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."

Nuevo hallazgo en Machu Picchu Impresionante descubrimiento en el Camino Inca que conduce a la ciudadela inca de Machu Picchu

Nuevo hallazgo en Machu Picchu
Impresionante descubrimiento en el Camino Inca que conduce a la ciudadela inca de Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu continúa sorprendiendo a propios y extraños. La cuna del imperio de los incas sigue dando qué hablar en el mundo de la investigación y el turismo, es así que recientemente, especialistas de la Dirección de Cultura del Cusco dieron a conocer un nuevo hallazgo ubicado en un tramo del Camino Inca que conduce a la antigua ciudadela.     

El responsable de la Red de Caminos Inca, arqueólogo Francisco Huarcaya citó que se han registrado nuevas evidencias culturales como contextos funerarios, espacios ceremoniales (Wakas), pinturas rupestres, abrigos rocosos, miradores etc, perteneciente posiblemente al periodo Horizonte Tardío (Inca).

Las evidencias culturales más relevantes se encuentran asociadas y orientadas hacia las denominadas montañas sagradas o apus como el Wakaywillka, Verónica, Casamintuyoq, Misti, al rio sagrado Salkantay, rio Vilcanota, asentadas sobre una topografía con sectores planos, laderas, cimas y quebradas muy propia del contexto geográfico.

HABLANDO DE ARTE RUPESTRE.

El patrimonio cultural que se encuentra en Machu Picchu, vinculado a manifestaciones de pinturas rupestres se registra en la parte media e inferior del cerro Taparuyoq - Tunasmoqo, asociada a contextos funerarios, estructuras funerarias, manantes y/o pucjios de agua y miradores, todo a una altura de 2850. m.s.n.m.
"Es muy probable que existan más sitios rupestres siguiendo el área cultural hacia el piso ecológico del cerro Taparayoq - Tunasmoqo, pero la exploración de la zona arqueológica a partir del último sitio registrado en Zona Especial de Protección Arqueológica (Zepa), demandaría varios días de caminata y de fuertes bajadas y subidas desde el camino inca a las zonas de difícil acceso a las laderas, cimas y quebradas para inspeccionar las rocas y las paredes en la base de los acantilados", citó el especialista.

DIBUJOS DEL 'DIOS RAYO O ILLAPA'.     

Las pictografías constan de representaciones geométricas, antropomorfas pintadas predominantemente en diversas tonalidades del color rojo, representando seres antropomorfas que representa al Dios Illapa Rayo, representación geométrica en forma triangulo que representa la Trilogía Andina (Janaq Pacha, Kaypacha, Hukupacha), figuras de plantas vegetales (maíz posiblemente por las características del tallo y las hojas), círculos geométricos posiblemente representa ojos de agua manantes. Asimismo se registra otras representaciones geométricas líneas rectas bien definidas de color rojo y otras no identificadas y por estudiar.

"Por la combinación de varios elementos en la composición pictográfica de Taparayoq – Tunasmoqo; se llegó a interpretar posiblemente esta representaciones iconográficas nos muestra la ideología andina culto al agua y fertilidad de rebaños de camélidos en estado de robuztes o preñez de distintas edades conduce a la idea de fertilidad, reproducción y circulación de fuerzas, así como tal vez a la noción de identidad grupal", refirió el funcionario.

TRABAJO DE CONSERVACIÓN.     

Los especialistas citan que diversos factores han dañado los paneles de pinturas tales como la humedad de la zona, la erosión del viento, precipitaciones pluviales y exposición solar, sin embargo todo este contexto sería tratado técnicamente, recuperado y conservado como representación palpable de la cultura inca y del patrimonio que dejó a los cusqueños, peruanos y al mundo entero.

 

You took a DNA test and it says you are Native American. So what?

You took a DNA test and it says you are Native American. So what?

Have you been tempted to try one of those genetic testing kits, like the ones sold by Ancestry.com or 23andme.com?

