On September 24, 1961 in a poor little village in Peru, about 100 miles south of the border with Ecuador, José Campos was born. His grandfather was an authentic curandero of the region, and soon José realized that his origins come from a lineage of healers and started to see himself as the continuation of a legacy.
As a teenager, while working hard in the fields, he had the opportunity to discover his connection with the wild Amazon jungle. He remembers the early lessons learned about fauna and flora, while he explored his natural curiosity for the unknown.
One of his jobs as a young man was as a sort of tour guide in certain ruins and archeological fields. José was always thirsty for knowledge and nourished himself in many different areas.
José’s first entheogenic experience was with Dona Marta, a well-known San Pedro curandera that invited him to experience her medicine. When they first met, Dona Marta told José “You have the spirit of the curandero and you will become a good one, that is written in your destiny”. This sparked José’s interest and he started to explore it further.
In July of 1987 was José’s first Ayahuasca journey under the guidance of with Don Wilfredo Tuanama. . He still remembers that ceremony as the most powerful and impressive ever. He saw his future as a shaman, his travels around the world, and many things he was never been able to put in words.
One year later, José offered his first lecture about medicine plants to a group of visiting scientists and scholars from around the world. That’s when he met Don Solon Tello from Iquitos, with whom he took ayahuasca many times and learned key shaman lessons from him. He considers Don Solon one of his major mentors in his shaman path.
Always connected to inspiring people like Pablo Amaringo, the acclaimed Peruvian visionary artist; Terence McKenna, well known American philosopher, psychonaut and ethno botanist, Dr. Rick Strassmanm bestseller author of “DMT: The Spirit Molecule” , and German biologist, Rainer Schulte who took him under his wing and taught him about the poisonous and hallucinogenic frogs of the Rainforest.
In 1992 José co-founded together with Dr. Jaques Mabit the famous Takiwasi center in Tarapoto, Peru, created to treat drug addicts using traditional Amazonian medicines. Here he had the opportunity to develop and polish his curandero / shaman skills conducting hundreds of Ayahuasca sessions to the patients of the Center.
After working for several years at Takiwasi, José decided to expand his horizons and that lead him to different parts of the planet.
In Republic of Gabon in Africa, José was introduced to Omar Bongo, then President of Gabon for more than 20 years. Mr. Bongo invited José to have one of the most incredible experiences of his life so far and thereafter. He made arrangements to take José to visit an authentic insulated Nzeiby tribe. There he was offered a shamanic initiation at the Iboga ritual. After a long journey into the depths of the jungle he met the tribe elders and participated in an intense two day long ritual under the effects of the Iboga sacrament. This was life changing to José, who now was totally convinced that shamanism was his definite life path.
