SpiritQuest
SHAMANIC SANCTUARY
SpiritQuest Sanctuary
"A Place Where Kindred Spirits Meet."
SpiritQuest was founded by Don Howard Lawler, an ardent practitioner of ancient sacred plant Shamanism of the Americas for over 50 years.
SpiritQuest Sanctuary is among the longest-running, safest, and most advanced Shamanic healing and instructional centers in Peru. In 1995, Don Howard established the Ayahuasca SpiritQuest Healing & Higher Consciousness program in the Peruvian Amazon. At that time, SpiritQuest was one of only 3 organized opportunities of its kind in the Peruvian Amazon. In the Western world in 1995, Ayahuasca only had a small amount of interest in esoteric circles and was largely unknown.
The Eden-like SpiritQuest Sanctuary is located along the Momon River, which is a tributary of the mighty Amazon River. Once you arrive in Iquitos, our team will meet you at the airport and we will take a 40-minute chartered bus to a local port, and then a 20-minute boat ride from the port to the Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary is an exceptionally safe, comfortable, and supportive natural setting in which to undertake this profoundly healing and transformative work with truly experienced and ethical Maestros and Curanderos of the highest order.
The Sanctuary's ceremonial and residential complex is surrounded by 350 acres of beautiful, privately-stewarded, old-growth Amazon rainforest with rich plant and wildlife diversity. A system of maintained trails interconnect through the forest, providing wonderful opportunities to commune with nature in its many dimensions.
Our lodging accommodations, dining, and ceremonial facilities are of high-quality Amazonian architectural style. Our residential quarters, dining area, and ceremonial temple are all screened, well-ventilated, and roofed and covered from the sun. Comfortable guest residential quarters conveniently surround the central ceremonial temple. Guest bedrooms offer spacious and secure personal quarters, and your bedroom will be cleaned by our staff every day. Each bedroom has a private, clean, and tiled bathroom, and shower facilities are located just a few feet from your room. 220v solar electricity is available in every room 24 hours a day. Wi-Fi internet access is offered for those who need it.
Consistent with la dieta (the diet our participants eat and maintain while at the Sanctuary), our top-notch team of Sanctuary food services will prepare your delicious and hearty meals. Our food services are fully licensed and inspected, and fresh, organic food is served.
The Sanctuary library includes many books on Shamanism, healing, sacred plants, spirituality, personal development, and Peruvian history.
Retreats at SpiritQuest Sanctuary are professionally facilitated intensive courses in traditional Peruvian sacred plant Shamanism intended to heal and enhance your personal life experience and help define your contribution to the emerging collective consciousness. The Sanctuary provides a warm, friendly, and supportive natural environment in which you will feel comfortable to "let your hair down" and be yourself.
Our work is wholly dedicated in service to holistic healing and higher consciousness. We practice authentic Peruvian sacred plant Shamanism. We don’t do "tours" and we are not engaged in "psychedelic tourism", a pejorative concept in conflict with the purpose and principles of authentic Curanderismo (Shamanic healing).
Legitimate work with the sacred plants is not a casual recreational pursuit. It is not a "drug" experience. It is difficult and challenging holistic work requiring serious preparation and intention leading to dramatic positive benefits in one's life. Our work is not about "experience" alone; it is about results. If you are a tourist merely looking for a novel vacation experience, a drug trip, or "adventure" tourism, please look somewhere else. That’s not what we do.
We practice genuine, traditional, archaic Shamanism through the timeless lens of Amazonian-Andean cosmology. We employ ancient sacred plant technology originating thousands of years ago, dedicated to the highest principles of Shamanism, which are holistic healing and the evolution of consciousness. It is not about "power", rather, it is about healing, clarity, strength, transformation, unification, and service.
If that resonates with you and your intentions, then perhaps we are a good match.
