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Shaman, Healer, Sage
Combining elements of Andrew Weil's SPONTANEOUS HEALING and Carolyn Myss's ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT with a concept all its own, Alberto Villoldo's remarkable book, Shaman, Healer, Sage demonstrates the healing power of energy medicine - a tradition practised in the Americas for more than 5,000 years - which is finally being recognized today by the medical establishment.
As he explores such subjects as the Luminous Energy Field that surrounds our bodies, Villoldo shows us how, by learning to see and influence the imprints of disease on this aura of energy, we can discover not only how to heal ourselves and others, but prevent illness as well. Here too, he explores the subject of life beyond death, navigating this unseen world with the knowledge of a scientist and the wisdom of a shamanic healer.
Classically trained as a medical anthropologist and a foremost teacher of the shamanic techniques of the Inkas, among whose descendants he has studied for more than twenty-five years, Villoldo weaves together a host of illuminating stories and exercises to provide an accessible, practical, and revolutionary programme of healing.
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 19, 2000
550 people are currently reading
3042 people want to read
About the author
Alberto Villoldo
71 books355 followersBy his mid-20s Alberto Villoldo was the youngest clinical professor at San Francisco State University. He was directing his own laboratory, the Biological Self-Regulation Lab, investigating how energy medicine and visualization could change the chemistry of the brain.
One day in his biology laboratory, Alberto realized that his investigation had to get bigger instead of smaller; Alberto needed to find a system larger than the neural networks of the brain. The microscope was the wrong instrument to answer the questions he was asking. Many others were already studying the hardware – Alberto Villoldo wanted to learn to re-program the SYSTEM. Anthropological stories hinted that there were people around the globe who claimed to know such things, including the Inka in Peru, the few remaining “shamans” in today’s modern civilization.
As he did initial research into the Inka, Alberto decided that he needed to personally investigate the roots of the Inka civilization itself to collect the vestiges of a 5,000-year-old energy medicine known for healing through Spirit and light.
A few weeks later, knowing this investigation was not going to be a “part time” pastime or a brief sabbatical for a few weeks’ time, Alberto Villoldo resigned his post at the university.
University colleagues thought Alberto Villoldo was absolutely mad.
Not to be dissuaded, Alberto Villoldo traded his laboratory for a pair of hiking boots and a ticket to the Amazon. He was determined to learn from researchers whose vision had not been confined to the lens of a microscope, from people whose body of knowledge encompassed more than the measurable, material world that Alberto had been taught was the ONLY reality. He wanted to meet the people who sensed the spaces between things and perceived the luminous strands that animate all life.
Scattered throughout the remnants of this ancient Amazonian empire were a number of sages or “Earth Keepers” who remembered the ancient ways. Alberto traveled through countless villages and hamlets and met with scores of medicine men and women. The lack of a written body of knowledge meant that every village had brought its own flavor and style to the healing practices that still survived.
For more than 10 years, Alberto Villoldo trained with the jungle medicine people. Along the way, he discovered that his journey into shamanism had actually been guided by his personal desire to become whole.
In healing his own soul wounds, Alberto Villoldo walked the path of the wounded healer and learned to transform old pain, grief, anger and shame to sources of strength and compassion.
From the Amazon, Alberto Villoldo trekked the coast of Peru, from Nazca, the site of gigantic markings on the desert floor that depict power animals and geometric figures, to the fabled Shimbe lagoons in the north, home to the country’s most renowned sorcerers. Then, in Lake Titicaca – the Sea on Top of the World – Alberto Villoldo collected the stories and healing practices of the people from which, the legends say, the Inka were born.
Through it all, Alberto Villoldo discovered a set of sacred technologies that transform the body, heal the soul, and can change the way we live and the way we die.
These ancient teachings and understandings explain that a Luminous Energy Field (LEF), whose source is located in infinity, surrounds us. The LEF acts as a matrix that maintains the health and vibrancy of the physical body.
Today, Alberto Villoldo is a best-selling author and founder in the world-renowned Institute of Energy Medicine, The Four Winds Society. In all of his teachings and writings, Alberto shares the experience of infinity’s easy ability to heal and transform us, to free us from the temporal chains that keep us fettered to illness, old age and disease.
Over the course of two decades with the shamans in the jungles and high mountains of the Andes, Alberto Villoldo would discover that we are more than flesh and bone, that we are a
One day in his biology laboratory, Alberto realized that his investigation had to get bigger instead of smaller; Alberto needed to find a system larger than the neural networks of the brain. The microscope was the wrong instrument to answer the questions he was asking. Many others were already studying the hardware – Alberto Villoldo wanted to learn to re-program the SYSTEM. Anthropological stories hinted that there were people around the globe who claimed to know such things, including the Inka in Peru, the few remaining “shamans” in today’s modern civilization.
As he did initial research into the Inka, Alberto decided that he needed to personally investigate the roots of the Inka civilization itself to collect the vestiges of a 5,000-year-old energy medicine known for healing through Spirit and light.
A few weeks later, knowing this investigation was not going to be a “part time” pastime or a brief sabbatical for a few weeks’ time, Alberto Villoldo resigned his post at the university.
University colleagues thought Alberto Villoldo was absolutely mad.
Not to be dissuaded, Alberto Villoldo traded his laboratory for a pair of hiking boots and a ticket to the Amazon. He was determined to learn from researchers whose vision had not been confined to the lens of a microscope, from people whose body of knowledge encompassed more than the measurable, material world that Alberto had been taught was the ONLY reality. He wanted to meet the people who sensed the spaces between things and perceived the luminous strands that animate all life.
