Huin Kuin Wisdom: Plant Medicine, Zen, and the Spirit of Hape with Amir

Connecting to the Spirit: A Journey into Plant Medicine and Sacred Hapé with Amir

In this episode of Cura Medicina, host Derek sits down with Amir, a dedicated medicine carrier and the creator of Jaguar Whisper. Amir shares his profound, decades-long journey of self-discovery—stretching from the mountains of the Himalayas to the deep jungles of the Amazon. Together, they explore the ancient traditions of the Huni Kuin tribe, the true spiritual essence of the sacred tobacco blend known as Hapé (rapé), and what it truly means to carry and serve plant medicine with absolute reverence and integrity.

From the Military to the Mountains: Recreating the Self

Amir’s journey began under intense circumstances, growing up in Israel and undergoing mandatory military service. Facing a turning point that many young Israelis confront, he chose a path of deep personal exploration, buying a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia and eventually finding his way to India in the mid-1990s.

Reflecting on how the military environment shapes a person, Amir notes:

“The army either make you or break you… For me I saw it a bit different. It’s either make you kind of a robot or it breaks you. It breaks you by making you a robot or make you by allowing you to create yourself and recreate yourself.”

In the peaceful stillness of a small Himalayan village, Amir experienced a profound shift where time seemed to stop entirely. While others rushed to see the sights, he felt a powerful pull to simply exist and turn inward.

“There’s so many things that everybody told me that you have to see. But the message I received is I don’t need to see anything. I just need to stay. That’s what I need. That’s the time that I have to listen to myself and what I need now is this sitting quiet.”

The Call of the Jungle: First Encounters in South America

After years of deepening his meditation practice, exploring Zen, and navigating the early psychedelic movement of the 90s, Amir felt a distinct call to South America. In 1998, long before the internet made plant medicine globally famous, he traveled through Ecuador and Colombia seeking the grandfather medicine, San Pedro (Aguacolla), and the grandmother medicine, Ayahuasca.

Navigating regions of Colombia considered dangerous at the time, his trust in the flow of life led him straight to his first profound all-night ceremony in the mountains. Though he was told the medicine felt it was “too early” for him to fully step into a lifelong path of leadership, the seed was firmly planted. He spent the next decade integrated into the West, studying filmmaking and refining his focus, waiting until he reached the maturity required to handle the medicine’s immense force.

Becoming a Messenger for the Huni Kuin

Amir’s path came full circle at around age 40, when the Huni Kuin tribe unexpectedly found him while he was living back in India. Brought over by a mutual friend to share their culture, he was completely captivated by the tribe’s music and presence.

“That night, I’m with the camera, I experienced something that I never felt before when they open their mouths, when they start to chant, when they start to sing. So I understood at that moment what does he mean chant, because I was all enchanted.”

This encounter led to a direct invitation to travel deep into the Brazilian Amazon to document the tribe’s elders, babies, and ancestral ways. During a 15-day festival featuring consecutive nightly ceremonies, Amir immersed himself in the forest, eventually capturing stunning portraits and creating the widely celebrated YouTube video Amazon Calling, which introduced millions worldwide to the beautiful, pure frequency of the Huni Kuin.

Sharing his admiration for their way of life, Amir reflects:

“The simplicity and the profoundness of them, the way of the living in a tribe… how they raise their kids, how they take care of the elders, how they take care of their tradition… The elder, which is very important because we all have our own elders and our whole family, they are the ones that are celebrated the most.”

Understanding Hapé: A Spirit in a Bottle

A major focus of the episode dives into the sacred medicine Hapé—a masterfully ground blend of organic, sun-dried jungle tobacco and the clean ash of ancient forest trees (such as Tsunu, Kumaru, or Murici). Unlike commercialized cigarettes, which Amir points out are manipulated for profit and stripped of their spiritual essence, authentic Hapé is a living, intentional frequency.

“Happe is a live spirit, and it’s not just one thing. The name Happe is a combination of different spirits that together create this frequency. The spirit of tobacco… is a strong masculine energy. Determination, clarity, grounding… each tree carries its own frequency, its own spirit, and it’s a very old and wise spirit.”

For people living in the modern Western world, Hapé serves as an incredible tool for energetic resets, clearing stagnant emotions, grounding after a stressful day, or clearing space between client sessions.

“We work with a lot of people. And many of us are body workers or therapists… and everybody carries energy. In order to be available for the next person, I don’t want to carry the energy of the person before… I want to reset. Hape is very good in reset… It helps you to remove and move energy that you don’t need anymore. You put that intention and send it out.”

Amir and Derek also discuss how Hapé acts as a beautiful ally in relationships, allowing partners to call a “pause” during an argument, clear the charged energy independently, and return to a space of heart-centered communication.

The Integrity of the Medicine Carrier

Because Hapé acts as an energetic sponge, the purity of its making, handling, and serving is paramount. Through his project, Jaguar Whisper, Amir ensures every batch is fresh, sourced directly via fair trade from the indigenous makers he knows personally, and kept free from commercial taint.

For those looking to step into serving others, Amir shares a vital word of caution on keeping the ego out of the way:

The Ultimate Reminder: Life is Great

Amir leaves the listeners with a beautiful, grounding perspective on the core philosophy shared by the indigenous peoples of the rainforest. Plant medicines are not tools we use simply to treat life as a baseline hardship that constantly needs fixing—they are invitations to celebrate the baseline joy of existence.

“Life is great. That’s the main message. That’s the main message if you ask the jungle people, the tribe… underneath and above everything, life is great. And when we do happe or ayahuasca or all the different medicine, it’s not because life is so hard and difficult that we have to fix life… whatever we take part of is just to connect us and re-remind us that life is great.”

Listen: Apple | Spotify | Youtube | Amazon Podcasts or on this website.