Stories on a Stick: A Film by Donal Ruane

Donal Ruane’s film takes us on an astonishing journey, from contracting polio as a child in Ireland, to a secret ‘invisible’ realm of magic and witchcraft in the Amazon jungle. An archaic world of rainforest dwellers, where shamans consume sacred hallucinogenic plants in order to communicate with ‘spirits’ to diagnose and heal illness. Profoundly alien and sometimes terrifying, this is an excursion into the very nature of consciousness itself. An experience which shattered many of Donal’s beliefs and changed his life forever.

When he was 3 years old he had a near-fatal encounter with polio and spent two years recovering physically; but the psychological effects were to stay with him. Growing up he suffered increasing bouts of depression and anxiety which led inexorably to drug and alcohol abuse.

A chance meeting with the renowned visionary painter and former shaman Pablo Amaringo in 1999 was to lead Donal on an odyssey to the Peruvian Amazon as part of his own process of healing. Amaringo was a practising healer for many years and had used the legendary hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca in his healing rituals. His visually stunning paintings are his own attempt to depict his ayahuasca visions with their unique mix of Amazonian mythology and European esoteric beliefs and folklore. His paintings are laced with images of fantastic cities, mermaids and fairies which reminded Donal of stories he had heard as a boy. He first heard about magic and fairies amongst the ‘old people’ in the west of Ireland where his father originated. This galvanized an interest in folklore and as he got older he started to collect this in an attempt to uncover and understand the meanings of the mythic realms they described.

In September 2001 Donal set out on a journey to Pucallpa, where Amaringo lived, a rapidly changing sprawling frontier town on the banks of the Ucayali River in Peru, in the hope of learning not only about the archaic shamanic techniques that are still practiced there but also to continue his own healing journey. As their friendship blossomed Donal realized the depth of knowledge Amaringo possessed of the botanical and shamanic traditions of the region. During the year he spent there he became apprenticed to Amaringo’s cousin Graciela Shuña, a practicing shaman herself and lived with her for six months in a jungle hamlet several hours up river from Pucallpa where he underwent the rigorous training that is required of an initiate. Donal has not touched alcohol since his first experience with ayahuasca and he no longer suffers from depression.

Over the years Donal has continued his apprenticeship with Graciela, ‘dieting’ with ayahuasca and some of the other plant ‘teachers’ of the region. Last year he returned again for three months with a camera man to continue documenting his extraordinary journey with these medicinal plants.

By following the directors own odyssey through the rigours of his apprenticeship this film will take an in-depth look at a phenomena known variously as ‘Caspi yaqui’ (tree knowledge in Quechua), ‘Alquimia Palistica’ (tree alchemy), ‘Ciencia Vegetales’ (plant science) or just plain ‘Vegetalismo’ . Five years in the making ‘Stories on a Stick’ is a unique document of the healing practises with ayahuasca of the ‘mestizo’ population of the Peruvian Amazon. It features the most extensive interviews with Don Pablo Amaringo since his collaboration with Luis Eduardo Luna on their book Ayahuasca Visions. The film will be releasded on DVD next year.

The Graphic Element of the Film

Ayahuasca is a pharmacologically sophisticated combination of two plants that is traditionally used throughout the Amazon for healing sickness, divining the future and as a purgative, cleansing the body of parasites, emotional blockages and past resentments and traumas. Typically, a specialist or shaman in a ceremonial setting administers it to the accompaniment of magical chants called Icaros. Ayahuasca allows entry into a breath-taking fractal universe of spectacular beauty and colour. A Platonic domain that appears to contain all the patterns and forms found in nature, a sort of aesthetic encyclopedia of the universe, a map, perhaps, of the hidden order of all things. The Indians themselves say that all their art is derived from their hallucinatory experiences. Amaringo’s paintings are his attempt to depict this virtual world of ayahuasca intoxication.

This film will use computer graphics in conjunction with traditional special effects to show the viewer what this visionary domain is like and to convey the often profound sometimes terrifying subjective experiences that are possible by following the prescriptions of the ‘dieta’ for protracted periods of time with this brew.

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