“… So there’s a reason why it’s wonderful that everyone says ‘save the amazon,’ it’s the lungs of the world, but more importantly, the ancestors still live there.”

“A paradigm is something that is what makes your reality. It’s a collection of beliefs and that collection of beliefs then makes up what you know as reality. However, there is more than one reality and that’s because there’s more than one collection of beliefs. Down here [Iquitos, Peru], there is a different collection of beliefs and that puts them in a different reality. To understand this reality, you really have to understand the paradigm from which they work.

The difference between the modern and primitive paradigm can simply be said in the term spirit. The modern paradigm, or model in the modern world, doesn’t have the spirit in it, it works on the levels of the mind and the body only, but doesn’t give much credence, or any, to the spirit. Here, it’s almost reversed, the spirit is first, and the mind and body would come second. So you could say this is a spiritual paradigm and we come from the physical paradigm.”

Heaven Earth explores the practice and commercialization of amazonian ayahuasca-shamanism in Iquitos.

The feature-length documentary film portrays all day activities of Percy – a Peruvian healer and another western ayahuasquero, named Ron. Both live near Iquitos and host nightly ayahuasca ceremonies and retreats, mainly for interested westerners.

Participants of ayahuasca ceremonies, tour operators and –guides, as well as western vision seekers reveal episodes of their internal imagery and recount stories about their journeys.

A growing global pop culture – swinging between psychotherapeutic healing procedure and spiritual sell-out.

Source: “Heaven Earth” from Harald Scherz on Vimeo.