For many of them, they say just that he made them feel good or found it interesting, and others:
T:
"I met him first in '93 ... he came up to North Texas and did the ceremony....I was meant to meet him...as the evening he came up I hadn't been up to the ashram in 8 months or so and was lying down to take a nap and a heart voice told me, " go up to the Ashram"...so I got up drove the 80 mile round trip and met him..didn't know he who he was or that he was gong to be there.....I had never heard of Aya. .. he sang some Icaros to the Deer tribe circle group and I felt a connection....
Holding his staff I stated my intent for the ceremony....to see my light and dark; that one turned out to be a biggy...not so much real dark just here's your ego and self centerednesss..see this mirror and if you choose to continue aspects of that path....you will know it...can't say,"Gee, I didn't See that one." what my sacred dream here is as to career/money."
I'm guessing he means the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Hard to imagine there's be many followers for him in deeply fundamentalist places like Lubbock or Amarillo. What was Rivas doing in an ashram? And the Deer Tribe circle? Is that who I think he means? The "intent" stuff is straight out of Castaneda.
T:
"Was told path was with one lady.... but you would have to wait...waited, but ran into another lady..got married...by Don Augustine..Sept., 1994..he gave us a teaching, shook his rattle, blew mapacho smoke around us..careful not to blow it in our faces...I noticed...and cut our wrists and joined our blood....b u t it didn't last...she came in after midnight shift on 09/11/01 at 08:10 am...remember because it was 5 min. after I saw the second airplane hit on 09/11 .and hit me with a divorce.....hmm...Aya . showed me a path, I tried to walk it, but got distracted and onto another path.....and had experiences, saw mirrors to self"
Oh brother. Did he really do the phony "blood brothers" ceremony straight out of old Hollywood movies, except as a supposed marriage or love spell? Nice lady, to hit you with a divorce right on 9-11. "Mirrors to self" I'm trying to remember what pop psychology book that is.
Kevin:
"as is pointed out in Gayle's ayahuasca forum post, he does seem to tend to have a lot of personal ego issues to deal with (for a start). I can definitely understand what you were saying about him not really caring or paying much attention to what others had t o say. And, he definitely make's A LOT of money off of people coming to take ayahuasca with him, but he does use some of it in assisting the local community, building a school, etc. I feel fortunate to have had a good experience with him and learned a great deal from him, but I doubt that I would ever return to work with him again."
It seems like masochism when some of these people insists it was still good in spite of all the problems, though I suppose they can't be blamed for trying to find something to show for all their lost and wasted time and emotional effort.
Mind:
"oh just come out and say it!!! you think the guy is a self righteous turd! lol
"
It's good to at least see people aren't afraid to speak their mind at these forums. Think I'll invite them over here.
The other forum and Gayle's thread.
http://forums.ayahuasca.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=72222#72222Sachahambi:
For those who don't know, Don Augustin is a Peruvian mestizo shaman well-known in certain circles (and has a book written about him).
....So it turns out to be true that Diplopterys is near impossible to find in Iquitos. The plant vendors have never heard of ''Chaliponga,'' and we spend a lot of time trying to describe it, in case it is known under another name ... Supay Chakruna? Huambisa? etc. Mostly it falls to me to do the talking, since Casimiro's Spanish is limited. The vendors bring us different plants, but none of them are right.
Then one of the vendors spots a man walking by. ''Here is someone who would know! This is Don Augustin Rivas.'' So they call him over and I describe the plant ... we call it Chaliponga (the Mamallactas also call Chaliponga by the name Chakruna, but the confusion of nomenclature is best saved for a different post) and it's a vine with big leaves like this that is added to Ayahuasca brew, has he ever heard of it?
He apparently hadn't, and immediately started scolding me. ''You shouldn't be making brew yourself. You should have a maestro making your brew. Not experimenting with plants you just heard of and don't even know what they are.'' Etc etc.
I explained that it was being made by a maestro -- I indicated Casimiro -- and we knew very well what Chaliponga was, he had been using it for years, his whole life really... didn't matter to Don Augustin, he didn't listen to a word I said, and barely acknowledged Casimiro. I finally gave up trying to get him to listen to what I was saying and just let him go on and on.
Finally he paused and then I just wanted to at least introduce him to the maestro Casimiro Mamallacta. Don Augustin shook hands with Casimiro without any warmth or interest. The filmmakers who are traveling with us making a documentary on the conference raised their camera to take a shot of Casimiro and Augustin meeting, and seeing it, Don Augustin's like ''I'm outta here.''
So overall, it was not a warm encounter. But I was never much of a fan of his anyway, after reading his book, which for all its charm is shot through with the typical mestizo sense of unquestioned superiority over the Indians."
Tobacco Runa:
"Sounds about like every story related to me about the guy, not suprising, at all."
Sespe:
"Charisma, hierarchical edicts and big bucks to hang. Been there done that. Lots of those types running around make the hidden humble ones stand out."
A lot of what's on that forum is disturbing, one big marketplace filled with many naive and needy people that are easily prey for the less ethical. Not only are many of these "shamans" mestizos passing as NDN, most of Peru is pretty dangerous for tourists.
