Sacred Plants and Amerindian Epistemology - Brazil 2012
with Luis Eduardo Luna, Ph.D.

Welcome to a seminar at Wasiwaska, in Florianópolis, southern Brazil, on the beautiful subtropical island of Santa Catarina. The seminar will last for 14 days, March 14-27, 2012. It will consist of a series of lectures on pre-Columbian Central and South America, with an emphasis in the Amazon and altered states of consciousness by means of sacred plants, plus an experiential program of five sessions, as well as excursions around the island and other activities, such as bird watching and kayaking.

 Food at Wasiwaska is excellent, organic whenever possible. The house is very beautiful, with a small but specialized library, a good documentary collection, and a surrounding by an interesting ethno botanical garden, with many medicinal, ornamental and sacred plants. We have wireless Internet connection, seven rooms for double accommodation, and a comfortable space for lectures and sessions, plus many nice corners inside and outside the house for conversation.

Luis Eduardo Luna, the Director of Wasiwaska, has a Ph.D. in comparative religion, was a former anthropology professor at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, and a former senior lecturer at the Swedish School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. He has an honorary degree from St. Lawrence University, New York, and has publications in twelve languages. He is the author of Vegetalismo, Shamanism among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon (Stockholm 1986), co-author with Pablo Amaringo of Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (Berkeley 1991), co-editor with Steven White of Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon’s Sacred Vine (Santa Fe 2000), and co-author with Rick Strassman, Slawek Wojtovicz and Ede Frecska of Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics (Rochester 2008).

Adriana Rosa, Luna’s wife, in charge of the production at Wasiwaska is an actress, a theater teacher and a cultural producer. Wasiwaska has been offering seminars since 2001, with participants from 42 countries. It is a perfect setting for learning and deep inner exploration, with a view over the ocean and surrounded by patches of Atlantic Coastal Forest.

The fee for the seminar is 6,000 Brazilian reais (today around $3,216 USD / €2,384 EUR / £2,048 GBP) everything included except airfare: airport transfers, accommodation in shared room, all meals, laundry and activities. It is open for a minimum of ten and a maximum of fourteen participants.

14-27 March 2012 with Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Read more: http://greatmystery.org/events/brazil2012.html