Scattered throughout the remnants of this ancient Amazonian empire were a number of sages or “Earth Keepers” who remembered the ancient ways. Alberto traveled through countless villages and hamlets and met with scores of medicine men and women. The lack of a written body of knowledge meant that every village had brought its own flavor and style to the healing practices that still survived.
For more than 10 years, Alberto Villoldo trained with the jungle medicine people. Along the way, he discovered that his journey into shamanism had actually been guided by his personal desire to become whole.
In healing his own soul wounds, Alberto Villoldo walked the path of the wounded healer and learned to transform old pain, grief, anger and shame to sources of strength and compassion.
From the Amazon, Alberto Villoldo trekked the coast of Peru, from Nazca, the site of gigantic markings on the desert floor that depict power animals and geometric figures, to the fabled Shimbe lagoons in the north, home to the country’s most renowned sorcerers. Then, in Lake Titicaca – the Sea on Top of the World – Alberto Villoldo collected the stories and healing practices of the people from which, the legends say, the Inka were born.
Through it all, Alberto Villoldo discovered a set of sacred technologies that transform the body, heal the soul, and can change the way we live and the way we die.
These ancient teachings and understandings explain that a Luminous Energy Field (LEF), whose source is located in infinity, surrounds us. The LEF acts as a matrix that maintains the health and vibrancy of the physical body.
Today, Alberto Villoldo is a best-selling author and founder in the world-renowned Institute of Energy Medicine, The Four Winds Society. In all of his teachings and writings, Alberto shares the experience of infinity’s easy ability to heal and transform us, to free us from the temporal chains that keep us fettered to illness, old age and disease.
Over the course of two decades with the shamans in the jungles and high mountains of the Andes, Alberto Villoldo would discover that we are more than flesh and bone, that we are a
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
October 2, 2015
Favorite quote: I have grown to believe in the metaphor that we have nine lives, like cats. When we reach the end of one of these lifetimes (other people call them stages or phases in one's life), it is important to give the old self a decent burial, and then leap like a jaguar into who we are becoming. Otherwise, we can spend years patching and fixing an old self that we have outgrown.
August 17, 2010
The first book I read by him. This book inspired me to leave my career and train with the Four Winds. I am now a Shamanic practitioner thanks to Alberto. His combination of practical psychology, historical anthropology and spiritual healing speaks to my soul...thank you!
February 5, 2019
It’s complicated for me. I believe that this is possible. I desperately want to believe that he can do these things, but simultaneously I scroll all the faces on the website of those that are trained and have been trained and it’s quite white. The training is expensive, and therefore exclusionary.
Is energy healing only for rich people who can afford it? Is dismantling power and privilege not an important aspect of healing the spirit and healing spirits?
Where is the out reach? Where is putting that healing in marginalized communities—those baring the brunt of a shadow because people cannot look themselves in the mirror. I am from North America so that’s what I think of.
No energy healing for the queers? For the immigrants? For the blacks? Doesn’t seem right. Doesn’t seem to be for the highest good if it’s excluding based on money that’s very capitalist of you.
The book was good, roused my curiosity, increase my desire to know what can be done— but I question its authenticity of its author and therefore it gets 3 stars. All I can do in this existence is filter through my own discernment.
Is energy healing only for rich people who can afford it? Is dismantling power and privilege not an important aspect of healing the spirit and healing spirits?
Where is the out reach? Where is putting that healing in marginalized communities—those baring the brunt of a shadow because people cannot look themselves in the mirror. I am from North America so that’s what I think of.
No energy healing for the queers? For the immigrants? For the blacks? Doesn’t seem right. Doesn’t seem to be for the highest good if it’s excluding based on money that’s very capitalist of you.
The book was good, roused my curiosity, increase my desire to know what can be done— but I question its authenticity of its author and therefore it gets 3 stars. All I can do in this existence is filter through my own discernment.
August 7, 2018
This book for me, follows on from reading The Four Insights: Wisdom, Power, and Grace of the Earthkeepers, which really was an essential introduction to understanding the levels of perception of the shamanic view of reality.
I bought the two books together, already familiar with Alberto Villoldo and looking at his various works, chose these two to read. You can read read my review of the EarthKeepers book here.
Shaman, Healer, Sage begins in the first chapter with an extract from the Journals of the author, from his travels and training with the Inka shamans. He was apprenticed to an old Inka named Antonio Morales, who guided him and gave him the opportunity to both observe others at work - engaging in ancient healing practices - and to pursue his own personal healing.
From the practices he observed and learned, he developed his own contemporary reinterpretation, which he describes in this book, interspersed with more extracts from his journals, sharing some of the original experiences he had in the early days, when he was ignorant of what was occuring.
In the first part he talks about the belief system upon which these practices are based.
He introduces us to the Luminous Healers, significant teachers and mentors he had during his time with the Native American shamans and puts historical references into a modern context. It is incredible that any of these beliefs and practices have survived after the destruction of the Indians by early settlers, which obliterated the spiritual traditions of most native groups. Native American shamans were reluctant to share their heritage with white people.
He introduces the universal concept of the Luminous Energy Field, something we each possess, surrounding the physical body, informing it.
