The batiful lillte community of secoya indigenous

In the beautiful little community with about 100 habitants I was at once introduced to the family I was going to live with and the traditionally secoya life. The family consisting of the father Roberto, five of his seven children and two grandchildren, are all living under the same traditional secoya roof in the only room in the house.
The days and time in the jungle passed by without a sound, as Roberto and I were wondering trough the almost to amazing forest, fishing the family dinners, planting corn and visiting and talking to friends and family alongside the violent river. A fantastic and easy way of life some where lost on the way in our time fighting, western society
The traditional shamanism
Before the Spanish and Christian invasion of the rainforest and its original habitants, nearly all of the cultures in the region could be characterized by the shamanic religion and its worldview. Unbelievable enough is this worldview something most indigenous cultures all over the world have in common.
The daily -awake- life is just a small part of the much bigger reality. Where the spiritual worlds, the heavens and hells and their habitants all the time affects our lives in good and bad ways. This is the first foundation of the old shamanic worldview. The second -but as important- is that we humans have the opportunity and ability to affect these worlds trough our own senses. Mainly through our dreams, but also through something called the shamanic trance.
The shamanic trance can be reached in many ways through a big variety of methods. Lingering fast, dance and drum ritual, absence of sleep or the use of a hallucinogen plant are all well know methods. If one knows how to move in these eternal and timeless realities, one can experience the beginning and the end of the world, see the birth of stars and the end of the universe. One can transform one self into all the animals, bacteria’s and viruses. Talk to all the plants and learn about all their healing qualities. Meet angels, demons and yes, even the dead. And one can look into the future.
But to be able to control these experiences, to steer the car the right way, so to say, and get the help or visions you need, you have to know these worlds in and out. Something that only can be achieved through long lasting and hard training, or in other words through becoming a shaman.