Paititi Institute vision overview

Threads of one vision

For years we’ve been building something simple and whole: a way of living where culture,

land, health, learning, and livelihoods stop pulling in different directions and start

breathing together. Nothing here is theoretical. Every piece exists to steady the others.

Culture — returning to ourselves

Cultural healing programs and free natural-medicine clinics across the Amazon and the

Andes have helped neighbors who drifted from their roots recognize the worth of their

inheritance—language, songs, ceremony, plant knowledge. These circles also change how

locals see visitors: not “gringos consuming an experience,” but human beings in

reciprocity. That social honesty is the ground everything else stands on. Our relationships

with Indigenous communities have been tended for two decades, and that continuity

keeps the work clean.

School — planting the center

The Yahua Ancestral School—with the Yahua people in the lower Amazon basin near

Iquitos—is our next keystone. Inside it lives an eco-socio-emotional curriculum: breath

and body presence, story and song, craft and play, tending seeds and water, language

revival, and the ability to turn conflict into listening. Elders teach; children carry. As it

matures, the model is intended to be implemented with other rainforest nations and, in

time, with the Q’ero in the Andes. The school then feeds culture back into clinics, land

care, and community life.

Land — pantry and classroom

The anchor is 1,500 hectares in the Paucartambo region of Cusco, in the buƯer zone of

Manu National Park. The land is a biocultural sanctuary and a classroom-in-waiting. After

COVID our resident community dispersed; we’re re-gathering and preparing to re-plant

gardens and nurseries—mosaic forest-garden restoration, seed banks, and watershed

care—so a living pantry of medicinal plants and organic food supports families and

visiting learners. The principle is simple: the land feeds the people who care for the land.

It’s a working model of stewardship, replicable where invited in Peru and beyond.

Learning that doesn’t require leaving

The community e-campus keeps higher education in rural life so youth don’t have to

abandon home to grow. Capstones are real projects—seed banks, clean water systems,

biodiversity monitoring, language programs, honest market access—guided by local

mentors and partner institutions. The e-campus is in the pilot design stage; cohorts will

start small and practical. When young people lead at home, villages stay whole and

extractive pressure loses leverage.

Retreats — awakening the shared heart

Our retreats are inner-work immersions, not service trips. They awaken the shared heart

and help people remember true nature—balance between inner and outer universes—so

transformation becomes daily life. For twenty years these retreats have been held safely

and intentionally, and their proceeds have funded every nonprofit initiative at Paititi.

Proof in hard times

When COVID hit, our community rallied. Together we brought food support to the Q’ero

Nation and to Yahua and Bora communities—over 600 families across Peru. Paititi

covered transport, fuel, and legal permits, and shared the food costs so help actually

reached highland and rainforest communities. We also installed a water-purification

system for the Yahua—a practical, lasting improvement for daily life. In crisis, this is what

“we” means.

Livelihoods with dignity

Independent organic certification and story-based market paths help regional farmers

earn fairly without leaving their land. As household stability grows, families can participate

more fully in language revival, forest care, and school life. Economics stops eroding culture

and starts protecting it.

How the threads hold each other

Culture ↔ Clinics. Healing gatherings restore trust in natural medicine and reshape visitor

relationships; trust makes health work eƯective and ethical.

School ↔ Land. Children study, sing, and plant in the same place; the land supplies food

and medicines for the school, the school supplies caretakers for the land.

e-Campus ↔ Village futures. Youth projects repair water, soil, language, and livelihoods; a

thriving village deters logging and mining. (Status: pilot design, phasing in with real needs

first.)

Retreats ↔ Everything. Inner work awakens the will to serve; retreat proceeds keep the

school opening, nurseries growing, clinics moving, and e-campus scholarships alive.

Livelihoods ↔ Culture. Fair income reduces the push to migrate; families stay, culture

breathes, forests stand.

It’s an inhale–exhale pattern: retreats (in-breath) remember the center; community

programs (out-breath) embody it; the land keeps the rhythm; the school raises the next

generation in that cadence; the e-campus lets them grow without leaving; livelihoods give

the whole pattern long legs.

Why this matters beyond us

Living wisdom traditions aren’t museum pieces; they’re operating instructions for staying

human while caring for a living world. Follow those instructions—cleanly, without

spectacle—and the shared vision of humanity stops being a slogan and becomes daily

reality: neighbors who belong, watersheds that recover, children who recognize

themselves, elders whose knowledge is used and honored.

Roman’s book, now an international bestseller in Shamanism, Beyond Ayahuasca, ties the

threads and helps pay for the next steps. (A children’s book, Seed of the Heart, is already

in circulation with the Yahua community and on its way to publication; additional Beyond

Ayahuasca titles are queued for release.) Every reader strengthens the weave.

The Unity of Diversity as an Integral Paradigm Shift

Paititi is a living model where culture, land, health, learning, and livelihoods make each

other stronger. The book Beyond Ayahuasca carries the philosophy behind it and helps fund

it. What follows is how each vessel supports the others so the whole system grows soundly.

