We think this is a good question, so we did a bit of research. Here are some suggestions:

Ayahuasca Songs: Healing Prayers and Chants by Don Valerio Cohaila

You can preview the tracks online, and then download the mp3 file if you want it.

El Canto del Tiempo/Ayahuasca Icaros by Don Evangelino Murayay

With this CD also you may preview the tracks online, before downloading the mp3 version.

Ayahuasca Songs from the Peruvian Amazon by Luis Panduro Vasquez

Icaros are songs that have been given to an apprentice shaman by the spirit of the plant or animal that is the focus of his/her attention and journey. The Icaros on this CD are very well done, and highly recommended for anyone interested in researching traditional use of Yage in a native context. The singers voices ring with the truth and innocence of children, reminding us of who we really are. note: the lyrics are by no means explicit, quite the opposite as they cleanse the enviornment in preparation for sacred work.

This CD is really simple. It is a clear recording of an authentic Shaman singing, that is it. There are no effects, no background music, no narrator giving a documentary (although that would be cool so heads up you anthropologists out there). It is for a yage ritual and a means of saving what seems to be another dying and doomed culture.

A Hallucinogenic Tea, Laced with Controversy: Ayahuasca in the Amazon and the United States

Published in 2008, this book by Marlene Dobkin de Rios and Roger Rumrrill covers not only the traditional usage of ayahuasca in the Amazon, but also by its modern day encounters with the so-called war on drugs in the USA.

Dr. Dobkin de Rios is a medical anthropologist who has conducted fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon and the coast on plant hallucinogens and healing. She is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, and Professor Emerita of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. De Rios has spearheaded research on the plant hallucinogen, ayahuasca in Peru, Brazil, and the United States. The author of six books and several hundred articles on hallucinogens and culture, she resides in Southern California.

Mr. Rumrill is a Peruvian journalist and author of 25 books. He is a recognized expert on Amazon themes, including narco-trafficking, biological wealth of the Amazon, and social and cultural issues of indigenous peoples in Peru and other regions of Latin America.

There are few true Shamans left, according to the Shamans de Rios interviews for the book. Training takes two years and requires many hardships, such as forays into the forrest, severe diets, celibacy: so much so, that the Amazon youth prefer city life to taking up tribal customs, such as Shamanism.

That’s not to say they don’t produce their own brand of Shamanism to tourists, offering Ayahuasca Tea (without the proper prayers, chanting, etc) to tourists. This is called “Drug Tourism” and the authors detail what Drug Tourism is and how it is harming Tribal life and how it affects how the plant is disappearing from the Amazon.

This is a great book that discusses the manners in which Shamans train, believe, go about their vocation, administer to local tribes (mostly women and children). With drinking the tea, a Shaman ‘communicates’ with spirits (not as we in the West describe them) then help whomever comes to him. In it’s proper respect, Ayahuasca Tea helps the proper Shaman delve into the problem, thus helping his ‘customer’.

Improper use of the tea has skyrocketed, and many false Shamans have sprung up around the Countries. Countries don’t seem to mind, as the ‘drug tourism’ brings in much needed capital. Although Shamanism is dying out, the religion it professes has spread to many Western and Industrialized Nations, including the United States.

And there was the problem, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency here in the U.S. When the religion started, the U.S. placed the tea on their list of forbidden substances. After many years and lawsuits later, the religion won their right to use the tea for their services.

The book is enjoyable, as the authors discuss conversations with Shamans, details religious rites, reasons for using the Hallucinogenic Tea, their use of psychology, biology, counseling, consultation of spirits, etc., the authors do repeat themselves quite often.

We are grateful to Amazon.com and Brick ONeil for the above review of A Hallucinogenic Tea, Laced with Controversy: Ayahuasca in the Amazon and the United States

If you are knowledgeable on these matters, what do you think?

A: I lived with a shaman outside Iquitos and it was an amazing experience. I was in Peru for longer than 2 weeks though and had time to build up a relationship with the shaman.

There are people in Peru who could help you but it would be helpful if you can speak Spanish.

I also took san pedro in Huancabamba but have to say the route is dangerous and I didnt get as vivid visions with this than with ayahuasca.

It is a brilliant experience but better on the body if you do not drink alcohol and eat much before the ceremony!

Suerte and if it is right for you to take it you will meet the right people to guide you.

A: My wife says you can do it by yourself or in a group. She says the most important thing is the shaman who is guiding you. He needs to be a longtime shaman who’s ancestors were shamans. She said you need to follow the diet and restrictions given by the shaman.

A: Two weeks doesn’t seem a very long time to me, to sort it all out from scratch.

A: Would also be very interested in trying it. Seems quite amazing! Sorry as I am not knowledgeable I can’t offer much advice other than as much local information as possible is necessary, and for that you would need a trusted source. I guess that was the advantage of the group in the video. It wasn’t a scam. It was the real thing.  The downside obviously is the expense. But if you had more time, it’s probable that you could come across a shaman who was the real thing.

