Sacha Runa

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Sacha Runa

Sacha Runa is the name of a section of the Amazonian Rain Forest at the upper reaches of the Madeira River in northern Bolivia. It is an area where shamans still function as religious functionaries for the residents. The Sacha Runa people describe themselves as the people who know how to live on the Earth and who are descended from ancestors in ancient times.

Stepping into this ancient culture is Bolivian spiritual seeker/guide Miguel A. Kavlin. Kavlin grew up in Bolivia but moved to the United States when he was 17, where he resided for a time amid the ancient Anazazi site in the Southwest. At a gathering of Sun Dance followers he met Beautiful Painted Arrow, a Ute painter and visionary with whom he began to study. He moved on to complete his graduate studies in anthropology and philosophy. He also studied martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine.

In 1987, Kavlin went to Peru, where in the rain forest near Iquitios, he met and became a student of Don Agustin Rivas Vazques. He eventually was authorized by Don Agustin to conduct rituals outside of Peru, and in 1989, Kavlin began to take people to Peru to meet with Don Agustin. In the early 1990s, he returned to his homeland where he met two Bolivian shamans, Don Hector Aguanari and Don Jose Coral, and began studying with them. In 1996, Kavlin built what he termed a Peace Chamber, an underground ceremonial space for people to use and dedicated to instilling in all who come to it a heart of peace.

All of the people and events in Kavlin's life have subsequently come together in Sacha Runa Productions, the organization through which he brings people to Peru and Bolivia to meet with his teachers and to experience the shamanistic culture. Integral to that culture is the production and use of ayahuasca, a brew made from locally grown plants that have a psychedelic effect upon those who consume them.

Kavlin sees the meeting of modern Westerners with indigenous leaders as a tool in assisting them in reconnecting with the life-giving forces of the universe. It empowers them to become their own teacher as they realize their own self-knowledge and reach a point of self-realization. Self-realized people will, Kavlin believes, become pillars of the next generation and real caretakers within the culture.

Sacha Runa Productions may be reached through its website at http://www.sacharuna.com/.