The Experience at Willkamayu Spirit

We’ve been longing for finding a place where you don’t just go to a ceremony and then you’re off on your way, but where you have the opportunity to stay for a while and really feel the environment, the landscapes and to give yourself the space and having people around you who are open, to feel free to ask questions. Who themselves are so open to their spirits you can’t personally deny the connection anymore. That’s one thing we thought about a lot.  Through being in a place where everybody’s open you receive help in integration in the sense of confirmation, a constant confirmation of your own experiences and thoughts, the realisations you get, the lessons you learn, you can have a mirror. This helps you to grow, so I truly believe in staying in a place for a while and allowing the space to come to you too, it’s very beautiful. In between the ceremonies, when it’s just a regular rest day, to just know you can always go to Wayne or Amy or Janneke or Jhon and ask questions, just describe how you feel, how the process is going, your struggles and challenges, you just know that they will listen and confirm and guide. And for me that’s been very helpful, to work with these people who have a lot of knowledge and experience with the medicines.

What I learnt

I think the most amazing realisation that I’ve been given is that you don’t have to search all over the world for the answers. It’s cliche, but it’s right here, it’s right in your body and you can always connect with your energetic self. It takes training, but not that much training because it’s there, it’s there all the time. The training is for you to get over your conditioning and preferences and search within yourself. I just read a quote that “pain is not in the change, the pain is in the resistance of the change” yes, exactly. You don’t go to one ceremony to get all the realisations, it comes with the integration afterwards and to stay here for a couple of days, ground yourself and allow the messages to keep on coming, that’s something that I’m going to take home, because the same there, ayahuasca is a tool, but everything you need is here all the time.

Testimonial

We would like to thank and to recommend the Willkamayu Spirit team. We’d like to say thank you so much for your presence and your support, your honesty your guidance, a safe space. And for us to be able to come here and feel very much at home and having our own space to develop as a person. Also to the maestros. We had a beautiful Wachuma ceremony with Jhon, we felt so safe with him. Also with Margarita in the ayahuasca ceremonies. I’ve previously joined other groups for ayahuasca in Brazil, which is nice in its own way, but this has been so much more personal. Margarita has such a present energy and she really feels the vibes in the room. It’s so powerful when she sits down in the beginning and you share your intention and she makes really sure that you know she’s going to be there for you the whole time. I was really nervous before both ceremonies, but just having the conversation with Margarita and with Amy and Wayne sitting there, with their calm presence, that nervous feeling was like I’m just fine, I’m going to work now and I have this safe space, a big thank you.

Advice to others

If you’re thinking if this is the right way to go, you’re already on your way. You have already started the preparation which is a beautiful realisation for you. For me this didn’t start as a spiritual journey. I didn’t know that I was going to go into this so deeply. It started with a little calling, getting other people’s views of this and trying understand what this entails. But now, looking back, I realised that I was simply part of the vibration and flow. It’s also important to understand that returning home after such an experience may not be so difficult, because a lot of what you realise by working with the medicine is that the tools are within you, and it’s actually beautiful that you can always bring that home.

My name is Patrick, I’m coming from Südtirol, the German speaking part of Italy.

The reason why I was coming to Peru is to do an Ayahuasca retreat, I’m here for some months, and after a two weeks of acclimatization, because of the high altitude here, I felt ready to put myself into retreat. I got a tip from a friend before I started the trip, he was here a year or two ago at the Willkamayu Spirit Retreat Center, so I looked on the internet and began to communicate with Janneke through email and Facebook.

The same day I wrote my application I received an answer from Janneke, it felt immediately really heartful and friendly so the following days I came here for a visit, and stayed one or two days and around urubamba and everything was going really uncomplicated, so one week later I found myself here in the retreat centre doing the Ayahuasca and Wachuma.

I had three ayahuasca ceremonies with a shaman in four days, one day of pause between then I had a wachuma ceremony also with a shaman, that was in the day time, Ayahuasca was at night time. Then I had another four or five days of integration, so I could stay at the retreat centre I was really happy about it because I liked the energy, I liked the easiness and friendliness of the people and the whole enterprise. Well, it’s a small retreat centre, it’s basically by the last ten days I was more or less alone, there were a few people coming and going. There were the helpers of Janneke and Jhon, Wayne and Amy and I could connect really good with them and to myself. I did a lot of hikes, I was spending a lot of time in the nature, and enjoying the silence and enjoying going inwards, and I got amazing tools after the ceremonies, I did an inner-child workshop with Janneke, and now everytime when I wake up in the morning I feel different, I feel changed, I feel my whole being wants to grow, wants to progress, to let go of the past, to go deeper and find out what is my mission, what is my purpose to be here.

