built centuries before the time of the Incas, Pachacamac was considered one of the most important religious centers of the indigenous peoples of the central Andes. Noted for its great pyramidal temples at the time of the Spanish conquest it was a major Inca religious centre of worship and learning. The Temple of the Sun is located on a rocky promontory overlooking the Pacific ocean and has four pyramidal bodies truncated to superimpose one another.

295 degree southeast - northwest solstice alignment between the two Temples of the Sun.

martes, 20 de diciembre de 2016

A sacred light in the darkness: Winter solstice illuminations at Spanish missions



On Wednesday, Dec. 21, nations in the Northern Hemisphere will mark the winter solstice - the shortest day and longest night of the year. For thousands of years people have marked this event with rituals and celebrations to signal the rebirth of the sun and its victory over darkness.

At hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of missions stretching from northern California to Peru, the winter solstice sun triggers an extraordinarily rare and fascinating event - something that I discovered by accident and first documented in one California church nearly 20 years ago.

At dawn on Dec. 21, a sunbeam enters each of these churches and bathes an important religious object, altar, crucifix or saint's statue in brilliant light. On the darkest day of the year, these illuminations conveyed to native converts the rebirth of light, life and hope in the coming of the Messiah. Largely unknown for centuries, this recent discovery has sparked international interest in both religious and scientific circles. At missions that are documented illumination sites, congregants and Amerindian descendants now gather to honor the sun in the church on the holiest days of the Catholic liturgy with songs, chants and drumming.

I have since trekked vast stretches of the U.S. Southwest, Mexico and Central America to document astronomically and liturgically significant solar illuminations in mission churches. These events offer us insights into archaeology, cosmology and Spanish colonial history. As our own December holidays approach, they demonstrate the power of our instincts to guide us through the darkness toward the light.


Spreading the Catholic faith

The 21 California missions were established between 1769 and 1823 by Spanish Franciscans, based in Mexico City, to convert Native Americans to Catholicism. Each mission was a self-sufficient settlement with multiple buildings, including living quarters, storerooms, kitchens, workshops and a church. Native converts provided the labor to build each mission complex, supervised by Spanish friars. The friars then conducted masses at the churches for indigenous communities, sometimes in their native languages.

Spanish friars like Fray Gerónimo Boscana also documented indigenous cosmologies and beliefs. Boscana's account of his time as a friar describes California Indians' belief in a supreme deity who was known to the peoples of Mission San Juan Capistrano as Chinigchinich or Quaoar.

As a culture hero, Indian converts identified Chinigchinich with Jesus during the Mission period. His appearance among Takic-speaking peoples coincides with the death of Wiyot, the primeval tyrant of the first peoples, whose murder introduced death into the world. And it was the creator of night who conjured the first tribes and languages, and in so doing, gave birth to the world of light and life.

Hunting and gathering peoples and farmers throughout the Americas recorded the transit of the solstice sun in both rock art and legend. California Indians counted the phases of the moon and the dawning of both the equinox and solstice suns in order to anticipate seasonally available wild plants and animals. For agricultural peoples, counting days between the solstice and equinox was all-important to scheduling the planting and harvesting of crops. In this way, the light of the sun was identified with plant growth, the creator and thereby the giver of life.


Discovering illuminations

I first witnessed an illumination in the church at Mission San Juan Bautista, which straddles the great San Andreas Fault and was founded in 1797. The mission is also located a half-hour drive from the high-tech machinations of San Jose and the Silicon Valley. Fittingly, visiting the Old Mission on a fourth grade field trip many years earlier sparked my interest in archaeology and the history and heritage of my American Indian forebears.

On Dec. 12, 1997, the parish priest at San Juan Bautista informed me that he had observed a spectacular solar illumination of a portion of the main altar in the mission church. A group of pilgrims observing the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe had asked to be admitted to the church early that morning. When the pastor entered the sanctuary, he saw an intense shaft of light traversing the length of the church and illuminating the east half of the altar. I was intrigued, but at the time I was studying the mission's architectural history and assumed that this episode was unrelated to my work. After all, I thought, windows project light into the darkened sanctuaries of the church throughout the year.

