Joseph Tafur, MD
Physician & Curandero,
Author, The Fellowship of the River
Joe Tafur, MD, is a Colombian-American family physician originally from Phoenix, Arizona. After completing his family medicine training at UCLA, Dr. Tafur spent two years in academic research at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry in a lab focused on mind-body medicine. After his research fellowship, over a period of six years, he lived and worked in the Peruvian Amazon at the traditional healing center Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. There he worked closely with master Shipibo shaman Ricardo Amaringo and trained in ayahuasca shamanism. In his book, The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor's Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine, through a series of stories, Dr. Tafur shares his unique experience and integrative medical theories. To learn more about his work, visit drjoetafur.com and modernspirit.org.
Saturday, May 22, 4:45 pm – 5:45 pm
Sacred Plant Medicine As Spiritual Practice
Given the legal environment in the US, there are 3 major avenues for legal consumption of psychedelic substances/sacred plant medicines: medicalization/clinical research, decriminalization/legalization, and protection under religious freedom. The Church of the Eagle and the Condor has now begun a process with the governmental authorities in order to seek religious protection for our utilization of Ayahuasca in sacred ceremony. Just as the Native American Church has secured their ancestral right to practice peyote ceremony, and as the UDV and Santo Daime have gained protection for their religious use of Ayahuasca in the US, our multicultural community has begun to seek protection for our practices rooted in spiritual practices of the Americas. I will review our thoughts on sacred plant medicine ceremony as spiritual practice and on spiritual healing as spiritual practice. I will also discuss our legal pathway toward seeking religious protection and the how that relates to the psychedelic movement/renaissance.