Part two provides techniques for learning the shaman's way of seeing, for creating sacred space and practices to try out for your own personal healing. Part three continues this, describing for information purposes only, how a practitioner works with others (however he cautions against using this healing with others, something that should only be performed by a master practitioner who has undergone appropriate and comprehensive training, apprenticed to a skilled teacher. He also shares some of the dangers, which are fascinating insights in themselves.
Some of the things I found fascinating were the 'rivers of light', points stimulated by the healer, which Alberto discovered coincided exactly to the Chinese Acupuncture meridians.
That pain and emotional trauma can leave imprints in the luminous energy field, that require extraction and illumination to be freed. That imprints can be positive as well as negative, that they are active and cause us to gravitate towards situations in which they will be played out. That there are generational imprints, that the energetic process of healing them often only requires one or two sessions.
Intrusive energies and entities can exist in the luminous energy field.
Overall, it was an insightful read and one that definitely requires rereading, especially if the subject is new to you. I will certainly be reading it again to help increase my awareness of the existence of my own personal energy field, perceiving it and perhaps even healing it.
I bought the two books together, already familiar with Alberto Villoldo and looking at his various works, chose these two to read. You can read read my review of the EarthKeepers book here.
Shaman, Healer, Sage begins in the first chapter with an extract from the Journals of the author, from his travels and training with the Inka shamans. He was apprenticed to an old Inka named Antonio Morales, who guided him and gave him the opportunity to both observe others at work - engaging in ancient healing practices - and to pursue his own personal healing.
Inka shamans practiced energy medicine for more than five thousand years, transmitting this knowledge from one generation to the next through an oral tradition.
From the practices he observed and learned, he developed his own contemporary reinterpretation, which he describes in this book, interspersed with more extracts from his journals, sharing some of the original experiences he had in the early days, when he was ignorant of what was occuring.
In the first part he talks about the belief system upon which these practices are based.
"We are luminous beings on a journey to the stars," Don Antonio once said to me. "But you have to experience infinity to understand this." I remember smiling when the medicine man first told me how we were star travellers who have existed since the beginning of time. Quaint folklore, I thought, the ruminations of an old man hesitant to to face the certainty of his death. I believed that Don Antonio's musings were akin to the archetypal structures of the psyche as described by Carl Jung. Antonio interpreted his myths literally, not symbolically as I did. But I didn't challenge him then...The mythologist Joseph Campbell used to say that reality is made up of those myths that we can't quite see through. That's why it's so easy to to be an anthropologist in another culture - everything is transparent to the outsider, like the emperor's new clothes.
At times I attempted to show Antonio that the emperor was naked, that he was confusing mythology for fact. That is, util I sat with him while he helped a missionary to die."
He introduces us to the Luminous Healers, significant teachers and mentors he had during his time with the Native American shamans and puts historical references into a modern context. It is incredible that any of these beliefs and practices have survived after the destruction of the Indians by early settlers, which obliterated the spiritual traditions of most native groups. Native American shamans were reluctant to share their heritage with white people.
The Spanish conquistadors, and the missionaries who accompanied them, destroyed the healing schools in Cusco. The temples were demolished, and the churches were built on the same grounds using the original temple stones...
We imagine that the inquisition is a thing of the past, that this brutal organisation ended with the arrival of the Age of Enlightenment, and this is largely true. The Inquisition shut down its offices many years ago except in one country, Peru, the land of the Inka."
He introduces the universal concept of the Luminous Energy Field, something we each possess, surrounding the physical body, informing it.
When the vital reserves of the Luminous Energy Field are depleted through illness, environmental pollutants, or stress, we suffer disease. We can ensure our health and vitality and extend our active, healthy years by replenishing this essential fuel."
Part two provides techniques for learning the shaman's way of seeing, for creating sacred space and practices to try out for your own personal healing. Part three continues this, describing for information purposes only, how a practitioner works with others (however he cautions against using this healing with others, something that should only be performed by a master practitioner who has undergone appropriate and comprehensive training, apprenticed to a skilled teacher. He also shares some of the dangers, which are fascinating insights in themselves.
Some of the things I found fascinating were the 'rivers of light', points stimulated by the healer, which Alberto discovered coincided exactly to the Chinese Acupuncture meridians.
For Maximo and other other shamans in the Americas the rivers of light in the body are tributaries that flow into and draw their substances from the great luminous rivers that course along the surface of the Earth.
That pain and emotional trauma can leave imprints in the luminous energy field, that require extraction and illumination to be freed. That imprints can be positive as well as negative, that they are active and cause us to gravitate towards situations in which they will be played out. That there are generational imprints, that the energetic process of healing them often only requires one or two sessions.
Intrusive energies and entities can exist in the luminous energy field.
Overall, it was an insightful read and one that definitely requires rereading, especially if the subject is new to you. I will certainly be reading it again to help increase my awareness of the existence of my own personal energy field, perceiving it and perhaps even healing it.
August 27, 2009
Considering most of the healing practices of the America's are passed down orally, I'm a bit dubious about someone who charges money to have a school to learn to be shamanic. However, that being said, there are some nice chapters on chakras in here that were helpful.
Currently reading
September 3, 2008Everything by Alberto Villodo is perfect. As an author he stands back and allow the fabric to enter your blanket. You choose how to wrap yourself.
May 3, 2023
This read reassured me that I have all the answers within.
I just need to be silent and listen.
I just need to be silent and listen.
