Facilitators

Lead Facilitator + Lead Peer Support Specialist + NLP Life Coach

Bufo + Changa + Mushrooms + Peer Support Specialist

Michael Manion served a total of 22 years between active duty and reserve time and also served as a federal employee with the VA for 8 years. The years of service that included multiple duty stations, an OEF deployment, and plenty of moral injury in attempting to quantify the true intention and motivation for war and various other parts of a system that ultimately does not serve anyone other than those who created it. (4) years ago, he discovered plant medicine and bufo alvarius and knew that these medicines and alternative healing modalities would make a positive impact on the mental health crisis being faced by veterans and Amercans in general. He knew that these medicines and therapies worked to help those who are struggling with trauma, addiction, depression or any other failure to thrive. Healing Frontline Heroes was created to share the profound healing opportunities that exist with plant medicine and to share the beautiful culture of the Seri Comcaac Nation with those who are embarking on their journey to personal healing and divinity.

Michael Manion

Edgar Montijo

Founder/Owner of Bufo Alvarius Sonora Toad Sanctuary + Co-Lead Facilitator

Ayahuasca + Bufo + Changa + Kambo + Mushrooms + Peyote

Edgar is of Yaqui lineage and he is the founder of Bufo Alvarius Sonora, one of only a few sanctuary models in Sonora. Edgar has been working with the bufo alvarius toads for more than (5) years and has extensive knowledge regarding the life cycle of the animals and the ethical collection of the sacrament. Edgard has been involved with plant medicines since 2017 and is a facilitator of anahuasca, kambo, bufo alvarius mushrooms and changa. Edgar routinely hosts and attends medicine ceremonies and gatherings of healers from all around Mexico, and has a network of indigenous healers and medicine people who serve a variety of medicines and provide various alternative healing modalities.

Comcaac (Seri) Indigenous Facilitator

Bufo + Commander of the Seri Defense Force & Emergency Medicine

Gil comes from a family lineage of healers as a member of the Barnett Clan. Gil has been working with plant medicines and alternative healing modalities for more than (10) years. He is also the Commandant of the Seri Defense Force, where his duties include the oversight of daily operations conducted to provide safety and security for the Comcaac Nation and the people of Seri community. Gil is available for individual instruction with bufo alvarius.

Gil Barnett

Damarys Barnett

Comcaac (Seri) Indigenous Facilitator

Bufo + Kambo + Sonoran Desert Herbs

Damarys is the wife of Gil Barnett and a desert herbalist, kambo facilitator, energy healer and bufo alvarius facilitator. The ceremonies conducted by Gil and Damarys provide the perfect balance of divine feminine and divine masculine energy to provide a heart-opening and deep healing experience. In our sequence of ceremony days in Punta Chueca, every guest will do their initial bufo journey with Gil and Damarys to set the frequency of love and expansion. Damarys is also available for individual instruction in Kambo and herbalism.

Comcaac (Seri) Indigenous Facilitator

Bufo + Sonoran Desert Herbs

Luis is the medicine mentor of Michael Manion and host of his spirit walk, which was completed on Isla Tiburon in 2022. Luis is a medicine man from the shark and mountain clan of the Comcaac Nation and a member of the Comcaac Nation Tribal Elder Council. He was taught the medicine of plants, songs, spiritual healings and other ceremonies from his grandparents, who were also tribal healers. Luis brings a very ancestral experience to each ceremony and his presence and connection to the medicine that he serves. Luis has been facilitating bufo alvarius ceremonies in Punta Chueca for more than (10) years, serving hundreds of people from all over the world.

Luis Lopez Barnett

Ary Gutierrez

Medicine Facilitator

Mushrooms + Mussage + San Pedro + Raiki/Energy Work + Temazcal

Arry has been working with plant medicine and energy healing modalities to include massage, reiki, and herbal remedies for more than (10) years. Arry facilitates plant medicine ceremonies to include temazcal, mushrooms, ayahuasca and bufo alvarius. She is a native of Guadalajara and performs ceremonies on a regular basis in various locations around Mexico and is a part of the Ayahuasca Healing the World collective.