Maybe you've seen a commercial featuring Kim Trujillo.

In it, Trujillo talks about how she discovered she was part Native American.

So you get the kit, swab your mouth, mail it back and you find out you are Native American. Then what?

That's what Kathryn Marlow wanted to know. She's a radio producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 180.

Marlow started looking into what these genetic ancestry tests are really telling us.

"Different companies have different databases but they range from having about 25 to 30 ethnic regions, as they call them," she explains. "Some of these regions are very specific ... you could find out that you are Irish or Greek, but when it comes to North America, all you could find out is that you are Native American, which could mean from the northern tip of North America to the southern tip of South America, so all of the Americas are encompassed in Native American."

So your ancestors could be from Nunavut, for all you know. But if you have never skinned a seal or spent half your year in near darkness, can you claim to be Inuit?

For insight on the subject, Marlow spoke with Kim Tallbear. Tallbear teaches in the faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. She's skeptical about genetic testing and what it means for identity.

"Being a Native American isn't just about having an ancestor among those founding populations," says Tallbear. "It's not just a matter of what you claim, but it's a matter of who claims you. And if no indigenous community claims you, it's a little bit presumptuous to be running around saying 'I am, therefore, Native American.'"

In fact, TallBear sees it as a form of racism to claim Native American heritage based on a DNA test alone.

"You have people with no lived experience in [an] indigenous community, they can't even name any indigenous family or ancestors, but they have a family myth about a Cherokee great-grandmother, or they're descended from Pocahontas - you get that a lot in Virginia. So I think it's another kind of claim to own indigeneity, to try to have a moral claim or sense of belonging on the North American continent and so that's the context in which these tests are so popular."

CBC's Marlow also reached out to Kim Trujillo, the woman in that Ancestry.com commercial. Marlow asked her what it meant to find out she was part Native American.

Trujillo says she knew she had some Spanish, German, and Native American ancestry, but she wanted to know more about her family tree.

Learning that she was part Native American was just the start for Trujillo. She's been doing her own research about her family history. She also got in touch with the genetic "matches" that were recommended to her as part of the DNA test.

Trujillo told Marlow that everything she's learned about her Native American ancestry makes her feel more connected to current indigenous issues, like the ongoing protest by the Standing Rock Sioux over the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.

But she says she knows there's more to being indigenous than just finding out you have Native American ancestry - and that she can't just sign up for a tribe.

Are these alien skulls? New DNA tests on Elongated Paracas Skulls could 'change history' : The skulls, found in Peru

Are these alien skulls? New DNA tests on Elongated Paracas Skulls could 'change history' : The skulls, found in Peru, created waves in 2014 after a geneticist undertook preliminary DNA tests, and reported unknown results.

He found they had mitochondrial DNA "with mutations unknown in any human, primate, or animal known so far". A second round of DNA tests have now been carried out - which some saying the results are just as controversial - leading to further speculation the skull's former owners may not have been from this planet.

Elongated skulls were caused by ancient civilisations purposefully mutilating their skulls from a young age. It was done by binding the head between two pieces of wood, or binding in cloth.

But, they have always interested alien conspiracy theorists due to the enlarged craniums produced, which appear similar to the mythological alien grey species. The new tests on the skulls have, however, not aided the alien theory, but have raised new questions about how the Americas were populated.

Several of the Paracas Skulls that were sent for DNA testing. (Youtube)

Samples were taken from hair and bone powder, taken drilling deep into a skull's foramen magnum. They were then sent to three labs in Canada, and two in the US, for tests. Geneticists were told the samples were from an ancient mummy, to avoid any preconceptions.

The skulls were now found to have European and Middle Eastern Origin, raising questions over when man first travelled from Eurasia to the Americas, as they are 2,000 to 3,000 years old. Paracas is a desert peninsula in Pisco Province on the south coast of Peru.

