Chiric Sanango
The root of our pain
Article by:
Clara Best
Published on: November 16, 2024
The experiences of taking medicinal plants are very varied and also respond to the physical, psychological and spiritual constitution of each person. While the union of ayahuasca and chacruna generates purging and visions, other plants such as Mapacho or tobacco and Sanango generate painful episodes of overcoming evils. This article focuses on pain as a path to liberation of consciousness through the intake of sanango.
The sanango plant is also known as chiric sanango in the Amazon or chiriscaspi chacruro in the Andes. Its scientific name is Brunfelsia grandiflora. The sanango is a shrub with white or purplish flowers found in the Amazon.
When you ask a person who ingests sanango why they do it, they give two answers: to cure pain and to become stronger. In addition, cultures such as Boras or Kukamas consider that taking sanango prepares women’s bodies for motherhood.
Interview with Segundo Franco
The wise woman Dora Inuma and the wise man Segundo Franco from the Shipibo community of Paoyhán agree on the preparation of the medicine: a hole is dug next to the stem of the sanango bush until the roots are found, which are then extracted and macerated in alcohol, cañazo or another similar drink. When you want to diet the sanango plant, it is necessary to stop eating condiments and fats, as well as processed foods. Also, reduce the consumption of sugar and salt. Preferably, eat rice, boiled plantain and fish.
when you take the plant, at first, your mouth feels numb, and then the parts of your body where you have the disease hurt"
While Franco narrates the experience as “you feel like your whole body is prickling, as if you had thorns”. Inuma also points out that “sometimes the plant makes you very dizzy, you feel like you can’t walk”. Both recommend taking the plant, and after a few hours, when you want to reduce the effect, bathe with cold water, drink chapo or a spoonful of bush honey.
Interview with Dora Inuma
Victor Yuyarima is a wise man of the Kukama culture, who has taught his knowledge of their culture, language, songs, dances and plants to FORMABIAP students in Iquitos. Yuyarima has been a dieter of the sanango plant since he was a child, he says:
We have been cured by our grandparents, by our parents, so that we may have the life they have. Don't live lazy, don't live idle. [...] My grandfather was eighty-nine years old, but he was strong. [...] I rather took sanango. Fifteen days. It is healing me. It is telling me everything that is the truth. It gives you all the power. That's why, where i see sanango going, is materialy imposible to get to. That makes you dream too, but it has to be pleasantly cool outside. [...] In the night he will tell you. If he loves you, a little man appears. He asks you why, what you've grabbed him for, what you want to do, what you want to do. And sometimes, if he wants to, he'll tell you: you take so much from me, but I'll teach you how to do it. [...] Sanango is not witchcraft, everything is healing. The living being can do anything. [...] That the diet is the only one that truly, I trust. If there is no diet, it is worthless, He says it very clearly, if there is no diet, it is worth nothing. It does not cure you.
Interview with VÃctor Yuyarima
Both Inuma, Franco and Yuyarima believe that plants have Spirit, beings who own their powers, who appear when you have contact with the plant and decide whether to cure you and/or share their knowledge with you. Segundo Franco comments that “the owner of the plant puts you to the test in dreams, he appears as a rival and challenges you, you have to defeat him”.
There are thinkers in different parts of the world who have theorised about pain, such as Arthur Schopenhauer, who expressed that pleasurable experiences leave no trace in our being; instead, pain is a motivation for our existence because it produces the desire for something.
For Buddhist philosophy, going through pain is a way of detaching from the material world, where desire, intention and will are rooted. Buddhism proposes that happiness does not lie in the carnal, but in the search for our being in itself through the awakening of consciousness.
My personal experience
When I took the sanango plant, I followed the instructions of the sages and consumed a minimal dose for the first time. I ate the plant for a week. At first, I felt my mouth go numb, gradually parts of my body that normally do not hurt began to ache. Then, I had different dreams that I often found disturbing. By the middle of the week, I only felt some discomfort. However, the last few days I had stronger dizziness and more intense dreams. On the last day, the symptoms of the plant did not go away for a large part of the day, even though I bathed or drank chapo. On the following days when I did not take the plant, I continued to have dreams, where different kinds of beings challenged me.
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During my process, when I was not focusing on the pain I was feeling, I started having different visions and dreams. But as I mentioned at the beginning, the reactions we have from the intake of sanango will be different and will depend on each person. It is important to follow a nutritional diet. Then in those moments, when the plant takes effect, most importantly, to be aware of everything that we see, hear or otherwise feel from without and within, give those affects their space. For this, it is allways of utmost importance to have respect for the plant, be strong and prepared, and let yourself be advised by people who can be trusted and who have ample previous experience with the sanango plant.
References
Yuyarima, V. (2018 15). Interview by Clara Best.
Franco, S. (2024, June 3). Interview by Clara Best.
Inuma, D. (2024, July 5). Interviewed by Clara Best.
