Kambo Healing Me - Bryce Draper - Bryce stole money from the Matses tribe and our training group - Los Angeles CA

From the beginning, the training had red flags and very little structure. Bryce informed us he was funding property in the jungle to build a shamanic academy. The shaman he has currently residing there is named Don Guido Rimachi. A good friend of mine had gone out to Peru before me to assist Bryce Draper and Guido in building casitas. During this period I was in the States receiving phone calls from Will who informed me that they were feeding him a lot of sugar, asking for more money from him than was initially agreed upon, and he was having nightmares.

This was concerning to me because Bryce was encouraging everyone in our group to attend a month long dieta with this 'shaman’ Guido - I personally signed up to pay him 3,600.00 for the training and the dieta at his new "shamanic academy”. I questioned the integrity behind what he was doing when I heard Bryce’s shaman Guido was feeding my friend sugar and Ayahuasca in the same period of time, a well known avoidance for working with the medicine. And asking for more money than agreed upon. But he assures me he is okay, and I decide to fly to Peru in faith anyways.

When I arrived in Iquitos Bryce asks the entire group for all of the money to be given to him immediately in full, and in cash. He asks that everyone sign a behavior agreement, saying we won’t "gossip, complain about the food the 'natives prepare’, or express any discontentment” the repercussions for doing any of these things would be expulsion from the training without return of money paid. This was also concerning to me, as I knew he was supplying the food being cooked, not the natives. We were present for him buying pounds of white rice.

He also introduced us to a videographer he had hired to record the entire training. This made me uncomfortable. The day we left, I was engaging in a conversation with Bryce and I specifically asked about his plan for water, he assured me we would have an abundance of clean water with us. We asked Bryce how he has been and Bryce expressed he has been "wanting to blow his brains out over the last three months” This alarmed me and I began to ask questions amongst the group about his mental health. We left Iquitos as the sun went down, the four hour boat ride turned into a fourteen hour boat ride, the boat driver became less coordinated as it became darker, we shoveled water out of the boat. Eventually we ran into a fallen tree and had to ditch the boat we were in, half of us hiked to an abandoned house off the river and waited there while four men from our group hiked to the village to bring back a different boat.

When we finally arrived it was dawn, everyone was exhausted, covered in mud and water. We were shown the hut where we were intended to sleep, the hut was damp and dark, soil under our feet and palm leaf roofing above our heads. Immediately after setting down our things we were told that we were to receive kambo from the elders. I realized immediately that there would be no structure to this training, as Bryce decided spontaneously what we would all be doing without considering the current state of the group having just arrived with no sleep in over 24 hours.. Many people in the group were uncomfortable with the sleeping situation, and saw inequality in the difference of where Bryce slept and the rest of the group slept.

One of the group verbally expressed her opinion about this inequality and Bryce belittled her to tears. This was the first of many instances during the trip where he blatantly expressed misogyny. The next day I woke up with intense cramping in my womb space, I walked out to the Yucca field surrounding the hut, squatted, and started my period. This morning we were to receive more kambo from the elders in the village. I was hesitant to proceed because my intuition told me it would make my uncomfortably more intense. I joined the group and asked Bryce’s wife her opinion if I should take Kambo on my period, she responded, no you should not take kambo. Bryce quickly silenced her and told me I was to follow the program, he spoke as if he was sure, informing the group that menstruating women are okay to take kambo and that it wont exacerbate the pain.

I did as he said and followed whatever his spontaneous program entailed, this resulted in 6 hours of excruciating pain and loss of mobility. One Matse had the native women make me a concoction to relieve my pain, when I asked him what was in it, he was not willing to explain and said "plants”. I drank the thick red liquid that made my mouth numb. I began to feel drugged, dizzy and disoriented, yet the pain was still present. I had trouble speaking but managed to ask Alex and Scott to stay with me letting them know I felt I had been drugged. They stayed with me for hours before assisting me to a safe public space. At this point many people in the group were realizing Bryce didn’t bring enough clean water to last us another day.