Since its discovery in the 1920s, the necropolis had been ransacked by grave robbers many times. Fortunately, a law was finally put in place to protect the area in 1997.

This Ancient Cemetery Has Remains Strewn About That Seem Perfectly Preserved

Around 200 A.D., the Chauchilla Cemetery was established in Nazca, Peru.

However, if you were to visit the ancient burial ground, you'd immediately see that it is anything but ordinary. What's special about this place is that although the last person was laid to rest here sometime close to 1,000 A.D., the bodies are amazingly well-preserved.

Since its discovery in the 1920s, the necropolis had been ransacked by grave robbers many times. Fortunately, a law was finally put in place to protect the area in 1997.

Wikimedia Commons

But despite the destruction caused by greedy people, many of the bodies inside the open-pit graves are still in the same positions that they were put into when they died.

Wikimedia Commons

Read More: These Fully Furnished Mansions Are Downright Gorgeous, But Also Full Of Dead Bodies

The hot, dry climate of the Sechura Desert is part of the reason why the corpses were mummified.

Wikimedia Commons

The other is that Nazca customs called for the dead to be wrapped in cotton and painted with resin before being "buried."

Wikimedia Commons

Archeologists have found wooden posts at the site that also contributed to the mummification, as they were used to dry the dead bodies.

Wikimedia Commons

The preservation is so extraordinary, in fact, that some of them still have their hair and skin even after being dead for over a thousand years.

Places can be cursed by terrible events, people can be cursed by scorned strangers, and even sports teams can find themselves the victim of bad mojo

By Greg Newkirk

Curses are frightening things. They can take hold in an instant or wait decades to strike, take on all manner of devious phenomena from back luck to death, and they don’t discriminate between those ignorant of their existence and those who know better. Places can be cursed by terrible events, people can be cursed by scorned strangers, and even sports teams can find themselves the victim of bad mojo, but the most common curse comes from removing haunted objects from their rightful place. These types of cases never seem to end well.

Recently, while in the middle of an online discussion about my experiences with The Crone, a cursed object in the Traveling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult which requires special handling, I received a reply from an individual who mentioned that her grandmother brought back a curse from Nazca when she’d stolen a mummified hand from an ancient Peruvian burial ground. Thanks to her transgression, she and her entire family were victims of an angry poltergeist until her death.

Naturally, I had to hear the whole, chilling story. Here, presented for the first time in public, is a frightening first-hand account of why you never steal from a cemetery, much less one guarded by ancient spirits.

When I was a kid, my grandma lived with us. Now, we always had paranormal activity in the house, but it really intensified when I was around 8. It was only recently that I put two and two together and I’m pretty sure that this is why the activity increased then.

She’d always go on trips around the world. Back in the 70s, when I was 8, she went to the Amazon with my aunt. One day they went to an ancient burial ground. The ruins were in Peru’s Chauchilla Cemetery, near Nazca. Later that night, back at the hotel, my grandma showed my aunt a “souvenir” that she’d gotten. Out of her purse, she pulled a fucking HAND. Yeah, she’d found a skeletal hand at the burial ground and thought it would be a good idea to take it. My aunt freaked the hell out and insisted that it be returned, so the next day they talked to their tour guide, and they arranged to go back to the burial ground.

Chaucilla Cemetery via Don Macauley [CC BY-SA 2.0]

But the damage was done. One thing that happened was that immediately, my grandma developed some nail fungus. It was only on her thumbnails and big toenails. The nails grew in thick and yellow-brown, and no treatments were ever successful in getting rid of it. She’d kept in contact with several people from the tour, and two even came to visit us, but she was the only one this happened to.

And the other thing was not just that the activity in the house increased, but it was…evil. Just a very dark entity. Whenever it came around you could just feel the air change and would be filled with dread. The dogs would go crazy. Sometimes it was physical.