Thanks to Yahoo at http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081226135757AASnT0L

Released by Câmera Viva, 2008, the film is 57 minutes in length. Its director is Michael Ende, and it was edited by Luis Eduardo Pomar with consultation provided by Bia Labate. Watch the trailer now…

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Published in mid September, 2008, the book explores the three pillars of Amazonian shamanism: purging, psychoactive plants, and diet and it reveals experiences of apprenticing with an Ashaninca master shaman. With a foreword by Mark J. Plotkin, “The Jaguar That Roams The Mind” reveals the intimate relationship between shamans and plant spirits.

This is a journey into the vanishing world of Amazonian shamanism — an adventure of initiation and return — that explores the unique reality at the heart of the Amazonian healing system. Robert Tindall shares his journeys through the inner and outer landscape of the churches of ayahuasca and with the Kaxinawa Indians in Brazil; his experiences at the pioneering center for the treatment of addiction, Takiwasi, in Peru; and his studies with an Ashaninca master shaman deep in the rainforest jungle.

Moving beyond the scientific approach to medicinal plants, which seeks to reduce them to their chemical constituents, Tindall illustrates the shamans’ intimate relationships with plant spirits. He explores the three pillars of Amazonian shamanism: purging (drawing disease out of the body), psychoactive plants (including the ritual use of ayahuasca), and diet (communing with the innate intelligence of teacher plants). Through trials and revelations, the subtle inner logic of indigenous healing unfolds for him, including the “miraculous” healing of a woman suffering from a brain tumor. Culminating in a ceremony fraught with terror yet ultimately enlightening, Tindall’s journey reveals the crucial component missing from the metaphysics of the West: the understanding and appreciation of the sentience of nature itself.

Published by Park Street Press, the paperback edition of The Jaguar That Roams The Mind is now available from Amazon.com.

The Shaman’s Last Apprentice was written over twelve days in a natural trance like state in a secluded farmhouse in Hereford, England. Once it was finished, the author Rebekah Bloom knew that in order to retain the rights and preserve its essence she had to self-publish the book. There are many challenges to self-publishing; but for Rebekah Bloom, the advantages outweighed the negatives. It meant a slower road, greater risks and longer returns but she knew the rewards would be invaluable.

Rebekah Bloom was not chosen to become the Shaman’s apprentice because of some amazing gifts or psychic abilities that she has. Rebekah’s journey of self-discovery happened because she believed, without doubt and with all her heart, that there must be another way of living, without fear or suffering, a life where she was free. And she did not give up on this dream, even when it seemed impossible.

This story is also a warning from the Shaman to the West that we urgently need to change our relationship with each other, and with Mother Earth. Only by our choices can we end war and make this planet a Heaven on Earth. And yet change can only occur when each one of us takes the responsibility to change ourselves first. Rebekah Bloom quotes “Now it is time to wake up and evolve consciously, to start shining our light and spreading our love. You do not need to go to the rainforest to find your divinity. It is found when you are truly happy and at peace with yourself. It is an inner journey that is unique to each individual, a universal pilgrimage called life that we are all taking, consciously or unconsciously. We are not helpless. We are not caged. The path of conscious evolution is open to anyone who wishes to walk it”.

Rebekah Bloom traveled extensively and lived and worked with various indigenous groups. She has a BA Hons in the Study of Religions and MSc in Economic Development, both from SOAS, UCL in London. She has also self-published a book ‘The Shaman’s Last Apprentice,’ based on her ayahuasca experiences as an initiate of a Peruvian ‘Ayahuasquero’ Shaman in the Amazon Rainforest in 1998.

Pallamary, the son of a beautiful acrobat and her codeine-addicted musician husband, opens his story with a portrait of his often violent childhood. After his father nearly kills his family with his unstable and abusive behavior and winds up incarcerated, the author and his family must move into a blue-collar Boston ghetto where Pallamary quickly earns street cred through thievery and fighting.

“Early on I decided on two major goals in life,” he recalls. “To try everything I could at least once, and to be a successful criminal, as successful criminals were idolized in my neighborhood.”

Despite being raised in a Catholic household, Pallamary is not impinged on by a specific doctrine. “I kept my belief in God, but my hazy conception of a divine being didn’t fit in with the God of organized religion,” he says.

The blend of his loose belief system and a willingness to try anything lead him to a turning point. At the age of 21, Pallamary has a profound mystical experience that he says transformed the core of his being. After ingesting the seeds of a psychoactive plant, Pallamary says his “perceptions opened like unfolding blossoms.”

“My whole being expanded, making me highly aware of the magic, complexity and connectedness of everything both through me and in me,” he explains. “In a flash, all of the pieces snapped into place.”

