| Doris has lived in Cusco for many years conducting | | | | their feelings, suffer from throat problems and so on. |
| ofrendas and reading coca leaves for dozens of | | | | So how do we heal them? First we need to look at |
| people every week - both local as well as from far | | | | them through the coca leaves, to know what has |
| flung places. | | | | happened. Why are they resentful, fearful or |
| Millions of Indians have chewed coca on a daily basis | | | | anxious? What is causing their problems? Difficulties |
| for many hundreds of years, yet never has a plant | | | | existing outside our bodies, such as a theft, |
| been so misrepresented and its use so controlled by | | | | disillusionment, or being lied to, affect us because we |
| prejudice and ignorance, including up to the present | | | | are predisposed to have this pain. Such people get ill |
| day. The Conquistadors considered it an idle and | | | | because they are not in equilibrium with themselves. |
| offensive habit to be prohibited, but it was soon | | | | The coca shows when and how this began, it tells |
| seen that the Indians could not work without coca | | | | the story of how they got ill. |
| even when forced to do so. | | | | Is there a difference between the kind of condition |
| Chewing coca has continued to be a custom not | | | | which develops over a long period of negativity, like |
| because it is a 'habit drug', but because it is a part of | | | | cancer, and a disease which you can catch from |
| Andean culture which, most importantly, knows how | | | | someone very quickly? The first seems to be |
| to make work a sacred activity. The Indians chew | | | | created by oneself, the latter is biological. |
| coca just as they do everything else, very | | | | Human beings are always predisposed by their |
| deliberately and systematically. A mouthful of leaves | | | | attitudes, this is why you need to know their story. |
| is carefully chosen from an exquisitely woven coca | | | | Someone who has a superiority complex or is |
| bag or chuspa. Llipta, or lime, is intermixed with the | | | | aggressive and violent is on a downward spiral, they |
| leaves while chewing to liberate the active | | | | are weakened in their heart, stomach, and solar |
| ingredients. | | | | plexus: the ñawi or naira (equivalent to chacra) |
| The Incas regarded coca as 'the divine plant' mainly | | | | where emotional attitudes are held. So for example, |
| because of its property of imparting endurance, | | | | you eat a dirty apple, and immediately you are ill. |
| nevertheless its use was entwined with every aspect | | | | A person who harbours feeling of hate may feel |
| of life; the art, mythology, culture and economy of | | | | perfectly well for a time but problems with their |
| the Andean civilisations, including the Inca Empire. | | | | children, their husband, or lack of money, intensify |
| Even today, distances are measured in 'cocadas' - | | | | their emotions which degenerate their body on a |
| how far an Indian carries his load under the stimulus | | | | cellular level. So they create their illness because they |
| of one chew of coca. But the ceremony which brings | | | | were already out of equilibrium. This is why two |
| out the essentially shamanistic dimension is the mesa, | | | | people might eat the same apple but only one falls |
| and this unites the whole community. | | | | prey to the illness. |
| The mesa may begin with discussion of pressing | | | | Can you explain the Andean concept of the Hindu |
| social and political issues, this too, is accompanied by | | | | word chacra? |
| ritual coca chewing. Later offerings are made for | | | | The nearest word in Quechua is ñawi, or in |
| Pachamama or Mother Earth. In some places the | | | | Aymara, naira, and it means 'eye' or energy centre of |
| mesa can also be an all night session, held secretly | | | | the body, but curiously chacra is a very common |
| indoors. After this, divination with coca leaves is | | | | word in Peru, and is Quechua for piece of cultivated |
| performed on a specially woven cloth. In the Andean | | | | land or field. I believe it has the same linguistic root as |
| world there is no split between the spiritual and | | | | the Hindu chacra. Just as some fields have lots of |
| practical sides of life. Their concept of health is much | | | | stones, and others are very fertile, so our bodies, |
| more holistic and ecological than ours; it means | | | | also part of nature, are similar. |
| keeping the balance between the individual, his | | | | In the Andes, people will frequently consider an |
| community and the environment. | | | | aching stomach to have been caused by sorrow. |
| A harmonious individual is happy and healthy and can | | | | Less than a generation ago, people would make |
| work hard so there is abundance for the community. | | | | offerings, before preparing their fields for sowing. |
| A happy and healthy community without internal | | | | They would chew coca leaves, drink chicha or maize |
| conflicts, can care for the children who do not | | | | beer, and even play music - a whole ceremony. The |
| produce. A willingness to do community work means | | | | ancient healers or shamans would give floral or |
| that terraces and irrigations systems are maintained, | | | | smoke baths to people, curing them of illnesses, |
| while storing seed crops for the next year and other | | | | fright and so on - the 'health' of the land and the |
| community efforts make the environment healthy. | | | | people were treated as though interrelated. |
| What is your understanding of divination? | | | | When they remove weeds from their chacra, they |
| It is meeting with the spirit of the element that you | | | | see it as removing negative emotions from their |
| are working with, whether it is coca, tarot cards, | | | | person. So they identify themselves with their fields |
| maize or a mountain. In the case of coca, you meet | | | | and with nature, a little like Feng Shui: you feel better |
| the mother spirit, soul or power of the plant, which is | | | | after you have had a Hoover up at home! When you |
| the sacred part which never dies. | | | | are feeling desperate, the people of the Andes will |
| The practitioner must be in total communication: | | | | benefit from going to a wild place or some ruins to |
| spirit-to-spirit. It is more like listening to the coca | | | | scream and shout so that even the mountains will |
| leaves than reading them. It is a higher state of | | | | hear. You align with natural forces, this puts you back |
| consciousness. You have to be prepared to integrate | | | | into equilibrium. |
| yourself spiritually to help another spirit. | | | | Soul retrieval can be found in many parts of the |
| Human beings are sacred cosmic seeds in evolution. | | | | world. How do they deal with it in the Andes? |
| The coca is a sacred seed like us, only of the | | | | When a child falls suddenly, its soul can leave its body |
| vegetable kingdom. As with ayahuasca, wilka, or San | | | | and it may get ill. If this happens, an offering is made |
| Pedro, they have been created by mother earth to | | | | in the place of the fall, to heal the child. |
| guide and heal their younger brothers: ourselves. | | | | There are many ways to 'call the soul'. You can get |
| Similarly we have been created to help other people. | | | | hold of a piece of the person's clothing and make a |
| As we become more open we discover plants like | | | | little doll and decorate it with flowers or whatever |
| coca, for example. Not everybody sees the spirit of | | | | the person likes, and you call his soul in the place |
| coca, ayahuasca, or San Pedro, but they are here to | | | | where the fright took place. You can call up elements |
| help us. | | | | like herbs, a dove's nest, rabbits' droppings, feathers, |
| What is your understanding of the cause of disease, | | | | tobacco, coca, or whatever. |
| and how is it cured? | | | | Before any session, first you must ask permission |
| Illnesses do not exist, we create them with our | | | | from Pachamama, or Mother Earth. |
| minds according to our attitudes and the things we | | | | What if there is no fixed place where the problem |
| do... our karma. Resentment for example, causes | | | | began, eg. when someone has been oppressed by |
| cancer, a woman whose ovaries are unwell may be | | | | someone? |
| resentful of being a woman and suffers trauma. | | | | It doesn't matter, you go to the highest mountain or |
| People who do not have the freedom to express | | | | near to a river. |