Peru is more than a beautiful place and tourist destination. It’s a state of mind. Here, the spiritual person is at home. Much like seekers were drawn to California in the 1960s, they now come to Peru from all parts to the world. What makes Peru unique in this regard? Why has it replaced Tibet, Nepal, and India in the popular imagination as the place of inner renewal? Why is it the most important place of spiritual pilgrimage for our times? A combination of geographical remoteness, highly bio-diverse, self-sustainable microenvironments, and large numbers of indigenous peoples who maintain traditional beliefs and practices are some of the reasons that make Peru unique as a mystical and shamanic center.

In Incan times, the empire called Tawantinsuyu was divided into four regions with Cuzco, called the navel of the world, at its center. The four regions represent the cardinal directions: Chinchasuyu (north), Qollasuyu (south), Antisuyu (east), and Kuntisuyu (west).

Ecological Paradise

Called an ecological Noah’s Ark, there is no place like it on Earth. Peru, still largely a country of untamed rivers, dense jungles, inhospitable deserts, rugged mountains and harbors:

  • 460 different kinds of mammals
  • 1,720 varieties of birds, composing 20% of the world’s avian species
  • 332 types of amphibians
  • 360 different kinds of reptiles
  • Uncountable varieties of insects (One living tree in the Peruvian Amazon hosts more species of ants than are contained in all of the British Isles)
  • 40-50 thousand different plant species and more domesticated plants than any other country in the world

Entheogenic Healing

In addition to vast biodiversity, Peru is one of the richest countries in the world for the number and variety of entheogens, native plants that contain chemical substances which temporarily alter consciousness. The term “etheogen” was first coined by Gordon Wasson, an American ethnobotanist who researched the psychedelic effects of mushrooms among the Mixtec Indians in Oaxaca, Mexico. Entheogen means: “to become divine within,” and implies that this happens with the use of naturally occurring psychoactive hallucinogens. The main entheogens used by Peruvian shamans are tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi), San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi), and coca leaves (Erythroxylum coca). Others include a variety of datura species (Brugmansia suaveolens), powerful hallucinogenic snuffs, psilocybin-containing mushrooms, and hallucinogenic excretions from several species of poisonous toads and frogs. These natural substances can exert profound healing and transformative effects, and should only be used under the guidance of an expert.

The Mother City

The Sacred City of Caral Supe, located on the desert coast north of Lima and more than 5,000 years old, may be the “Mother City” of the world’s first great civilizations. Only five are known: Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, and Peru. Caral, a metropolis of tens of thousands of people, was a city of pyramids and monuments at a time when Egypt was in its infancy. The archeological fifindings revealed at Caral in 2002 challenge current theories of the origins of civilization. The secrets of Peru’s origins are just beginning to be revealed–and another reason why it is such as fascinating country.

Terrain

Shaped liked California but three times as large, Peru is 501,234 square miles in size. To the north, it touches the equator near the Ecuadorian and Colombian borders. To the south, it extends to Chile and Bolivia. The upper Amazon comprises the northeastern part of Peru where it meets Brazil. Its entire western length of 1,500 miles is bordered by the South Pacific Ocean. The Andes form a central ridge running from north to south.  The average altitude in the Peruvian Andes is 14,000 feet. The highest peaks in Peru are Mt. Huascarán at 22, 205 feet — just slightly taller than Mt. Kailas, the sacred mountain of Tibet — and Mt. Yarupaja rising 21, 709 feet above sea level. Though the Himalayas have many higher mountains, it is said that the Andes are more visually spectacular.

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