Sue has been working in the field of complementary health care for over 20 years. She trained as a past life therapist with Dr Roger Woolger, a pioneer in the field of past life therapy. Sue teaches workshops to help people connect with and clear past life issues and offers one-on-one sessions for those who wish to explore their past lives more deeply and remember the eternal nature of their soul. She also trained in Shamanic practice with Sandra Ingerman and is well-known at the College of Psychic Studies, London, where she gives workshops on past lives, shamanic journeying, the chakras, soul mates and the power of love.
http://www.sueminns.co.uk

Alistair is a TV journalist and presenter in the UK with long experience of Buddhist meditation. He's studied with monks from the Tibetan and Thai Forest tradition and completed numerous retreats in Scotland, Devon, California and Thailand. He teaches courses in basic meditation practice up on Holy Island in Scotland each summer. Last year, he filmed the documentary The Man Who Drank the Universe which recorded his experiences with Ayahuasca in Bahia, Brazil.

This year Alistair is offering some basic meditation teachings to help retreat members navigate their sessions more lucidly.
www.alistairappleton.com

Deborah Quevedo, RN, PhD has extensive experience in the healing arts and has been a registered nurse for over 30 years, working in the fields of nephrology, integrative medicine, and care of the dying. She loves nature and is devoted to a holistic approach to health and healing. Deborah has been attending and personally experiencing ayahuasca retreats regularly since 2001. She has additional training and experience in leading groups, creative expression, and hypnotherapy. In her quest to study holistic healing she did her dissertation research on psychospiritual integration of participants that attended neo-shamanic ayahuasca retreats in Brazil.

He is the founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a non-profit membership-based research and educational organization that sponsors clinical studies designed to obtain FDA approval for the use of MDMA as a prescription medicine. Rick obtained his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with a dissertation focused on the regulation of the medical use of psychedelics and marijuana. Doblin's commitment to drug law reform through the vehicle of research derives from a deeply felt sense of outrage at the infringement of personal freedom inherent in the laws criminalizing the use of psychedelics and marijuana. His professional goal is to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. Rick Doblin is also a Grof-certified Holotropic Breathwork practitioner, from Stan and Christina Grof's first certification training program.
www.maps.org

He is a Peruvian shaman, teacher and artist, and has Lamista, Cocama and Piro Indian ancestors. Pablo Amaringo is fluent in English, Spanish, and Quechua with knowledge of the Cocama, Amahuaca and Shipibo tribes. He was 10 years old when he first took ayahuasca and was shown distant places, ancient cultures, others civilizations and the magical world of spirits.

In his work Pablo creates works of art which bring to life his shamanic visions along with paintings of the rain forest and its spirits and deities. Likewise during his workshops, he instructs the students to develop their capacity of perception, visual memory and concentration so as to successfully translate inner experience into art. Pablo is the co-author of the book, Ayahuasca Visions, and lives in the city of Pucalpa, Peru, where he has an art school and teaches regularly.
www.pabloamaringo.com

Richard Glen Boire (rgb) is Co-Director and Legal Counsel for the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics. He is a writer, social systems analyst and legal scholar, specializing in cognitive liberty dissident thinking and control theory. Mr. Boire received his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall School of Law), in 1990. His dedication to examining the developing legal and cultural issues related to freedom of thought has led to a varied and unique career.

In addition to authoring several books, Mr. Boire’s articles and essays have appeared in a wide spectrum of magazines and journals, from mainstream and scholarly, to underground and aesthetic-focused. He has been a featured speaker at conferences both in the U.S. and internationally, and has provided interviews via print, radio, and television.
www.cognitiveliberty.org

She has almost 30 years of experience in the healing professions as a physician in hospital, in general practice and as a homeopath. Her vast interest in all forms of healing enabled her to play a major part in the widespread use of complementary medicine in the British National Health Service.

She is the author of five books: Frontiers of Health, Beyond the Obvious, and The Mind, Body, Spirit workbook, and her latest, Spiritual Alchemy, all published by the C.W. Daniel Co. Ltd. England.
www.christinepage.com

Jonathan Ott Is a prolific and highly regarded writer, translator, publisher, reviewer and pundit on virtually every aspect of entheogen botany, chemistry, pharmacology, bioassay, culture, history, and politics. In addition to his abundance with the written word, Ott has produced and co-produced numerous conferences and seminars on entheogens over the past 25+ years. Articles and excerpts of his books have been translated into numerous other languages.

