Video Lesson 3 Eduardo The Healer

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Video Lesson 3 Eduardo the Healer

Eduardo acts as a modern-day healer or shaman to cure the illness or small diseases of the people. He refers to his profession as the “Counselor” or “Curandero” and it is his family business. Although Eduardo has not carried this business to its full swing like is ancestors use to do, he can still perform many tasks that a modern day healer or shaman performs and in a much effective manner. He has learned all these healing and divination techniques from his forefathers, who have been carrying out these practices, for more than three thousand years (Pfeiffer). The practices and procedures carried on by the ancestors of Eduardo comprised of a vast range of rituals and treatments, that ranged from treatment of some specific disease to the curing of various hexes and witchcraft.

There are various kinds of divination techniques that are used by Eduardo to heal his patients. These divination methods have been used throughout the video film or the documentary to explain the healing process used by the modern day shaman. Although all the techniques are very much tried and tested and effective that are used by Eduardo, the most effective method is the "cleansing ritual with the help of Guinea pig”. It should be kept in mind that in Peru, Guinea Pig is treated more of a food item than an animal, so it is easily used in the cleansing and divination ritual and then cooked for the purpose of a meal.

Although Eduardo is a modern-day healer and believes greatly on the power of medicine, still he uses traditional methods to treat and heal his patients. He makes use of a mix of the perks of modern medications along with the traditional and old day’s methods to bring his patient to comfort. For this purpose. He uses light and heavy herbs, as hallucinogens, for his patients, during the treatment process. Some of the prominent hallucinogens used by him are San Pedro, from the North, and condor herb, which is a very effective pain reliever and excellent hallucinogen. In addition to this, he also uses tobacco to give his followers a ”kick”. Most of the times, these herbs are in used in their most pure form, in order to give the full effect.

"Mesa" is a specific ritual carried on by a shaman to communicate with the spirits. The word “Mesa’ means table or a flat plateau, in Spanish. Its length and gathering depend upon the healer and it varies from shaman to shaman. It is usually spiritual in nature and used to communicate mostly with good spirits. It is also used to wander off negative energies and spirits. Eduardo also carries on this ritual in the form of a moderate to a big gathering. This practice takes the form of a ceremony and goes on all night long.

In my opinion, the practices and procedures carried on by such shamans and Curanderos have become a long lost practice. There was a time once when the treatments used and prescribed by such healers were considered reliable and people, used to go to them, in huge numbers to get their issues treated. These issues used to be of various sorts and ranged from medical to spiritual in nature. But nowadays, technology has made much progress and there are a number of medical tests available to detect any medical issues, with the patient. As far as the spirituals problems are concerned, people do not believe in them very much now and do not pay much heed towards this side in recent times.

Works Cited

Pfeiffer, Jill. "Eduardo The Healer". YouTube, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaOkf1lMjIw&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 4 May 2019.