One year later, I returned to San Juan Bautista on the same day, again early in the morning. An intensely brilliant shaft of light entered the church through a window at the center of the facade and reached to the altar, illuminating a banner depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe on her Feast Day in an unusual rectangle of light. As I stood in the shaft of light and looked back at the sun framed at the epicenter of the window, I couldn't help but feel what many describe when, in the course of a near death experience, they see the light of the great beyond.

Only afterward did I connect this experience to the church's unusual orientation, on a bearing of 122 degrees east of north - three degrees offset from the mission quadrangle's otherwise square footprint. Documentation in subsequent years made it clear that the building's positioning was not random. The Mutsun Indians of the mission had once revered and feared the dawning of the winter solstice sun. At this time, they and other groups held raucous ceremonies that were intended to make possible the resurrection of the dying winter sun.


Several years later, while I was working on an archaeological investigation at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, I realized that the church at this site also was skewed off kilter from the square quadrangle around it - in this case, about 12 degrees. I eventually confirmed that the church was aligned to illuminate during the midsummer solstice, which occurs on June 21.

Next I initiated a statewide survey of the California mission sites. The first steps were to review the floor plans of the latest church structures on record, analyze historic maps and conduct field surveys of all 21 missions to identify trajectories of light at each site. Next we established the azimuth so as to determine whether each church building was oriented toward astronomically significant events, using sunrise and sunset data.

This process revealed that 14 of the 21 California missions were sited to produce illuminations on solstices or equinoxes. We also showed that the missions of San Miguel Arcángel and San José were oriented to illuminate on the Catholic Feast Days of Saint Francis of Assisi (Oct. 4) and Saint Joseph (March 19), respectively.

Soon thereafter, I found that 18 of the 22 mission churches of New Mexico were oriented to the all-important vernal or autumnal equinox, used by the Pueblo Indians to signal the agricultural season. My research now spans the American hemisphere, and recent findings by associates have extended the count of confirmed sites as far south as Lima, Peru. To date, I have identified some 60 illumination sites throughout the western United States, Mexico and South America.

Melding light with faith

It is striking to see how Franciscans were able to site and design structures that would produce illuminations, but an even more interesting question is why they did so. Amerindians, who previously worshiped the sun, identified Jesus with the sun. The friars reinforced this idea via teachings about the cristo helios, or "solar Christ" of early Roman Christianity.

Anthropologist Louise Burkhart's studies affirm the presence of the "Solar Christ" in indigenous understandings of Franciscan teachings. This conflation of indigenous cosmologies with the teachings of the early Church readily enabled the Franciscans to convert followers across the Americas. Moreover, calibrations of the movable feast days of Easter and Holy Week were anchored to the Hebrew Passover, or the crescent new moon closest to the vernal equinox. Proper observance of Easter and Christ's martyrdom therefore depended on the Hebrew count of days, which was identified with both the vernal equinox and the solstice calendar.


Orienting mission churches to produce illuminations on the holiest days of the Catholic calendar gave native converts the sense that Jesus was manifest in the divine light. When the sun was positioned to shine on the church altar, neophytes saw its rays illuminate the ornately gilded tabernacle container, where Catholics believe that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. In effect, they beheld the apparition of the Solar Christ.

The winter solstice, coinciding with both the ancient Roman festival of Sol Invictus (unconquered sun) and the Christian birth of Christ, heralded the shortest and darkest time of the year. For the California Indian, it presaged fears of the impending death of the sun. At no time was the sun in the church more powerful than on that day each year, when the birth of Christ signaled the birth of hope and the coming of new light into the world.


Unravelling the Mystery of The Marcahuasi Ruins and Their Connection with Egypt



The Marcahuasi Ruins are a group of rocks located on a plateau in the Andes Mountains of Peru. These rocks are notable for their curious shapes, and various hypotheses have been put forward to explain their formation. For some, these ruins were carved by human beings, whilst others argue that they had been formed by the forces of nature. There are those who claim that the Marcahuasi Ruins contain some sort of healing powers.