This entity stayed with my family for 30 years and through several moves, and it finally stopped when my grandma passed away. When I read the Week in Weird story about The Catskills Crone, all that I could think was that I hope you’re better at appeasing angry spirits than my grandmother was.

My grandparents (paternal) didn’t live with “us,” I lived with them. They raised me from the age of 2. We are very religious – Irish and Italian Catholic. All of us on my father’s side are gifted – psychic, sensitive, empath, medium, etc. This is probably why spirits always find their way to us; I’ve had experiences for as long as I remember and continue to. But this one was the only inherently evil one. (Here’s where I tell you that my hands are shaking as I type this and my dog just let out a growl for no reason the actual second I typed the word “evil”…)

There was always “stuff” going on in that house. Lights/faucets/the gas stove burners turning on, toilets flushing themselves, the shower would turn on…I saw shadow people in my room, something would poke me when I was trying to sleep, objects disappearing/reappearing. It was just “normal” to us. So when that “thing” came around, it was just another day at the office, so to speak. It was never really addressed.

I remember the first time. I don’t recall how long it was after the Amazon trip, but my grandparents went to church one night and left me home alone. I was just minding my own business, playing with the record player, and suddenly I felt this…presence. The air became heavy and I felt like I was being covered in darkness and I was suddenly SCARED OUT OF MY MIND. I looked over my shoulder but I didn’t see anything. The thing that strikes me as odd now is that we had three dogs, including a St. Bernard and a Shepherd, and they didn’t make a sound! I just remember the four of us running out to the garage, where I stayed until my grandparents came home. I told them what happened and once again it was brushed off.

Chauchilla Cemetery via Wikipedia

So this went on for years. Same situation. Now another scary thing is that my grandmother would often see something running into my room. I always knew when she’d see it because she’d call out my name, kind of with a questioning inflection, but with an edge. And then something would happen – something would get knocked over or move in my room, or sit on the bed, and my dogs would go crazy. And at least a couple times I was pushed off my bed. I’d run out, screaming, but again…brushed off, everything’s fine, go back to your room.

Now here’s what completely disturbs me, and will probably disturb you, too. The description my grandmother gave of this thing was half-man, half-goat. She was definitely bothered by this, but I don’t think she knew what to do. It was the 70s/80s and no one talked about this stuff, and we certainly couldn’t talk about it with the church.

A lot of times I would also wake up in the middle of the night with that feeling. And then something would be on top of me, holding me down and trying to strangle me. Now, I know all about sleep paralysis, and am conducive to reasonable explanations (I always try to debunk things first) but I really don’t think this was paralysis since I felt the evil presence at the same time. Also, I think with paralysis, you can’t actually see what’s holding you down, and I did. I could see it. It was a skeleton, with its bony hands around my neck. It only ever happened in that house.

I couldn’t get out of that house fast enough, not just because of that, but because my grandmother was bipolar and I couldn’t deal with her anymore, so after high school I joined the military. My grandparents moved to be closer to my aunt. One time when I was home I remember watching my grandmother from my bedroom window. She was in the backyard, watering the grass, and I saw her get pushed from behind. The thing was there in that house, too. It was in the guest bedroom. A lot of times I’d walk by and I could see the light on under the door. Of course I had to go turn the damn light off, and I was scared to fucking death. I was so afraid the door would slam shut behind me. It never did, but it was definitely in there. I forgot to mention, this happened in the first house, too. Always the back bedroom where I’d have to run in and turn out the light.

Chauchilla Cemetery via Wikipedia

My grandpa died and grandmother moved across the country to her home state, because my aunt had stopped speaking to her when grandpa died. (Pretty much everyone in the family stopped speaking to her at some point or another.) I helped her; I was out of the military by this time. I only stayed for about 8 months before returning to my home state, and I don’t remember anything happening there, but there was definitely a strange, heavy feeling in that house. And the light – of course the light in the third bedroom was always turning on there, too. A year later I moved back there because she was bugging me, but I got my own apartment.