I wanted to connect to ayahuasca spirit during my travel in Peru and having extensively explored the Internet I chose to have ceremonies with the Willkamayu Spirit. I am very happy with my choice. Jhon and Janneke were extremely flexible and helpful, they were able to accommodate my request to have two ayahuasca ceremonies separated by several days as I needed a break because of other arrangements. The place itself was amazing, surrounded by mountains, with streams from glaciers and beautiful nature around. At each of two ceremonies there were only three participants and I felt safe and taken care of by Jhon who was a sitter helping us, alongside a shaman who was the master of ceremonies. After the ceremonies, we had long chats with the shamans, Jhon, and Janneke, who were giving us feedback and were helping to integrate our experiences. Of course, we had discussions before each ceremony too, so and I was able to get a clear understanding of the process and also was able to polish my intentions for the coming ceremony.

It is very difficult to describe realizations and visions I had at the ceremonies and they are very personal. All was unbelievably deep, ayahuasca was answering my questions and making me aware of what I can change in my life. My first ceremony was mostly about cleansing, there were many mystical visions, and I was meeting some beings who were teaching me many things, including a new attitude of acceptance of the world and myself. For the second ceremony, I had three questions or intentions and I was awed by the answers ayahuasca gave me, they were direct to the point but not what I could ever imagine or expect when I was in my normal consciousness. One of the most impressive things for me was that at my second ceremony ayahuasca told me about a gift that I have (again, a very simple thing but totally unexpected) and immediately the same night after the ceremony I had a chance to express this in real life and share it with others. As if this normal world changed in order for me to manifest my gift, and this was a very emotional and magical experience for me.

I am a medical doctor in the United Kingdom and one of my interests is to know more about psychedelic medicines. There are different ways to describe the influence of psychedelics like ayahuasca to our consciousness. In Peru, they believe that you meet a spirit teacher who is friendly to humans and who gives you new awareness, answers your questions and responds to your intentions. In Western world, there is lots of prejudice of course, but anyway the attitude changes and now researchers and doctors expensively investigate psychedelics. I have attended a lecture by Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, a British scientist whose research is showing fascinating data, for example that psychedelics allow you to get rid of pathological functional networks and pathways in your brain or, if to describe it in lay terms, they clean your brain from anything unnecessary that you have accumulated over years, and by doing this they can treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. I can only agree with both descriptions, I felt that I was a new person, I was cleansed, I was changed after this experience, and I had communication with something bigger than me and this awareness gave me so much new information and further directions what to do in my life. I am deeply thankful to all in Willkamayu spirit for the ceremonies and for their care and attention I received during my days in the Sacred Valley.

Alex Papou MBBS PhD – UK, Edinburgh

The most perfect ayahuasca experience we could have ever hoped for. Eternal love and gratitude for everyone involved in our experience. The retreat that Jhon and Janneke have set up is like something from a dream, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. Wayne and Amy who helped facilitate our journey are two absolute gorgeous diamonds who made our time there even more epic. Their gentleness and love helped us through the hardest of times. Our legendary Shaman Kamaski guided us through the most perfect ceremonies and our time at the retreat was the most beautiful, life changing experience that I would recommend to every human being on this planet. Anyone who wants to embark on this sacred medicinal journey please rest assured that this retreat will give you everything that you need. You will be in the most safe and holy place that will wrap you up in its arms and change your life for the better. Genuinely cannot recommend Wilkamayu Spirit enough and we absolutely cannot wait to return. From the core of my soul thank you all so so much I love you xxx

Sara Mazzanti, England

Its difficult to express in words the way i see world since my 3 Ayahuasca ceremonies and inner child workshop at Wilkamayu Spirit . Change since is felt spiritually and clearly visible physically. I felt Ayahuasca calling for a while and kept on a look out for a perfect place to have my first ever experience and for months nothing felt right . None of the places had right environment . As a single female traveller of course it was the most important thing to feel safe in the environment i will be partaking ceremonies as they can very much challenging. I found Wilkamayu mentioned in a random comment online and it sparked my curiosity . After contact and a call i was sure that ii am on the right path. Upon arrival , simple welcome and calming presence of everyone around me (including a cat and a dog ) i felt right at home . Group for ceremonies was small (Only 5 of us ) and shamans, Jhon ,Janneke and volunteers were simply kind and full of love. I am truly grateful for the insights i gained during my stay and i cant not imagine having such an incredibly personal experience anywhere else. Thank you for all the support during ceremonies and after !

Kay, Papua New Guinea

From the bottom of my heart visiting Jhon and Jenneke was the best decision of my entire life. I had been in therapy off and on since I was a child and was mostly treading water, stuck, and having a difficult time in my day to day affairs. After a single ceremony with San Pedro’s followed by a single ceremony with Ayahusca my heart is totally open. I am most grateful to these people for facilitating this transmutation inside their home, and under their care. I am being totally honest when I say that this was the single most positive, life-changing event of my entire life. Since the ceremonies I have been more lucid than ever before. I now see what I truly want, what I truly need, and what I myself truly find important. I don’t blame myself for things that aren’t my fault, and see clearly things that I can change for a better life. There aren’t many words in the English language that adequately describe what these people did for me, but I am most grateful. If I had one word to describe the experience it would be “profound”. These people are literal angels. The maestro was incredible. There is healing to be found with them, beyond what you can imagine.

Christopher