Ancestors with Mindahi Bastida and Dr. Joe Tafur

In these times of transition—"the dawning of a new sun”—the ancestors are here working hard to maintain balance and harmony in the world. Ancestors mean more than simply generations of ancestors who have come before us. Humanity is the youngest of all our ancestors. What does this mean? Author, Mindahi Bastida, explains, “We are not alone, and we have never been alone. Our ancestors are speaking to us, watching us, and guiding us. When you go to a place where you really feel that connection, you need to follow your feelings and let that connection unfold. You can then receive what is meant to be received by your body, your soul, and your spirit.” Join us with Bastida, and integrative family physician, Dr. Joe Tafur, and we explore Ancestors, and what they teach us about humanity, our future, and our potential. 

ABOUT OUR GUESTS:

MINDAHI BASTIDA is the author of ANCESTORS: Divine Remembrances of Lineage, Relations and Sacred Sites, a book in the Common Sentience series. He is the Director of the Original Nations Program of the Fountain, a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, and an Otomi-Toltec Ritual Ceremony Officer. He is a consultant with UNESCO on issues related to sacred sites and bioculture. Mindahi has also served as Director of the Original Caretakers Program at the Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York; and General Coordinator of the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico.

Born in Tultepec, Lerma, Mexico, Mindahi holds a Doctorate of Rural Development from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and an M.A. in Political Science from Carleton University, Canada. He has written and published extensively on biodiversity, Indigenous knowledge and related topics, and has taught on subjects ranging from ecofeminism, sustainability, ethics and earth spirituality to Indigenous voices, communitarian links and intellectual property rights. Mindahi frequently lectures on Indigenous Peoples-Nation State relationships, intercultural education, sustainability and Indigenous peoples, cosmologies and philosophies of indigenous peoples, and biocultural sacred sites. He is also deeply involved with the Biocultural Sacred Sites for Humanity, Original Peoples proposal, UNESCO, the Timekeepers Program and the Process of Unification in charge of the Latin American and the Caribbean region. Mindahi is also President of the Mexico Council of Sustainable Development, a member of the Steering Committee of the Indigenous Peoples’ Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative, and he has served as a delegate to several commissions and summits on Indigenous rights and the environment.

JOE TAFUR MD’s interest in complementary and alternative approaches to health management took root in 1997, at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. It deepened during medical school at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), continued during his Family Medicine residency at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and has become the primary focus of his medical career.

After his residency, Dr. Tafur completed a two-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry. While working as a Family Physician in the U.S., he began exploring indigenous medicine in South America. In 2011, he helped to found Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, a traditional healing center in the Peruvian Upper Amazon. At Nihue Rao, Dr. Tafur underwent traditional apprenticeship in Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine and Shipibo curanderismo.

In 2017, he published his book The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine. Highly-acclaimed with a foreword written by Dr. Gabor Mate, the book describes Dr. Tafur’s unique journey into spiritual healing work, his years of study in the jungle forest, and the power of nature to heal complaints that have widely evaded Western medical approaches.

Together with a team of world-class colleagues, Dr. Tafur started Modern Spirit, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to demonstrating the value of spiritual healing in modern healthcare. In addition to education and community-building projects, the organization is currently focused on the Modern Spirit Epigenetics Project, a groundbreaking and now funded substudy of the MAPS MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy research trial. 

In 2019, Dr. Tafur began to work with his colleagues Dr. Amalia Baca ND and Ray Baca through the Ocotillo Center for Integrative Medicine. He is now also working with Daytryp Health as an advisor and starting work with Ketamine-Assisted Therapy.

Dr. Tafur also continues to lead Journeys to