Then she and I had a falling out, and it was my turn to stop speaking to her. By this time my aunt was speaking to her again, so she moved back across the country and bought a house there. And that it where I encountered IT again, for the final time (I hope and pray).

I hadn’t spoken to her for 7 years, but one day I had a feeling that her time on earth was coming to an end, so I reached out. I flew out and spent three days there. She had a really nice house in the sunny desert, but it was dark and oppressive. I’ve looked at houses on her street on Zillow, and they’re so bright inside. Hers was not. I remember calling my boyfriend at the time and telling him I was never coming back there.

I was back 7 weeks later – for her funeral. A couple days before the service, I was up at her house (about an hour away from my aunt’s, who I was staying with) cleaning out the house. It was very late, about 10pm. I was in the kitchen cleaning out the fridge, and suddenly – I FELT IT. FML. I looked to my right, through the living room and down the hall. The hall was completely pitch black. I couldn’t see the night light. I could no longer see the streetlights coming in through the windows. Just black, getting blacker and getting closer. It was now in the entrance hall so I couldn’t go out through the front door. I left everything where it was, all the lights on, and ran into the garage. I opened the automatic door halfway, then closed it and ran out, rolling under it and onto the driveway. I refused to go back there.

So that was 18 years ago, and there have been no more encounters, but I did have a dream about it about four years ago. It was terrifying. I happened to be alone in the house that night and I wouldn’t go back to sleep. I just laid there motionless for hours, praying for daylight.

Curses are no laughing matter. Even if it was poor grandma who stole the ancient artifact, timeless spirits don’t forgive easily. Even when the bones of the dead were returned to the Chauchilla Cemetery, the dark entity maintained its terrifying grip on granny, ensuring that she felt the effects of her choices until death. Fortunately, it appears her family was able to escape judgement.

Moral of the story? Don’t take what isn’t yours.

Got a witness report of your own to share? Drop me a line at [email protected], tweet me @nuekerk, friend me on Facebook, or start a conversation in the comments below!

new research in genetics and historical records is tracing noble Inca bloodlines to the direct descendants of Atahualpa and his kin – often among the most humble families of modern Perú

When the last Inca emperor, Atahualpa, was executed by Francisco Pizarro in 1533, the conquistadores moved quickly to obliterate all traces of what had been the largest empire of its time.

Temples were sacked and stripped of gold; on holy days, Inca nobles were forced to parade Christian saints instead of the mummies of their ancestors; the engineering skills behind Machu Picchu and a 25,000-mile network of roads stretching from Colombia to Argentina were forgotten.

And in this new society that oppressed all of Peru’s indigenous population, the names of noble families – the “children of the sun” who had once lived as demigods – were gradually erased from history.

But new research in genetics and historical records is tracing noble Inca bloodlines to the direct descendants of Atahualpa and his kin – often among the most humble families of modern Peru.

The Dutch historian Ronald Elward has been investigating the fate of the Inca nobility since he moved to Peru in 2009. “I discovered it was more common to find a gardener or servant with an Inca surname than a person from a middle- or upper-class background,” he said.

While surnames that indicate direct descent from royal blood – such as Yupanqui, meaning “memorable”, and Pachacutec, meaning “transformer of the Earth” – were proudly preserved in rural areas, indigenous names were looked down upon in urban centres.

Elward pored through tens of thousands of pages of public documents in Cusco, once the centre of the Incan empire, checking all available parish records for the period from 1720 to 1920 as well as the archives of more than 250 public notaries. After identifying 25 royal Inca families, he set about tracking down their descendants.

“The moment I started interviewing people about their life stories, the whole thing became less dusty records and more a social and cultural reality which had been very untouched. That was the main surprise,” he said.

