Hello to everyone,

I am new to this and signed up today so I could post this topic. As I feel it is very important.

I feel I need to say this, its about Don Marcial.

I have been wanting to take ayahuasca for a long time and decided to travel to Peru with my partner to find a good shaman. After alot of researching we decided to go to Don Marcial as we had read so many good reviews.

Whilst in peru I travelled to the sacred valley where I met a londoner who also recommended Don Marcial.

We were excited to arrive in pucallpa at Don Marcials at km26. Even though his place was basic I felt that it was the right place to be after everything I had heard and read. I also got the impression that Don was a kind man.

However on my third ceromony everything changed. I was experiencing horrible fevers and waves of sickness that felt unbearable, Don came to heal me and started to press on my stomach. I assumed he was healing my stomach with his hands however his hands started to wonder and he touched me in places that he should´nt have. I dont want to go into too many details but im sure you understand what I am saying. I couldnt make him stop because the ayahuasca was strong and I was so weak from the sickness I couldnt move. After he finished I felt worse and the fever lasted untill the late hours of the morning when the effects of ayahuasca should have worn off.

It wasnt till I spoke to one of the other girls who left unexpectedly that I realised how bad it was. She was there for longer and had many sessions with Don. He had done much worse to her. Anyway I´m not here to speak for anyone but myself and warn other women who are considering Marcial as a shaman.

After the ceromony my partner and I left and I felt extremely ill for days. Maybe this is due to the emotional stress im not sure.

I cant find one bad comment about Don online so I dont understand why this happened. And I am still confused. Maybe recently he has changed, or maybe all of the comments are writen by men. My partner and the other men at Marcials seemed to have no problems with the ceromonys or with Don Marcial.

I am glad others have had a good experience at Dons but I feel like I have to warn women about this and for your own safety please find another shaman.

I had heard stories about this before I left to south America but never in a million years did I think it would happen to me Im just glad I got out of there after just 3 sessions.

I am now on my way to iquitos and hope to do ayahuasca again when I am feeling stronger.

Love&Peace

I'm so sorry to hear this

Thanks for having the courage to stand up and let people know about whats going on

<3

This post is the reason that I joined this group/website/forum.

I have been blessed to be a part of the ayahuasca journey, and I wanted to share with anyone looking a couple of places that you can go to have a safe and profound experience.

In fact, I am down in Peru right now for 40 days journeying every Friday night with a local group here in Pisac, Peru. I am getting ready to step it up to every Monday and Friday to increase the work being done.

I have participated in ayahuasca ceremonies in two different places that I know to be safe for anyone that is looking to partake in the process and work with the medicine.

The first is run by a man named Francisco. He is in his 50s or 60s and has been drinking since he was in the womb. He runs a botanical garden in Iquitos, Peru. His property is about 30 minutes outside of town by road and then about a 15-20 hike into the rain forrest. You can reach out to him at http://jardinsachamama.com.

The second place is in the Sacred Valley of the Andes Mountains. They are located in Pisac, Peru and have an amazing community of brothers and sisters that share the medicine around the world.

The website is http://sacredvalleytribe.com. All of the details about the weekly ceremonies and week long retreats is located on the website. It is run by Diego and his wife Milagros. They hold the space very well together and have been doing so for the last 10 years. They even have a Bed & Breakfast on site for anyone that wishes to stay during the process: http://melissa-wasi.com.

If you have been to other places that are safe for everyone, then please share them because the more that Ayahuasca becomes more popular, the more there will be people that try to take advantage of those on the path to Light.

Thank you for sharing.

The safest option is to brew your own tea and drink it at home.

Thank you for coming forward and Im very sadened to hear this happened to you. Even sadder is my lack of surprise. I have drank in ceremonies from iquitos to pisac and lived in peru for 9 months total over the past 2 years. I hear a lot of disgusting treatment like this by shamans abusing their roll and it is sickening. In fact I am currently helping a person that has serious after effects from a terrifying experience with a shaman in Iquitos that borders on torture IMO.

I have wanted to make some type of public feedback forum for travelers to read up on the healers they wish to work with but the ayahuasca scene in S.A. is very complicated. Competition is fierce and cut throat among the centers and shamans and feel even if I was to make a forum such as this it would quickly be abused by the local groups trying to slander their competition. This is why I feel its best to leave it to already existing and reputable forums such as the Nexus and Ayahuasca.com forums.

