THE GREAT MASTERS OF AMAZONIAN SHAMANISM
Within the Shipibo tradition, the Merayas represent the highest degree of shamanic mastery. Their name translates, approximately, as ‘he who meets with the spirits’ — rare masters who reached a profound command of the art of healing by dedicating their entire lives to arduous dietas and sustained work with the teacher plants.
Today, they are considered part of a largely vanished era of Shipibo curanderismo. Yet their legacy remains deeply significant within the lineage of Maestro Niwen Koshi (Heberto García) — his grandfather Yosi Ocha is remembered as one of the last great Merayas.
THE SHIPIBO CURANDEROS
To understand what set a Meraya apart, one must first understand the role of the curandero within the Shipibo tradition. In that worldview, true shamans — also known as curanderos — possess the gift of clairvoyance alongside the capacity to heal, to communicate with different spirits and to travel through different realms: the world ‘beyond’; the world of underwater beings; the uncontaminated world deep in the forest; and even the entirety of cosmic space and other parallel dimensions.
Those who enter this practice must demonstrate a genuine vocation for service to others and must not be seduced by the dark arts. In most cases, moreover, the decision is not a personal one: these are beings chosen by the spirits, who constantly watch over the balance of life.
A shaman must be highly skilled in forging alliances with entities of different dimensions — beings with access to knowledge about the human condition that is not directly available to us: the spirits may diagnose a patient’s ailment, prescribe natural treatments and perform a spiritual healing on the sick, restoring harmony between the spiritual and the physical body. But not all of them are benevolent — which is why one of the first lessons of the apprentice of shamanism is to learn to protect himself with his arcanas.
During their trances, such shamans have the power to enter the subconscious of the person before them and to explore their past, their present and the possible paths of their future. Guided by the spirits of the different teacher plants, they can diagnose and treat a wide range of ailments.
THE MERAYAS — THE PINNACLE OF SHIPIBO HEALING
Not all Shipibo shamans possess the same knowledge or the same gifts. According to the teaching passed down within this lineage, shamanic mastery is ordered into nine degrees.
At the eighth degree stands the onanya — ‘he who knows’ — an accomplished shaman of deep knowledge and long experience. It is, in itself, a high rank within the tradition, demanding years of dietas and learning.
The ninth and final degree is the Meraya, ‘he who meets with the spirits’ — the very peak of shamanic mastery. A Meraya was not merely a healer: he was an almost legendary figure, of extraordinary capacities. Over time, word of their existence spread; yet most concealed a great part of their powers from the outside world — to avoid persecution and misuse, and to protect the ancestral knowledge.
Considered the purest and most powerful ideal of Shipibo shamanism, the Merayas developed the capacity to harmonise their auras fully with the beings of nature and were thus able to perceive the supernatural beings who inhabit the depths of the forest, the great waters and the cosmic dimensions. They were able to travel — fully conscious — through each of the four worlds known to the Shipibo culture.
What set a Meraya apart was not only the depth of his knowledge, but his way of healing. Where the onanya worked through the plants, the ícaros and natural remedies, the Meraya healed through the direct intervention of the spirits: he entered deep trances and allowed the spiritual forces to act through him — diagnosing the origin of an ailment, correcting imbalances and restoring harmony with no instrument other than that connection.
THE MERAYA DIETA — THE PILLAR OF THE PATH
The degree of Meraya was attained, and then sustained, through the dieta — the central pillar of the entire Shipibo tradition — an extreme commitment of discipline, isolation and direct learning with the spirits of the plants.
In its ancient form, a Meraya dieta meant a prolonged retreat deep in the jungle, under the strict guidance of a master. The dieter ingested one or more teacher plants — prepared as an infusion or decoction — with a single purpose: to attune body, mind and spirit to the plant until he could receive its teachings, its ícaros, its diagnoses and its healing powers.
For a Meraya, these dietas were never occasional: they were lifelong, repeated over decades, with periods of total isolation.
Their rigour went far beyond anything asked of a participant today. Food was reduced to the bare minimum — fish or roasted plantain, rice or yucca — always without salt, sugar, spices, fats or stimulants; at times, liquids only.