As a result of his brush with his inner cosmos, Pallamary begins researching shamanism and the ancient concept of visionary plants as spiritual tools. In an attempt to approach hallucinogens from a perspective of respect and learning – rather than as a seeker of mindless, chaotic thrills – Pallamary again experiments with psychoactive plants. However this time the experience is filled with despair and Pallamary must be pulled from the brink of suicide by his mother.

Resolved to breakthrough the barriers of circumstance, the author continues his research into mysticism. He reads about a substance known as Ayahuasca, which has been used by indigenous South American tribes as a magical healing potion since prehistoric times. Determined to try the revered plant, Pallamary tracks down a Peruvian shaman who allows the author to try the plant in a formal healing circle. The experience is rapturous, and serves to bolster Pallamary’s now sacred enterprise. Soon, the author is invited to spend 10 days with shamans deep in the Amazon jungle, where he will partake in an intensive Ayahuasca diet.

While in the jungle, Pallamary reaches a point where the line between waking and dreaming blurs. His lucid dreaming heightens his awareness and understanding, connecting his personal experiences with his spiritual journey, and tightens his once loose grasp on God, the universe, even his family. Readers will be inspired how Pallamary’s travels – both physical and metaphysical – forever change his sense of reality.

“Spirit touches us in every moment of our existence; only most of us are caught up in the dramas that we have created in our lives, blinding us to a reality far greater than anything we can imagine with our rational minds,” says Pallamary. “It is simply a matter of awareness.”

Pallamary’s other books include The Small Dark Room Of The Soul, A Short Walk To The Other Side, and Land Without Evil.

For more information go to www.mattpallamary.com.

Psychic Readings UK – Find the Right Psychic is your source for Psychic Readings, with specialist Psychics providing expert readings by telephone

Newspapers across the world today are publishing headlines such as “Moses was high on drugs when he received the Ten Commandments” because of an article published by a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Professor Benny Shannon’s theory was published in Time and Mind, an international journal of philosophy. In it he states that many colorful events written in the Old Testament were based on visions induced by hallucinogenic concoctions.

“In the southern regions of the Holy Land and in the Sinai Peninsula,” he wrote, “there grow two plants containing the molecules that together constitute the key ingredients of one of the most powerful psychedelic substances in existence.” He was referring to ayahuasca.

Several events in the life of Moses, Professor Shannon believes, were hallucinogenic visions, including the burning bush and the receipt of the Ten Commandments from God.

Of course, this idea is not really new. It’s an idea that Graham Phillips published in “The Moses Legacy” several years ago.

A report of the article, published by Reuters Africa, is available at: http://africa.reuters.com/odd/news/usnL04178076.html

Ms. Alexander says that she has been visiting the Amazon in Peru for more than seven years, and there she has been participating in ayahuasca ceremonies. She says The Spiderwick Chronicles is “the most accurate portrayal of an ayahuasca experience for public consumption dressed up as a children’s fairy tale.”

Ms. Alexander is going to be one of the speakers at the fourth annual International Amazonian Shamanism Conference: Magic Myths & Miracles” held in Iquitos, Peru this coming July 19 through 27, 2008. Details are online at http://www.soga-del-alma.org/ConferenceSite/.

Here is a link to the Hollywood News review .

Central and South American tribes, including the Shipibo, Tukanos and Kofan, have been using it in their spiritual practices for hundreds of years or more. Today, spiritual pilgrims travel to Peru, Ecuador and Brazil, where ayahuasca is legal, to partake in ceremonial experiences.

It was the beat writers Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs who introduced ayahuasca tea to North American popular culture in the early 1960s in their publication “The Yage Letters.”

Ms. Piccalo reported that for years ayahuasca was a “largely underground phenomenon … like peyote and psilocybin mushrooms” attracting “academics, journalists, psychiatrists and other soul-searching intellectuals.” It was partly because of a Supreme Court runing in 2006 that enabled ayahuasca to become more widely popular to the point that the ingredients to brew ayahuasca tea are now readily available on the internet, and it is being used by people from all walks of life, from lawyers, doctors and celebrities to working class folks.

“Some scientific studies,” she said, “suggest that ayahuasca has legitimate uses as an alternative psychotropic medicine that can abolish depression, cure addiction and improve brain function..”

One of this writer’s favourite authors, Graham Hancock, wrote a fascinating book called “Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind.” Its thesis is that ayahuasca and other hallucinogenic plants inspired ancient, primitive people to decorate the walls of their caves with patterns based on psychedelic visions. Hancock, who has taken it 26 times, says ayahuasca improved his life. “It is extremely powerful,” he says. “Its effects can be deeply disturbing, and there may be some short-term trauma, almost like a post-traumatic shock disorder, with coming to terms with very disturbing insights about yourself.” But he also said that because of ayahuasca, “I’m a better husband and father. My behavior is much more examined.”

The entire article, “Ayahuasca: A Strange Brew” is available online at http://www.latimes.com/features/magazine/la-tm-ayahuasca.02feb3,1,6118145.story?ctrack=3&cset=true