Ruin Discovery

The Marcahuasi Ruins are situated near the village of San Pedro de Casta, on a plateau in the Andes Mountains in Huarochirí Province, to the east of Lima, the capital of Peru. This plateau was formed from a volcanic reaction, and consists of granite. Located 4000 m above sea level, the plateau is about 4 km (2.4 miles) square in area.


The high lands and the road to the plateau ( CC BY 3.0 )

The area of Marcahuasi is recorded to have first been explored by Daniel Ruzo, a Peruvian explorer, in 1952. It was Ruzo who discovered the curiously shaped rocks on the plateau. According to Ruzo, these rocks were carved by human beings from a highly advanced ancient civilization. Many of these rocks are claimed to have some sort of form that makes them mysterious.

• Kuelap, Peru - Ancient Fortress of the Cloud Warriors

• The Ancient Ruins On and Beneath the Sacred Lake Titicaca


Photo of Danuel Ruzo ( blogfueradeltiempo.wordpress)

For example, there is the 'African Queen', which has been compared to the Sphinx in Egypt, the so-called 'Egyptian Princess', and 'Tawaret', a rock which is said to look like the Egyptian goddess of the same name. It has been suggested that these rocks show a connection between the people in Marcahuasi and ancient Egypt. Other notable rocks include the 'Face on Marcahuasi', said to look like the 'Face on Mars', the 'Monument to Humanity', named by Ruzo in honor of the four distinct races of humans found on the plateau, and rocks in the shape of animals.


The Face on Marcahuasi ( andestao)

Masma Civilization

The civilization responsible for these carvings, according to Ruzo, was the 'Masma'. This term is recorded to have first been coined by a Peruvian esoterist by the name of Pedro Astete. According to the story, Astete was residing in Andahuaylas, Peru, when in 1905, he had a strange dream. In that dream, he saw a large, underground hall which was filled with scrolls containing ancient knowledge. Additionally, he heard the name 'Masma' being repeated by a voice. Astete had further dreams about the 'Masma', and was even able to make Biblical connections to that name.

• Ancient Greek Legend Seems to Describe a Place in Peru: Early Contact?

• 3,800-Year-Old Statues from Advanced Caral Civilization found in Peru

• Did Ancient Priests in Peru Invent Authority?

Eventually, Astete met Ruzo in 1920, and the latter became convinced that the 'Masma' of Astete's dreams were indeed real. Ruzo began searching for evidence of the 'Masma', and it was by discovering the Marcahuasi Ruins that he could claim that he had found physical evidence of this proto-historic civilization's existence. Ruzo proposed that the 'Masma' were a very advanced civilization that was capable of travelling around the world. They had left evidence of themselves in many places, one of them being a plateau in the Andes. It was also suggested that the rock carvings at Marcahuasi were made just before a world-wide cataclysm destroyed the 'Masma', and were meant to serve as a warning to future man.


View of the rock formation from a camping zone. ( CC BY 3.0 )

Strange Mysteries

Other strange mysteries have also been attributed to the Marcahuasi Ruins. For example, the ruins are said to be quite well-known as a spot for UFO sightings, and has attracted many UFO enthusiasts to the nearby village of San Pedro de Casta. In addition, it has been claimed that the ruins possess supernatural healing powers. One story, for instance, tells of a Peruvian man who was paralyzed in a car accident. The man goes to the ruins, meets a mysterious stranger there, and is cured.

Others are more skeptical about the ruins, be it the strange mysteries or Ruzo's beliefs about the rocks. It has been proposed that the rocks are not at all carvings by human beings, but the result of erosion over a long period of time, and that people see the things they want to see in these rocks.

miércoles, 14 de diciembre de 2016

Peru airs news in Quechua, indigenous language of Inca empire, for first time

For the first time in Peru’s history, a national news broadcast has been aired entirely in Quechua, the indigenous language of the Inca empire, which is still spoken by some 4 million Peruvians.

Called Ñuqanchik – which means ‘all of us’ in Quechua – the daily news programme that launched this week targets speakers of the language that some historians trace back to Peru’s earliest civilizations 5,000 years ago.

