Jivaro babies are fed hallucinogenics to help them enter this real world. Once acquired, the arutam exists eternally. A third soul, call miusak , is linked to the acquired soul or arutam . The arutam gives a person power, intelligence, and self-confidence, but most importantly, it gives one eternal life. While the arutam is in the body, it is impossible for one to die to be killed.
Death comes only when the arutam is away from the body, as in dreams.
If a person with arutam is killed, the acquired soul forms the miusak to avenge the death. Ordinary deaths of old age or disease do not give rise to miusak . On arriving home with the shrunken heads, three tsanta feasts and rituals are held. During these rituals it is believed that the captured soul of the shrunken head emits power which is transmitted to others. It increases productivity in gardening and hunting.