Isolation was part of the training: the dieter lived apart, in a hut or a remote corner of the forest, with minimal human contact, in silence, meditation and communion with nature. Sexual abstinence was absolute. Strong smells, intense colours and all external stimuli were avoided — and even bathing was done not with soap, but with plants.
Initiation was measured not in weeks but in seasons. It began with dietas of several months and advanced towards others that lasted for years. As support, the dieter took plant baths, received ícaros from his master, worked with mapacho and took part in occasional Ayahuasca ceremonies to reinforce the process.
All along that path, the dieta worked on several planes at once:
- Learning — the teacher plants teach through dreams, visions and bodily sensations; from them the dieter receives specific ícaros, medicinal knowledge and arcanas.
- Purification — the release of negative energies, burdens and blockages, until one becomes a clean channel.
- Powers — the unfolding of clairvoyance, healing at a distance and connection with other worlds, the foundation of the Meraya’s legendary capacities.
- Sacrifice — only those who withstood the extreme rigour — the isolation, the hunger, the discomfort, the spiritual trials — could aspire to that degree.
It should be said clearly: these ancestral dietas are extremely demanding and are not for everyone. They involve intense physical and psychological trials and must always be carried out under experienced guidance; undertaking a dieta of this magnitude without the proper preparation or master can cause energetic imbalances and physical weakness. That is why, in today’s Ayahuasca tourism, most dietas are softened versions of the old ones — whereas the authentic Meraya dietas demanded years of devotion.
From that devotion the ícaros were born. For a Meraya, or for an advanced curandero, the ícaros are the direct fruit of the dieta: the deeper and more prolonged the dieta, the more numerous and powerful the songs received. In them lives a knowledge transmitted directly by the teacher plants — the same knowledge that, through the master, reaches today’s participants and prospective apprentices.
THE EXTRAORDINARY POWERS OF THE MERAYAS
Traditional accounts describe the Merayas almost as mythical beings. It was said that they could change their physical form at will: transforming into animals such as the puma, the eagle, the anaconda or the jaguar; turning into objects, such as a stone; or even becoming temporarily invisible.
They were also credited with journeys between dimensions — conscious travel through the different worlds recognised by the Shipibo culture — and with the capacity to influence the elements of nature, the animals and the plants, through the perfect attunement they maintained with them.
One of their most astonishing gifts was healing at a distance: the faculty of curing without being physically present. Surprising tales are told of shamans who, by night, assumed the form of birds or nocturnal beasts and travelled to distant places to attend to a patient’s ailments. Very often, the person visited was aware of the healing only in the dream state; at other times they were temporarily hypnotised, so that the spirits summoned by the shaman could work upon their body. The following day — so the tales go — the sickness was gone.
The accounts also attributed to them an extraordinary longevity. Living consecrated to extreme dietas for decades, they accumulated an immense repertoire of ícaros, plants and arcanas — and with it a vitality that defied the passing of time. It is said that a Meraya does not die in the ordinary sense: he dissolves, becoming part of the spiritual fabric of the jungle.
GUARDIANS OF KNOWLEDGE
The golden era of the Merayas is considered to have passed. Modernisation, the loss of knowledge and the pressures upon the culture gradually extinguished a lineage that took an entire lifetime to form. Many of their most powerful rituals — sustained by deep dietas, ícaros, teacher plants and a direct connection with the spirits — have been lost or fallen into disuse since the disappearance of the great masters of that era.
Not every onanya, however deep his knowledge, became a Meraya: it was an extremely rare passage. Today, some contemporary masters are given the name Meraya for their high degree of mastery, yet very few attain the legendary reputation of the ancients. The title lives on — more as an ideal of supreme mastery than as a category in common use.
The Merayas were — and remain — guardians of an ancestral knowledge. Such was their prestige that other Amazonian tribes sent their apprentices to train with the Shipibo masters, considered the most advanced in the work with plants and in the art of shamanism. In their figure, practical knowledge and spiritual power meet in perfect balance.
That era may have passed, but the tradition from which they emerged has not disappeared. At Onikano, that lineage remains alive through the work of Maestro Niwen Koshi — grandson of Yosi Ocha, remembered as one of the last great Merayas.
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