For co-presenter Marisol Mena, Monday’s debut broadcast was a “historic achievement”, symbolically ending centuries of marginalisation. “We’ve struggled for a long time to see this initiative, and now we are broadcasting information to our Quechua brothers and sisters,” she said.

About 13% of Peruvians speak Quechua fluently, but usage as dwindled over generations as many parents deliberately did not teach the language to their children fearing they would be rejected or mocked for using it.

Yet with around 8m speakers in the parts of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina and Chile once dominated by the Incas, Quechua – in all its regional varieties – remains the most widely spoken indigenous language in the Americas.

In Peru, studies indicate while 4m speak Quechua fluently, up to 10m – around a third of Peruvians – understand some of the language.

But the language that gave us words such as puma, condor, llama and alpaca is rarely – if ever – heard on national television or radio stations.

Even though it became one of Peru’s official languages in 1975, “Quechua was synonymous with social rejection – and thus became synonymous with discrimination,” said Hugo Coya, director of Peru’s television and radio institute and a driving force behind the initiative.

“Why was this [a Quechua news broadcast] not done before? I’m ashamed that I have to answer that question,” he said.

“Speakers often didn’t want to admit they spoke Quechua in order to be accepted by Spanish-speaking society,” he said.

Quechua speakers are disproportionately represented among the country’s poor: of Peruvians without access to health services, 60% speak Quechua, according to a 2014 World Bank study.

Peru has seen robust economic growth over the past decade – but the boom in mining and extractive activities has also seen a rapid rise in land conflicts with indigenous or peasant communities over the past decade. In October alone, the country’s human rights ombudsman logged 212 such disputes.

Ñuqanchik is an attempt to broach the economic and cultural gap between the Quechua and Spanish-speaking worlds, said prime minister Fernando Zavala at the programme’s inaugural broadcast.

“This, we believe, will transform the relationship between the government, the state, and those people who speak a language different from Spanish,” he said.

Produced and written by journalists who speak Quechua as their mother tongue, Ñuqanchik aims to transmit the news from the perspective of a Quechua speaker – complete with the Andean “cosmovision” – said Alfredo Luna, Peru’s vice-minister of intercultural affairs.

“Conflicts arise when there’s no dialogue; understanding each other we will be able to resolve these misunderstandings,” Luna said.

Against a bright orange and yellow backdrop reminiscent of the Inti or symbol of the sun worshipped by the Incas, the programme’s presenters simultaneously translate a Spanish autocue feed into Quechua, as many words in the indigenous language are too long to fit on the screens. The programme is simultaneously on state television and radio.

Luna said that news broadcasts are planned in other languages, including Aymara – spoken in Peru and Bolivia – as well as the principal languages of the Peruvian Amazon such as Ashaninka and Awajun.

Peru has 47 indigenous languages, and its culture ministry has been working since 2011 to provide bilingual education as a public service.

“Peru has to make sure its people can access public services and be citizens in their own languages,” says Agustin Panizo, director of indigenous languages at Peru’s culture ministry.

martes, 13 de diciembre de 2016

Peruvian Woman of Means

The role of women in ancient cultures has received increased attention in recent years, from that of female pharaohs in Egypt to Viking wives in northern Europe. And now, archaeologists in Peru have found signs that women there held positions of prestige at the earliest stages of civilization. At the site of Áspero, a female skeleton was found decorated with shells of the genus Spondylus, which come from hundreds of miles away in far northern Peru and were a sign of authority for centuries in Andean cultures. About 45 years old when she died, the woman had clothing accessories made of bone carved in the form of seabirds and Amazonian monkeys, also status symbols, says archaeologist Ruth Shady Solís of San Marcos University. Most striking is the burial's age - some 4,600 years ago, near the dawn of the fishing and farming civilization that thrived on Peru's coast. Shady Solís found sculpted female figurines dating from the same period - more proof, she believes, that women occupied prominent social positions.

A prominent woman was buried (top) 4,600 years ago in Peru along with accessories such as a bone brooch (above) carved to resemble an Amazonian monkey.

