Press & Media
The films, articles and conversations about this work made by people outside it, the writing Roman has published elsewhere — and everything a journalist needs to write about the Institute, the reserve and the communities we work alongside.
Watch · Films about this work
Films
Four films span twenty years of this work, newest first: the current documentary, shot at the reserve and with the communities themselves; the mini-documentary on uniting the elders and children of the world; the short about the school being built now; and the one that first brought this work to a wider audience. Roman’s own filmed conversations and talks are in the section below.
Ayahuasca: The Medicine of Awakening
Our most recent film, shot at the Paititi Biocultural Reserve and with the Indigenous communities we work alongside. Ceremony, the natural medicine clinic, the ancestral school and the ordinary days in between — the fullest picture of what actually happens here.
Watch on YouTube
Seed of the Heart Prophecy: Uniting the Elders and Children across the World
The Institute’s own short on the Seed of the Heart initiative: begun with the Yahua elders in the Amazon, now a movement of workshops uniting elders and children in the Andes, Mexico and the United States, inspired by a prophecy many Indigenous traditions share. The initiative has its own page under Initiatives.
Watch on YouTube
An Ancestral School for the Yahua Tribe is Born
How the Yahua Ancestral School began: what the elders asked for, what the children are being taught, and what the campus needs to keep going. Filmed around the launch of Beyond Ayahuasca, whose author royalties fund it.
Watch on YouTube
The Sacred Science
The award-winning film that first brought this work to a wider audience, following eight people with chronic illness who travel to the Amazon to work with Indigenous healers. Filmed in 2010 at the Institute’s first healing centre in the Amazon, before the reserve; Roman Hanis is the film’s lead healer.
Watch itWatch · Roman in conversation
On camera
Recent dialogues, filmed interviews, a live environmental news stream, an online class and a conference talk. Where the films above were made about this work, these are Roman in conversation about it. Each video also has an entry in the list below.
Beyond Ayahuasca book dialogue with Chonie Vargas and Roman Hanis
Chonie Vargas and Roman Hanis in conversation about Beyond Ayahuasca, Roman’s book on Indigenous Amazonian wisdom and human transformation.
Beyond Psychedelics, Yet Not Without
Roman Hanis and psychologist Kelly Yi explore psychedelics within a wider path of transformation, bringing Indigenous living wisdom, contemplative practice and psychology into dialogue. The conversation asks how profound experiences can become lasting changes in the way we live.
Beyond Ayahuasca: Indigenous Amazonian Wisdom with Roman Hanis
An hour and a half with the Daoist teacher San Qing on apprenticeship with Amazonian and Andean elders, the illness that first brought Roman to the rainforest, and the ancestral school the Institute stewards.
Healing, Indigenous Wisdom, and the Authentic Spiritual Path
Joseph P. Kauffman with Roman on coming to the Amazon for healing from Crohn’s disease, on what the medicine, the forest and the lineages taught him about spirituality beyond concepts and identity — and on telling genuine transformation from spiritual ego.
Beyond Ayahuasca: Conversation with Daniel Pinchbeck & Roman Hanis
How ayahuasca is an integral but not a central element of the traditions — a wider weave of myth, story and ceremony carrying healing into daily life. Released as a LIMINAL NEWS episode on 12 November 2025.
Preservación ecológica y de saberes originarios en el Amazonas peruano
Roman’s two-part interview on the weekly environmental news stream of the Instituto Mexicano de Fauna, Flora y Sustentabilidad Social, Voluntarios Informados and the Mexican Network of Environmental Journalists, presented by Juan Jorge Avilés. The player holds part two and starts at his segment; part one is the stream of 10 October.
Beyond Ayahuasca: Evolutionary Science of Indigenous Amazonian Wisdom
Jason Grechanik welcomes Roman back to discuss Beyond Ayahuasca and the Indigenous Amazonian traditions behind the book. Their second conversation explores the wisdom of these practices and what they offer to those seeking healing and understanding.
Inner Landscapes of Permaculture
An eighty-minute class on how permaculture principles apply to the awakening of natural human potential — the same principles by which ancient traditions thrived in hard conditions.
Paititi Institute, Sacred Science & Medicines, Esoteric Knowledge & Healing
Roman’s first interview with Jason Grechanik covers his background, the founding of Paititi Institute, ancient traditions, sacred plant medicines, and healing. A wide-ranging conversation about the years of learning and practice behind this work.
Survival Tips for Healers: A Shaman’s Perspective on Health and Purity of Heart
In this filmed interview segment, Roman shares the inner practices he uses to care for his own health while caring for others. Director Nick Polizzi introduces a conversation about the wellbeing of healers and keeping a clear, open heart in service.
Amazonian Grass Roots Research on Entheogen-based Healing of Physical Pathologies
Roman’s talk at the conference’s sixth year, Judson Memorial Church, filmed and published by Horizons. The programme listed him as Director of the Paititi Institute, Iquitos, and described the work in his words: “to implement the original, indigenous healing and spiritual practices of the sacred and medicinal plants as a viable healing alternative in the western society.”
ECO vs EGO
An earlier video from the archive. Watch it here or open the original upload on YouTube.
Watch and listen
Interviews and podcasts
Roman’s conversations on other shows, grouped by format and newest first within each group. Read the articles in Written articles.
Video interviews
Beyond Ayahuasca book dialogue with Chonie Vargas and Roman Hanis
Chonie Vargas and Roman Hanis in conversation about Beyond Ayahuasca, Roman’s book on Indigenous Amazonian wisdom and human transformation.
Watch aboveBeyond Psychedelics, Yet Not Without
Roman Hanis and psychologist Kelly Yi explore psychedelics within a wider path of transformation, bringing Indigenous living wisdom, contemplative practice and psychology into dialogue. The conversation asks how profound experiences can become lasting changes in the way we live.
Watch aboveBeyond Ayahuasca: Indigenous Amazonian Wisdom with Roman Hanis
An hour and a half with the Daoist teacher San Qing on apprenticeship with Amazonian and Andean elders, the illness that first brought Roman to the rainforest, and the ancestral school and cultural-heritage work the Institute stewards. Plays above.
Watch aboveHealing, Indigenous Wisdom, and the Authentic Spiritual Path
Fifty-four minutes on the difference between genuine transformation and spiritual ego — why awakening is less about peak experiences than about returning to the heart. Plays above.
Watch aboveRoman Hanis | Beyond Ayahuasca: Indigenous Wisdom, Healing & the Forgotten Heart
Daniel Pinchbeck with the author of Beyond Ayahuasca and co-founder of the Institute, on two decades of apprenticeship with Amazonian and Andean elders, sacred reciprocity, and what a civilisation forgets when it forgets its heart. Plays above.
Watch abovePreservación ecológica y de saberes originarios en el Amazonas peruano
Part two of Roman’s interview on the Mexican Network of Environmental Journalists’ weekly stream, on ecological preservation and Indigenous knowledge in the Peruvian Amazon. Plays above.
Watch abovePreservación ecológica y de saberes originarios en el Amazonas peruano
Part one: Roman’s first appearance on the stream, three weeks before the second. Linked from the player above.
See aboveBeyond Ayahuasca: Evolutionary Science of Indigenous Amazonian Wisdom
Roman’s second appearance on the show, recorded around the book’s publication and going into the traditions it draws on.
Watch aboveInner Landscapes of Permaculture
Free Permaculture Class #47: permaculture’s principles turned inward, on the awakening of natural human potential. Plays above.
Watch abovePaititi Institute, Sacred Science & Medicines, Esoteric Knowledge & Healing
Roman’s first conversation with Jason Grechanik, four years before the book: the Institute, the years of apprenticeship behind it, and the traditions it works within.
Watch aboveA Shaman’s Perspective on Health and Purity of Heart
The director of The Sacred Science on how a healer stays well while treating others, drawing on what Roman, the film’s lead healer, taught him about not taking on a patient’s illness.
Watch aboveAmazonian Grass Roots Research on Entheogen-based Healing of Physical Pathologies
Roman, listed as Director of the Paititi Institute, Iquitos, on grassroots research into plant-medicine healing of physical illness — the Institute’s first conference appearance on record. Plays above.
Watch aboveECO vs EGO
An earlier video from the archive. Watch it here or open the original upload on YouTube.
Watch abovePodcasts and radio
The Wisdom Keeper — Reciprocity, Consciousness & the Living Earth
Tannis Legary and Roman discuss reciprocity, ancestral wisdom, integration and a living relationship with the Earth.
Listen to episodeBeyond Ayahuasca with Roman Hanis
A conversation that stays with the unglamorous part: integration, nervous-system safety and what happens after the ceremony rather than during it.
ListenRoman Hanis: International Bestselling Author & Paititi Institute Co-Founder — Amazonian Ancestral Knowledge
From a serious case of Crohn’s disease to remission in the rainforest, and from there to twenty years with Amazonian and Andean elders and the 4,000 acres the Institute stewards beside Manu National Park.
ListenBeyond Ayahuasca — with Roman Hanis
On the book, ancestral wisdom and integration: what it means to remember who we are, and what Indigenous medicine traditions ask of the person who comes to them.
Listen on SpotifyRoman Hanis — Stories of Transformation, Ancient Wisdom, Paititi, Plant Medicine & the Journey of Awakening
Rex Costello speaks with Roman about his journey to the Amazon, personal transformation, Indigenous wisdom and fatherhood.
Listen to episodeEssential Humanity, the Shared Human Heart, and Planetary Healing
Gabe Crane and Rahul Deedwania talk with Roman about shared humanity, vulnerability and caring for each other and the planet.
Listen to episodeRoman Hanis — On Indigenous Wisdom in Practice
On holding a safe space and meeting conflict in community, and a line Roman offers about his own path: “everything is perfect, with infinite room for improvement.” The original page is gone; this opens an archived listing with the audio.
ListenEpisode 56: Roman Hanis
Twenty-six minutes on the illness that took Roman to the Amazon in 2002 and the path from patient to curandero, pledged by the Huitoto in 2004.
ListenHealing in the Amazon with Roman Hanis: Part One
An hour with the shaman and teacher Christina Pratt on Amazonian plant medicine as a system of healing, and on the Institute’s team of healers and permaculturists building bridges between cultures. The earliest interview here; no second part followed.
ListenResearch and conference references
Ayahuasca for PTSD: Integrating Psychedelic Therapeutic Strategies for Neurotrauma into a Bioinformatics Framework
Jessica L. Nielson and Julie D. Megler of UCSF present “a pilot study currently being developed in collaboration with the Paititi Institute in Peru” to collect outcome data from people with PTSD who had travelled for ayahuasca ceremonies. A study being designed, not a completed one.
Read the abstractThe Sacred Science — Film and Discussion with Roman Hanis and Cynthia Robinson
The conference’s film programme, Oakland: a screening followed by discussion with “Roman Hanis and Cynthia Robinson of Paititi Institute where Sacred Science was filmed.”
Read the programmeConsideration of Ayahuasca for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Nielson and Megler, in the MAPS annual report, describe a collaboration begun with “the Paititi Institute near Iquitos, Peru” to gather retrospective data as grounds for a possible observational study. The Institute’s earliest citation in the research literature — a proposal, not a trial.
Read the articleRead · Articles and essays
Written articles
Profiles, written interviews and reporting about Roman Hanis and the Institute’s work, followed by articles and essays written by Roman.
About Roman and the Institute
First Beam Raised for the Yahua Ancestral School
The Loreto daily’s report on the beam-raising on the Momón River, with the Regional Government of Loreto present, and on the first 100 copies of the illustrated Yahua children’s book reaching the community. Scan and full translation below.
Read our translationThe Yahua Ancestral School: Healing a Culture, One Child at a Time
How the school teaches Yahua language, story and ceremony alongside an ordinary curriculum, and why the elders asked for it in the first place.
Read the articleBeyond Ayahuasca. In Conversation With Author Roman Hanis
Two decades of study with Amazonian elders, and what “the Indigenous evolutionary science of being human” means in practice.
Read the interviewFrom Ann Arbor to the Peruvian Rainforest: The Ancient Mystery of Being Practical
Written for the community journal of the Ann Arbor bookshop where the Institute’s story partly began: why ancestral knowledge only counts once it is lived in ordinary days, and how 4,000 acres beside Manu National Park came into the Institute’s care.
Read the articleWritten by Roman Hanis
Roman’s writing on Substack
Explore Roman’s articles, essays and reflections, and follow new posts on his own Substack.
Read on SubstackSacred Activism and the Memory of a Forgotten Rainforest Civilization
Roman’s own essay for Graham Hancock’s site: the memory of an Amazonian civilisation carried in the traditions he has apprenticed in since 2001, and what it asks of the present. Contributed rather than reported, and labelled as such.
Read the articleThe Role of Privilege in Global Poverty
Why handouts entrench the poverty they mean to relieve, and what staying long enough to be useful looked like with the Amazonian communities Roman first visited in 2001.
Read the articleTranscending the Wounds of Conquest & Colonization
What Huitoto, Yahua, Andean, Lakota and Tibetan teachers have in common on the question of old wounds: that they close through forgiveness, not through hatred.
Read the articleLost in Translation: Communications From Spirit
The last of the five-part series: on how easily what a ceremony shows is misread, and what reading it honestly asks of the person who saw it.
Read the articleThe Shamanic Symptomatic Dance
Movement as a conduit for healing in the Amazon and the Andes, told through one retreat participant who danced a physical symptom until its emotional root showed itself.
Read the articleShamanic Healing Keys: The Dreaming Wave
Dreams as a healing language shared across shamanic traditions, opening with the illness Roman had been told was incurable.
Read the articleShamanic Healing Keys: Sacred Breathwork
How Amazonian and Andean traditions use conscious breathing to work through trauma and to bridge the physical and the spiritual.
Read the articleShamanic Keys to Your Unlimited Human Potential
Opens a five-part series for the film’s own site, five years after The Sacred Science was filmed at the Institute’s healing centre: the plants are only tools, and it is the lineage practice around them that heals — or fails to.
Read the articleListen · The Institute’s podcast
Life is a Ceremony
Conversations from the Paititi Institute with Roman Hanis on ancestral wisdom, personal transformation and bringing these insights into everyday life. Explore the 25 episodes published from 2019 to 2023. Guest appearances on other podcasts and radio shows are listed in Podcasts and radio.
Browse all 25 episodes
Practical Meaning of Spiritual Purpose
Roman and Mindaugas Uzubalis explore spiritual purpose in everyday life, generational trauma and patterns of consumerism.
Listen to episodeFrom Amazonia to the Himalayas – Ancestral Wisdom for Modern Critical Times
Amazonian, Andean and Tibetan traditions offer perspectives on engaging with the challenges of modern times.
Listen to episodeThe Practicality of Intercultural Bridges – How NOT to Be Mislead by Appearances
Roman and Elton Lee Abela discuss intercultural bridges and finding meaning beyond outward appearances.
Listen to episodeBridging World Wisdom Traditions – Discerning Medicine from Poison
Exploring discernment, initiation and cultural exchange when bringing different wisdom traditions together.
Listen to episodeThe Wisdom of Failure
Roman and Elton Lee Abela discuss what failure can teach us about learning and personal growth.
Listen to episodeIntegration – A Coping Mechanisim or a Vehicle for Transformation?
Roman and Elton Lee Abela explore integration, inner resolution and the relationship between ego and spirit.
Listen to episodeFatherhood as an Evolutionary Path
Roman and Simon Fyall discuss fatherhood, authenticity, the inner child and relationships with partners.
Listen to episodeOde to Simplicity
Roman and Elton Lee Abela explore simplicity and wellbeing through being, rather than constant activity.
Listen to episodeThe Nectar of Liberation
Reflecting on innocence, beginner’s mind and changing habitual patterns through caring for ourselves.
Listen to episodeThe Indigenous Prophecies for Our Time
Joanna Bullock interviews Roman about Indigenous prophecies, ancestral trauma and spiritual consumerism.
Listen to episodeReplacing Police Brutality with Compassion and Indigenous Wisdom
A conversation with psychology students about compassionate crisis response, trauma and community reconciliation.
Listen to episodeBreathing Ancestral Wisdom Alive
A recorded talk from the 2019 tour on ancestral wisdom, awakening, decolonization and the practice of love.
Listen to episodeEye Of The Storm
Roman and Emily Goughary explore finding clarity and connection amid turmoil.
Listen to episodeReconciling Death on the Path of Healing
Roman and Emily Goughary reflect on death, interconnection and shared wellbeing in times of crisis.
Listen to episodeTransforming Fear into Fearless Love
Bringing ancestral wisdom into daily life through the practice of love in the face of fear.
Listen to episodeEngaging Challenging Times in an Evolutionary Way
Roman and Emily Goughary discuss resilience, authentic relationships and community resourcefulness during challenging times.
Listen to episodeQ&A – Staying Connected to the Essence and in Service to the Heart of All the Hearts
Roman and Elton explore staying connected to the heart through shadow work, innocence and the inner child.
Listen to episodeQ&A – Grieving & The Heart of Sadness
Roman and Elton Lee Abela discuss grief, sadness and the transitions they invite us to embrace.
Listen to episodeQ&A Evolutionary Healing & the Discovery of Limitless Potential
Community questions about joyful healing, self-discovery and the possibilities of human transformation.
Listen to episodeLiberation from an Elaborate Self Deception
Opening a guarded heart through loving kindness and discerning essence beneath appearances.
Listen to episodeRelationship with the Self, the Inner Masculine and Feminine
Exploring inner masculine and feminine qualities, conditioning and a more balanced relationship with ourselves.
Listen to episodeQ&A Genuine Respect vs. Cultural Appropriation
Community questions on respecting ancestral traditions, cultural appropriation and reciprocity.
Listen to episodeThe Amazonian Chullachaqui Myth, a Story of Getting Lost In-Order to Be Found
An Amazonian story opens a conversation about conditioning, losing our way and rediscovering purpose.
Listen to episodeThe Hero’s Journey in the Face of Uncertainty and Change
Meeting uncertainty and change through the hero’s journey and a healthier relationship with impermanence.
Listen to episodeThe Ancient Evolutionary Purpose
Andean, Amazonian and Tibetan perspectives on creation, interconnectedness and our evolutionary purpose.
Listen to episodeRead · Scans and translations
In print
Coverage that arrived as a printed page rather than a link. The scan is the source and opens at full size; where the original is not in English it sits beside a complete translation of ours, labelled as ours.
Our translation
A milestone for children and Amazonian culture
First beam raised for the Yahua Ancestral School
The first beam of the Yahua Ancestral School – Cultural Heritage Centre has been laid: a milestone for Indigenous children and cultural preservation in the Peruvian Amazon, on the Momón River, Loreto.
With great emotion and a deep sense of purpose, today, 25 July 2025, the first beam was laid for the Yahua people’s future ancestral school and cultural heritage centre — a decisive step in an initiative that seeks to preserve and revitalise the knowledge, language and age-old traditions of this Indigenous Amazonian community.
The symbolic act took place on Yahua territory, on the banks of the Momón River, and was attended by representatives of the Regional Government of Loreto — specifically its Regional Office for the Development of Indigenous Peoples — who expressed their full support for the project and their eagerness to collaborate in the stages to come.
“This is a moment of profound significance. We are not just building a school; we are sowing the foundations so that future Yahua generations can grow up connected to their roots, proud of their cultural identity,” said Roman Hanis, president of the Paititi Institute, the organisation behind the project.
As part of this first phase, the community received the first 100 copies of an illustrated children’s book about Yahua culture, created especially so that the tribe’s children can learn about their origins — and, at the same time, to be offered to visitors as a respectful and meaningful tool for intercultural education.
The ancestral centre will serve as an integrated space for the oral transmission of the Yahua language, creation stories, knowledge of medicinal plants, traditional dances and rites of passage, strengthening the living continuity of the Yahua worldview. It is also intended as a place of ceremony and healing, where the community’s wise men and women can treat patients and train new apprentices.
The project has been made possible in part by funds generated by the recently published book Beyond Ayahuasca, which has attracted wide international interest for its profound message about healing, ancestral wisdom and reconnection with nature.
“It fills us with hope to see how reading a book can become concrete action that directly benefits Indigenous communities that have been forgotten for so long,” Hanis added.
With the institutional backing of the regional government and the active collaboration of the Yahua community, this effort sets a hopeful precedent for other Indigenous peoples of Peru’s deep interior. The centre is expected to be completed in the coming months and to become a model of living ancestral education and cultural sovereignty.
Translated from the Spanish by the Paititi Institute. The original text is the newspaper’s; only the translation is ours.
For journalists
Media enquiries
What we can provide
Interviews with Roman Hanis, co-founder; photography from the reserve and, where the communities have agreed to it, from the Yahua and Q’ero initiatives; footage from the documentary; and review copies of Beyond Ayahuasca.
We ask one thing of anyone writing about the Indigenous communities here: nothing about them is published without their consent, and names and images are theirs to give.
info@paititi-institute.orgFast facts
- Founded 2010, on relationships with Amazonian and Andean Indigenous communities begun in 2001.
- A registered non-profit in Peru (APCI), fiscally sponsored in the United States by Empowerment WORKS, a 501(c)(3).
- The Paititi Biocultural Reserve — 1,516 hectares of protected Amazonian forest, with title affirmed by the Peruvian Supreme Court.
- Working alongside the Yahua and Q’ero nations on ancestral education, clean water, community health and food security.
- 100% of Roman Hanis’ author royalties from Beyond Ayahuasca support the Institute’s Indigenous education and cultural preservation initiatives.