Painting by Pablo AmaringoGuest List
Dr. John Alexander
Dr. John Alexander has been an active Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE) member for over two decades.
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander has been researching the mysticism of Catholic Saints for over 20 years.
Pablo Amaringo
A severe heart illness--and the magical treatment of this via ayahuasca--led Pablo toward the life of a shaman, and he eventually became a powerful curandero.
Ananda
Ananda is an international lecturer, teacher and researcher, who is growing in the reputation of being a Visionary Scientist.
Lennon Boardman
Lennon Boardman is a healing facilitator who lives on the Central Coast of California.
Michael Caden
I have come to realise that everything is part of a shamanistic continuum, more available in special areas like Peru, but still recognisable in...
Howard Charing
Howard G. Charing is an international workshop leader on shamanism. He has organised specialist retreats to the Amazon Rainforest since the late 90’s.
Frank Echenhofer
Frank Echenhofer received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Temple University in 1985.
Peter Gorman
Mr. Gorman is a former recipient of a Blue Mountain Fellowship in investigative journalism and a grant from Conservation International to do a study of indigenous peoples on the Napo River.
Michael Caden
I have come to realise that everything is part of a shamanistic continuum, more available in special areas like Peru, but still recognisable in...
Dr. Richard Grossman
Since the age of 16, Dr. Grossman has been deeply involved in healing, growth and spiritual growth.
David Hewson
The artwork of David Hewson combines the classical painting techniques of the Old Masters with traditional methods of water gilding in gold and other precious metals.
Martina Hoffman
German-born artist, Martina Hoffmann, spent her childhood in Germany as well as Cameroon, West Africa.
Jan Kounen
Jan was a student at the Arts Décoratifs in Nice, France, (E.P.I.A.R.). He learned cinema, animation and pixillation and passed his diploma in 1988...
Leslie Kubin
Leslie currently has a practice with quantum biofeedback therapy, massage therapy and myofascial release in Central California.
Dr. Dennis Mckenna
Dennis McKenna has for the last twenty-five years pursued the interdisciplinary study of ethnopharmacology and psychointegrator plants.
Tom McKinnon
Tom McKinnon is an established visual artist who has exhibited multi-media performance works at major venues nationally and internationally.
Dr. Jorge Gonzales Ramirez
Nació en la ciudad de Cajamarca, (1944). Su Jardín de Infancia es recuerdo gigante por el amor que tuvo en su Profesora.
Ronald Rivera
Ronald is dedicated to the essential shamanism, and he is active broadcaster and promoter of Sessions and Shops with the Master Plant of Ayahuasca.
Alan Shoemaker
Alan Shoemaker left the United States fifteen years ago in order to learn Shamanic healing techniques.
Robert Venosa
New York City born, Venosa was transported into the world of fine art in the late 60's after having experimented with psychedelics and having seen the work of the Fantastic Realists.
Jimmy Weiskopf
Jimmy Weiskopf is a New York-born writer and translator who has lived in Colombia full-time since 1977 and is a leading investigator of its indigenous use of yajé (ayahuasca).
Dennis Wier
Dennis R. Wier is the Executive Director of the Trance Research Foundation.AyasminA
The official MC and also a presenter for the 4th Conference, AyasminA is a professional interpreter, translator, legal advocate, and documentarian fluent in six languages, whose lifelong passion for people and travel is dovetailed with her longstanding interest in spirit medicine from around the world.
AyasminA's multicultural heritage and capacity for communication across societal and ethnic boundaries has convinced her that there is a common basis of understanding which can unite all people and things. She feels that tapping into this awareness is the key to realizing the paradox of our individual potential and our ultimate oneness. She firmly believes that true comprehension lies beyond words and within our grasp. AyasminA is dedicated to what she sees as our innate ability to become versed in the language of the sublime through our connection to the plant teachers, to our ancestral guides, and in communion with one another.
Over the past six years, AyasminA's focus has been on South American naturopathy, in particular the traditions and techniques of Amazonian plant medicine known as vegetalismo. Both in Peru as well as in Canada, she has served as the interpreter and facilitator for several shamanic seminars and retreats, in which she has also been a participant, promoter, and organizer. This has exposed her to many varieties of medicinal plants and their uses, as well as the principles and practitioners who maintain and uphold them.
AyasminA, in collaboration with film partner Thomas McKinnon, recently completed a radio documentary entitled "In Search of the Divine Vegetal", which explores the nexus of Western and Indigenous cosmologies in relation to plant intelligence, and which was met with considerable interest and support when it aired worldwide in November 2007. Due to popular demand, it will be rebroadcast on the CBC Radio program "Ideas" on May 16 and May 23, 2008. Further information, as well as a podcast of the program, can be found here.
AyasminA and Tom are currently in the process of converting their radio documentary into a film and, to this end, have prepared a demo-length version of their video documentary. This documentary, like its audio counterpart by the same name, aspires to engender a species of hybrid consciousness consisting of Western science, Indigenous technology, phytospirituality, and the Great Unknown. They anticipate bringing their project to fruition in 2008, and hope to have a trailer version ready for screening at this year's conference. The demo video can be found here.
AyasminA earned a B.A. in Modern Languages and Linguistics from McGill University, where she graduated summa cum laude, and went on to graduate with a degree in Law in 1995. She is at present completing her practicum at a firm she initiated with two of her former classmates in October 2007. She is slated to become a member of the Canadian Bar Association in 2009 and, in addition to the practice of family law and mediation, is engaged in the areas of social justice, human rights, drug policy reform, and civil liberties. One of her main contributions in the area of natural medicine is in providing advice, information, education, advocacy, and strategy on the subject of freedom of conscience, indigenous rights, the ethics of care, and the de-regulation of sacramental and therapeutic plants. AyasminA gave recently gave an interview on these topics, which can be heard here:
AyasminA also places great importance on home and family. Happily married for 14 years, she has a son, Hunter, and a daughter, Eva, aged 9 and 10. When they were 3 and 4, she and her husband, Rex, took them on a year-long trek across South America during which they covered over 10,000 miles of jungle, coastline, plains, and alpine by riverboat and camperized bus. It is her hope that these and other experiences will ensure that her children grow up with a sense of global citizenship, tolerance, and responsibility, as well as an abiding appreciation and respect for the natural world in all her bounty.
Both children accompanied her on her 6-week Peruvian odyssey two summers ago, an odyssey which included working a dieta, interpreting for a conference, scaling Andean heights, exploring Amazonian lowlands, and interviewing indigenous curanderos from Tarapoto to Urubamba. They will be with her once again this year in Iquitos, which has become a home-away-from-home for them, much like Black Rock City, where thrice they have made the pilgrimage, accompanying their parents on their quest for diversity and abundance in the desert.
AyasminA is fascinated by the continued interest in Amazonian vegetalismo internationally and strives to create a climate of authenticity and acceptance abroad which will allow the plants to flourish and express in their new native lands and tongues. She believes strongly in the importance of the various aspects and proponents of this work coming together from all reaches of the globe to establish communication and common ground, mutual understanding and respect, learning and evolution. AyasminA sees the value of innovation as well as the importance of preservation of tradition, and considers it a privilege to be able to lend her voice to the Elders, as they so generously and graciously share their knowledge with a new world and a new generation.
With this goal in mind and heart, she feels honoured to be able once more to lend her support and abilities in concert and cooperation with her distinguished friends and colleagues, old and new.
AyasminA may be contacted at: ayasmina.flores@yahoo.ca
Ayasmina on Tribe