January 10, 2010
The first part of the book is fascinating. It's filled with ancient philosophies, personal stories of healing, and an introduction to shamanism. The second section is the 'how-to' section. I'm assuming that after reading this, some people will be inclined to try it and I'm also going to assume that the majority won't do it successfully. Therefore these chapters feel like a plug for his school, Healing the Light Body School, which the author mentions numerous times.
September 22, 2013
Profound and Important. For spirits having a "human experience" as they say. A slow read due to the amount of information being given. I would also recommend watching the movie "Thrive" as a complement .. It gives a visual to the torus, chakras and energy fields Villoldo speaks of. Just got his next 8 books from the library.
January 31, 2018
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I borrowed it in the quest of shedding a bit of light on the chakra-system. I've always been a bit cynical to the concept of chakras since it is so widely availed by all these new ages hippies, who i will not comment further. Chakras is one of the book's central motifs. I have read 5-6 books on shamanism and never came across the term, but Villoldo claims that it is used by some shamanic tribes.
The author studied anthropology and has subsequently lived with a bunch of indigenous tribes who practice shamanism in a way that one will probably not find in western civilization. I think of Carlos Castaneda, who also spent great stretches of time with accomplished medicine men and shamans. As such, Villoldo has first hand experience on the subject, which should be a prerequisite when writing a book of this sort.
The book deals with the shamanic way of looking at things and explains some basic concepts for healing, as well as some of the author's personal methods. It also describes the process of performing healing rituals that some shamans use. It draws many parallels with physics as well as psychology, and contains many personal anectodes of spiritual experiences to make its points.
I recall two points that captured my interest more than others. One being that psychology more often than not deals with identifying the causes of mental suffering, but doesn't do much to treat the problem at its roots. Psychology and the psychiatry is presented as being more interested in subduing the symptoms, whereas the shamanic perspective is more about healing the very core of the problem. The other point being that facts are not as important as we often make them out to be. One anecdote is followed by a passage explaining that wether or not the experience a person has actually happened in the factual sense is not crucial at all. Rather, the important thing is that the person BELIEVED it happened, making healing possible where otherwise it would not be. I also liked the concepts of the four winds and the concept of the snake, hummingbird, eagle, and jaguar. The Jaguar is presented as a recurring animal of spiritual power.
The book is filled with terms such as chakras, energies, light bodies and so on. I get the impression that these things are just another way of describing what science could explain with other words. So the shamanic practice is, the way i perceived it, a language. Another way of looking at things, that may be more efficient for the human psyche. Clinical terms are dead and far from as exciting as the spiritual realms are. I cannot, however, avoid a certain level of skepticism here. All of the examples seem to be centered around a persons receptibility. If they believe something is possible, then that something could very well happen to them. If they were to use the most adamant of nihilists for shamanic healing, then perhaps not much could be done. Villoldo does imply that this is not the case, but that these practices can be dangerous because they can have consequences we as humans are not aware of. Most books on rituals and esoteric practices that I have read touch upon the risks of performing rituals without fully knowing what one is doing, and following all its steps.
Regardless of which, i was never bored by reading the book. It doesn't dwell on one subject for too long, while at the same time, most concepts get a thorough description, and many times also has instructions for how to apply them in practice. Among the easiest is a method for "clearing one's perception" or something like that. It has to do with closing one's eyes and moving them about in different patterns and repeating the process once or twice. A simple process that doesn't take more than a minute at most. Anyone can try this.
I think the rituals described in this book are best practiced by people who have years of experience with them, rather than being something to be "tried out". The common denominators seem to be great concentration and mental control, as well as believing it can work. The support for the claims are personal experience, and the experience of shamanic peoples. Which seems rather thin for me, being an academically inclined kind of person. Of course, shamanism isn't made out to be appropriately understood by facts. Much like music. Even Nietzsche thought of music as being something that cannot be measured, and trying to do so would make us miss the point. The shamanic way is expressed as a way of viewing the world that has been lost to modern man, and that to triumph in the spiritual realms, one must unlearn much of what has been learned during the course of one's life. In other words: the aspiring shamanic adept has a long way to go if he or she happens to be born in western civilization.
The book ends with a rather beautiful passage concerning the subject of death. I think the author did a great job with this book. Detailed, but not too much so, thorough, easy to grasp, and never gets boring. The version i have is a little over 200 pages in length. I seem to enjoy books that are around 200 pages, since i usually finish them in 3 or 4 days from starting. I recommend this book to those who want to know more about the basic concepts of shamanism and chakras, though i feel that it is somewhat tainted by the author's own beliefs. I don't have a problem with that per se, but perhaps emphasizing that it is HIS way of viewing reality rather than some absolute truth a bit more could help. That is my opinion, of course. All in all, i think the book succeeds in doing what the author tried to do with it. It is not a necronomicon or a book of instructions. Rather, it is a summary of the most important concepts, beliefs and practices the author has learned during his extensive journey of the worldly and otherworldly dimensions. Maybe next time i'll read a book on astrology or something.
3/5
The author studied anthropology and has subsequently lived with a bunch of indigenous tribes who practice shamanism in a way that one will probably not find in western civilization. I think of Carlos Castaneda, who also spent great stretches of time with accomplished medicine men and shamans. As such, Villoldo has first hand experience on the subject, which should be a prerequisite when writing a book of this sort.