The Gruesome Sacrifice Carvings of Cerro Sechín, 3,600-Year-Old Ceremonial Center of Peru


In 1600 B.C., there was no Internet, no television, and no printing press - how then could someone spread a message? For the ancient peoples of northern Peru, the answer was to carve reliefs into stone. Today, experts are not certain what message these ancient artists were trying to transmit at Cerro Sechín, however, the power of the images still resonates. Over 300 images at the site graphically depict (and even dramatize) human sacrifices and the gruesomeness of war. The scenes display a crushing victory by the warrior-priests over unknown enemies, many of whom are only represented as dismembered limbs.

There are several theories as to what the bas-relief images depict. Some say it is evidence an ancient study of anatomy, others say it is the depiction of a mythical battle among the gods. Taken together, it looks like the images show a procession of warriors making their way through the dismembered remains of ordinary people. This has led some people to believe the scene shows a historic battle while others think it depicts a crushed peasant uprising. In any event, one party decidedly defeated the other and the winners unleashed their vengeance on the losers without compassion, possibly part of a gruesome post-victory sacrificial ritual.

Monoliths at Cerro Sechin depicting warriors and prisoners, the latter are dismembered ( A. Davey / flickr ).

The level of violence is shocking. There are severed heads, arms, and legs; eyeballs taken from a skull and skewered; bleeding corpses; bones bleaching in the sun. What is striking is the high-degree of anatomical accuracy of the body parts, especially the internal organs such as the stomach, kidneys, esophagus, and intestines. Perhaps this level of insight was gained through scientific dissection but there can be little doubt that whoever the artists were, they had a great familiarity with dismembered bodies. They may have even had the pieces in front of them to look at while they carved.

The carving on the left depicts a stomach and intestines ( A. Davey / flickr ).

Cerro Sechín is situated on a granite hill in the Casma Valley, roughly 168 miles (270 km) north of Peru's capital city, Lima. The carvings of Cerro Sechín are just one part of the larger Sechin Complex, which covers some 300 to 400 acres (120 to 160 hectares) and includes the Sechin Alto and the Sechin Bajo. The Sechin Alto is a large building complex that served as a temple. It is the largest pre-Columbian monument in Peru. The Sechin Bajo is a large circular plaza that may be the oldest portion of the Sechin Complex. Experts believe that the area served as a gathering point for social and religious purposes.

The Sechín archeological site in the Casma Valley, Peru ( CC by SA 3.0 )

The archeological site was first discovered in 1937 by Julio C. Tello, a renowned Peruvian archeologist. The complex seems to have served as a public monument and ceremonial center. The Sechin river cuts through the complex and there is evidence of small-scale irrigation agriculture in the area. Its proximity to the ocean (the Pacific is 8 miles (13km) away) suggests that the inhabitants of the Sechin Complex had easy access to the coastal cities and marine goods.

Cerro Sechín stretches over 164,042 feet (50,000 meters) within the Sechin Complex. It is a "quadrangular three-tiered stepped platform flanked on each side by two smaller buildings" (Slovak, 2003). The monument was "constructed in several stages using conical adobes, or large sun-dried bricks with broad circular bases and tapered points, which were then set into clay mortar and plastered over to form wall surfaces" (Slovak, 2003).

Cerro Sechín, Peru ( A.Davey / flickr )

Little is known about the architects of the Sechin Complex. They were most likely a high-developed society. The northwestern coast of Peru was occupied by the Casma/Sechin people from approximately 2000 B.C. to 900 B.C., meaning that they predated the great Incan society of Peru. Contrary to formerly held beliefs about pre-Columbian societies, the evidence at Sechin suggests that American civilizations were advanced and booming at the same time as Mesopotamia, half a world away. The cities had complex political entanglements and refined religious practices. There was a vibrant trade between the coasts and the interior. Technologies such as woven textiles and irrigation were mastered and commercialized. The population was largely sedentary and under the control of political/religious/cultural elites.

