The healer’s role is to guide both the dietas and the ayahuasca rituals. In both cases, his work is primarily informed by intuition and heightened sensitivity, which he has developed throughout his apprenticeship. These abilities enable him to rapidly identify the issues that require attention.
Therapy begins with an opening dieta ceremony during which the healer drinks ayahuasca. This allows him to visualize the critical biographical elements and events that have contributed to the patient’s ailments and blockages. Based on this information, he can provide an initial assessment of the situation and determine which plant the patient must undertake a dieta with.
During the dieta, the healer’s work consists mainly of visualizing the patient’s energetic body through daily meditative practices performed each morning with the aid of shamanic tobacco (mapacho). He then carries out healing work on the blockages or knots he perceives, while simultaneously activating the plant being dieted in order to intensify its effects. He also closely monitors the evolution of the process, engaging in daily exchanges with the patient regarding their physical and emotional state, dreams, and the internal changes they experience. The healer regularly blows mapacho smoke onto the patient to cleanse them of negative energies and to properly anchor the plant within their energetic body.
During ayahuasca rituals, which take place in the post-dieta phase, the healer’s primary function is to activate and properly align the dieted plant within the patient’s energetic body. This is achieved through shamanic chants, commonly referred to as ikaros in the region, which function as vibrational modalities capable of creating a connection between the dieted plant and the patient. These chants activate the therapeutic effects of the plant and enable it to grow and integrate within the patient’s body.
Another major category of ikaro consists of vibrational forms that establish a connection between the patient and the divine source or light with which the healer is closely connected. Through a synesthetic process in which he sees what he sings, the ikaros facilitate the descent of divine light onto the patient in successive stages: first, the cleansing of blocked areas of the body; second, their penetration by divine light, which opens and fills them; and finally, their illumination. This practice is often accompanied by the healer placing his hands on the areas requiring treatment—most commonly the fontanelle, the heart, and the stomach, as well as any areas affected by pain.
The blowing of mapacho smoke onto the patient also plays a central role in cleansing them of negative energies or entities to which they may be vulnerable, calming them, and enhancing the clarity of their visions.
Beyond the biographical elements visualized as sources of the patient’s ailments, the healer may also discern more distant yet equally decisive causes, such as transgenerational ties to certain ancestors and, to a lesser extent, elements from past lives. In such cases, he focuses on the condition of the ancestors in order to assist them in transitioning into the light, thereby healing and unblocking misaligned transgenerational connections.
The healer’s connections to other dimensions are not innate. They are acquired through the numerous dietas he has undertaken over many years as part of his apprenticeship. The more the healer undertakes dietas, the more he feels; the more he feels, the more he sees; and the more he sees, the more his connections expand.