The book deals with the shamanic way of looking at things and explains some basic concepts for healing, as well as some of the author's personal methods. It also describes the process of performing healing rituals that some shamans use. It draws many parallels with physics as well as psychology, and contains many personal anectodes of spiritual experiences to make its points.
I recall two points that captured my interest more than others. One being that psychology more often than not deals with identifying the causes of mental suffering, but doesn't do much to treat the problem at its roots. Psychology and the psychiatry is presented as being more interested in subduing the symptoms, whereas the shamanic perspective is more about healing the very core of the problem. The other point being that facts are not as important as we often make them out to be. One anecdote is followed by a passage explaining that wether or not the experience a person has actually happened in the factual sense is not crucial at all. Rather, the important thing is that the person BELIEVED it happened, making healing possible where otherwise it would not be. I also liked the concepts of the four winds and the concept of the snake, hummingbird, eagle, and jaguar. The Jaguar is presented as a recurring animal of spiritual power.
The book is filled with terms such as chakras, energies, light bodies and so on. I get the impression that these things are just another way of describing what science could explain with other words. So the shamanic practice is, the way i perceived it, a language. Another way of looking at things, that may be more efficient for the human psyche. Clinical terms are dead and far from as exciting as the spiritual realms are. I cannot, however, avoid a certain level of skepticism here. All of the examples seem to be centered around a persons receptibility. If they believe something is possible, then that something could very well happen to them. If they were to use the most adamant of nihilists for shamanic healing, then perhaps not much could be done. Villoldo does imply that this is not the case, but that these practices can be dangerous because they can have consequences we as humans are not aware of. Most books on rituals and esoteric practices that I have read touch upon the risks of performing rituals without fully knowing what one is doing, and following all its steps.
Regardless of which, i was never bored by reading the book. It doesn't dwell on one subject for too long, while at the same time, most concepts get a thorough description, and many times also has instructions for how to apply them in practice. Among the easiest is a method for "clearing one's perception" or something like that. It has to do with closing one's eyes and moving them about in different patterns and repeating the process once or twice. A simple process that doesn't take more than a minute at most. Anyone can try this.
I think the rituals described in this book are best practiced by people who have years of experience with them, rather than being something to be "tried out". The common denominators seem to be great concentration and mental control, as well as believing it can work. The support for the claims are personal experience, and the experience of shamanic peoples. Which seems rather thin for me, being an academically inclined kind of person. Of course, shamanism isn't made out to be appropriately understood by facts. Much like music. Even Nietzsche thought of music as being something that cannot be measured, and trying to do so would make us miss the point. The shamanic way is expressed as a way of viewing the world that has been lost to modern man, and that to triumph in the spiritual realms, one must unlearn much of what has been learned during the course of one's life. In other words: the aspiring shamanic adept has a long way to go if he or she happens to be born in western civilization.
The book ends with a rather beautiful passage concerning the subject of death. I think the author did a great job with this book. Detailed, but not too much so, thorough, easy to grasp, and never gets boring. The version i have is a little over 200 pages in length. I seem to enjoy books that are around 200 pages, since i usually finish them in 3 or 4 days from starting. I recommend this book to those who want to know more about the basic concepts of shamanism and chakras, though i feel that it is somewhat tainted by the author's own beliefs. I don't have a problem with that per se, but perhaps emphasizing that it is HIS way of viewing reality rather than some absolute truth a bit more could help. That is my opinion, of course. All in all, i think the book succeeds in doing what the author tried to do with it. It is not a necronomicon or a book of instructions. Rather, it is a summary of the most important concepts, beliefs and practices the author has learned during his extensive journey of the worldly and otherworldly dimensions. Maybe next time i'll read a book on astrology or something.
3/5
September 29, 2022
Dunno how to rate this but... He taught a wicked witch to poison me.
And he spammed my email. Talking about "wisdom" and such. But he doesn't respond. Is he...? Nah, no way. Unless he was more CARING.
Maybe he's like the narcissistic, empathic (not opposites, like the lying book) woman who poisoned me. - Maybe a liar too, like her? "Likes attract likes" as they say.
Otherwise, respond to my email and have a good conversation 👍
Okay, I'm giving it one star for not responding. Respond and who knows 🤷♂️
And he spammed my email. Talking about "wisdom" and such. But he doesn't respond. Is he...? Nah, no way. Unless he was more CARING.
Maybe he's like the narcissistic, empathic (not opposites, like the lying book) woman who poisoned me. - Maybe a liar too, like her? "Likes attract likes" as they say.
Otherwise, respond to my email and have a good conversation 👍
Okay, I'm giving it one star for not responding. Respond and who knows 🤷♂️
March 28, 2021
Very interesting read on how ancient traditions are able to treat certain phenomena that modern medicine struggles with! The book is very straightforward and requires an open mind to fully embrace all of the concepts. Each story was very poignant, but I think the best thing to do is find a local shaman to feel and practice these teachings.
August 19, 2018
A must-read for those wish to go deeper in their spirituality, by practicing ancient energy healing techniques.
April 4, 2012
It is one of my favorite books on Shamanism.
The book documents Dr. Alberto Villoldo's journey to locate the MIND. He first became a Brain Surgeon to look for the MIND. It was not until later that he turned to Shamanism in his search. He could not find the MIND anywhere in the physical body.