Warfare and raiding between cities were most likely common in those days. The violence of the age lends support to the anatomical familiarity of the artisans as well as to the need to appease vengeful gods with human sacrifices. The Casma/Sechin culture declined around the same time that other Peruvian ceremonial centers declined, suggesting a possible common cause such as a drought or famine.

sábado, 10 de diciembre de 2016

Brothers and Kings inkas

Sardina, a young and idealistic Spanish soldier, accounts his violent and vicious past and his role in the Conquest of the Inca Empire. But when he meets a reluctant Inca King named Manco, he slowly realizes the truth of his hellish reality; a reality of power, greed, and madness.

Set in the dense jungles of 1530's Peru, this story is about man's struggle to find his place in a brutal yet mysterious world.

Dennis Santaniello is the author of many works of historical fiction. His works include the epic trilogy "Conquistadors", The WW1 novel "Sergei and Hans", and he is co-author of the screenplay "The Ottoman".

Born and raised in New Jersey, so, yeah, he has a bit of an edge to him. It's not his fault.

The Ancient Alien Theory Of Erich Von Daniken's Research

How were the great Pyramids of Egypt built in those ancient days? Who has drawn the mysterious Nazca lines in Peru? Who are the gods and goddesses, description of who are found in various artworks and texts of the ancient days?

The answers to all of these questions lie in one theory which was conceptualized and proposed by the Swiss Author, Erich Von Daniken in his famous book "The Chariot of Gods".

This theory which was accepted by some and criticized by some changed the whole thought process of thinking about aliens and their existence and is called the Ancient aliens theory.

Ancient alien theory aka ancient astronaut theory proposes that extraterrestrial beings from space had been coming to earth since ancient times and they interacted with the primitive man and shared their knowledge with humans.

These interactions served as catalysts for the development of technology, science, cultures and religions. Here are some of the most important aspects of the research of Erich Von Daniken.

miércoles, 7 de diciembre de 2016

Psychedelics and tech entrepreneurship have long gone hand in hand.

Psychedelics and tech entrepreneurship have long gone hand in hand. Steve Jobs experimented with LSD. Bill Gates dropped acid on occasion.

Ayahuasca, a psychedelic drug that induces mind-boggling hallucinations, is Silicon Valley's latest infatuation. Tim Ferriss, a well-know angel investor, recently described it to The New Yorker as being as ubiquitous as "having a cup of coffee."

While you won't find people sipping on ayahuasca in Starbucks, an increasing number of entrepreneurs swear by the plant — which contains DMT, an ingredient designated Schedule I by the Drug Enforcement Administration — as a method of professional and personal development. Businesses have sprouted to facilitate demand.

One outgrowth of the trend is Entrepreneurs Awakening, an executive-coaching startup founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco.

Each year, a small group of entrepreneurs from around the world joins Entrepreneurs Awakening in Peru, where ayahuasca is legal, to partake in a traditional ayahuasca tea ceremony. About 50 people from hardware, software, and financial tech startups have passed through the program so far. A significant number come from the Bay Area.

Ayahuasca grows in the Amazon and has been used by indigenous tribes for spiritual healing for thousands of years. The hallucinations induced by the plant are said to be so life-altering that some users compare it to having a near-death experience. The body breaks it down in such a way that it leaves users high for hours, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Entrepreneurs Awakening uses the jungle vine to help clients come to terms with their weaknesses and find shortcuts to success in the ultracompetitive tech scene.

"This is a total hack. You can sit in therapy for six years, or you can come to Machu Picchu for a week," Michael Costuros, founder of Entrepreneurs Awakening, told Business Insider. "You choose: red pill, or the sugar pill?"

Over 10 days, participants see the sights in the Andes mountains, try local food, and get high on sacred plant-medicine. Costuros guides them through their spiritual journey, and provides executive coaching for a month before and a month after the excursion.

The cost of enlightenment: $11,000.

Samantha Lee/Business Insider

One of the earliest reports of Europeans stumbling upon ayahuasca comes from a group of Jesuits traveling through the Amazon in the 18th century. They called the tea a "diabolical potion" responsible for depriving a member of "one of his senses and, at times, of his life."