The vessels (what we are building and doing)

1. Cultural Healing & Exchange — community gatherings, clinics with native healers

and integrative practitioners, language and story circles, elder–youth mentorship.

2. Yahua Ancestral School & Heritage — a home for language, music, craft, values,

and rites of passage.

3. The Land (Paititi Reserve) — 1,500 hectares next to Manu as a biocultural

sanctuary, seed nurseries, water protection, and demonstration plots for food and

medicine.

4. Community e-Campus — higher education in rural communities so youth can earn

credentials through real projects at home (nurseries, water systems, language

programs, honest market paths) instead of leaving and never returning.

5. Retreats (integrity-anchored) — limited, lineage-aligned programs that share

ancestral wisdom responsibly and help finance community priorities.

6. Natural Medicine Care — for now: intercultural mobile clinics and referral

networks; long-horizon: a dedicated care hub when communities and partnerships

are ready.

7. Livelihood & Market Pathways — farmer support, independent organic

certification, and story-based provenance so families thrive without extractive

pressure.

8. The Book — Beyond Ayahuasca as the narrative and funding thread connecting the

vessels above; every reader helps lay the next stone.

The flows (how each vessel feeds the others)

A. Culture ↔ Community Healing

• Cultural healing campaigns help neighbors who’ve grown distant from their heritage

rediscover its value and regain trust in natural medicine.

• These gatherings also shift how locals see visitors: not “gringos consuming an

experience,” but people in reciprocity—learning, serving, and returning value to the

community.

B. Culture ↔ School

• The Yahua school makes culture visible in daily life: elders teach, youth carry. The

school then supplies ritual literacy, language teachers, and culture bearers for

healing events, retreats, and visiting learners.

C. Land ↔ Everyone

• The reserve grows medicinal plants and organic food for community kitchens,

visiting programs, and local markets; it also oƯers living classrooms for youth

capstones and farmer trainings.

• Watershed and forest care keep farms viable and reduce the opening for miners and

loggers that often follows rural out-migration.

D. e-Campus ↔ Village Futures

• The e-campus keeps young people rooted by making higher education project-

based and place-based. Their capstones—nurseries, water systems, biodiversity

monitoring, language revival—directly strengthen the school, the land, and local

livelihoods.

• When youth stay and lead, communities do not dwindle; when communities are

strong, extractive industries have less room to enter.

E. Retreats ↔ Community Integrity

• Retreats model ancestral social technology—how a circle becomes family, how

conflict becomes learning, how service anchors insight. Participants take this

relational intelligence back to their lives.

• A portion of retreat revenue funds the Yahua school, seed nurseries, e-campus

scholarships, and elder stipends, so visitors’ transformation translates into

community benefit.

F. Natural Medicine Care ↔ Evidence & Trust

• Mobile intercultural clinics and carefully screened collaborations demonstrate the

eƯicacy of medicinal plants coupled with ancient healing arts in a safe, ethical

way.

• Over the long horizon, a dedicated care hub (when the time is right) can serve

patients from around the world, train local health workers, and provide a steady

financial backbone for schools and restoration—only after community priorities are

secure.

G. Livelihoods ↔ Dignity

• Organic certification and fair market access raise household income, which reduces

the economic push to migrate; in turn, more families can participate in language

revival, forest care, and school life.

• Visitors encounter transparent, story-based products that make reciprocity

tangible.

H. Book ↔ All Vessels

• Beyond Ayahuasca tells the long arc of this work and finances the next steps.

Readers become partners; the narrative carries the why, the funds fuel the how.

The flywheels (what keeps gaining momentum)

1. Healing → Belonging → Stewardship

Cultural campaigns restore dignity → locals and visitors relate as kin → joint care for

land and language strengthens.

2. Land → Food/Medicine → Health → Capacity

Healthy soils and forests produce nourishing food and herbs → community health

improves → more capacity for teaching, learning, and governance.

3. e-Campus → Local Projects → Livelihoods → Retention

Youth complete capstones that solve local problems → livelihoods grow → fewer

leave → extraction loses leverage.

4. Retreats → Funding/Relationships → Programs → Proof

Retreats generate resources and long-term allies → schools, nurseries, and clinics

expand → results attract more aligned support.

Why the land is the anchor

The reserve is the proof-of-concept plot where all threads meet: language classes under a

thatched roof, seed trays in the nursery, water flowing clear, elders teaching next to master

gardeners, visitors serving side by side with locals. Because it works in one place, it can be

replicated by other communities in Peru and beyond—always Indigenous-led, locally

adapted, and paced by elders’ consent.

How the book ties the bow

Beyond Ayahuasca is the unifying piece: the story that explains why this way of living

works and the practical tools for walking it. Every copy helps fund the Yahua school,

restoration on the reserve, e-campus scholarships, and elder stipends. Each reader is not

just an audience member; each reader is a builder.