In his search he finds a Peru Shaman that is willing to teach him but he had to find his teacher some decent new TEETH. It is a very human story with humor and serious life lessons. Where the teacher plays a trick on him and he gets back at his teacher by hiding the teacher's new false teeth. Having to deal with a drunk shaman. Another time his teacher sends him and another student to observe a elder that was on his death bed. When they returned to their teacher after observing the person passing from this physical world they discover that the spirit of the elder has followed them back to the teacher. The teacher is upset with his students and has to separate the Spirit of the elder from his students and send it on its proper path.
A well written book with lots of lessons and is a joy to read. Well worth reading more than once.
The book documents Dr. Alberto Villoldo's journey to locate the MIND. He first became a Brain Surgeon to look for the MIND. It was not until later that he turned to Shamanism in his search. He could not find the MIND anywhere in the physical body.
In his search he finds a Peru Shaman that is willing to teach him but he had to find his teacher some decent new TEETH. It is a very human story with humor and serious life lessons. Where the teacher plays a trick on him and he gets back at his teacher by hiding the teacher's new false teeth. Having to deal with a drunk shaman. Another time his teacher sends him and another student to observe a elder that was on his death bed. When they returned to their teacher after observing the person passing from this physical world they discover that the spirit of the elder has followed them back to the teacher. The teacher is upset with his students and has to separate the Spirit of the elder from his students and send it on its proper path.
A well written book with lots of lessons and is a joy to read. Well worth reading more than once.
September 21, 2022
This is a very readable and illuminating book explaining the author’s work as a shaman.
Alberto Villoldo reveals many of his own experiences of being healed and healing using shamanistic methods.
I found it to be an advanced book and I was not personally able to carry out the exercises he recommends that we do.
He tells us of his meeting with Don Antonio in Peru, who claims he can taste infinity.
The author witnesses Don Antonio assisting a woman to die, by freeing her spirit.
He sees the essence, the luminous body, of the woman, leave her body.
The essential healing process given in the book is called the Illumination Process.
He comes down with pneumonia which cannot be controlled with antibiotics and comes to Don Antonio in acute pain.
Antonio performs a healing on him. He begins to twitch, which is a sign of the toxic energy leaving his system, then falls asleep.
Later, the pain is gone and Antonio tells him he had a Hampe, or energy healing, and has spent the last hour in infinity.
After the healing session he was left with “an abiding calm and serenity that he describes as “a state of grace, of forgiveness and blessing” that has remained with him for years.
The way of the shaman is a path of power, “of direct engagement with the forces of spirit”.
“Tremendous healing takes place when we commune with the powerful energies of the luminous world.”
“You shed your identity with your limited self and experience a limitless oneness with the Creator and the Creation.”
When we enter infinity, the past and future are stripped away and only the here and now exists.
Infinity should not be confused with eternity. Eternity means an endless number of days. Infinity is prior to time itself and existed before time was born.
We are also permitted to read extracts from Alberto’s journals. He is given a mummified forearm by an archaeologist and when he goes out to receive the energy of a hummingbird ”which embodies the qualities that shamans must have for their epic journey”, its fingers seem to be moving and Antonio says she is tormented by her people massacred by the Spanish.
He whistles and sings for their spirits to come.”A string of entities appeared before us. Antonio ministered to them -- he called on the lineage of medicine men and women … to come and assist them, and one by one they were released from their pain.”
It went on all night. As the last of the spirits was healed, they buried the forearm.
He visits the Q’ero nation, the last remaining Inka, who live in isolated mountaintops in the Andes.
They are the legendary keepers of the Inka prophecies; their spiritual lineage is believed to extend back a hundred thousand years. The wisdom of their ancestors included “lessons about life, the journey beyond death into infinity and techniques for healing through the Luminous Energy field.”
The healing schools in Cusco were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors and the missionaries who accompanied them.
The shaman-priests were persecuted by the Inquisition. When the Catholic Church outlawed the rites and ceremonies of pagan peoples, all that remained of their spiritual teachings were fragments.
‘The author and Don Antonio travelled through countless villages and met with scores of medicine men and women and “distilled the essence of their rituals”.
He tells us about his various teachers.
Don Antonio was a “seventh level kurak akuyek, the highest degree a shaman can attain”. He had been struck by lightning at the age of twelve. The lightning bolt had rewired his brain and awakened dormant abilities.
Don Manuel Quispe is ninety years old and the oldest living medicine man. The author helped him to get a new set of teeth, but his remaining teeth had to be extracted and he was in pain for days after each surgery. Because of this, Don Manuel punished him by making him jump into an icy cold lagoon in the middle of winter, It was ten degrees below zero. He was convinced he would have a heart attack.
But he survived, and afterwards Don Manuel began to teach him everything he knew.
Dona Laura was Antonio’s medicine partner. She was a “fierce old crone, one of the most frightening people I have ever met”.
She was fierce with her own students too and beat them with a stick when they committed particularly stupid mistakes.
Eventually, they became friends. She was a shape-shifter and could travel in the shape of a spirit eagle or jaguar while awake, in broad daylight.
Don Edouardo was a fisherman and “had a natural gift for seeing the luminous nature of life”. He could ”look at you and recite the story of your life, both the public story … as well as the more intimate, secret stories”.
When he sat next to Don Eduardo, the latter’s Luminous Energy Field made his seeing crystal clear.
He saw an intrusive entity, a spirit lodged inside a woman’s Luminous Energy Field. This parasitic entity was sucking her life force, and needed to be extracted and healed.