Bailey Provencher began to quietly express her concern about the nutrition in the food supplied, she had a immune deficiency due to AIDS and was feeling weak without her normal availability to vegetables. I applied cream, tea tree, and bentonite clay to bug bites/fungal infections beginning to bother people in the group, sleeping in the hut became a problem quickly and Bryce reluctantly agreed to pay the natives more for some of us to sleep in a casita off the ground. We brought up to Bryce that we were concerned about the water supply and he informed us "boiling the river water will be sufficient”. The next day we ran out of clean water & the natives began serving us unboiled river water without our knowledge.

It became obvious we all had caught a parasite when members of the group began defecating themselves in the middle of the night, vomiting profusely, and complaining of intense stomach pain. The kambo training continued without clean water, the only beverage available being masato - a native drink prepared by the natives chewing and spitting yucca repeatedly until liquified, it is then boiled and fermented. We were to drink two liters of this this before every kambo session. After research and consultation I come to find out kambo and fermented masato are an uncommon combination, and when applied to people who have parasitic infections and no availability to clean water it is an absolutely deadly situation.

We communed with the Matsès elders again for a lecture touching base on their history, their application method, and other plants and medicines used by the tribe. While speaking on their history, the chief talks about their inherent idea that women are weak, that they are to never apply medicine to men. They specifically brought up a plant which branches have thorns, they say they beat their arms and back with this thorny branch and it is highly medicinal. Bryce, interrupting, announces this is a new requirement for the training and we won’t graduate the program unless we do it. It made everyone uncomfortable that he was adding requirements spontaneously.

Scott speaks up "he is joking” Bryce replies "no, i’m not”, they go back and forth before deciding it will be a requirement for the advanced course instead. Before the end of this lecture it is announced they were doing a nunu hapè initiation, where they blow mapacho based snuff into your nose four times consecutively. This made some of the people very uncomfortable as they had already been feeling sick for a few days. But again, Bryce voiced that it was a requirement and everyone participated. Resulting in many of us vomiting, and creating further dehydration. I watched as my friends grew more sick and weak, although we were using one of the strongest natural antibiotics on the planet. The natives also became concerned that we were getting sicker and not healthier.

I took Scott aside and discussed all of our concerns with him, asking him to address Bryce as all of us felt we wouldn’t be received kindly by him. Emphasizing how obviously dangerous the water situation was getting. Around this time we also found out Bryce has been self medicating Iboga for the entirety of the trip.. This was deeply concerning to me. I am aware from past research into Iboga that it has the capability to produce side effects of visual/auditory hallucinations, mania, and in some cases worsen symptoms of schizophrenia and induced psychotic episodes.. The group got together and wrote a list of necessities we needed him to go into town and bring back if this was to continue, water being at the top of the list. He agreed. We were all relieved to have a break from him, and we all grew more hopeful about continuing and spoke to Scott about the possibility of Bryce stepping down and leaving the training..

When Bryce arrived back from Iquitos, he returned with 5 bags of panettone (cake), coloring pencils, and fireworks.. Nothing more. He did not return with any groceries, no vegetables, no medication for parasitic infections.. And most importantly HE DID NOT RETURN WITH ANY CLEAN WATER. He then told everyone that we were to be self administering kambo the following morning.. I woke up and was the last person to arrive with the group. Bryce immediately, publicly reprimanded me for showing up last although a specific time was never announced. He proceeds on a power trip "this is your first and last warning, if you show up late again you will be kicked out of the training and your money won't be returned”. Afterward I decide i’m not in an emotional space to self administer Kambo, instead I watched as the 'lesson’ continued for the group. Many people had doubts about taking more kambo in their current state, but Bryce voice again "it is a requirement”. They reluctantly drank the masato and self applied their kambo.

I noticed one lady was having trouble purging, Bryce goes over to her and says "you must purge bile every time, if you don’t purge, you need to add another dot”. She began to cry and argued that she has never experienced purged bile with Kambo, and it’s not going to happen regardless of if she puts on more Kambo. Bryce begins to get stern with her, demanding she apply more kambo to herself, reluctantly and crying, she does as he says. She still was unable to bring yellow bile to the surface. She became very weak and tried to walk to use the bathroom, she collapsed onto the ground and fell unconscious. She awakens crying hysterically, explaining that she was sure she had died and returned to her body.