Roberta Huamanrimanchi Tupahuacayllo, with her daughter, is descended from Inca blue blood on her mother's side. Photograph: Dan Collyns for the Guardian

One of Elward’s interviewees was Roberta Huamanrimanchi Tupahuacayllo, 40, who inherits Inca blue blood from her mother. A former municipal worker now caring for infant children, Huamanrimanchi described how she was teased at school for her long indigenous surnames.

“I’m very proud of my surname. I’m not ashamed, although people still laugh because it’s difficult to pronounce,” she said.

Perhaps in an unconscious echo of the Inca custom of keeping the mummies of deceased family members, Huamanrimanchi’s 79-year-old father, Mariano, proudly displays the skulls of his mother, sister and brother on the mantelpiece.

Other descendants are far more conscious of their royal pedigree. Alfredo Inca Roca, 69, claims he can trace his lineage back nearly 500 years to 1560, 17 years after the first Spanish people arrived in Cusco in 1543.

The urbane lawyer also claims to have the documentation to prove it, in the form of a parchment signed in 1545 by the Holy Roman emperor Carlos V, who was also the king of Spain. The missive grants his ancestor “Inga Roca” corresponding royal status and gives him a coat of arms which replaces the lions of the old world with South American jaguars.

Mariano Huamanrimanchi, 79, shows a relative's skull that he keeps at home out of respect for his ancestors. Photograph: Dan Collyns for the Guardian

“He used this nice phrase [to the conquistadores]: I don’t send you to kill kings but to serve kings,” Inca Roca said. “But it did not do much to alter the behaviour of the Spanish viceroyalty, which subjugated my ancestors.”

Inca pride is infectious in San Sebastian, where schoolchildren are now encouraged to learn their once-denigrated Quechua mother tongue.

The Peruvian geneticist Ricardo Fujita has drawn on Elward’s work to establish a DNA correlation between two groups numbering around 35 people who claim patrilineal descent from Huayna Capac, father to the executed Atahualpa.

The absence of any Inca mummies, which were destroyed by the Spanish, means DNA comparisons can be made only between those who claim they are descendants .

But backed by the National Geographic’s Genographic Project, the investigation has found genetic links between supposed Inca descendants and indigenous populations near Lake Titicaca, appearing to corroborate the myth that the sun-worshipping conquerors originated there.

“The official history of Peru [begins] when the Europeans arrive here in 1532 but before that we have 1,400 years of history,” said Fujita, head of genetics and molecular biology at Lima’s San Martin de Porres University.

“That history is not recorded in writing – but it is recorded in our DNA: we are reconstructing the history of the people that don’t have history.

Cuando el último emperador inca, Atahualpa, fue ejecutado por Francisco Pizarro en 1533, los conquistadores se movieron rápidamente para eliminar todos los restos de lo que fue el imperio más grande de su tiempo.

Los templos fueron saqueados y despojados de oro; en los días festivos, los nobles incas se vieron obligados a desfile de santos cristianos en lugar de las momias de sus antepasados; Se olvidan las habilidades de ingeniería detrás de Machu Picchu y una red de 25.000 millas de carreteras que se extienden desde Colombia a Argentina.

Y en esta nueva sociedad que oprimía a toda la población indígena de Perú, los nombres de las familias nobles - los "Hijos del Sol" que una vez había vivido como semidioses - se borran gradualmente de la historia.

Pero una nueva investigación de la genética y los registros históricos está trazando líneas de sangre noble Inca a los descendientes directos de Atahualpa y sus parientes - a menudo entre las familias más humildes del Perú moderno.

El historiador holandés Ronald Elward ha sido investigar el destino de la nobleza Inca desde que se trasladó a Perú en 2009 "descubrí que era más común encontrar un jardinero o servidor con un apellido Inca que una persona de una clase media o alta fondo ", dijo.

Mientras que los apellidos que indican descendencia directa de sangre real - como Yupanqui, que significa "memorable", y Pachacutec, que significa "transformador de la Tierra" - se conservaron con orgullo en las zonas rurales, los nombres indígenas eran despreciadas en los centros urbanos.