The author learnt that a person “does not automatically become holy because he has died”. There are as many troubled people on the other side as there are in the physical world.
For there the shaman there is no “"supernatural heaven” and there is no independent evil principle in the universe.We live in a benign universe that takes a personal interest in our well-being. “Evil exists only in the hearts of men and women.”
“When a dying person retains his awareness after death, he enters the light easily.”
There is an exciting chapter about death.
All this will give you an idea about the content of the book.
It is an exceedingly absorbing book and I urge you to read it.
P.S. Don Antonio used to say that Homo sapiens has perished, and that a new human, Homo luminus, is being born this very instant. We are that new human.
Alberto Villoldo reveals many of his own experiences of being healed and healing using shamanistic methods.
I found it to be an advanced book and I was not personally able to carry out the exercises he recommends that we do.
He tells us of his meeting with Don Antonio in Peru, who claims he can taste infinity.
The author witnesses Don Antonio assisting a woman to die, by freeing her spirit.
He sees the essence, the luminous body, of the woman, leave her body.
The essential healing process given in the book is called the Illumination Process.
He comes down with pneumonia which cannot be controlled with antibiotics and comes to Don Antonio in acute pain.
Antonio performs a healing on him. He begins to twitch, which is a sign of the toxic energy leaving his system, then falls asleep.
Later, the pain is gone and Antonio tells him he had a Hampe, or energy healing, and has spent the last hour in infinity.
After the healing session he was left with “an abiding calm and serenity that he describes as “a state of grace, of forgiveness and blessing” that has remained with him for years.
The way of the shaman is a path of power, “of direct engagement with the forces of spirit”.
“Tremendous healing takes place when we commune with the powerful energies of the luminous world.”
“You shed your identity with your limited self and experience a limitless oneness with the Creator and the Creation.”
When we enter infinity, the past and future are stripped away and only the here and now exists.
Infinity should not be confused with eternity. Eternity means an endless number of days. Infinity is prior to time itself and existed before time was born.
We are also permitted to read extracts from Alberto’s journals. He is given a mummified forearm by an archaeologist and when he goes out to receive the energy of a hummingbird ”which embodies the qualities that shamans must have for their epic journey”, its fingers seem to be moving and Antonio says she is tormented by her people massacred by the Spanish.
He whistles and sings for their spirits to come.”A string of entities appeared before us. Antonio ministered to them -- he called on the lineage of medicine men and women … to come and assist them, and one by one they were released from their pain.”
It went on all night. As the last of the spirits was healed, they buried the forearm.
He visits the Q’ero nation, the last remaining Inka, who live in isolated mountaintops in the Andes.
They are the legendary keepers of the Inka prophecies; their spiritual lineage is believed to extend back a hundred thousand years. The wisdom of their ancestors included “lessons about life, the journey beyond death into infinity and techniques for healing through the Luminous Energy field.”
The healing schools in Cusco were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors and the missionaries who accompanied them.
The shaman-priests were persecuted by the Inquisition. When the Catholic Church outlawed the rites and ceremonies of pagan peoples, all that remained of their spiritual teachings were fragments.
‘The author and Don Antonio travelled through countless villages and met with scores of medicine men and women and “distilled the essence of their rituals”.
He tells us about his various teachers.
Don Antonio was a “seventh level kurak akuyek, the highest degree a shaman can attain”. He had been struck by lightning at the age of twelve. The lightning bolt had rewired his brain and awakened dormant abilities.
Don Manuel Quispe is ninety years old and the oldest living medicine man. The author helped him to get a new set of teeth, but his remaining teeth had to be extracted and he was in pain for days after each surgery. Because of this, Don Manuel punished him by making him jump into an icy cold lagoon in the middle of winter, It was ten degrees below zero. He was convinced he would have a heart attack.
But he survived, and afterwards Don Manuel began to teach him everything he knew.
Dona Laura was Antonio’s medicine partner. She was a “fierce old crone, one of the most frightening people I have ever met”.
She was fierce with her own students too and beat them with a stick when they committed particularly stupid mistakes.
Eventually, they became friends. She was a shape-shifter and could travel in the shape of a spirit eagle or jaguar while awake, in broad daylight.
Don Edouardo was a fisherman and “had a natural gift for seeing the luminous nature of life”. He could ”look at you and recite the story of your life, both the public story … as well as the more intimate, secret stories”.
When he sat next to Don Eduardo, the latter’s Luminous Energy Field made his seeing crystal clear.
He saw an intrusive entity, a spirit lodged inside a woman’s Luminous Energy Field. This parasitic entity was sucking her life force, and needed to be extracted and healed.
The author learnt that a person “does not automatically become holy because he has died”. There are as many troubled people on the other side as there are in the physical world.
For there the shaman there is no “"supernatural heaven” and there is no independent evil principle in the universe.We live in a benign universe that takes a personal interest in our well-being. “Evil exists only in the hearts of men and women.”
“When a dying person retains his awareness after death, he enters the light easily.”
There is an exciting chapter about death.
All this will give you an idea about the content of the book.
It is an exceedingly absorbing book and I urge you to read it.
P.S. Don Antonio used to say that Homo sapiens has perished, and that a new human, Homo luminus, is being born this very instant. We are that new human.
October 25, 2011
A technical book about shamanistic method and practice. Interestingly detailed in its recounting of process.
Villoldo is a classically trained medical anthropologist and brings a detailed procedural eye to some very ephemeral concepts.
