Vision
Modern society is in crisis.
The health of individuals and communities is falling apart.
What’s more, the techniques and tools we have always used to develop “meaning” and answer life’s mysteries are hidden to most of us.
In the past, Shamanism, Mystical Traditions, and Rites of Passage helped ensure meaningful and healthy lives. Now, these paths have largely been forgotten. Though we need them more than ever, they are hard to find.
"My path is to serve as a bridge between the past we have largely forgotten and the much brighter future we are each capable of reaching."
-Daniel Cortez
Modern Challenges
A Case of Evolutionary Mismatch
Everything evolves. We human beings are no exception. Modern human beings have existed for 200,000-300,000 years. And until the Agricultural Revolution around 10,000 years ago, we hunted and gathered.
With agriculture came the formation of large towns and cities, different religious ideologies, division and specialization of labor, and eventually writing, literacy, and much more.
However, we quickly found ourselves out of balance with our environment. We began to have serious problems. You know some of their names: Lack of Meaning, Unhealthy Relationships, and Chronic Disease.
We are now mismatched in nearly every way to our environment and we show few signs of understanding this as individuals or as a society.
Ancestral Solutions
At the root of nearly every issue we encounter is that we have not deeply understood and accepted who we truly are as individuals, and therefore as a collective.
Understanding and accepting ourselves allows us to fulfill our potential. To do this, we must walk the “path of healing ourselves.” Walking this path allows us to reclaim health and meaning. Walking this path allows us to constantly evolve. Walking this path allows us to truly love ourselves.
For all of our history, we have had guides in the form of teachers, shamans, healers, and mentors. At their best, they serve the needs of individuals as well as the tribe or community.
These guides help us through personal transformation by walking the path of healing ourselves. This path is the bridge between an ancestral way of life and our modern world. This middle path is where healing and transformation can be found.
Daniel's Path of Healing
From Chronic Illness to Ancestral Wellness
In 2002, I began to experience chronic health issues. I spent the next 15 years dealing with chronic illness, and eventually I hit rock bottom. For many of those years, I researched, studied, and experimented endlessly. Obsessed with solving my own problems, I began to make significant progress. I resolved to devote my life to guiding others, driven by a sense of empathy and compassion learned through my own suffering.I became one of the first Wim Hof Method Instructors in the world, a Health Coach and Personal Trainer. But I reached a plateau in my healing process. So in 2017, I flew to Peru to heal myself with traditional plant medicine.
After healing myself, I received a classical Shamanic vision instructing me to devote the rest of my life to walking a Shamanic path in service of others. After searching for traditional training as a Curandero/Medicine Man, I was accepted into a traditional apprenticeship. Upon completion of my apprenticeship, I received the title of Huachumero (Curandero who serves the Huachuma/San Pedro cactus). In addition, I continue to study plant medicines, anthropology, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and much more in order to bring new forms of healing which meet the needs of the modern world.