Elward estudió minuciosamente a través de decenas de miles de páginas de documentos públicos en Cusco, una vez que el centro del imperio Inca, la comprobación de todos los registros parroquiales disponibles para el período 1720-1920, así como los archivos de más de 250 notarios públicos. Después de la identificación de 25 familias real Inca, se dedicó a la pista a sus descendientes.

"En el momento en que empecé a entrevistar a la gente acerca de sus historias de vida, todo el asunto se convirtió en los registros menos polvorientos y más una realidad social y cultural que había sido muy intacta. Esa fue la principal sorpresa ", dijo.

Roberta Huamanrimanchi Tupahuacayllo, con su hija, es descendiente de la sangre azul de Inca por parte de su madre. Fotografía: Dan Collyns para The Guardian

Uno de los entrevistados de Elward era Roberta Huamanrimanchi Tupahuacayllo, 40, que hereda la sangre azul Inca de su madre. Un ex trabajador municipal ahora el cuidado de los niños lactantes, Huamanrimanchi describió cómo era objeto de burlas en la escuela por sus largas apellidos indígenas.

"Estoy muy orgulloso de mi apellido. No me da vergüenza, aunque la gente todavía se ríen porque es difícil de pronunciar ", dijo.

Tal vez en un eco inconsciente de la costumbre inca de mantenimiento de las momias de los miembros difuntos de la familia, de 79 años de edad y padre de Huamanrimanchi, Mariano, muestra con orgullo el cráneo de su madre, hermana y hermano en la repisa de la chimenea.

Otros descendientes son mucho más conscientes de su pedigrí real. Alfredo Inca Roca, de 69 años, afirma que puede rastrear su linaje hasta casi 500 años para 1560, 17 años después de las primeras personas españoles llegaron a Cusco en 1543.

El abogado urbana también dice tener la documentación para probarlo, en forma de un pergamino firmado en 1545 por la Santa emperador romano Carlos V, que era también el rey de España. La misiva otorga su antepasado "Inga Roca" correspondiente estatus real y le da un escudo de armas que sustituye a los leones del viejo mundo con jaguares de América del Sur.

Mariano Huamanrimanchi, 79, muestra el cráneo de un pariente que guarda en su casa por respeto a sus antepasados. Fotografía: Dan Collyns para The Guardian

"Él utilizó esta frase agradable [a] los conquistadores: no te mando a matar a los reyes, sino para servir reyes", dijo Inca Roca. "Pero no hizo mucho para alterar el comportamiento del virreinato español, que subyugó a mis antepasados."

orgullo del inca es infecciosa en San Sebastián, donde ahora se anima a los alumnos a aprender su lengua materna el quechua denigrado vez.

El genetista peruano Ricardo Fujita se ha basado en la obra de Elward para establecer una correlación de ADN entre dos grupos de numeración de alrededor de 35 personas que dicen la descendencia patrilineal de Huayna Cápac, padre de Atahualpa ejecutado.

La ausencia de momias incas, las cuales fueron destruidas por el español, significa comparaciones de ADN se pueden realizar sólo entre aquellos que afirman ser descendientes.

Pero respaldado por el Proyecto Genográfico de National Geographic, la investigación ha encontrado vínculos genéticos entre los supuestos descendientes del Inca y poblaciones indígenas cerca del lago Titicaca, que aparece para corroborar el mito de que los conquistadores de culto al sol se originaron allí.

"La historia oficial del Perú [comienza] cuando los europeos llegan aquí en 1532, pero antes de eso tenemos 1.400 años de historia", dijo Fujita, director de la genética y la biología molecular en la Universidad San Martín de Porres de Lima.

"Que la historia no se registra por escrito - pero se graba en nuestro ADN: estamos reconstruyendo la historia de las personas que no tienen historia".