How It Started:
1996
Don Ron's first travelled to Iquitos, Peru in 1996. This was long before the age of the internet took over the world, and travelling to remote areas of the Amazon was a unique adventure rife with challenges, but Ron was committed to finding a spiritual teacher. He arrived in Tamshiyacu, a small village a few hours upriver from Iquitos by boat, and met his first teacher, Don Augustin Rivas Vasquez, a local Indegenous shaman of the Mestizo tradition. After their initial meeting, Ron made arrangements to embark on a 5 month intesnsive training to become a shamanic healer using the psychedelic plant ayahuasca. This made him one of the first Westerners to fully immerse in the Amazonian shamanic practices.
Ron Wheelock: A brief biography
Ron Wheelock was born in Independence, Kansas in 1955. He grew up in a small community and was always deeply curious about life. As a young child, he would explore the local junkyard, taking apart engines and putting them back together just to see how it worked. Ron had a natural inclination for all things mechanical and is a skilled carpenter and mechanic to this day. As he grew into a young adult, Ron developed a deep affection for Rock-n-roll and Harley Davidson motorcycles. He began working in the underground, and then illegal, marijuana industry. Eventually, this led to multiple arrests and in 1995 he was sentanced to 5 months in the state Prison. During this time, he reflected deeply about what he wanted to do with this life. He knew there was more and committed himself to changing upon his release. Years prior, he had seen an ad in a local magazine called 'Shaman's Drum' about the Peruvian Amazon and he deceided that as soon as he was out of prison, he was going to find a spiritual teacher deep in the jungle. This was the start of his journey to ayahuasca.
Ron kept his commitment to himself and in 1996, he travelled to Iquitos, Peru. After apprenticing with Don Agustin for 5 months in Tamshiyacu doing many plant diets, Don Ron then began working with Don Jose Coral Mori, the teacher of Pablo Amaringo and Eduardo Luna, the authors of “Ayahuasca Visions”. After 4 years of study under both of his teachers, Don Ron began working on his own in 2000.
After working out of his home in a small village just outside of Iquitos, Peru for over a decade, Don Ron deceided to buy land and build himself a proper camp to host travellers seeking healing with ayahuasca and experiences with other master plants. He found a 20 acre peice of land, accessible by car from Iquitos, and began the process of creating El Purguero. Don Ron started offering Ayahuasca workshops and master plant dietas at El Purguero and hosted nearly 40 people for his first big event on December 12, 2012. He has since guided thousands more through life changing experiences.
El Purguero:
Established 2012
The Gringo Shaman of the Amazon
Today Don Ron Wheelock is widely known in Peru as The Gringo Shaman of the Amazon. A shaman is a person who, in tribal cultures, communicates with the spirit world. As intermediaries, shamans ask spirits to intercede in the lives of humans, healing them of illnesses, or granting favors. Since traditional cultures believe that spirits play important roles in peoples lives, the shaman must learn how to cooperate with the spirits for the benefit of his or her community.
The affectionate nickname, The Gringo Shaman, was given with respect to Ron as a powerful ayahuasquero/curandero. An ayahuasquero is someone who has trained under a maestro ayahuasquero and has the ability to prepare the ayahuasca brew, complete the Icaros and prayers during the preparation, set up the Maloca (the ceremony space for the ayahuasca ceremonies) and guide the ceremony.
As a curandero, Don Ron works with a large variety of plant and tree bark dietas. These dietas form a strong bond between the curandero and the plants dieted. Those plants become allies, and the plants teach the curandero how to work with them during the ceremony and in healing. A curandero can call on one of his plant/tree allies to protect the guest, to bring in the medicine, and to cure disease. Don Ron works with various energies and spirits. This skill of managing energies and spirits is particularly important in an ayahuasca ceremony as a person’s energies open up significantly in this space.
Unlike other ayahuasca retreats that have 30 plus participants and a team of shamans, Don Ron takes small groups and guides all the ceremonies himself without an assistant. His many years in Peru have given him a strong affinity for the people, culture, and language. Of course, being from Kansas, there is no need for a translator if you have any questions about your experiences with Mother Ayahuasca.
Master Brew Maker:
Powerful Medicine
Like indigenous shamans have been doing for centuries, Don Ron prepares his ayahuasca by harvesting the vine Banisteriopsis caapi and then boiling it for several days. After continual praying over the mixture, the ayahuasca is ready to be used in a ceremony. Don Ron’s medicine has the honorable reputation in Peru as being one of the strongest and purest available, to the extent that it is used by many prominent ayahuasca retreats in the region. Still, the medicine works best when it is consumed with its maker, and the medicine is especially powerful when consumed under his guidance, at his jungle ayahuasca retreat Iquitos, El Purguero.