Roman Hanis has devoted his life to learning the ancient healing ways of indigenous cultures while working to preserve the rainforest and its spiritual heritage of sacred medicinal plants. Seeing the vital role that ancient cultural practices can play in today's world, Roman honors and shares their value and wisdom through his work in community projects, healing retreats and educational workshops in both Peru and the U.S.

He is a certified Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner in Peru, and studied the fundamentals of TCM and acupuncture as an apprentice under the director of the Open International Institute of Oriental Medicine. In 2002, Roman was fortunate enough to be cured of a terminal genetic illness, Crohn's disease. In 2004, he was pledged as a healer-curandero by the Whitoto and Yahua tribes and has served the international community as a medicine man ever since. www.paititi-institute.org