The ancestors survived many calamities over countless generations by honoring the human spirit under the harshest of conditions. These lessons of adaptation and wisdom, so carefully gathered through the ages, are key for humanity to emerge from the current global crisis in which health and environmental disasters, war, famine, and other forms of catastrophic conflict are caused by the collective deterioration of human values.
Beyond Ayahuasca isn't just a book—it's a 20-year labor of love bridging Indigenous wisdom and evolutionary science. Roman Hanis invites you into a living rite of passage that connects you to nature's language and your highest potential.
Lyndi: How did you come to explore alternative medicine modalities and different spiritual paths?
Roman: Guided by life’s mysterious circumstances, in my early years I was facing the fragmentation of modern existence so intensely that the only honest way was toward whatever restored wholeness. That search eventually brought me into the Amazonian rainforest and the Andes after having an in-depth introduction into the Jungian Psychology, Northern Native American heritage, Himalayan Daoist and Vajrayana traditions along the path. These weren’t different paths but multiple mirrors pointing to the same essence. Each tradition revealed a facet of the primordial intelligence that underlies human consciousness. The deeper I followed, the more it became unmistakable that all authentic paths converge in service to awakening the heart’s innate clarity.
Lyndi: What is the purpose of Beyond Ayahuasca: Unlocking the Evolutionary Science of Indigenous Amazonian Wisdom to Access Your Highest Potential?
Roman: The book is intended as a living rite of passage. Rather than teach about the Indigenous Amazonian traditions, it invites the reader to experience their inner landscape directly through a riveting adventure from a first-person perspective. The elders I apprenticed with described their cosmology as evolutionary science. It is not science in the modern mechanistic sense, but rather a disciplined, relational understanding of how consciousness evolves when aligned with the natural world. The purpose of the book is to help people remember the original evolutionary language of life, and to offer tools to engage it with sincerity, humor, and responsibility. It is written as a bridge so that this ancient wisdom can continue to live, breathe, and serve humanity through those who read it.
Lyndi: What are your concerns for those who seek Ayahuasca solely as an experience unto itself and how does the plant work with Mother Nature to connect people to the essence of primordial wisdom?
Roman: I was taught that Ayahuasca is not an experience but a relationship. When sought as a spectacle, it becomes another form of consumption, and consumption is the opposite of communion. My concern is that without a foundation of humility, preparation, and integration, people can mistake intensity for insight and miss the deeper meaning and transformation that the medicine embodies.
Indigenous elders refer to Ayahuasca as the voice of Goddess Nature. The vine teaches in a way that is both uncompromising and compassionate. It dissolves the illusion of separation long enough for us to feel the world’s ancient memory inside our own breath. This is the doorway into primordial wisdom, which is not mystical abstraction but the living intelligence that sustains life. The plant medicine reveals it, yet only through a life devoted to sincerity can one stabilize it.
Lyndi: If the real medicine is the death of limited, superficial identity and rebirth of Nature, how does one channel this uncontainable energy through the heart to be in service of the greater good?
Roman: When the superficial identity dissolves, people are often afraid of the void. But what remains is a vast ecological awareness that knows itself to be part of all life. This state-of-being cannot be controlled, only embodied, and only the heart space is wide enough to hold it.
To channel the forces of nature within us responsibly, we cultivate presence in ordinary moments by practicing honesty when no one is watching. We learn to meet suffering without collapsing into it or resisting it. Slowly the heart becomes porous enough for Nature to move through us without distortion. Service then ceases to be a noble ideal, becoming the spontaneous expression of life that cares for the shared heart of the world.
Lyndi: In Beyond Ayahuasca you share one of your first great lessons that is considered the primary purpose of all life-forms. Can you elaborate on this ultimate truth?
Roman: The Indigenous elders of various Amazonian nations shared with me how the primary purpose of every life form in the Universe is to be a channel of infinite Love that unites the heart and mind of the entire creation. All problems in our life can be resolved when we remember our original higher purpose of this existence and learn to express that remembrance intentionally in our lives. Plants, rivers, insects, animals, and humans each carry a distinct melody in the larger symphony, yet the essence is one. When a human being recalls this truth, life stops feeling random or adversarial. It becomes a conscious evolutionary journey where challenges serve as catalysts and relationships become opportunities for mutual awakening. The ultimate truth is not a philosophical concept but a state of being we all know very intimately from the time we have been in our mother’s womb. It is a lived recognition that the whole universe is evolving through our willingness to get real and see ourselves not so separate from others.
Lyndi: Why is having a sense of humor essential when it comes to snapping out of drama so we can remain in our hearts?
Roman: Humor is the safety valve of consciousness. Without it, the ego becomes overly convinced of its own self-importance. My Indigenous elders showed me how laughter can be used as a coping mechanism and escapism, however, the original meaning for it in our lives is to express aliveness and clarity. When we laugh at our own contractions, we loosen their grip and create space for the heart to breathe again. Drama thrives on tightness, while humour introduces spaciousness where insight can appear. Many enlightened cultures consider humor a sign of wisdom because it reveals that the heart recognizes the dance of life without losing its sincerity.