Jonathan's writing has appeared in Harvard Botanical Museum Leaflets, Curare, Eleusis, Entheogen Law Reporter, Entheogen Review, Head, High Times, Journal of Cognitive Liberties, Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, MAPS Bulletin, and other publications.
www.maps.org

The Fantastic Realism art of Robert Venosa has been exhibited worldwide and is represented in major collections, including those of noted museums, rock stars and European aristocracy. In addition to painting, sculpting and film design (pre-sketches and conceptual design for the movie Dune, and Fire in the Sky for Paramount Pictures, and Race for Atlantis for IMAX), his work has also been the subject of three books: Manas Manna, Noospheres, and Illuminatus, featuring text by Terence McKenna. Similarly, his paintings have also been featured on a number of album covers, including those of Santana and Kitaro.
www.venosa.com

Her work has been exhibited internationally as well as being published in books, calendars and magazines such as Illuminatus, Drinking Lightning, Craftsman House, One Source, Sacred Journeys, Markowitz Publishers,The Return Of The Great Goddess, Shambhala Publishing, Celebrating Women's Spirituality, The Crossing Press, Magical Blend, Expose and Nexus. Martina studied sculpting at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. As a painter and sculptor, Martina Hoffmann, intersperses her life of creating art with giving painting technique workshops with Robert Venosa.
www.martinahoffmann.com

David Icke was a professional soccer player for Coventry City and later for Hereford before rheumatoid arthritis forced him to quit at the age of 21. He then turned to journalism and then to television, becoming a sports correspondent on BBC 2's "Newsnight" and contributing regularly to BBC1's "Grandstand." He went on to become a national spokesman for Britains's Green Party before a visit to a medium and healer set him on the journey of discovery which was to change his life. David Icke has written several books, including The Robot's Rebellion, Truth Vibrations, Heal the World, The Biggest Secret, Children of the Matrix, and his latest, Tales from the Time Loop which describes his 2003 experience with ayahuasca at one of our retreats.
www.davidicke.com

He is a free-lance writer, editor, and graphic artist. Jon Hanna holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art, and has written for many magazines such as High Times and The Resonance Project, and is a regular contributor to The Entheogen Review (www.entheogenreview.com). Jon Hanna is also the author of Psychedelic Resource List (which is in its fourth printing. Recent editing projects include the book, Ketamine: Dreams and Realities, by Dr. Karl Jansen and two special issues of the MAPS Bulletin; one that focused on psychedelics and creativity, and one related to sex, spirit, and psychedelics. Other projects that Hanna has been involved include both Mind States conferences (www.MindStates.org)held in Berkeley, California, which he produces yearly. Currently, Hanna is working on several projects including editing Zoe Seven's up coming book, Back From The Void.

Isabela Hartz Isabela was born in Rio de Janeiro and she has been involved with Santo Daime - one of the names given to ayahuasca by religious organizations that uses the brew as a sacrament - since 1984, living for several years in Céu do Mapiá, the spiritual center of the doctrinal line created by Sebastião Mota de Melo, founder of CEFLURIS and Shaman's Drum. Isabela Hartz has done numerous exhibitions in Brazil and has worked as a fashion designer as well as created the cover art for over one hundred books. Some of her work has been exhibited at the Richard F. Brush Gallery of St. Lawrence University, in Canton, New York.
www.isabela-hartz.art.br

He received his MA in humanistic psychology from the University of West Georgia, and his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Temple University. Currently, he is an associate professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, where he teaches transpersonal psychology and psychotherapy, biofeedback applications in consciousness studies, and qualitative research methods. In addition, Frank Echenhofer is also the Director of the Consciousness and Physiology Research Laboratory at CIIS. His research includes three decades of studies in Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism. At the July, 2002 retreat, he reported on this ayahuasca research in the context of neuroscience and the spiritual traditions.

Andrés Hu was Born in 1964 in Mexico City. He has an academic background which includes a degree in Contemporary Chinese Language and Literature from the University of Beijing and a Master’s degree from a co-program of the University of Singapore/Harvard University in Public Policy. He is fluent in: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Tagalog.

Hu has spent most of his life in Asia, including over 10 years in China. He has studied different forms of Yoga, Tai-chi, Chi-Kung, Pranic Healing, Reiki and several shamanic practices. Hu has taught Yoga in the Philippines, where he is the Director of the Yoga Foundation of the Philippines and in Mexico where he was a lecturer at the First National Congress of Yoga, celebrated in 2002.