In January of 2020 I set out for a soul-quest to the mystical Lake Atitlan of Guatemala. Here’s my story of a well-known charlatan who abuses his power in the hopes that other young vulnerable travelers don’t fall for the tricks.
I traveled with a women’s group led by a former Guatemalan professor of mine on a cultural immersive retreat. It was here that I had my first encounter with the Tz’utujil people of San Pedro and sat in powerful cacao ceremonies with Nana Marina. I learned about the Popol Vuh, Mayan Calendar, and my nahual. Let’s just say Mayan astrology and cosmology spoke to me in a language my Spirit deciphered and resonated with. The ceremonial way of working with the fire and cacao touched me deeply. I was sure this was the place where I would deepen spiritually. When it came time to say goodbye to the group of women as they all prepared to journey back home to their comfortable lives, they of course thought I was crazy. The professor was especially worried for me.
Oh but my heart was set in stone. The thing is I had been preparing for this journey for 2 years by saving up and prepping my very frightened parents. It was my dream since I was a little girl to travel the world, learning about the human soul. Very few people supported my decision. Though I met resistance everywhere I turned, my heart and intuition told me what was up. I had the courage and resilience to listen and go for it.
I was 21 years old, it was my time to leave the U.S. and “find myself.” I’m beginning here because a lot of the people I have met who flock to energetic vortices or conscious communities in Latin America like San Marcos (Guatemala), Vilcabamba (Ecuador), The Sacred Valley (Peru), genuinely believe (unconsciously) on a very deep level that they are lost, broken, or messed up in some way. Many go in search of healing (without knowing no one can really give that to them) and then outsource their power onto healers, which these places are full of. Some are genuine and really do help, others are charlatans.
Charlatan: A person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill.
I’d go as far to say that what young North-American and European travelers have in common is they come from broken family systems, are emotionally or financially or mentally unstable, and are escaping from responsibility for enamored and inflated spiritual wisdom. Of course it isn’t always this way and experience does indeed bring with it wisdom. However, New Age culture sucks and distorts the authentic spirituality and healing we seek that’s founded in actual rooted relationships.
So here I was, young, open, vulnerable, seeking, and in love with the energy of the Lake. I did a work-exchange (through workaway) at Hostal del Lago. The experience gave me culture, fun at drum circles and ecstatic dances, an open mic to perform my spoken word art, tons of very beautiful connections, healthy food, and a sense of purpose and belongingness. After 2 months I was ready to close out my cycle and go on to my next adventure. In this time however, I had reluctantly become friends with a charlatan who lives (don’t know if he still does…) on the Nature Reserve (iykyk).
My intuition always told me to stay away from him but my German bestie at the time was developing a friendship with him. You know when you meet someone and they just look mega shady, like they’re hiding something? That’s how it was for me with him. I wore a black tourmaline pendant on my neck for energetic protection at the time. I remember he commented that it was a powerful stone. I was behind the counter at Hostal Del Lago while everything in my body yelled, “Stay away from him!”
My bestie, roommate and colleague met him one day as she paddled on the Lake. He just happened to approach her as she’s in the middle of the lake and offered to read her her Mayan cross. “That sounds amazing, I’ve been wanting to learn more but I don’t have money, I’m just traveling with very little right now” she said. “That’s alright, we can have another form of exchange, you’re welcome to come to my house, I just live right up there, I’ll show you around, read you some, and we can work out a deal later.” She agreed.
He treated her respectfully and kindly, gaining her trust in that one afternoon together in his decked out home. (I know now trust is something that’s earned through repeated experiences in which you get to know someone from different angles, in different environments). But travelers, oh how naive we are sometimes. Especially those with a pull to entheogens. The thing is we wanted to eat mushrooms together. The sacred children, yes, we wanted to commune with their spirit. We needed the right set and setting, and a good connection. What better person and place than his?
Alright. I agreed to go under one condition, if I felt anything off, we’d leave.
Well, nothing really felt off. I became mystified with the beauty, order, and grandness of this man’s space. He’s Guatemalan, we spoke well in Spanish. He made an effort to listen, be genuinely curious, and spoke of New Earth. As a New Ager at the time (not that New Earth isn’t a loving vibration we’re absolutely anchoring in right now, but hmmm there’s a lot of bullshit out there) I fell right in. Of course I wanted a galactic activation. Of course I wanted my mind expanded and elevated. Of course he could help me quantum leap into a new reality. (Argh I send a lot of love to my past self for believing spiritual bullshit of the sort).
