Yagé is our sacred plant: it is the king of flora and the mother of all medicinal plants. Yagé is a gift from God. It is the tool with which we have gained our wisdom and discovered the other medicinal plants and the remedies of nature. Yagé is the tool with which we have diagnosed many diseases and have treated many of them or have found their cure. However, our healing practices also depend on other medicinal plants and objects; we use crowns of feathers, rattles, and other musical instruments. Our ceremonies incorporate songs and dances. Thus have we received the traditions of our elders, and we devote years to learning how to utilize all of these elements.
Non-indigenous people tend to regard our practices as folklore or simple superstition; our tools and ceremonies are commonly seen as senseless and ineffective. We would respectfully request that our practices not be prejudged without a thorough examination of how our medical
knowledge functions.
According to Western science, yagé is a hallucinogenic plant that may be toxic and habit-forming. Some researchers even hold that yagé does not have any curative effect, but simply induces susceptibility to indigenous influences in the minds of those who take it.
We reject these judgments associated with Western science. We marvel that after 20 or 30 years of experience such assertions would be made, when they are entirely contradicted by our knowledge and centuries of experience during which we have employed yagé respectfully for noble purposes.
We welcome any serious research on our sacred plant. But as a preliminary matter, we need to be heard and listened to seriously by such investigators, who must be willing to observe, patiently and respectfully, and refrain from facile value judgments and mis-characterizations. We are open to all research that seeks to validate and verify our knowledge and not to dismiss it prejudicially, nor to twist it for commercial, metaphysical, or therapeutic purposes.
As for us, we are committed to continue learning about our wisdom and about yagé, with respect to our sacred plant and restricting its use to that which God intended in bestowing this gift upon us. As indigenous doctors, we commit ourselves to using our plant wisely and respectfully.
To the extent that we are successful in recovering our lands and ways of life, we commit ourselves to caring for, conserving, and reforesting our jungles with yagé and other medicinal plants. It is a tradition for indigenous doctors and apprentices to grow and protect yagé and other medicinal plants.