Sacred Medicine Retreat in the Ecuadorian Andes

Steve wants to be clear that he is not a shaman. He is a Counselor and a specialist that works with San Pedro. Steve was born in Oklahoma in April of 1958. He had a great childhood and was raised on a farm. He was adopted at birth by two very loving parents. His spiritual and shamanic path began at age 10 when his Mother died. He withdrew from the comfort of others and connected (instinctively) with the Cherokee understandings of nature. He would later learn at the age of 35 that his Father was half Cherokee and his Mother was a quarter Creek (Muscogee). His spiritual and shamanic path has never stopped since. In 2001, after obtaining a Certified Addictions Counselor CAC III certification, he founded the NORA Clinic in Colorado and started treating dis-ease, dis-order and addiction with intravenous amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and spiritual counseling. Since that time he has employed many doctors, nurses, acupuncturists, massage therapists, Reiki masters, and many other healers. His 70% success rate at healing addiction is still unrivaled in the U.S. After drinking San Pedro in 2010 he realized this medicine was a necessary addition to any medical or addiction treatment. A year later he turned the clinic over to his vice-president, sold everything he owned, and moved to Cusco, Peru. He has since finished a two year San Pedro apprenticeship in Cusco. He completed his apprenticeship in May 2013 having drank San Pedro over 200 times during his apprenticeship. He has continued to drink weekly and now as of January 2020 has drank over 600 times. Since 2013 he has owned and operated San Pedro Workshops. It is now located near Cuenca in Lentag Ecuador. He believes San Pedro is the ultimate healer of addiction, dis-ease and dis-order. He has now begun doing guided meditation, counseling, and intensive workshops with the San Pedro Cactus. The results have been miraculous. Steve states: “It’s not me doing it. San Pedro is the one doing the work. It works in people’s own hearts, showing them what’s real. He says “It guides my every word and action”. San Pedro Workshops includes all the healing modalities he has provided to others over the years, as well as additional healing methods. A few quotes from Steve: “Shaman is the most controversial word I know. Every single person has their own definition for it. There’s no way I can live up to that” “Depression is intuition not followed” “Your mind won’t let your body be disappointed”

Orion Chase has been a practicing acupuncturist (Colorado Lic #846) since 2001, honing his skills in a variety of settings. After graduating from a 4-year, 3000-hour Masters of Oriental Medicine program at Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder, Colorado, he was certified by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) in 2001. He began private practice with acupuncture and Chinese herbology the same year in Boulder and later practiced in Durango, Colorado. He has experience in various work environments- a hospital setting, in an addiction treatment center, and recently yoga retreats and healing centers in Mexico and Ecuador. He practices a blend of Traditional Chinese and Japanese styles of acupuncture, and integrates ancient Eastern medicine with modern modalities like auriculotherapy, electro-acupuncture, and Acutonics™ (tuning forks). Orion leads men´s circles and co-leads retreats based on the work of the Mankind Project, and facilitates workshops based on the Wim Hof method, a technique using breathwork and cold immersion to enhance human resilience. He created a meetup in 2018 in Boulder Colorado that is still going strong every Saturday morning, providing free instruction to the community in Wim Hof style breathwork and guided meditations and cold immersion experiences. Building on a BA at Prescott College in Arizona in transpersonal psychology in 1996, Orion has actively explored many personal development modalities. Some examples are The Event (an evolution of Werner Erhard's EST/ Landmark Forum), Intrinsic Breathwork, Osho’s Path of Love, and the Mankind Project where he served for 2 years as enrollment coordinator for the New Warrior Training Adventure. He has been practicing and teaching Tai Chi and Qigong for over 30 years. Since co-leading a course at Prescott College in 1992 entitled Tai Chi in Mexico, Orion has built his skills through countless hours of instruction from his own teacher, a 50-year student of the Taoist Neigong and the Sun Pan Ling Tai Chi form. He has been a student of the East Indian mystic Osho since 2018 and has been trained to lead Osho’s meditations, including the Dynamic meditation, the Quantum Light Breath, Kundalini meditation, Chakra Sounds meditation and others. Orion has been a student of plant medicine, specifically San Pedro (Huachuma) and Ayahuasca, since 2017. He has participated in over 50 ceremonies personally, and has begun assisting in ceremonies under the guidance of Steve Eagle Sewell at Dancing Dragons San Pedro Retreat Center in the Yungilla valley outside of Cuenca, Ecuador.