In 2002, we founded the ethnopsychological travelers club «Odisseia» to organize and conduct unique journeys where the process of learning happens in multiple dimensions, both externally and internally. We came up with a special format of open expeditions that anyone seeking a unique experience and knowledge can join.
For many years, our club has been organizing and conducting such expeditions and journeys in the most beautiful corners of Latin America. A whole community of people has formed who share our travels and explorations with us. It consists of people who, once feeling a special longing for the new, distant, and unknown, contacted us and asked us to help them fulfill this dream. Many of these people have become our friends.
In our work, we adhere to the principle of openness. But life itself teaches us selectivity. Many people can try traveling with our help, but not everyone becomes a regular participant in our club’s expeditions. To do this, one needs to have a special predisposition. The number of those interested is growing, but we have to decline some people, especially if we see that their motivation is not entirely pure. The fact is, we practically live in continuous travel. And when a space becomes your home, you care about keeping it clean. You want to be surrounded by people who are pleasant to you, who share your interests and values in life. However, we remain open to those who want to try for the first time. We trust in existence, which brings many wonderful people our way, with whom we are always ready to share the joys of discovery in our journeys.
The History of the «Odisseia» Club’s Formation
It all began with our desire to explore new countries, unknown cultures and traditions, and to discover ourselves in a new environment, in a new space, in an altered reality. This is how we first found ourselves in Peru. This is how we first experienced Ayahuasca shamanic ceremonies with authentic shamans. We were immediately captivated by this country: its beautiful nature, its multifaceted culture, and its kind people. The study of shamanic traditions in Latin America was initially our top priority.
Our sincere desire for knowledge and perhaps a great deal of luck brought us, at the beginning of this century, to a person who had long studied shamanism in South America. He became our perfect guide in our first expeditions to Peru and Mexico. Maximilian Erdelyi—a close friend and the person who introduced us to extraordinary shamans. Looking back, we realize that only thanks to meeting him and his help did we avoid many serious dangers that people face when seeking such experiences without good guides. We are deeply grateful to him for this. Maki introduced us to a pristine pure source, to a beautiful mystery that miraculously survived to this day. And we were ready to understand the immense value of what we encountered. We allowed it to completely change our lives.
Having worked as guides in the world of shamanism in Latin American countries for all these years, we fully understand the nuances of this work, know many of the pitfalls, and know how to organize a journey so that it becomes one of the most vivid and profound experiences in a person’s life. The confirmation of this is that most of the people who participated in our open expeditions return to us again. Many of them return multiple times, essentially becoming regular participants in our expeditions. This is the result we aimed for when we created the «Odisseia» travelers club.
We organize a variety of trips. We introduce people to the most beautiful and mysterious places in Latin America, traveling in mountains and jungles, deserts, and along the coasts of seas and oceans. We organize trips to pyramids and ancient cities of Mesoamerica, archaeological zones and national parks, to beautiful cities and remote indigenous villages, introducing people to both ancient and modern cultures of the local inhabitants. Since we have been living and continuously traveling in Latin America for all these years, we truly know this region well and can show its best places.
But our main specialization remains the organization and conduct of open shamanic expeditions. This is a much more challenging task, requiring total engagement in the process. It’s not just about guiding people to an unfamiliar place; it’s about guiding them into the mystery of self-discovery, into the world of true magic, where many things are possible. This is delicate psychological work. And it’s a great responsibility. In doing this work, we are responsible to the people we guide and to the shamans to whom we bring people. We strive to make participation in such expeditions a profound therapeutic process for people. This gives them a chance to improve themselves and change their lives and the lives of those close to them for the better.
About Shamans and the People Who Visit Them
We also need to take care of the shamans. Unfortunately, there are very few true shamans left, and most of them are quite elderly. With a few exceptions, nearly all shamanic lineages were interrupted in the twentieth century. Traditions are dying. Some shamans we started working with have already passed away without leaving any disciples. Some are preparing to leave. The situation with shamanism and genuine spiritual traditions on Earth is far from hopeful, despite the many «pop esoterics» predicting the dawn of a new era, the flourishing of universal spirituality, a mass transition to the fourth dimension, and other joys.
In just a few more decades, real masters may only be read about in books. Shamans are not superhumans as people who read various tales might think. They don’t fly or walk through walls; their physical bodies suffer and die just like all other bodies. They are ordinary people but with unique abilities that they have deliberately developed over many years of traditional shamanic practice, with unique knowledge that is hard to even imagine the scope of, and unique experience gained in states of deep trance. But in everyday life, they need support and help just like everyone else, and even more so due to their special openness.
About the Situation on Earth and the Possibilities of Influencing It
Because their world is collapsing. All, without exception, the peoples among whom true shamanism has been preserved are currently in a severe crisis. They are losing their roots, and with that, their culture, traditions, and ancestral knowledge. They are being absorbed by hostile influences of civilization, which they currently cannot resist. Shamans, as the wisest and most sensitive representatives of their peoples, see these processes and suffer greatly because of them.
But amid this grim decline, new sprouts of hope are emerging. And surprisingly, they come from our world, from people who have already experienced the dark side of civilization. These select representatives of civilized society, who clearly understand its shortcomings and limitations and yearn to regain something of immense value that was once lost by us, have made the work of true shamans in demand once again.
We do not encourage people to run away from civilization, move to wild places, or abandon all modern conveniences. We are not proponents of the currently fashionable downshifting trend. We offer people the opportunity to establish connections with pure sources preserved in the untouched places of the planet, to occasionally touch their purity and power, and to bring this beauty into the world we live in without completely changing their lifestyle. For some, these sources may be special sacred places or wise people they can meet on their journey. Most of our travelers are socially active, creative people who, gaining new knowledge and energy, are capable of channeling it into positive changes in their surrounding world, on the level of their family, friends, company, or even the country, and so on.
The reality is that the fate of our world is decided by people from big cities. These people also determine whether the wild nature of the Amazon and other beautiful, pristine places still existing on the planet will be preserved. Simply fleeing to these places won’t save them. We need to work with the consciousness of people living in civilization. This is how we see the situation.