La Dieta
Master plant dietas
Plant dietas are at the core of our center and our team is constantly dieting new plants. At Casa De Pawua we offer different types of plant diets (all with specific food restrictions) that differ in intensity and strictness depending on the needs of our patients. Once you arrive, our maestro curandero will determine which one is best for you.
What are plant dietas?
Plant dietas are how Amazonian médicos have traditionally administered treatments for difficult ailments and illnesses. It is also how apprentices of vegetalismo learn the craft. The purpose of the dieta is to remove outside stressors so that the individual can focus as much on his/her treatment as possible at the same time it makes it easier for the body to fight off illness and regain its strength. These types of stressors include over stimulation on the body such as: social interactions, lack of sleep, poor hydration and poor diet, emotional stress, arduous physical activity, food intake of substances that are difficult for the body to digest and thus puts it in a stressed state. Removing these stressors allows the body to move into a more relaxed and restoratative state. In addition, during the “dieta de planta maestra” and the “tambo dieta” our patients are prescribed a medicinal plant to ingest every day to remedy their ailments. Removing the stressors earlier described will thus also help the body more easily absorb this medicine.
Students in vegetalismo use the plant dietas as a time to carefully study the medicinal plant that they have been assigned: where to find it, how to prepare it, its effects on the body and on the mind and when to administer it.
Throughout the dietas, the patient is urged to spend as much time as possible in solitude, walking in the jungle and performing meditative activities such as journaling, meditating, singing, reading and napping. If done right, plant dietas combined with ayahuasca ceremonies are very powerful tools that can lead to a stronger and more tethered body and mind that are both more ready and apt at fighting future illnesses.
At Casa de Pawua, we provide three different types of dietas:
Ayahuasca dieta
This diet is used to prepare the body and the mind prior to the ayahuasca ceremony. The dieta consists of very strict eating restrictions (no dairy, no oil, no salt, no sugar, no spices, no fruit etc.) where the patient stays at our location in solitude and with minimal distractions. Our team will prepare the food each day as part of the dieta includes a dieta de fuego where you cannot be close to fire. During this dieta patients are advised not to use their cell phones.
Dieta de planta maestra (teacher plant dieta)
There are two reasons why one may enter a teacher plant diet: to heal an illness or to study curanderismo/ vegetalismo.
This dieta is similar to the main ayahuasca dieta with the addition that the patient will be drinking a planta maestra three times a day. This plant will not induce visions nor bodily sensations but will work in the body in ways such as: improving blood circulation, improving digestion, lowering or increasing blood pressure, getting rid of inflammations or other allergic reactions etc.. They can also work on the mental plane and can support in memory restoration, trauma processing and working through anxiety disorders.
Tambo dieta
This diet is similar to the dieta de plantas maestras with the exception that the patient will be left in complete solitude in an isolated cabin in the jungle. This diet is prescribed to those patients suffering from very serious illnesses as well as students of vegetalismo. During this dieta, patients are only allowed minimal contact with other people, restricted from any activities apart from practicing icaros, walking in the jungle, sleeping, journaling and meditating. During this dieta, the food is not as varied and the patient only recieves two meals per day.
The role of tobacco in plant dietas
The dieta de planta maestra officially starts after the tobacco ceremony and needs a commitment of at least 10 days (sometimes more depending on the particular case).
Our treatments and services
Ayahuasca is often called a “master medicine” as it cures a vast variety of different illnesses and diseases.
Among many other things, tobacco helps clear the body of toxins.
Anything from skin irritations to animal or insect bites, to inflammations and more.
For those looking to heal a particular illness or want learn vegetalismo.