When a pagé or a xaman in the forest dies without passing his/her arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicine and plants.

What is Ancient Voices?

A Documentary in the making exploring the ancient roots, different traditions, expansion and profound impact of the Sacred Brew in the world today. The goal of the project is to bring a group of elders to the United Nations, presenting facts, testimonies and requesting International Recognition…and Amnesty of the medicines of the Forest throughout the world.

Why?

It’s time to bring forth the truth on plant medicine and its crucial role for humanity today as an alternative to Big Pharma.

Humanity is in desperate need of this reality, bringing awareness to the mysteries of Nature and reconnecting with Mother Earth, we begin to remember our Divine Truth, which IS LOVE and infinite potential.

It is widely believed that Ayahuasca is the ‘medicine of our time’, giving hope to people with ‘incurable’ diseases such as cancer, HIV, and Parkinson’s, as well as chronic depression, anxiety, and drug addictions.

Ayahuasca can also provide valuable insight into the sociological and ecological problems of today’s world, and inspire ideas on how to solve them.

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The Ancient Voices Project is a crucial and timely effort to preserve and bring light to the hidden people and culture behind the expansion of Ayahuasca traditions in the world.

Ancient Voices project tells the story of the unknown world of plant-based healing and spirituality as told by the elders who keep the traditions alive. The project shares the culture and life stories of the people behind the world wide expansion of shamanic traditions and ayahuasca based spiritual practices. These are the elders who started it all, their lives, their stories, their families, their faces, their medicine and the message they leave for us in the hopes of a better future.

[su_quote cite=”Purusha”]It was 1998 when I first had the chance to sit with some elders in the community of Ceu do Mapia, the Santo Daime’s main center in the state of Acre in Brazil. It was my favorite thing to do at the community as every evening, right around 6pm, they would come and sit, watching kids play and chat about all kinds of things. As they knew I was coming from the South and eager to hear their stories, they gathered up rolled up their smokes and started telling all kinds of beautiful and inspiring stories about how the community started out, how Padrinho Sebastiao was an incredible spiritual leader, the hardships they had to face until things started to really work out and how hard it was for those first pioneers that ventured into the inhospitable jungle with nothing but the belief that the truth Padrinho Sebastiao was receiving, the guidance from above, would bring them to the promised land. Indeed it has.[/su_quote]

Our project aims to bring to relevance to the life stories and teachings of those forgotten voices of the forest. And to allow them to share their wisdom in a time of so much need for new role models. These inspiring stories will help preserve this living encyclopedia of life in nature, of hardship, of endurance, and the wisdom gained in the process.

We start by portraying some elders that were healed through Ayahuasca, the stories of how they created their communities and the spiritual leaders that guided them through their journeys. We will visit with elders of indigenous and indigenous-descendant communities in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and more, exploring the progression and development of the different Ayahuasca based traditions through the ages.

Our network of connections includes healers and friends from the different lineages. We also have historians and story tellers as our consultants on this project.

 

Giving Back to the Elders and Their Communities

The resulting products and by-products of this incredible journey will be promoted to multiple avenues, and part of the profits will be used to create a social security fund for the communities interviewed and featured. These elders can use the help and so can their communities so your donations go a long way towards bringing prosperity and well-being to some distant and remote communities, while educating the world about the incredibly fascinating stories, culture and wisdom of these peoples. 

The Impact

This project is timely because of the nature of its subject. We feel a sense of urgency in documenting elders that have been around the different traditions for so long, who devoted their lives to it and accumulated great wisdom from doing so. Their heritage is one that belongs to all of humanity, their stories can inspire and transform a generation so lost and devoid of great examples to look up to.

examples to look up to. Each year, some of the elders from the communities I visited in South America pass away from a number of causes, including old age. I sense that soon, most of their stories will be lost, untold, unheard and these Voices from the Forest will pass on what they can only to those fortunate enough to be there to hear it. 

This coming trip will comprise of the major shoot of our film. We need to get on planes, boats, and automobiles; eat food, cover crew, buy hard drives and film in some very remote locations. This all gets expensive fast. Your support will make this shoot happen. We’re also hoping to use the funds to begin work on editing a rough cut. 

