HAPE: A Gentle Introduction to Plant Medicine
Not everyone is ready for ayahuasca. And that's okay.
Plant medicine comes in many forms, and each medicine has its own wisdom, its own way of working with you. If you're curious about plant medicine but feel called to something gentler, something you can control more easily, something that won't necessarily crack you open with a massive ego death—let me introduce you to Hape (pronounced ha-PAY, also spelled Rapé).
Hape is a sacred snuff medicine from the Amazon rainforest. It's insufflated—meaning it's puffed into the nose using a special pipe. And while it might sound intense, it's actually one of the most beautiful, gentle, and grounding plant medicines I've worked with.
Let me share with you what Hape is, how it works, and how you can work with it sacredly.
WHAT IS HAPE?
At its base, Hape is made from Mapacho—the sacred, unadulterated tobacco native to the Amazon rainforest.
This isn't the tobacco you find in cigarettes. This is pure, sacred tobacco that has been used by indigenous tribes for thousands of years. It's considered the oldest plant energy of the forest, the wisest, the one that holds the deepest connection to the earth.
When Mapacho is paired with other plants—like cacao, mint, lavender, or various Amazonian herbs—the energy of those plants becomes present in the medicine as well.
If this sounds mystical to you, stay with me. Because when we look at everything from the perspective of greater consciousness—that everything is connected, everything is created from the same source energy—then we can understand that the same energy that created the cosmos also created the mountains, the plants, and us.
We are all one.
The plants just remember who and what they are. And we've forgotten.
Hape helps us remember.
HOW DOES IT WORK? (THE MEDICAL SIDE)
Let me put on my nurse practitioner hat for a moment and explain what's happening medically when you use Hape.
When the medicine is insufflated through the nose, it connects directly to the sphenopalatine ganglion (also called the pterygopalatine ganglion)—a nerve bundle that originates from the brain and branches down to meet in the back of the nasal passage.
This nerve bundle is directly connected to your brain, your nervous system, and your energetic field.
So when the plant medicine enters through the nose, it's not just sitting in your sinuses. It's connecting to your entire nervous system, your brain, your energy body.
From an energetic perspective, the plants act as a frequency that connects to your own energetic field. They remind your body of spaces you've forgotten. They open pathways that have been closed. They ground you when you're living too much in your head.
Different Hape blends work with different chakra systems depending on the plants present:
Some open the third eye (pineal gland), enhancing intuition and connection to the mystical
Some work with the heart chakra (like cacao-based Hape), opening the heart and emotional body
Some are deeply grounding, bringing you back into your body when you feel scattered or ungrounded
(Side note: The pineal gland actually contains calcite microcrystals that vibrate at specific frequencies during meditation and altered states—this is part of Dr. Joe Dispenza's work on consciousness. These crystals send out signals that connect us to the mystical, unseen aspects of reality that we can feel and access.)
HOW DO YOU USE IT?
Hape is administered using one of two types of pipes:
Kuripe (pronounced koo-REE-pay) - A V-shaped self-applicator pipe that you use on yourself
Tepi (pronounced teh-PEE) - A longer blow pipe used when someone else administers the medicine to you
I personally use a Kuripe so I can work with the medicine on my own, in my own sacred space.
Here's how I work with it:
MY HAPE PRACTICE (A SACRED PROTOCOL)
1. SOURCE THE MEDICINE SACREDLY
I purchase my Hape from Four Visions Market because they work directly with indigenous tribes and give back to the communities that create these medicines. When you source plant medicine, it matters where it comes from and how it was created.
2. CREATE SACRED SPACE
You can use plant medicine at a rave, with friends, in a loud chaotic environment—and you might get a hallucinogenic experience or a fun time. But to me, that's not honoring the medicine.
When I work with any plant medicine—including Hape—I treat it as sacred. I honor it as I honor myself.
I sit in a quiet space. I close my eyes. I take a few deep breaths to center myself.
3. HONOR THE MEDICINE AND THE ELEMENTS
Before I use the medicine, I hold it in one hand and my Kuripe in the other. I breathe and focus on connecting to both—connecting to my hands, connecting to the elements, connecting to the medicine.
Then I give thanks:
I thank the medicine and the spirits of the plants that are present to help me
I thank and honor those who created the medicine—the indigenous people who harvested, prepared, and blessed it with their love, their chanting, their time
I thank the elements: the earth that grew the medicine, the water that nourished it, the fire that was used in its creation, the air that carried it
I thank the consciousness that created all of this—the same consciousness that created me
This isn't just ritual. This is honoring the interconnectedness of all things. When I honor the medicine, I honor myself. When I honor the elements, I honor the consciousness that created me.
4. SET YOUR INTENTION
Before I use the medicine, I set an intention. This can be:
"My intention is for you to open and show me areas I don't see."
