VISION 20

only be seen under a very strong mareaci6n, when it is called by a well-sung icaro’ This is how it appears, and it is surprising to see how it comes from a great distance, producing an electrifying sound as it reaches us. Its mission is to travel round the world, paying visits to all those that call it. It has seven different forms of appearance: it appears as a battleship, as a submarine that emerges from the depths, as a speedboat with four stories, as a big ship like those used by the Vikings, as an aircraft carrier, as a trimaran, as an airship. It appears in each of these forms with, however; the bow of the ship made of steel always dazzling white. Its crew consists of seamen dressed in white, doctors dressed in violet, nurses dressed in light blue, as well as fairies, mermaids, sibyls, fortune tellers, and great 'nurayas and bancos, or shamans specialised in high alchemy.

In the background we see the great fairies with magic, high-powered lamps which they use as weapons. They are known by the names of Llipiann Atun Huarmis or "big and brilliant women." They defend the boat from outer space, accompanied by the birds used in the science of the vegetalistas: sarara [Anhinga anhinga], tibemama [Pandion haijaetus], pomp6m, cumpa-supay, etc.

Around the ship we see the boas which are used as arkanas, as well as huarmi murayas, very much resembling the mermaids, dressed in the scaly armor of celestial fish. They are always watering the pink and white flowers with which they perform their alchemical healing. Behind them are the Puka-clukchas [red haired], men that travel in the rear of the ship. They look after the ropes so that no enemy will cause harm to those in the ship while they are performing their healing arts.

In the foreground, we see the ayahuasca vine, very thick and beautiful. In front of the steps with his subordinates is Manuel Huaya, the commander of the ship, while the healer prepares to receive them.

the blue and red mermaids. The third region belongs to the black yakurunas, to the pato-bufeos [duck-dolphins], and to the black mermaids.

Through this hole the great characters of that world send a suminma to space with the help of the ancash silfos [blue sylphsj who transport him in a glass tube, which is the lupuna colorada [red lupuna, Cavallinesia sp.]. There we see him now, the sumiruna, standing on a ball of high-pressure gas, ready for levitation. He wears skins of the boa, trousers of ray-fish with feet of yangunturo [giant armadillo], and his hat is a macaw called yura-guacamayo.

Two acorones or giant boas open their mouths to let the animals and yakurunas used by vegetalistas give their farewells to the great sumiruna. White mermaids make the capsule levitate. Flying saucers hurry to receive it, and to accompany it in its astral travel.

At the lower left we see some expert curanderos swallowing various virotes with their mann. He who sits on a tortoise is a banco, and he swallows the virotes of the inchahui palm tree [Syagrus tessmannii], which is seen nearest the riverside. He who smokes his cachimba [pipej has swallowed the virotes made of pona [!riartea exorrhiza], the palm tree with long roots. The third vegetalista swallows the virotes made of the inayuga [Maximiliana stenocarpa], the thicker palm seen further away; while the last one takes the virotes made of the huasai palm [Euterpe precatoria], seen in front. Behind the inayuga is a cumaceba tree [Cesalpina equinata], the motelo huasca vine [Bauhinia guianensis], the sacha-ajos [Mansoa alliacea] and other plants. Behind the palm huasai stands the siucacasha [sharp spine, unidentified] tree, and on the feet of the huasai is the sacha-huiro plant [Costus cf cylindricus].

At the right we see a great sumiruna who lifts a white serpent to give power to a

young man, his son. That is why the young man's shirt is painted. This sumiruna has prepared his shoes and his cap to give to the initiated young man as protection as he is guided by the spirits of the brew. The black-shirted vegetalista is a disciple. The boy in the back has taken ayahuasca for the first time, and that is why he is frightened by the visions.

Behind these persons we see the ayahuasca liana with its wave-like powers, and over it the so-called chicua birds, physical guardians of this plant. Above them is the atun-caballo [strong horse], which radiates alpha-vibrations.

VISION 22

SANGUIJUELA MAMA

My ancestors lived near a brook called Quincha, a tributary of the Fanacha River. In these places there are huge renacales. One walks several days finding only this plant. My grandfather told me this story, which took place during the period in which many caucheros [rubber tappers] came to this area to establish their camps. It happened that eight people went hunting and decided to spend the night near a cocha [lake]. They all put their mosquito nets near the shore of the lake, except one of them, who preferred to sleep in his hammock.

At midnight a full moon could be seen on the horizon. One of the people woke up and noticed that the man sleeping in his hammock was moaning. Then he saw a huge sanguijuela mama [a leech], about twelve meters long, with four antennae in its head and no mouth. He screamed but there was no reaction from anybody; all seemed to be in a deep sleep. Because he knew that sometimes the yana-puma [black jaguar], the Sachamama, and other animals have the power to make people sleep in order to devour them, he ran to the forest. The next morning he went back to the camp and found all his comrades dead, without a single drop of blood in their bodies. The sanguijuela mama had drawn all the blood from their bodies with the electromagnetic waves emanating from its head.

I thought that this was only a story, but with ayahuasca I was able to see this animal and became convinced of its existence, as well as that of many other animals believed to be only mythological. The sanguijuela mama lives in cochas bravas, isolated lakes in the jungle where there are enormous beasts.