The Temple of the Way of Light - BENA CAYA AINBOBO (A New Feminine Spirit) is a Shipibo shamanic healing centre offering intensive ayahuasca / plant spirit healing retreats with predominantly with women healers near Iquitos in Peru. We are dedicated to offering our guests the chance to benefit from the ancient healing wisdom of the Shipibo people, and to helping this unique culture to preserve its knowledge and identity in the 21st Century. 

We work with some of the most respected and powerful healers (Onanya) from the Shipibo tribe, many of whom have only previously worked within their communities. All our Onanya are experienced, gentle, caring, deeply dedicated to healing and embody the wisdom and sincerity of their people. We are very privileged to be working with them.

Our work is rooted in the deep and profoundly powerful healing traditions of the Shipibo people and offers an ancient yet pioneering path to health, re-discovering our true nature and re-awakening to our true purpose. We firmly believe in the overwhelming benefits of the medicine Ayahuasca and the healing potential of plant spirit doctors from the Amazon Rainforest.

We are not a new age movement, nor based in any religion; healing from the plants is for everyone on the planet irrelevant of race, creed, color and social or financial status. The core of our work is focused on deep healing on all levels; physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

The main pillars of our work are:

• Working with predominantly women healers: A unique focus on working with Onanya Ainbobo - indigenous women healers working within the rich and complex medical tradition of the Shipibo people. The women healers are complemented by Shipibo male healers who provide a necessary balance to the healing work. Our healers each have from 20 to 60 years’ experience working with ayahuasca and an encyclopedic knowledge of the medicinal plants of the Amazon Rainforest. 

• A compassionate environment for deep healing work: Fundamental to our work is offering ceremonies within a safe, caring and loving environment within a container of integrity.

• A high ratio of healers to guests: Our workshops & ceremonies are run by six or seven healers with an average group size limited to 21 people to ensure that each guest has individual and close attention throughout their healing process. Due to the unprecedented high number of healers, we have different specialists that are able to work on many different conditions and illness whilst ensuring that our guests receive a very high level of care and attention throughout the workshop. In every one of our ceremonies our guests receive ikaros from most of the healers culminating in 30 to 40 ikaros (sound healing treatments) per workshop. This is one of the main reasons we have been able to acheive such positive results over the years.

• 7 ceremonies per 12 day workshop: We are passionate about our work and deeply committed to our guests healing experiences. We offer our guests the opportunity to work very deeply with ayahuasca and critically to ensure that our healers & the plant doctors have sufficient time to carry out a high level of work. This level of work cannot be carried out with less ceremonies. The process is profound and we are dedicated to effecting lasting change for everyone who comes to the Temple. The workshops are an intense healing course that is structured by the plant doctors which also initiates a much longer term healing journey that continues to unfold for months / years after coming to the Temple.

• Focusing on social benefit rather than profit: We are a socially responsible, purpose driven organisation that acts as a funding mechanism to implement outreach programs through our NGO's - Alianza Arkana and The Chaikuni Institute. We believe strongly that we need to "give back" and are committed to partnering with the people of the Amazon to support them to preserve and protect their traditions, lands, identities and ancient medicinal practices. 

• Community, permaculture and sustainable living: Incorporating the principles of self-sufficiency, regeneration, and social responsibility, since 2009 we have been implementing a comprehensive permaculture program on the 175 hectares of Temple grounds and in our local village which includes wide range of projects: food forests, perennial vegetable production, staple crops, medicinal plants, renewable energy systems, rainwater harvesting and natural spring water systems, aquaculture systems, animal husbandry, sustainable buildings, reforestation,  and the production of fuel, fiber, sugars, and oils.