Research on the effects of the ayahuasca brew, which is made from mashing or boiling the pulp of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, has trickled outside scientific circles in recent years. It caught on among open-minded adventurers.

By the mid-2000s, social-media-savvy retreat centers in Peru spread word of the plant's magic. This gave birth to ayahuasca tourism, in which people such as those on the Entrepreneurs Awakening trips visit the Amazon to experience ayahuasca.

These days, Costuros — a tech entrepreneur-turned-mentor who joined an executive-coaching firm in 2015 — receives hundreds of applications annually to fill 20 spots over two trips. Most come from tech entrepreneurs. The clientele is part of the draw for many participants. Their fellow travelers face similar pressures and share the same passions.

The first few days of the journey are filled with hiking and exploring the nearby markets. Participants eat artisanal breads, alpaca, guinea pig roasted over a fire spit, fruit, and chocolate.

On day four, they prepare for a nighttime ayahuasca ceremony. They fast, exercise, and ponder their anxieties, fears, hopes, and aspirations in individual consultations, Costuros says.

Entrepreneurs Awakening spares no expense when it comes to making entrepreneurs feel comfortable.

The adobe temple that Entrepreneurs Awakening rents out for the retreat is in the Sacred Valley of Peru, located between Cusco and Machu Picchu. It overlooks the Andean highlands and includes two washrooms for the inevitable pukefest. (Ayahuasca causes intense vomiting — or as fans of the plant prefer to call it, "purging.")

Participants take their places on mats and wait for the shaman, whom Costuros has worked with for years, to give them their tea. They focus on their intentions while they wait up to an hour for the hallucinogen to kick in.

Under the influence of ayahuasca, the everyday world becomes extraordinary. Costuros compares the experience to entering a lucid dream. One attendee tells me she left her body and saw herself as a girl in her childhood bedroom. Another past participant describes wandering around inside his intestines, much like an episode of "The Magic School Bus."

Passersby would see nothing but a group of sleepy tourists curled into balls.

Four to five hours later, the group fizzles. Some gather in clusters outside the temple, where they excitedly swap stories. Others retreat to their beds in silence.

Then the cycle repeats. Talk. Hike. Eat. Relax. Question your humanity. Fast. Get high.

While the NIDA has no findings on the addictive quality of ayahuasca, few people are one-and-done users, according to Costuros.

"I'd say what's driving them to it is FOMO" — fear of missing out — "to be totally f - ing honest," Costuros said.

"But what they're getting out of it and maybe why they do it a second time — after they've already gotten the notch in their belt, why would they do it again? — is the results."

Courtesy of Entrepreneurs Awakening

Sebastian, who asked we not include his full name for fear of repercussions for his business, came to Silicon Valley in 2009 because he wanted to run his own company.

In three years, his venture-backed startup grew from four employees to 120. He was inundated with feedback on how best to structure the company and consumed by the typical founder questions. Are we spending too fast? Do we need more structure? Am I a good leader?

Sebastian brought Costuros and one other executive coach on board to help him sort through these questions. In 2013, he signed up for a trip to Peru.

Costuros says these stories are not uncommon. Most entrepreneurs arrive in Peru slightly unhinged from the pressure they're under from investors, employees, peers, and customers.

There, among trained facilitators and fellow entrepreneurs, they're free to air their insecurities in a judgment-free zone.

Jordan Baker, the founder of a productivity app called Focuster and a past Entrepreneurs Awakening participant, hesitated for some time before enrolling. The $10,000 he paid in 2012 was a lot of money for someone in need of funding for his year-old startup. But he eventually saw the program as a business expense. Baker had shelled out for Tony Robbins' seminars before, and this was as much a networking opportunity as a spiritual retreat.

Every attendee Business Insider spoke with said the same thing: What makes the program worth it is the integration, which is Costuros' term for taking the insights gleaned from ayahuasca ceremonies and putting them into practice. It's harder than it sounds.

Samantha Lee/Business Insider

During a ceremony on his retreat, Sebastian says he remembers (virtually) sitting at the base of a tree in the Amazon. A voice called out, "This is the day of your initiation into manhood."

