The Ayahuasca Foundation
Our Vision and Mission
The Ayahuasca Foundation was conceived in 2008 by Carlos Tanner, an American student of curanderismo, after living and studying with a curandero for over four years. His goal was to offer a safe way for people to experience the healing traditions of the Amazon and to study these methods as he had. The Foundation aims to preserve indigenous wisdom, providing healing retreats, educational courses, and conducting research on the ancient ayahuasca practices of the Peruvian Amazon. We also advocate for rainforest preservation and promote sustainability and environmental harmony.
Our mission is to spread awareness about ancestral plant medicine traditions, the potential of the human spirit, and the interconnectedness of all beings. We invite you to join our efforts, whether by sharing information with others or exploring the science of plant spirit medicine yourself. Despite the challenges we face, reconnecting with nature and rediscovering our spiritual roots can guide us toward a future of peace, health, and happiness.
Remembering Our True Nature
Today, many people feel disillusioned, realizing that in society our perceptions of reality are being manipulated for particular agendas, often to benefit the profit margins of influential corporations. Interest in ancient cultures is growing as people seek to reconnect with a more authentic way of life. Ayahuasca offers a path to reclaim our lives, to replace detrimental false beliefs with beneficial truths, helping us understand who we are and what we want to become. Curanderos demonstrate that we can be empowered to determine the path of our lives when we recognize the truth of spirit.
More and more people are frustrated with the pharmaceutical industry’s focus on profit over true healing. So many of us now have stories of failures in the modern medical industry’s attempts to address chronic illnesses and emotional traumas. We are dissatisfied with merely treating the symptoms without getting to the roots of the problem. This has led a growing number of truth-seekers to explore alternative healing systems, like the indigenous plant medicine traditions found in the Amazon.
What’s missing in modern culture is spiritual understanding. After centuries of suppressing spiritual healers, we’ve lost touch with our true identities and the purpose of our existence. In contrast, indigenous cultures have maintained their connection to spirit. The Ayahuasca Foundation seeks to ensure that this knowledge is not lost but rather thrives in the hearts and minds of humanity, helping us all to reconnect with our spiritual heritage.
Plant Medicine Research
Healing Veterans and Studying the Process
Since 2016, the Ayahuasca Foundation has hosted research investigating the effects of attending an ayahuasca retreat in the Amazon to treat depression, anxiety, and trauma. This research has been conducted by our research partner, Onaya Science, and over a dozen articles have been published demonstrated the incredible outcomes of the studies. It is clear that attending an ayahuasca retreat at our center greatly reduces depression and anxiety and improves overall health and well being. In 2023, we teamed up with Heroic Hearts project to host research looking specifically at the treatment of PTSD in military veterans. This research has also observed amazing results. It fills us with so much joy knowing we are helping more and more veterans recover from their traumas and regain their health and happiness. We plan to continue this research and expand into more research projects in the future.
Preservation
Since its founding in 2008, the Ayahuasca Foundation has grown in staff, improved its methods, and deepened its understanding of health and healing. A key part of this understanding is recognizing the importance of our environment. Just as a seed needs a healthy environment to grow, humans need a nourishing environment to thrive. Higher rates of illness and disease are directly linked to pollution and environmental destruction. Seeds can’t grow in toxic soil.
To support our mission of promoting health, we must also work to protect the natural environment. The Ayahuasca Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness about preserving the Amazon Rainforest and all nourishing ecosystems worldwide. Every living being is part of a larger, interconnected whole, the Earth. While caring for individual health is crucial, we must ensure that our actions do not harm the environment.
The Ayahuasca Foundation aims to be a positive force in the global movement for preservation and sustainability. We promote recycling, permaculture, organic farming, and reducing pollution and resource destruction. By collaborating with like-minded organizations and individuals, we can help restore the health of our planet, communities, and ourselves. Together, we can make the world a better place.
Ayahuasca Retreats
The Ayahuasca Foundation’s Healing Ayahuasca Retreats offer an opportunity to change your life’s course and start fresh. You’ll take part in ayahuasca ceremonies guided by a Shipibo healer and experienced assistants. Along with these ceremonies, you’ll also receive various plant-based treatments to cleanse your mind, body, and spirit.
Ayahuasca Courses
Ayahuasca courses offer authentic training in the Shipibo plant medicine tradition, focusing on sacred plant dietas and the use of ayahuasca in ceremonies. These informative training courses are a condensed version of an ancestral initiation experience, teaching the core principles of the ayahuasca plant medicine tradition in Peru.