Medicine Facilitator

Hape/Rapeh/Rapé

Adriane has been on this journey of self-discovery her whole life. She always had deep questions about life and is very intuitive. She was born and raised in Brazil until she graduated high school. Her grandma was a shaman/curandeira woman back in Brazil, and being into the lineage, Adriane was exposed to grandma ways of living. Adriane is a certified Body Talk practitioner and uses biofeedback to read the body when facilitating Hape circle.

Adriane started to work with Hape two years ago. She started to find answers to her questions and noticed a big shift in her stress and anxiety using the medicine. Adriane explains that intention is all. If you have a clear intention and pray to the medicine before receiving it, it can bring amazing insights and answers to your questions.

What is Hape after all: Hape is a sacred shamanic snuff medicine with profound healing effects. Hape is made from different medicinal plants for different purposes – to induce visions, increase energy, and is very grounding. It helps with stress and anxiety.

As a Brazilian, this medicine calls me deeply as a medicine carrier. The medicine runs thru my soul and represents my culture and lineage. When in ceremony I represent the jungle and the Brazilian people of the forest. The hape blow represents the wind of the jungle.

Adriane Lobo

Ernesto "Eneas" Angeles Hernandez

Medicine Facilitator

Peyote + Anahuasca + Mushrooms + Bufo + Temezcal

The CORAZON DE MARAKAME project was born after realizing that the only thing I needed as a human being was to find myself again. But in order to reconnect, I had to go through processes of fragmentation and defragmentation that gave me greater knowledge of what I needed for my self-healing and from there arises the firm intention of bringing medicine to people who feel the call of search for oneself, why, like me, many of us go through life broken without realizing it, it is one’s duty to use the tools at our disposal such as entheogenic medicines.

I found in these medicines my most beautiful and best version and I felt the responsibility to share this memory: “everything lies within ourselves, we just have to look for it.”

4 years of experience sharing ceremonies in Xochimilco (CDMX), Wirikuta, Cancún, Guadalajara, Campeche and other states of the Mexican Republic.

Practitioner of vision quest and sun dance.

Medicine Facilitator

Tepezcohuite (Anahuasca) – Bufo Alvarius – Teonanacatl – Xanga – Tambo

Alberto, from the hottest city in the world Mexicali Baja California, man of the desert, walking the path of the Coyote with his medicine since 2018.

He shares medicine in his hometown, always well accompanied by his wife and medicine woman Karla Martinez, together they share ceremony, song, word and fire.

Alberto, and just like the Coyote and his joy, seek to transmit confidence and freedom to all living beings, with Native American singing.

For 4 years Alberto has shared Men’s Circles with Medicine from Tepezcohuite, Bufo, Teonanacatl and Xanga. Working and creating alliances with brothers and sisters throughout Baja and several cities in Mexico-USA.

Alberto Marquez

Core Team

Founder + Co-owner + Executive Director + Lead Facilitator + Lead Peer Support Specialist + Integration Special + NLP Life Coach

Michael Manion

Edgar Montijo

Founder/Owner of Bufo Alvarius Toad Sanctuary + Co-Lead Facilitator

Program Liaison + Peer Support Specialist

Daniel is a native of Sonora, Mexico, and has been working with plant medicines for the last (7) years. Daniel provides invaluable support to the program and the guests by sharing his extensive knowledge of all things Sonora and working directly with our guests to provide the most thorough and complete healing and connective experience possible. He is also a major bridge between Healing Frontline Heroes and the local communities we work in. Daniel has been working with bufo alvarius and the toad sanctuary and also has extensive knowledge regarding the life cycle and ethical collection of the sacrament.

Facilitators

Michael Manion

Edgar Montijo

Gil Barnett

Damarys Barnett

Luis Lopez Barnett

Ary Gutierrez

Adriane Lobo

Ernesto "Eneas" Angeles Hernandez

Alberto Marquez

Core Team

Michael Manion

Edgar Montijo

Daniel Castellon

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