If we reach our fundraising goal, it will give us enough footage to get complete the first phase of the project, which is creating an hour-long premier version of the series. With your help, we’ll be able to presnt the film to pitch for forums, grants, documentary funds, etc.

We want to start this film and we need your help!

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Some of the Amazing Elders that we got to interview on our last trip. More are coming as we put subtitles and enhance the footage.

Our project has developed immeasurably since this time last year. We have secured a talented and qualified film-crew and would like to take this opportunity to introduce them to you:

Marcio Purusha – Producer/Director

Manoj Fenelon – Executive Producer

Sitora Yusufyi – Art Director

Miles Mathews – Video Editor and Art Consultant

Erik Hamilton, Shawn Butler – Production Assistants

Lucas Dias Vieira – Video Editor, Sound Tech, Production Assistant

Veraluz Gracie Corte Imperial – Indigenous Matters Consultant

Vera Froes Fernandes – Ethnobotanist and Historian, Consultant

We are so happy to have this great crew on board and grateful for all of the progress we have made. Your continued support is greatly appreciated and we have a lot to share with you. We want to create a community around our projects, so that our supporters can be in direct contact with what we’re working on and feel like this is the realization of a collective dream.

Historical use of Ayahuasca

Evidence from pre-Columbian rock drawings suggests hundreds of years of ayahuasca use in the Amazon, although Western scientists and explorers have only been exposed to the brew over the last 150 years. In 1851 British plant explorer, Richard Spruce, discovered the Tukanoan Indians in the upper Rio Negro region of the Brazilian Amazon using a liana (vine) known as caapi to induce a state of intoxication. Ecuadorian geographer Villavicencio first mentioned ayahuasca in 1858 while he was exploring the jungles of Ecuador. He described how the source of the drink was a vine used to foresee the future battle plans of enemies, diagnose illness, determine which spells were used and which to use, welcome foreign travelers, and insure the love of their womenfolk (Shultes, 1961). Villavicencio took the drink himself and described the experience of “flying” to marvelous places.

For centuries, the indigenous tribes of the Amazon have used a sacred medicine as a powerful tool for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing and awakening. This medicine is known as Ayahuasca, a Quechua Indian word which translates as ‘Vine of the Soul’.

Having been almost completely ignored by Western civilization for centuries, Ayahuasca has recently attracted a lot of interest from Academics, Doctor’s, Philosopher’s, Artist’s and Mystics due to the mysterious healing and teaching properties that it possesses.

It is widely believed that Ayahuasca is the ‘medicine of our time’, giving hope to people with supposedly ‘incurable’ diseases such as cancer, HIV, and Parkinson’s disease, as well as chronic depression, anxiety, and drug addictions. Ayahuasca can provide valuable insight into the sociological and ecological problems of today’s world, and inspires ideas about how to resolve them.

Spirituality is at the core of the Ayahuasca experience. Purification of mind, body and soul in a healing ceremony can catalyse a profound process of spiritual awakening and development. This process of growth and spiritual evolution can continue indefinitely even if Ayahuasca is not taken again.

Ayahuasca is divine, sacred, magical – teaching a deep respect for life and the world and facilitating personal healing and self-discovery far beyond the boundaries of conventional modern medicine. Indeed, it is believed that a single Ayahuasca session has the potential to be equally as effective as 10 years of psychotherapy or meditation.

The Ayahuasca experience is highly individual and unique to each person as it enables a direct connection with the deepest parts of the sub-conscious, facilitating a deep connection with our true, inner and higher self. Ayahuasca provides a window into our soul and shows us who we really are and who we can become.

We strongly believe that the benefits to be gained from learning about Ayahuasca are immeasurable, both on a personal and planetary level.

This project is timely because of the nature of its subject. We feel a sense of urgency in documenting elders that have been around the different traditions for so long, who devoted their lives to it and accumulated great wisdom from doing so. Their heritage is one that belongs to all of humanity, their stories can inspire and transform a generation so lost and devoid of great examples to look up to.

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