Santuario Huishtín

Santuario Huishtín is a traditional plant medicine centre operated by vegetalista, Santiago Enrrique Paredes Melendez and family. Based approximately three hours outside of the Upper Amazonian city of Pucallpa in Peru and off the Pachitea river, Santuario Huishtín is situated on a highly unique thermal river (boiling river) in a peaceful enclave of the Aguas Termales Reserve.

Santiago Enrrique Paredes Melendez

For over thirty years, Maestro Santiago Enrrique Paredes Melendez has studied the pharmacopia of medicinal plants, vines, and trees of the surrounding rainforest. A healer in the tradition of Vegetalismo, he is of Cocama descent, and has apprenticed many indigenous healers of the region, from Shipibo to Ashaninka, beginning from a young age when he was able to cure his mother’s illness with plants. Since then, Santiago Enrrique has developed a strong intuition of the intelligence of plants and how to cure a wide variety of maladies both physical and spiritual in nature. At Santuario Huishtín, he works closely with his brothers Hegner and Belasario, and former partner, Ayme, who are all also vegetalistas.

What is Vegetalismo?

Vegetalismo is the tradition of mestizo Peruvian healers of the Upper Amazon. The cosmology of vegetalismo integrates indigenous beliefs with Christian religious influences. Though many vegetalistas may declare themselves to be Christian, they will tell you that they receive their knowledge and power to heal directly from the spirits of the rainforest. According to the vegetalista cosmology, they are assisted by entities in their healing work: the genios or “mothers” of the healing plants (that can appear in human or animal form), protective entities or Arkana (often appearing as powerful animals, birds, or humans) as well as other visiting entities that appear from other dimensions and secret parts of the Earth and cosmos. The vegetalista cosmology shares much with Amazonian indigenous beliefs in a relational world occupied by sentient beings, humans and nonhuman. Illness can be both physical and spiritual in nature and many vegetalistas share an ecological perspective on wellness, understanding disease as an imbalance between the human and the natural world.

Vegetalismo and Healing

Vegetalistas share a similar metaphysics of healing as many other indigenous healers. They study the knowledge of the spirits of the plants (genios, doctores, madres) through the dieta. The healer must dominar the spirit of the plant to persuade it to release its secrets of healing. To achieve this, they must purify their bodies through the dieta to prove to the plants that they are worthy of their trust. The dieta demands strict dietary restrictions, abstinence, and isolation for up to six months in the jungle. Focused study involves spending time near the plant and ingesting its essence in the forms of teas, tinctures, or smoke over a specific period of time.  It is believed that if the spirit of the plant chooses to reveal its form and communicate its secrets, it may choose to do so through dreams or visions or in the form of icaros (special healing songs). An experienced vegetalista has a large repository of knowledge of Amazonian traditional icaros and remedies that may not only heal that physical body but empower the mind, expand perceptions, and inspire strong dreaming.

Vegetalismo is a calling that not only includes a knowledge of treatment of many illnesses but also the work of a “shaman,” and the ritual use of psychoactive plants. The performance of the ayahuasca ceremony itself demands skill, knowledge, and forbearance. Vegetalistas must attuned to the needs of their guests, while performing a demanding choreography under the influence of the medicine. It is believed, that through the medium of ayahuasca, the healer can sense more the origins and treatment of a specific illness. Through the singing of icaros, they also conjure the spirit beings to heal and protect the guests from malign forces. These beings give the healer strength and support. The most successful healers have strong, resonant voices.

Want to experience authentic healing in the Vegetalista tradition?

Connect to the forces of nature and your unique potential on this transformational  Six Day Diet Amazon Initiation at Santuario Huishtín: