Wasiwaska Seminars & Workshops

Christian Rätsch

Claudia Mueller-Ebeling

Constantino Manuel Torres

Donna Torres

Christian Rätsch

Dr. Christian Rätsch is a renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist specialising in the shamanic uses of plants for spiritual and medicinal purposes. He studied Mesoamerican languages, cultures and anthropology at the University of Hamburg and spent time among the Lacandone Indians in Chiapas, Mexico, being the only European fluent in their language. He then completed his doctoral thesis on healing spells and incantations of the Lacandone-Maya at the University of Hamburg, Germany. He has conducted research in Thailand, Bali, the Seychelles, and an 18 year study on shamanism in Nepal with expeditions to Korea and the Peruvian and Columbian Amazon. Before becoming a full-time author and internationally renowned lecturer, Rätsch worked as professor of anthropology at the University of Bremen. He is author of numerous articles and more than 40 books, including the renowned standard work Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants. A former member of the board of advisors of the European College for the Study of Consciousness (ECSC) and former president of the Association of Ethnomedicine, he lives in Hamburg, Germany.Visit his website here.

Claudia Mueller-Ebeling

Claudia Mueller-Ebeling, Ph.D. (born 1956), studied history of art, cultural anthropology, German literature and indology in Freiburg, Hamburg (Germany), Paris (France) and Florence (Italy). Received her Ph.D. by a doctoral thesis on visionary art and French symbolist Odilon Redon. Her main focus of interest being visionary art, altered states of consciousness, shamanism and ethnobotany. Did fieldwork on the knowledge of healing plants in the Caribbean (Guadeloupe) and the Seychelles. As well as a longterm study (18 years) on Shamanism in Nepal combined with expeditions to Korea and the Peruvian Amazon. Worked as arthistorian in the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg, was chief-editor of DAO a magazin on far eastern philosophies and martial arts. Co-author, with Christian Raetsch and others, of "Witches Medicine" (published in German 1998), "Shamanism and Tantra in Nepal" and Lexicon on Aphrodisiacs (to be published in German in 2002). Is member of the board of advisors of the "European Colleague for the Study of Consciousness" (ECSC) and co-organizer of "Psychoactivity"-conferences on altered states of consciousness. Lives as freelance scientist and author in Hamburg, Germany.Visit her website here.

Constantino Manuel Torres

Constantino Manuel Torres has conducted research on ancient cultures of the South Central Andes since 1982. His work has concentrated on the San Pedro de Atacama oasis, where hundreds of well-preserved archaeological burial sites facilitate a comprehensive understanding of this desert people. Most importantly, San Pedro de Atacama religion is connected to notions of landscape as body, to visionary experiences, and an ecstatic approach to the supernatural. Torres is also involved in the study of the art of Tiwanaku, the most important pre-Inca Central Andean civilization. His latest efforts attempt to unravel the structure of the Tiwanaku iconographic configuration.

On two occasions he has been an invited presenter to the prestigious Dumbarton Oaks Round Table, in Washington DC. He has participated in a symposium on the art of the South Central Andes at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts of the National Gallery, Washington, DC. In 1999, Torres organized several symposia on the art and archaeology of the Andes for the International Congress of Americanists and for the Society for American Archaeology.

His books include Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America (2006), a comprehensive and detailed study of this sacred plant of well documented ritual use for at least 4000 years. He has published numerous articles on the ancient cultures of the Atacama and Bolivia in journals in Chile, the United States, and Europe. Torres has been the recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships for the study of the Precolumbian art of northern Chile.

Dr. Torres is professor of art history of at Florida International University, the State of Florida University, Miami. He teaches courses on Precolumbian Art of the Andes, Art & Shamanism, Precolumbian Art of Mesoamerica, Gift Strategies for the Art-making Process, Art and Issues of Identity, among others. He is a member of the Institute of Andean Studies, Berkeley, California, and the Sociedad Chilena de Arqueología, Santiago, and adjunct professor for the graduate program in Anthropology and Archaeology, Universidad Católica del Norte, San Pedro de Atacama campus, Chile. He is also advisor for “Cultura y Drogas,” an interdisciplinary Masters at the Universidad de Caldas, Colombia.

Donna Torres

Donna Torres received undergraduate and graduate degrees in painting and drawing from the University of New Mexico and Florida International University. She trained in Botanical Illustration at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, under the direction of Priscilla Fawcett. Donna's drawings, paintings and multimedia projects reflect her interest in shamanism and medicinal plants. Her artworks have been exhibited widely in the US and abroad. She has taught art workshops in the US, Colombia, Nepal and Chile. She recently had 2 solo exhibitions, Distant Wanders, Close Enchantments at the Art Gallery at Government Center, Miami in 2008 and Glimpses and Wonders at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Nature Center, Key Biscayne, in 2007. As a recipient of the American Society of Botanical Artists Artist Grant, she taught botanical illustration to the indigenous community of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile for the documentation of medicinal plants. Known archaeologically for their vast use of the visionary plant Anadenanthera, the descendants of this ancient culture are trying to preserve their elders knowledge of plants. The project continues in May 2009. Donna teaches painting at Florida International University and botanical art at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, Florida. For additional information, please visit the artist’s website here.

The fee for this seminar is $2,200 Euros per person, everything included, except airfare: i.e. transportation to and from the airport, double occupancy, all meals and laundry. The seminar also includes several excursions around the beautiful Island of Santa Catarina, as well as other activities.

Seminar open for a maximum of ten participants.

If you are interested or require further information, please contact Luis Eduardo Luna at luna@wasiwaska.org or
leluna47@hotmail.com.

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