34: Spiritual Medicine. A conversation with Joseph Tafur.

After struggling through depression during medical school, Dr. Joseph Tafur was introduced to peyote by a friend who was researching psychedelics as a medical intervention. He reports that he quickly realized the connection between modern medical interventions, such as anti-depressants and psychedelics. In 2007 Dr. Tafur traveled to the Amazon and began his exploration of Ayahuasca and later began his training in Shipibo shamanism. Dr. Tafur’s medical background and his training as a Shipibo shaman position him to articulately explain the Western understanding of this spiritually-based approach to healing. Dr. Tafur’s book is full of case studies, and his use of these examples provide a first-hand account of what many know to be true: that many individuals do not feel adequately understood by the traditional western medicine. We discuss epigenetics, specifically how researchers are beginning to understand how trauma can be passed down from one generation to the other. We frame depression and other psychological issues as a disorder of the imagination, wherein the individual is cut off from their sense of creativity, and which cuts the individual off from imagining other possibilities in their life, and therefore they suffer under the burden of the discomfort and belief that change is not possible. Although Dr. Tafur can use modern medical language, he prefers to speak about love and broke-heartedness as it relates to what is missing in modern medicine. Bio: Dr. Tafur has been an Integrative Medicine activist throughout his medical career, while in medical school at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, and during his Family Medicine Residency at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has collaborated on research projects with the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine and the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine. After residency, Dr. Tafur subsequently completed a two-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry under psychoneuroimmunology expert Dr. Paul Mills. While in San Diego, he also served on the board for the Alternative Healing Network and the Steering Committee for the UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Tafur is also dedicated to education. At Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, Dr. Tafur supervised traditional training for allopathic medical students and medical student groups from the Southwestern College of Naturopathic Medicine and Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine. He has also worked as a professor for the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine’s online doctoral program. He is now developing new educational programs for Modern Spirit. Since 2007, Dr. Tafur, a has been traveling to Peru to work with Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine and to study with Master Shipibo Healers. He has completed his shamanic initiation under Maestro Ricardo Amaringo and worked alongside him for years in ayahuasca healing ceremony at Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. Here in the United States, he is working to promote the value of spiritual healing in modern healthcare and to demonstrate the intersection between traditional healing and allopathic medicine .https://drjoetafur.com https://modernspirit.org Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Black Tie Dynasty Music page: https://www.facebook.com/blacktiedynasty/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/black-tie-dynasty/41368471 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/