"I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm open and curious."
"I'm struggling with [specific issue]. Can you show me what I'm not willing to see?"
"I'm just curious to know your medicine. Can you give me a little taste of what you offer?"
The intention doesn't have to be profound. It just has to be honest.
5. USE THE MEDICINE
I take a dime-sized amount of Hape powder in my hand. I load about half of that into my Kuripe.
Then:
I take a deep breath in and hold it
I place the Kuripe in one nostril (with the other end in my mouth) and give a quick, sharp puff
I hold my nose and breathe in and out through my mouth a couple times to let the sensation settle
Then I slowly start breathing through my nose as some of the snuff goes down into my throat
Sometimes there's coughing or a little gagging—this is part of the medicine working, part of the shifting and release of emotions (just like the purging and dry heaving in ayahuasca and other stronger medicines, this physical release is the body letting go of stuck emotions)
After a few minutes, once it's settled, I repeat with the other nostril
It will be intense at first. Your eyes might water. Your sinuses might burn a little. You might cough or gag. That's normal. That's the medicine working. Just breathe through it.
6. SIT WITH THE MEDICINE
After I've administered the Hape, I sit in meditation for as long as feels necessary—sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes much longer.
Sometimes I listen to a guided meditation I've chosen ahead of time. Sometimes I just play soft music in the background. Sometimes I sit in silence.
I just breathe. I allow. I listen.
The medicine will do what it needs to do.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Hape is gentle compared to ayahuasca or psilocybin. You're not going to have massive visions or ego death (usually). But you will feel something.
You might feel:
Grounded - like you've come back into your body after living in your head
Open - like your heart or your third eye has expanded
Clear - like mental fog has lifted
Emotional - tears might come, or laughter, or release
Connected - to yourself, to the earth, to something greater
And in the days after, you might notice things you didn't notice before. Patterns. Insights. Shifts in how you see yourself or your life.
This is the integration.
Just like with ayahuasca, the medicine doesn't end when the ceremony ends. The medicine continues to work with you as you integrate what it showed you.
IF THIS SOUNDS CRAZY TO YOU, I GET IT
If you've never heard of this, it might sound completely out there. Blowing tobacco up your nose to connect to plant spirits and open your chakras? I know how it sounds.
But here's what I invite you to consider:
Everything in this universe is connected.
Everything is created from the same source energy—the energy that created the cosmos, the mountains, the plants, and you.
We are all made of the same stuff. We are all connected.
The plants just remember who and what they are. They remember their connection to source, to the earth, to the whole.
And we've forgotten.
Plant medicine—whether it's ayahuasca, psilocybin, or Hape—helps us remember.
It's not about figuring something out. It's not about fixing what's broken.
It's about releasing the parts of you that thought you were different, that thought you weren't whole, that thought you weren't the light that you are.
A GENTLE INTRODUCTION
If you're curious about plant medicine but don't know where to start, or if you're uncomfortable with the idea of a deep, intense journey like ayahuasca, Hape is a beautiful place to begin.
It's gentle. It's controllable (you decide how much to use). It's grounding. And it's a beautiful way to start building a relationship with plant medicine.
You don't have to go deep right away. You can dip your toe in. You can say hello to the medicine and see how it feels.
And if you feel called to go deeper later, the medicine will be there.
WE'RE SO QUICK TO REACH FOR PHARMACEUTICALS
As a nurse practitioner, I see it all the time. We're so quick to reach for pharmaceuticals, for synthetic solutions, for things created in a lab.
And sometimes those are necessary. I'm not anti-medicine.
But we've forgotten that the earth has been providing medicine for us since the beginning of time.
Plant medicine is real medicine. It's ancient medicine. It's sacred medicine.
And it works.
Not in the way pharmaceuticals work—by suppressing symptoms or altering brain chemistry artificially.
But by reminding you of who you are. By opening pathways that have been closed. By helping you release what you were never meant to hold.
Hape is one of those medicines.
And if you're curious, I invite you to explore it.
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ???
I'd love to guide you through this if you're interested. If you have questions about Hape, about how to use it, about where to source it, about what to expect—please reach out to me here on social media.
This medicine has been a beautiful part of my own healing journey, and I'm honored to share it with others who feel called to it.
The earth has given us so much.
The plants remember who they are.
And they're here to help us remember too.
Dr. Miriam Zerio is a Nurse Practitioner specializing in working with individuals with autism, holistic healing, and bioidentical hormones in the Scottsdale area. She is also a spiritual medium and does intuitive energy work. She works with plant medicine, consciousness work, and integrative approaches—both directly with patients and through her work outside of clinical practice. Her calling is to not only see everybody as whole, but to guide them in remembering and finding their own wholeness.