The best thing people can do is exactly what you are doing. making these incidents public so that travelers can be warned as well as hopefully pressure these offenders to KNOCK IT OFF!

It is very sad to read your words as I have met Don Marcial and thoughts highly of him. But I do not doubt your words one bit as many, many male healers are known to be quite sleezy and perverted with the women they are suppose to be helping. To me this is disgusting and makes my blood boil.

Thank you for coming forward and I would encourage you to tell others about your experience. Its not slander when its true and people doing this type of shit need to be called out and STOP abusing people that they are being payed to help.

Dear all, i´m writing as a person who has been with D. Marcial and has been healed and teached by him. I´m my time at his place i could get in contact with many travelers with differnt backgrounds. They all aproached the Maestro from their own perspective. Many of them came with a lot of expectations and rational ideas about what ayahuasca should be. Some has read books about people´s experiences and chamanic therapeutical treatment. Some of them came for the joy of something new. Some came with real problems. Some wanted to collect another experience in their trip throught south america. My point is that in Ayahuasca you get according to your own starting point, according to your own develpoment. You understand things in the depth that your own inner situation allows you. It is very easy to misunderstand one action, and to attach some intentions different from the real ones. When i got to him i had in my back almost two decades of yoga, meditation and travels to everywhere in the world to learn and develop. And as a native spanish speaker i could interact with him and my his family deeply in the states of normal awareness. I could really get to know them and live with them.

I agree with some of the post: there are many impostors in ayahuasca. And it´s dangerous to open yourself and allow and energetic interaction with many of the so called maestros or healers, that actually work for their own benefict and has learn the twisted side. Those, they don´t give, the take from you. They are undeveloped individuals with developed psikic abilities. A dangerous combination. But this is not the case of D. Marcial. He gave me much more than i could ever pay to him and healed me from a deadly illness. He is a true healer and a true exponent of the most brillant side of the amazonic tradition. As person he is caring and wise. Quiet and loving. He is the head of a large family that protects and guides with his unique talent and with his total respect for others freedom and integrity. He is the one that locals search for when somebody is ill. He is also a local policeman and a defender of his community. I was lucky indeed to know him, learn from him, laught with him, and expand myself thanks to him.

I humbly wish this brings another light about an exceptional man.

Glowing, it's great that you've had good experiences with this shaman, but it is very important that when victims of abuse come forward, we listen to them and not try and invalidate their experiences. To do the latter is to reenforce rape culture and is wrong.

It's all well and good that you had a positive experience, but this does not negate the original report of assault.

Whether or not anyone else had a positive experience with this person, the fact remains that he sexually assaulted at least two people. Frankly, it doesn't matter if 100 other people have glowing reports to offer. People (especially women) who are considering engaging in ayahuasca tourism should have access to this information so that they can work to mitigate the risks to themselves.

Ideally, action would be taken against this individual.

That's really sad to hear. I've heard it's best to try it alone the first time.

I guess that your point is that a man cannot be defended from this sort of accusations. It shows that the *victim culture* has its own ways of sentencing people from a keyboard. On the other hand to put yourself in the position of saying what is right or wrong in a matter far from your own first hand knowledge only shows some egotism. Gather information and then formulate an accusation. If there is a doubt do not stain anybodys name. I have not even try to invalidate the person who originated the topic experience, but to assume what is going on in a shamanic healing from the position of someone that cannot see it is just misguided. This goes for all of the people who has jumped into the train of sentencing this man.

*the fact remnains the he sexually assaulted at least two people* Is that so? So now the report of someone in internet validates you to attribute felonies, like sexual assault, freely from your god like knowledge? Well my friend, that is actually a felony that you just commit. But you know it is easy, no one will judge you. The guy is an indian that lives in Peru and you hide behind a keyboard and a nickname. But your comments brings consecuences on the people that depends on this person. In bad times they starve. That is how life really is in the jungle. It is really easy to play cowboy.

this is not the place to argue about this. What the facts are is that someone has claimed to have an experience of sexual assault by this person, and you are claiming to have had a different experience with the same person. That's it end of story. I don't think it is appropriate for anyone to get offended over those claims, or to come here to defend someones character.

Tell your story and that's it..move on..let it go. Do not argue about this here, please please please dont turn this into one of those threads. I have seen enough of those threads on other forums going back and forth over the character of some shaman.

sooo, I am going to lock this thread. What needed to be said looks like it has been said and I dont see anything else constructive comming out of it. If someone really has something they need to add then pm me about it I guess.