Bryce found I still had not self applied my kambo and told me it was absolutely required or else I would be made to leave, he stood over me as I applied the points onto my arm, and watched as I applied my Kambo. I was unable to purge. He began to reiterate to me what he had said to Zumi "you must purge, apply another point”. I did as he said absolutely infuriated, and purged. As everyone left the meeting area, I took Scott aside and we spoke about Bryce’s obvious mental illness. Scott agreed to bring everyone together, including Bryce, so we could voice our concerns and ask him to step down. This didn’t go well. As each of us voiced our concerns to Bryce he deflected all responsibility and accused each of us to be projecting our own traumas onto him. He refused to step down.

People brought up wanting to leave early and asked for the remainder of their money back, to which he refused. I mentioned publicly that I thought his whole operation was not in integrity, that his documentary was saturated in his own ego, that I felt scared to meet his recommended shaman for dieta (guido), I asked about his mental wellbeing and his misogyny towards women.. He deflects. Avoids. And leaves the group discussion without resolution. Bailey approached me afterward confessing she could not survive on rice another day, Zumi and Nickie had approached me absolutely fed up, expressing they wanted to leave that day. I then proceeded to speak to every single attending student individually expressing the dire importance that we all leave together, I brought the plan to Scott and Alex and they agreed the situation had gotten entirely unsafe, we needed to leave.

Every single attending teacher and student packed their belongings in under thirty minutes and met at the edge of the village. Scott arrived last, he said he spoke to Bryce and he claimed to pay us our money back in full if we sign a non disclosure agreement.. The sun was going down and we would have to hike two hours out of the jungle in the dark with no clean water. Some Matsès men and children came as guides and assisted the people who had overpacked. The pace was extremely fast, without stops. We had to be very aware and diligent about where we walked, the terrain was extremely muddy and slippery. I shined my light at the feet of the Matsès man setting the pace for the entire group. As it grew darker I followed him more closely, we were nearly running, I looked back to find we had far surpassed the group, i was drenched in sweat, panting and desperate for water.

I looked back to find the Matsès man had continued walking without me, I ran to catch up with him fearing being left alone. Eventually we made it to the spot we would wait for our mototaxi, I laid on the ground in relief I could stop walking and waited for everyone else to arrive. We took four moto taxis to a boat where we would travel 20 minutes to the bank of Iquitos. We arrived in Iquitos and for three hours we were unable to find a hostel to fit everyone in the group. When we finally found somewhere to go, we dropped our things off and went to eat together. During this time Zumi had become extremely dehydrated, she collapsed onto the floor of the restaurant and began to have a seizure, she lost motor function, completely pail. Everyone was extremely scared. The waitress brought an alcohol swab to her nose, we put water on her head, and she drank four coconut waters. That day we slept.

Someone had reached out to my friend at Bryce’s "shamanic academy” and told him it would be best to leave. He met with me the following day. It was not long before I realized something very concerning had happened to him during his stay with Guido, he was entirely out of character. He had started drinking alcohol, which he had been clean off for over a year, he was consuming absurd amounts of sugar and soda. Over the following weeks I found a safe place to sit in ceremony and Integrate our rather traumatic experience. My friend's process under the medicine was absolutely terrifying to watch, it was apparent that Guido had been toying with his brain to complete insanity. I began to feel deep fear for the minds and sanity of my relatives being guided to Bryce/Guido’s "shamanic academy”. Bryce’s connections to the Matsès added me on facebook. They messaged me and claimed that Bryce had not given them a dime of the non-profit donations/money acquired from the kambo training.

They told me they ran Bryce out of town and he was no longer welcome in their village. They asked me to return to Iquitos to attend a meeting to discuss the possibility of creating a new non profit for their community. They claimed that the Matsès community did not legally own any land and they needed assistance in paying for property. With little research I found that the Matsès were granted 1 million hectors of land by the government and the entirety of their people are taken care of. Since this has all come to light, my dear friend Bailey has died from a parasite the rest of us survived.. This parasite was caught in a refuge village of denounced Matsès. We were guided to this village under false pretense by a mentally ill self pronounced healer. Bryce Draper. No one has signed his NDA, or seen any money back, including Bailey’s three children she leaves behind. Contact me if you need any more information or if you have questions.