What is Andean or Incan Peruvian energy work?
In Western usage, Incan Peruvian energy work usually means healing and ceremonial practices taught by teachers who trained with, or trace their teaching to, paqos (ritual specialists) of the Peruvian Andes. Sessions typically combine work with a person's energy, often with the hands on or above the body, with ceremony, prayer and a relationship with the natural world.
Laura Bass lists training in Incan Peruvian energy work among her complementary trainings, alongside mentorship in chakra balancing in the Four Winds lineage. She keeps this work separate from her psychotherapy practice. The mechanisms these practices describe are not established by scientific evidence, and none of this is a treatment for any physical or mental health condition.
Who are the Q'ero?
The Q'ero are a Quechua-speaking Indigenous people living in high mountain communities in the province of Paucartambo, in the southeast of Peru's Cusco region. In 2008, Peru's then National Institute of Culture delivered a resolution recognizing the Q'ero Nation as part of the country's cultural heritage, describing its religious practices, oral traditions, arts and social organization as expressions with historical continuity.
Western writers have often described the Q'ero as the last of the Inca, or the keepers of an untouched Inca wisdom. That framing is popular in workshop marketing. It is fairer to say that the Q'ero maintain a living Andean tradition, shaped over centuries, including by Catholicism, and that they are a contemporary community rather than a relic.
Core ideas in Andean spirituality
In Andean tradition, the Earth, Pachamama, and the mountain spirits, the apus, are living presences in relationship with people. Paqos prepare offerings, often called despachos, bundles of coca leaves, seeds, sweets and other symbolic items that are burned or buried. The guiding principle is ayni, reciprocity: giving back to the land and to one another.
These are descriptions of a religious tradition, offered with respect. They are not presented here as claims about physics or medicine.
How is Andean energy work taught in the West?
Several Western schools teach practices framed as Andean. One of the best known is The Four Winds Society, founded by Alberto Villoldo, which teaches what it calls shamanic energy medicine. Four Winds presents its teaching as rooted in the traditions of the Q'ero, whom it calls the Laika, and it describes energies in Inka tradition as light, supporting life, or heavy, rather than good or bad.
Its central healing session is the Illumination Process. In Four Winds' description, every person has a Luminous Energy Field containing imprints from past experience, and the Illumination clears heavy energy connected to one issue and one chakra at a time. Four Winds also teaches the Munay-Ki, a series of rites it presents as drawing on Andean initiations.
A note on blended traditions
Western Andean-inspired energy work is often a blend. The Illumination Process, for example, works with the chakras, a concept that comes from Indian Tantric traditions rather than the Andes. Blending is common in modern spirituality, and noticing it is not a criticism. It simply helps to know that a Western workshop and a paqo's practice in a Q'ero village are related but not the same thing. The page on chakra balancing traces the Indian side of that story.
What might an Andean energy session involve?
Sessions vary by teacher. In the Four Winds approach, a practitioner typically begins with a conversation about the issue the client brings, then works with the client lying clothed on a table, assessing and clearing the chakra the practitioner associates with that issue. Four Winds practitioners also work with a mesa, a cloth bundle of stones called khuyas that, in the Four Winds description, students receive during rites in their training, and some sessions close with a short ceremony.
Other teachers emphasize ceremony over hands-on work, such as a despacho offering made together outdoors. If you are considering a session, ask the practitioner to describe exactly what they will do, whether touch is involved, and what they believe the session does and does not do.
Is there a debate about Western adaptations?
Yes, and it is worth knowing about. Some scholars argue that when Western wellness practitioners adopt Indigenous healing traditions, including Q'ero ceremonies, they can turn living religious practice into a commodity and weaken Indigenous communities' control over their own traditions. Sociologist Catherine Tan makes this argument in a 2026 study of American shamanic practitioners published in the British Journal of Sociology.
Others, including some Andean teachers and their Western students, see the teaching as something offered willingly, and a number of practitioners Tan interviewed described their Q'ero teachers as wanting the teachings shared. This page does not settle the question. If this work interests you, it is reasonable to ask any teacher about their lineage, their relationship with the communities it comes from, and how those communities benefit.
What does the evidence say?
There is no dedicated body of scientific research on Andean energy work. It belongs to the broader family of biofield or energy therapies, and for that family the evidence is limited. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states, for example, that there is no scientific evidence for the energy field thought to play a role in Reiki, and the same applies to the Luminous Energy Field in the Four Winds teaching.
Some people value Andean-inspired work as a spiritual practice that connects them with nature, gratitude and ceremony. That can be meaningful without being a health treatment. It should never replace medical or psychological care. For a wider view, see what energy healing is and how to choose an energy healer.
Common questions
Is Andean energy work the same as ayahuasca ceremonies?
No. Q'ero and other highland Andean traditions described on this page work with offerings, prayer, ritual and energy practices, not plant medicines such as ayahuasca, which is associated with the Amazon lowlands. Western Andean-inspired schools such as the Four Winds Society present their core healing work as hands-on or hands-above energy practice and ceremony.
What did Laura train in?
Laura's complementary trainings, as listed on her About page, include Incan Peruvian energy work and mentorship in chakra balancing in the lineage of the Four Winds. The specific program and teachers are details to confirm with her. Whether she currently offers Andean energy work, and in what form, is also a question to ask her directly.
Is Andean energy work a treatment for anxiety or trauma?
No. It is a spiritual and complementary practice, and its mechanisms are not established by scientific evidence. It is not a treatment for anxiety, trauma, depression or any other condition. If you are struggling, please talk with a mental health professional or your doctor. At Laura Bass Counseling, psychotherapy is a separate pathway from complementary work.
What is a despacho?
In Andean tradition, a despacho is a ceremonial offering bundle, carefully arranged from coca leaves, seeds, sweets, flowers and other symbolic items, and then burned or buried as a gift to Pachamama and the apus. It expresses ayni, reciprocity. Western Andean-inspired workshops often include despacho ceremonies, sometimes led by visiting paqos.