Long story short, we had an evening of rapé, cacao, mushrooms, and cannabis to close. It was the first time I mixed so many “medicines” in one day. He gave us space. It didn’t feel awkward. It was new. It felt alright. I enjoyed myself. We stayed the night, I cuddled with my bestie. He was surprised at our affection and asked the next day if we were dating. Lol, no.
I remember making a Facebook post on the community page regarding the oversaturated commercialization of spirituality. Didn’t anyone else have a problem with this? I just needed to connect with someone over the hypocrisy of first world North American and European foreigners building luxurious healing centers in a poor economy. The disparity of inequality is felt wherever you walk. I happened to be fresh out of a Decolonizing Hearts, Minds, and Movement retreat so the topic of social justice was at the forefront of my mind.
I feel to mention though that my views and beliefs have changed significantly since.There are amazing people on the lake who are doing their very best to pour into the local economy. It’s really easy to judge from the outside without meeting the key players on this mystical Lake who are driving forward powerful healing work with integrity and personal responsibility to whose land they’re on. If you stay on the surface, you’ll get surface. If you go deep, you’ll see more of the undercurrents. So remember friends, judging gets us nowhere. We’re all learning and walking each other home.
Yagé (Ayahuasca) was the first medicine I consecrated years ago in my homeland, and I was ready to call it in. I told no one. Things at the time were getting weird. COVID started to run its plague. Rumors had it that all the festival hippie travelers were contaminating the lake. Anyhow, my 2 months of volunteering were up. I moved to my own place in a communal space 5 minutes up the Valley. I told the Universe I was ready for Ayahuasca. Low and behold, a few days later, the charlatan (who by now has somewhat gained my trust- we’re friends right?) tells me he’s hosting a shaman from Peru the following week. “Do you want to come to the ceremony?” You bet I did.
A few days before the ceremony I met the shaman and his wife who I felt I could trust. They had a sparkle in their eyes. The charlatan told me he’d offer the ceremony and a galactic activation study for a ridiculous price. When he gauged my reaction, he took out a zero from the price for the ceremony. I agreed.
This was a huge red flag. I knew he was trying to see how I reacted to such a high price point. It felt uncomfortable to talk about anything money related. This is where I should have listened to my intuition and called out what I was perceiving.
The night of the ceremony the shaman spoke with me directly and made me feel safe. The charlatan offered his Mayan poncho for me to wear, I agreed. He never asked me for payment upfront. Monetary transactions shouldn’t feel prolonged and confusing.
During the ceremony, because it was his home, the charlatan felt entitled to act out. The medicine itself was strong. There was one point where we were all pretty high flying in the astral realms. When the shaman asked we all come down and connect with the fire, the charlatan refused. He made the group uncomfortable. I won’t share specifics but because I was wearing his clothes and there under his “wing” to put it that way, we were energetically tied. I felt that his process interfered with mine. The morning after the ceremony is when we all received notice that travel restrictions were being enforced globally, indefinitely. Shocker!
The next day I went back to his house, paid him, and confronted him about what I felt during the ceremony. He skillfully changed the topic. In retrospect, I was proud of myself for speaking up but realized I was being gaslit. So, I dropped it. My main focus was on cutting my relationship with him. It felt off, dirty, and unclear.
Now, the reason why I am calling him a charlatan is because he used his spiritual knowledge, power, and influence to reel me in to paying him money for a galactic activation that would change my entire “reality” for the better. Luckily, I said no and began to untie myself from him. Aka cut him out of my life.
In the upcoming weeks I would see him in town drinking. He had a falling out with the shaman over money. Months later I began to share my experience of him with people in the community after I learned of a couple’s experience with him. He had reeled them in, taken them under his wing to learn Mayan “codes,” They were sure that he had staged a robbery. The details aren’t mine to share but the responses I received from community members were, “Oh, yeah he’s known for stealing, lying, and taking advantage of people.”
He’s hiding in plain sight.
So I share my story for mostly young vulnerable seeking travelers to steer clear of healers who have trouble talking about money. Don’t fall for “Galactic activations” or pay high amounts of money to someone who hasn’t been vetted for by various different people. If I could go back, I would have asked different people in the community about this man to avoid the uncomfortable experiences I had engaging with him. I recommend every seeker to work with guides who have reputable reputations instead of jumping into experiences cold turkey like I did. I learned what I needed, thankfully it wasn’t traumatizing, threatening, or abusive.
-Anonymous