Program Overview

For Jakon Rate and our family, healing and learning are interconnected through the respected and time honored practice of isolation and meditation with dietary and other energetic restrictions. Known as samá in her language, this ancient cultural practice is commonly called dieta, from the Spanish language. The practice of samá or “dieta” is the spiritual and therapeutic practice of isolation and abstaining from ingesting  and interacting with certain foods and energies while making an intentional energetic connection with the consciousness or spirit of a specific plant. It is said and sung that the ancestors of the Shipibo-Konibo initiated this practice 200,000 years ago by sitting with a plant in fasting meditation until a communicative connection was made.

While the medicinal properties of plants can help one address physical components of an illness, the meditative and spiritual practice of the samá promotes a more profound and lasting healing by helping one to recognize and resolve the root energetic causes. In other words, this practice can lead to genuine, deep-level healing through naturally balancing the body, mind, spirit and energy. Lessons are taught spontaneously throughout the course of the samá through meditation, traditional ceremony, and dreams, and this continues even after the period of samá in isolation has ended. All in all, samá has the potential to be a life changing experience with the lifelong commitments, challenges, and benefits of living in balance with the essence of creation—with love.

Jakon Rate welcomes you to experience, learn, and practice traditional Shipibo-Konibo healing methods and connect with the essence of yourself and plant spirit allies.

Here at Jakon Rate, we offer the opportunity to connect with four very special master plants through this practice:

Noyá Ráo (Palo Volador)

Sémein (Bobinsana)

*Mókapari (Chiricsanango)

Kéne Wáste (Piri Piri Para Diseño)

You may learn more about these teacher plants here.

*Samá with Mókapari is only available at special request during our 4-week program.

We hold 3 ceremonies each week, and require that all new students go through one week of payanti (cleansing) at the beginning of their stay/program.The minimum period of samá we offer is 2 weeks (for the 3-Week Sama program), an appropriate length for an introductory connection to be made or for one to reconnect with their plant spirit allies and receive new healing and lessons.

What’s Included In Your Stay

• Accommodation in one of our secluded, individualized tambos
• Simple, healthy meals throughout your stay (see FAQ for details)
• Traditional Shipibo-Konibo ceremonies three times a week
• Intimate group sizes (maximum capacity of 12 guests)
• Transportation to and from our center from any location in Pucallpa
• Consultation with Yoxán Manuela or Yoxán Robi and facilitators before your diet, as well as throughout, per request.
• On-site facilitation support at any time throughout your stay
• A 1:1 Preparation Session to help you ground, set intentions, and prepare for your stay
• A 1:1 Integration Session to support you in transitioning home after you leave
• The program begins with a stomach cleansing purgative at sunrise and then an energetically cleansing and invigorating floral bath at noon, followed by the first healing ceremony at night.

Facilitation & Support

Based on your specific situation and needs, Yoxán Manuela and Yoxán Robertina will prepare specific treatments to complement the period of samá. Introductory guidance and individual consultations with Yoxán Manuela and/or Yoxán Robi and a skilled translator will take place over the first two days, while additional consultations can be scheduled anytime at one’s request and Yoxán Manuela and/or Yoxán Robi’s availability. At least two facilitators will be on-site to support you at all times throughout your stay. We also provide a pre-samá guidance session and post-samá integration session to support your process and help you transition as you return home, including open channels of communication for any questions that may come up. Yoxán Manuela and Yoxán Robi treat their students as their own family and we will always be available to help if needed.

Additional Offerings

Additional plant treatments, including special plant baths, hot vapor baths, special vomitivos, may be suggested or desired as well. One optional complimentary massage from Yoxán Manuela or Yoxán Robi will take place during your first week, and additional massages can be arranged as needed. While Jakon Rate is as much a school and cultural center as it is a healing center, we also encourage you to take advantage of our language offerings during your stay. Individual culture and language lessons may be organized throughout your samá depending upon the availability of our facilitators. If you’d like to explore even a more immersive cultural learning experience, please check out our Payanti & Cultural Immersion page here.

The samá tradition is not to be taken lightly and each student should come into it on their own terms—ready and open to the experience.

The natural process of the samá can be very unsettling and challenging. Physical, mental, and energetic shifts can take place and be profoundly beautiful, or even extremely unpleasant as one reestablishes their own universal balance and brings about a harmonic integration and collaboration with the conscious energy of a master plant. To facilitate learning and healing one must have discipline and strictly follow the requirements, which focus on isolation and abstaining from certain foods and activities. Neglecting these requirements can restrict or end the benefits from a period of samá, or even be extremely detrimental to one’s health and well-being.

One will need to arrive with the desire and commitment to initiate and complete the period of samá while continuing to nurture the samá within oneself after the period of isolation. The earlier one can refrain from consuming and participating in the following list of restrictions (see next section) prior to initiating the samá, the better. We recommend a minimum of 2 weeks. Many foods, drugs, and pharmaceuticals react very strongly to certain Amazonian plant medicines; please refer to this forum for a very thorough list and possible reactions. In the context of samá, these restricted energies can contaminate our bodies and distract our minds, causing an unbalanced energetic state within oneself.

Samá Restrictions

A strict and properly observed samá will better purify one’s body and make it easier for one to recognize and feel the subtle energies of a plant medicine and connect with its accompanying spirit, or íbo, to heal us and teach us. These restrictions, in combination with isolation, are meant to provide this purification by cleansing one’s physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual bodies.

The main restrictions to abstain from during any period of samá:

Foods/Ingestible

• Caffeine
• All Dairy Products
• Added Salt
• Added Sugar
• Added Spices and Herbs
• Fruit, Especially Acidic and Over-Ripened (Fermenting)
• Pungent and Caustic Vegetables
• Processed Oils
• Frozen or Cold Food and Drinks
• Fermented Drinks and Foods, Especially Alcoholic Drinks
• Mammals (Red and White Meats), Especially All Pork Products
• Factory Raised Fowl
• Carnivorous and Farm Raised Fish
• Recreational Drugs
• Pharmaceutical Drugs
• Herbal Supplements and Multivitamins (There is some flexibility here.)

Activities

• Sexual Activities and Thoughts
• Phones, Computers, and Screens of Any Kind
• Touching Other People
• Unmindful Communication with Other Students
• Bathing with Soaps and Shampoo
• Application of Deodorants, Lotions, Creams, Makeup, and Hair Products

It is best to eat as clean as possible prior to the samá, so we advise not to overdue on added sugars, salt, oil, and avoid most packaged and all processed foods. Cooking one’s own food as much as possible is best. This way one will know exactly what they are putting into their body. Essentially, you are what you eat.

Registration Notes