Lyndi: What do you see as the role of a healer?
Roman: The only way I can heal others is by honoring the inner healer within each individual. The more I can recognize the wisdom in the patient and learn from it, the more I allow that wisdom to awaken within our shared experience and consequently bring about healing. A healer does not fix anyone but becomes transparent enough for the primordial intelligence to reveal itself in another. The traditions I’ve been entrusted with teach that the true physician is Nature, while the healer is a bridge, a reminder, and a companion on the journey of remembering one’s own innate capacity for wholeness. Healing is an invitation into intimacy with the truth of one’s being, not to be confused with an intervention.
Lyndi: How do we balance the complimentary opposites of all aspects of our world like the mind and the heart?
Roman: Mind and heart are complementary currents of the same consciousness. The imbalance arises when the mind forgets its role as a servant of the heart. When the heart leads, the mind becomes an extraordinary tool for insight, discernment, and creative action. In the Indigenous cosmologies, balance comes from remembering that all dualities are expressions of a deeper unity. To live this balance we cultivate habits that align the mind with the embodied wisdom of the heart. Over time, thinking can become a form of listening, and action can become an extension of presence.
Lyndi: How does the intelligence of innocence deal with the woundedness of the world and steward the world to heal and evolve.
Roman: Innocence is not to be confused with naivete. It is the original clarity that remains untouched beneath every wound. For the Amazonian elders, innocence is our most indestructible essence. Wounded innocence simply means a lost trust in one’s innermost essence. When empowered innocence meets woundedness, it does not recoil or fight, instead recognizing the pain as a misguided attempt to protect what is most vulnerable. This recognition dissolves fear and restores coherence.
In the Indigenous traditions, innocence is considered the most advanced form of intelligence because it sees reality without distortion. To steward the world toward healing, we recover this innocence within ourselves first. Every act of genuine compassion, accountability, and presence becomes a seed that influences the collective field. In this way, personal healing becomes planetary evolution.
Lyndi: What is the need for the Paititi Institute and what teaching does the institute impart?
Roman: Paititi Institute was born from a gratitude filled dedication to support Indigenous cultures while creating pathways for modern humanity to remember its own ancestral roots. We steward thousands of acres of essential watershed for the Amazon rainforest. The institute integrates Ando Amazonian medicine, contemplative traditions, and modern integrative tools to help people reconnect with Nature, community, and themselves.
The heart of our work is not technique but lineage based. The teachings come through lived relationship with elders, with the land, and with the universal principles that all authentic traditions reflect. We guide people into direct experience of their inherent clarity so that their healing becomes beneficial not only to themselves but to their families, communities, and the Earth.
Roman Hanis has been working closely with the indigenous Peruvian cultures in the Amazonian rainforest and Andean mountains since 2001. During this time he has devoted his life to learning the ancient wisdom of these people while seeking possibilities for creating ecological sources of sustenance for local populations and working to preserve the rainforest and its spiritual heritage of sacred medicinal plants. He is the co-founder of the Paititi Institute which stewards 4000 acres of land in the Mapacho Valley of the Peruvian Andes. Roman’s work has been featured in the documentary film, The Sacred Science, and he travels throughout Peru and the US sharing a unique blend of Eastern and indigenous knowledge through community projects, healing retreats and educational workshops.
Beyond Ayahuasca: Unlocking the Evolutionary Science of Indigenous Amazonian Wisdom to Access Your Highest Potential
Traditional Ando-Amazonian medicine man takes readers through the three main pillars of Amazonian indigenous teachings, and through a deeper place of transformation and healing with insights and step-by-step guidance.
Beyond Ayahuasca empowers readers to transform their very relationship to themselves—and the entire universe—through a series of tools and practices, questions for self-inquiry and guided contemplation, reminders of the power to stay “real” and accountable throughout the innate spiritual journey, and information about the evolutionary science of humanity. This will aid in recognizing patterns in their life—both beneficial and malefic as well as provide the awareness training tools to help transform one’s life.
This book offers a unique guide to Ayahuasca ceremonial traditions, allowing the reader to have a direct firsthand experience of going through a shamanic rite of passage and apprenticeship, and realizing one’s fullest potential to live a life free of suffering.
"For the past two decades, I have incessantly studied and consulted with elders, native guides, ethnobotanists, anthropologists, and archaeologists of the Peruvian Amazon and the Andes. The lessons, revealed to me through these encounters and those discovered through personal practice, have been pieced together, thread by thread, to recreate a spiritual discipline of a forgotten and highly advanced civilization. Many elders I met referred to their ancestral wisdom as the evolutionary science of humanity. At the heart of this book is the indigenous evolutionary science of what it means to be human."
