Getting High on Cactus and Chasing Away Evil with the Shamans of the Black Lagoon

A photographer gets a rare chance to document Andean mystics who heal the sick with ancient rituals and hallucinogenic plants. The only catch: he has to partake, too.

Photos by Sebastián Castañeda · Text by Sophie Brill · 1.20.17

Photos by Sebastián Castañeda
Text by Sophie Brill

1.20.17

Getting High on Cactus and Chasing Away Evil with the Shamans of the Black Lagoon

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fter photographer Sebastián Castañeda was offered San Pedro, a hallucinogenic cactus used by shamans to open a pathway between the conscious and the subconscious, he was startled when a pack of dogs nearby suddenly began to bark. “They see and feel the spirits,” healer Luis Zurita reassured him. “That’s why they bark.”

This was the first of several nights Castañeda spent with Zurita, a thirty-year-old healer from Piura, a small city in northwestern Peru. Castañeda, a photojournalist from Lima, Peru’s capital, had traveled to meet Zurita and document his practice as a healer. He was drawn to the subject partly because of his ongoing desire to explore diverse traditions of faith across cultures, but also out of personal curiosity, having heard stories about the shamans’ healing powers. He hoped that a journey into the mountains might help him forget about the girlfriend he had recently broken up with (although he did not initially share this with the healer).

During a healing ritual, patients inhale a concoction of softened tobacco soaked in hot water and alcohol, first through the left nostril, in order to do away with negativity, and then through the right, inviting in positive energies. This often induces vomiting, which the shamans say helps to rid the body of impurities. Patients who are unable or unwilling to take part in the tobacco ritual often select a representative to do it for them.

Zurita is one of the curanderos, or healers, who practice traditions of shamanistic healing, passed down through generations ever since Incan times. Healing powers run in Zurita’s family—his father and uncle are also shamans. These healings use the secrets of the cordillera, or mountains, to harness the power of natural medicine and spiritual rituals. They live and practice in the Huancabamba province, a mountainous region in northwest Peru widely known for its network of lagoons known as “Las Huaringas,” which are said to have sacred healing properties. At nearly thirteen thousand feet above sea level, the lagoons attract thousands of tourists and travelers from all over the world, many of whom also seek out the services of the healers for everything from chronic back pain to a broken heart.

Left: the first part of a healing ritual, known as “the table,” includes the construction of a small altar, upon which tokens like human remains, shells, wooden swords, limes, and flowers are placed as offerings. Right: Zurita’s patient Ricardo Umberto Bernales, 73, with a stone carved by the Incas. Healers use the stone to absorb the body’s negative energies. Bernales came to Zurita with a rare disease in his legs, which caused him to tremble so badly that he could not walk or stand. Now, after three months of treatment, Bernales says the shaking has decreased and he walks normally again.

Zurita invited Castañeda to photograph him and his patients, on one condition: that he participate in the rituals as well. Castañeda participated in and photographed several ceremonies meant to expel evil spirits and free patients of negative energies. The patients prayed, drank a concoction made with San Pedro, inhaled tobacco, and were cleansed using ancient stones carved by the Incas. “The room was dark, lit only by candles,” Castañeda recalls. “I was a little concerned about the effects of San Pedro, but my curiosity overcame my worries, and it was a very intriguing experience. The night flowed heavy, and we prayed.”

To cleanse the patient of evil spirits, the healer passes a sword around the patient’s body, before sprinkling him or her with perfume.

Leonardo Chiroque Chavez, 65, has suffered from chronic pain that has made walking difficult. His doctors gave him pain medication, which did not help. Finally, his family found Luis Zurita, who diagnosed the ailment as having been caused by evil spirits. Over the course of four months, Zurita has treated Chavez with a regiment of medicinal herbs, healing rituals and finally, bathing in the Black Lagoon; Chavez’s condition has greatly improved. — Leonardo Chiroque Chavez, 65, has suffered from chronic pain that has made walking difficult. His doctors gave him pain medication, which did not help. Finally, his family found Luis Zurita, who diagnosed the ailment as having been caused by evil spirits. Over the course of four months, Zurita has treated Chavez with a regimen of medicinal herbs, healing rituals and finally, bathing in the Black Lagoon; Chavez’s condition has greatly improved.

The final phase of these rituals was a pilgrimage into the mountains to bathe in the icy water of the Laguna Negra – the Black Lagoon – which hovers at temperatures between forty and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Although it is more difficult to access than many of the other lagoons in the area, local shamans believe its healing powers to be the strongest of all the lagoons, and therefore consider it to be the most sacred.

The Black Lagoon can only be reached on foot or horseback, which can take several hours from the nearest town.

Salala is a small town on the route between Huancabamba and Las Huaringas. Healers and their patients usually spend a night here on their way to the lagoons for the final part of the healing ritual.

A man splashes into the waters of the Black Lagoon for his healing bath.

Four patients bathe in the Black Lagoon. These men are patients of healer Marino Aponte, one of the most famous healers of Huancabamba.

Left: After his patient is bathed in the lagoon, Luis Zurita’s uncle, healer Joaquin Chasquero Zurita, performs a final ritual to cleanse the body and soul of all evil. Right: After seven dives into the Black Lagoon, a patient is doused with seven buckets of water. Although an apprentice usually cleans the patient, it is up to the healer to decide how many times this is performed.

Peruvian Healers-13 (1) — Luis Zurita sprinkles cheap perfume onto his longtime patient, Leonardo Chiroque Chavez, to cleanse him of evil spirits.

A man prays on the shores after bathing in the Black Lagoon. The temperature of these waters hovers between forty and 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Healer Marino Aponte gives thanks to the Black Lagoon for helping to cure his patients.

After they had swallowed the San Pedro concoction, amid the dogs’ barking on that first night, Zurita suddenly paused and turned his gaze on Castañeda. “I see a blond woman at your side,” he said, shocking Castañeda by referring to his ex-girlfriend, whom Castañeda had still not mentioned. “You will not return to her,” he declared.

Castañeda, although discouraged, accepted these words. “I have changed since I experienced the faith people have in the healers of Huaringas,” he says. “I came to see that as long as someone has faith in something, that faith will give you powerful hope, which can heal a physical evil, or an evil of the heart or the soul. Faith in voodoo, or in the mountains, is not so different from, for example, the Catholic religion. It is all the same faith, a question of believing in something.”