That's when a cluster of spiders arrived and a great white shark flung itself from the ocean.

For hours, Sebastian witnessed his greatest fears come to fruition. He saw himself as a boy in class, lying in a pool of his own urine while his classmates and teacher stood and laughed.

"I had that moment where I was like, 'What the f - , really? Every kid pees in his pants once in a while. It's not a f - ing catastrophe. Let it go,'" Sebastian said. "I re-became an adult."

In the months after the retreat, Sebastian talked through his vision with his fellow participants and Costuros in video chats. He returned to the office with a clearer sense of purpose, ready to "do what I'm meant to do in this life," he said.

Sebastian says he became more attuned to, or at least invested in, his employee's needs. He transferred employees to other departments — or other companies, when he saw fit — where they might reach their potential. His interviewing process changed. Applicants were asked what they wanted to achieve and were placed accordingly, rather than boxed into an open position.

Another past participant, who asked to remain anonymous, attended the retreat toward the end of her tenure as a manager at Amazon. She wanted to make a bigger impact on a smaller team, preferably one that connected her to more meaning in her professional life. But she couldn't find the courage to leave.

Ayahuasca fixed that.

"It's not fun," she said. "There's a part of it that's very satisfying, but you have to be up for where it takes you."

Upon her return, she quit her cushy gig and accepted a job at a startup in San Francisco.

Samantha Lee/Business Insider

Not every entrepreneur has the means to disappear into the rainforest for 10 days.

People without the time or money to travel for a traditional ayahuasca ceremony often settle for local gatherings. A Bay Area group of ayahuasca enthusiasts on Meetup.com, for example, has over 650 members. California leads all states in web searches for ayahuasca ceremonies and retreats, according to Google Trends, and interest has steadily risen.

But Costuros says that not all of these retreats put high-quality ayahuasca in their tea or use experienced shamans. There's a nickname for these sham productions: "yogahuascas."

A shaman in the Amazon often comes from a long line of spiritual healers. But as ayahuasca becomes more popular, the "yogahuasca" trend has worsened. The problem extends from the Bay Area to Peru, as newly minted shamans target foreigners for sham ceremonies.

" It used to be that it took about at least 20 years to apprentice as a shaman, and now there are people claiming they are shamans within two or three years. There's no quality control," Robert Tindall, a professor of literature and author of two books on shamanism, told Vice in 2014.

In 2012, Baker, the productivity app founder, found himself in a retreat center outside the Oakland hills. The ayahuasca ceremony fell on the same day he broke things off with his girlfriend of seven years.

"I ended up staying a second night because it was so amazing," Baker said. "By the end, I remember my heart was open. It wasn't just a metaphysical feeling. ... Things felt very fragile and beautiful."

The experience ended with a buzzkill. A friend dropped him off at the nearest subway station. He became paranoid that people were staring, and he fell right back into his pre-ayahuasca rut.

While there is no known lethal dose of ayahuasca (few research centers in the US track the exotic drug), ceremonies can be dangerous under certain conditions. Fatalities are generally a result of suicide, accidents, or erratic behavior. In 2012, an 18-year-old Californian was found buried outside a retreat center in Peru; he was said to have overdosed.

Antidepressants can also be deadly when mixed with ayahuasca, which is why Costuros conducts medical screenings before enrolling applicants in the program.

In spite of the risks, most Entrepreneurs Awakening participants who spoke with Business Insider say they first tried ayahuasca in the Bay Area. Their experiences were pleasant overall.

Courtesy of Entrepreneurs Awakening

While Costuros says he's wary of scaling his business, for fear that it would strain his ability to provide quality experiences, he's still gearing up for expansion. Next year, he plans to hold two retreats in Peru and possibly another in Tulum, Mexico.

He says he's also in talks with the founder of a startup incubator, whom Costuros declined to name, to create an ayahuasca-friendly accelerator in Costa Rica. Entrepreneurs would build their companies and participate in weekly ayahuasca ceremonies for a dose of inspiration.

"The intention is to expand our capacity to help innovators, leaders wake up and evolve their psychological garbage," Costuros said, "so they can get on with being awesome."