Seminar: Ayahuasca Healing Beyond the Amazon

Time: Saturday, September 27th – 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Location: BC Children’s Hospital, 4480 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Cost: $50 (regular); $25 (students)

Info: http://www.crish.org/international.html  or call: (604) 222-0038

This workshop will focus on ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew (prepared from two plants indigenous to the Amazon) that is used in both traditional indigenous healing practices and modern syncretistic religious rituals. A panel of researchers and practitioners will discuss ayahuasca’s rapid globalization in the past decade and its various contemporary therapeutic and spiritual uses. Specific themes include an overview of the psychological and physiological effects of ayahuasca, the role of culture in mediating the ayahuasca experience (and issues of cross-cultural transferability), ethical issues pertaining to ayahuasca’s uptake in modern Western contexts, and policy challenges arising from the tea’s legal ambiguity in some countries. Ample time will be given for audience participation and discussion.

Moderator: Kenneth Tupper – Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia - http://www.kentupper.com/4.html

Panel: Ronin Niwe – Vegetalista (plant healer)

Cary Wright – M.A. Candidate, California Institute of Integral Studies

AyasminA Flores – Translator/ interpreter, legal researcher, and documentary producer

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. 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.  In Peru, Canada, and the US, she has served as interpreter, facilitator, participant, and organizer for several seminars, retreats, and conferences on this subject. This has exposed her to many varieties of medicinal plants and their uses, as well as the practitioners who maintain them.  Her most recent conferences include the Amazon Convergence (www.amazonconvergence.com)  and the 4th Annual International Conference on Amazonian Shamanism (http://www.soga-del-alma.org/ConferenceSite/presenters.html), both held in Iquitos, Peru.

                        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. AyasminA 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, medical ethics, and the de-regulation of sacramental and therapeutic plants.  
                        
                         AyasminA, in collaboration with Thomas McKinnon and Len Cler Cunningham, recently completed a two-part 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 acclaim when it aired worldwide on the CBC Radio program "Ideas" in November 2007.  Due to popular demand, it was rebroadcast in May 2008.  The program can be found on mp3 at the following site:  www.amazonconvergence.com/ayasmina.php

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.   The demo video can be found at the following site:  www.dailymotion.com/panoramabox http://www.dailymotion.com/panoramabox   

                        Recently, AyasminA has posted several interviews on the subject of Ayahuasca in the context of law, ethics, and personal evolution, which are available as podcasts on the worldwide web.  To link to these podcasts and for more information about her work and interests, please visit her on Tribe at the following address:   http://people.tribe.net/5ce45b25-bcdd-488a-917d-e8707eef9081  

Additional information - http://www.ayahuasca.com & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca & http://www.ayahuasca-wasi.com/

Sri Arathi Ma is a spiritual Master Teacher/Healer authorized by Pranashakty’s founder and Pranasiddhar to give diksha and shaktipat. Trained in the ancient lineage of the 18 Siddhas, she offers regular meditation meetings, retreats, group/private healings and private meetings, in her full-time practice in Vancouver, BC. Through transmitting the clear undifferentiated Light that lies at the core of each person, and the Oneness of consciousness, she plants a seed for one’s own awakening and enlightenment. By invitation, Arathi will travel and give retreats throughout Canada.
Her early healing training began in 1981 in Nursing and has since then led her to work with a wide range of individuals in the field of holistic healing. She taught Britain’s NFSH syllabus of spiritual healing at the Vancouver School Board, made public presentations at Westminster’s Secondary School and Voices for Sexual Survivors, and trained Community Support Workers in the art and science of Reiki.
Currently, Pranashakty has launched a Light body (Sudha Deham) retreat series in Malaysia, India, USA, and Canada with committed individuals who are moving deeper into the mystery of the Divine Light as a full body manifestation in the tradition of Maha Siddha Vallalar of Southern India.
“Know the inner power....Know the divine power....Awaken kundalini....Enlightenment”

 “One who knows Prana, knows the Vedas”

Pranashakty offers spiritual knowledge through direct experience of the Divine by way of diksha (transmissions of the Divine) and shaktipat (Kundalini awakening). The spiritual path is made accessible for the seeker of awakening and enlightenment, who lives in the modern world, integrating career, family, and spirituality.

Sri Arathi Ma was invited by her teacher to share her Presence and knowledge and to offer transmissions of

1. Divine cosmic energy,

2. the radiant, undifferentiated Light of Grace (jothy), and

3. Unity consciousness.

Throughout the ages individuals all over the world have sought deeper meaning, happiness and health in all areas of life. The process has 4 distinct stages that have to be integrated and mastered in order to come to the direct experience of one's true Self. The stages are:

1. Human consciousness

2. Divine consciousness

3. Grace-Light or Master consciousness

4. Emptiness or Self-consciousness

Pranashakty offers a Free Service Project on a weekly basis: Please check for details at www.seedsoflife.ca
For Weekly Jothi (Grace-Light) Transmissions. Please register through http://pranashakty.net/jothi/weeklytransmission.html

With Pranasiddhar, Master Raj, and Sri Arathi Ma in Vancouver, BC:

Thursday Oct 2, 2008 -----------7:00-8:30PM----------------Everyone is Welcome

Public Presentation Talk about the work of Pranashakty

Jothi (Grace-Light) transmission will be given

at the Canadian Memorial United Church & Centre For Peace

1825 16th Avenue West, Vancouver, BC V6J 2M3, (604) 731-3101 --------Donation $15