Curandero is Spanish for a traditional healer. In writing about ayahuasca, it names the person who leads healing sessions in the Amazon. A 2023 review lists many names for such practitioners, including taita, vegetalista, ayahuasquero, maestro, onaya and curandero, and notes that in certain groups only the healer drank the brew, to diagnose illness and decide on treatment (Ruffell et al., 2023).
“Vegetalista” refers to mestizo healers who specialise in plant medicine. The Peruvian painter Pablo Amaringo came from a family of vegetalistas and worked as one before he became known for painting ayahuasca visions (Dino, 2019). Among the Shipibo-Konibo of Peru, visionary healers are called onanyabo (the plural form) (Favaron, Williams and Bédard, 2026).
The role varies with setting. The anthropologist Bernd Brabec de Mori, who did fieldwork among the Shipibo-Konibo from 2000 to 2006, writes that communal drinking sessions developed after researchers and tourists arrived (Brabec de Mori, 2021). At retreats for visitors, Indigenous healers may work with Western facilitators. Training and safety practices vary widely, and no title on its own says anything about a person’s training.
Sources
- Ruffell et al., 2023, PCN Reports: ayahuasca review
- Brabec de Mori, 2021, Frontiers in Psychology: social attribution and ayahuasca healing
- Favaron, Williams and Bédard, 2026, Journal of Psychedelic Studies: ayawaska among the Shipibo-Konibo
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