The reader may not succeed in using the text as a guide to self-train as a Shaman but there are a number of detailed explanations of practices the reader could experiment with to see what happens at the basic foundation of these ideas.
I have substantial skepticism concerning these types of activities but it is obvious some of the basic tenets have weight. Many are worth consideration.
Though I recommend this book one of the difficulties the reader will face is reconciling some philosophical underpinnings with what, in the west, we call 'science.' Most of 'western' culture resides more than a few steps away from the realm of mysticism.
Villoldo is a classically trained medical anthropologist and brings a detailed procedural eye to some very ephemeral concepts.
The reader may not succeed in using the text as a guide to self-train as a Shaman but there are a number of detailed explanations of practices the reader could experiment with to see what happens at the basic foundation of these ideas.
I have substantial skepticism concerning these types of activities but it is obvious some of the basic tenets have weight. Many are worth consideration.
Though I recommend this book one of the difficulties the reader will face is reconciling some philosophical underpinnings with what, in the west, we call 'science.' Most of 'western' culture resides more than a few steps away from the realm of mysticism.
January 12, 2017
I love this book. The teachings are profound and can be linked to all cultures. I am excited to practice the methods of self-healing and healing of others that are described in this book. Give it a try, read it and see if anything speaks to you.
August 26, 2024
Very interesting read. I've learned so much, and it was a good insight into the other side of reality/world.
January 13, 2022
Aceasta carte este rezultatul calatoriilor mele si al pregatirii cu samanii incasi. Una dintre marile civilizatii ale Americii si constructori ai impunatorului Machu Picchu, incasii, au trait in orase ridicate prin-tre nori, cu strazi din piatra, care erau curatate in fiecare noapte, prin eliberarea apei din sistemul de canale al orasului. samanii incasi au practicat medicina energetica vreme de mai bine de cinci mii de ani, transmitand aceasta cunoastere de la o generatie la alta, prin interme-diul traditiei orale. Vreme de douazeci si cinci de ani, am studiat im-preuna cu cei mai buni vindecatori incasi, barbati si femei. Ritualurile carora mam supus in muntii Anzi si in Amazon izvorau din traditia antica si, uneori, necesitau luni intregi de pregatire. Acestea eliminau din viata ucenicului frica, lacomia, violenta si sexualitatea de tip animalic. In cautarile mele, am fost ghidat de un incas batran, pe nume Antonio Morales. Aventurile pe care le-am trait in Amazon si pe inaltimile Anzilor, impreuna cu Don Antonio sunt prezentate in cartile mele precedente, Dance of the Four Winds (Dansul celorPatru Vanturi) si Island of the Sun (Insula Soarelui). Tehnicile pentru vindecarea cu ajutorul Spiritului si a Luminii din aceasta carte sunt propriile mele reinterpretari contemporane, ale practicilor stravechi de vindecare. Versiuni ale felului de a vedea al samanilor - pe care eu le numesc a Doua Constienta si Procesul de Extragere - sunt inca folosite in America de Nord si America de Sud. Riturile mortii isi au originea in Amazon si fac parte dintr-o suma de cunostinte descoperite de barbati si femei care au depasit notiunile noastre de timp si moarte.
November 13, 2018
Villoldo is an anthropologist who has trained in shamanic practice with Peruvian and Brazilian teachers. This book recounts his training and the healing practices he now teaches in his own training program. The stories Villoldo recounts are highly entertaining. The theories he proposes on spiritual energy are derived from the shamanic training he has undertaken. Villoldo points out how the indigenous healing traditions refer to the same system of chakras paralleling eastern healing traditions and points out how religious paintings of saints illustrate this same energetic system. Villoldo gives exercises to develop one's capacity to perceive energetic flow, using touch and the visual system. He explains this "seeing" as a form of synesthesia, which makes intuitive sense. I find a book to be a difficult format for learning these techniques, but Villoldo persists ambitiously giving step by step instructions on energy healing and practices for transitioning spirits at the time of death. His matter of fact descriptions of these astounding practices will push most readers past there capacity to suspend disbelief. The journal entries from his own training add colour and anecdote and make the book more enjoyable. The degree of paradigm shift of the shamanic world view is radical for us westerners but as I continue to read about the parallels among the indigenous practices evolved across vast times and distances, I can't help but remain intrigued.
January 21, 2025
اگر بهتون نگن این کتاب چیه فکر میکنید دارید یه رمان در دنیای هریپاتر و... میخونید، واقعا این میزان از شبه علم بودن چجوری انقدر طرفدار داره؟ هرچند درکش آسونه چون عموم مردم همیشه دنبال اینن که به سوالات بزرگشون پاسخهای کوچیک داده بشه، اینکه یه نفر پیدا بشه بگه من از شکمت میبینم نور داره میزنه بیرون یا روی گلو و ناف و چندتا جای دیگت دیسکای نوری چرخان هستن یا بخواب چاکراه پس کلتو بمالم که سیاهیهاش رو استخراج کنم بکنم توی یه کریستال و... واقعا نشون دهندهی عدم صحت و سلامت روحی روانی اون فرده، اندک مطالب نسبتا صحیح داخل این کتاب هم علم روانشناسی امروز راجع بهش صحبت کرده چیزایی مثل اینکه اگر از کسی ضربه خوردی و روحیت خرابه جای فرار بهتره مستقیما به خاطرات بدت فکر کنی مرورشون کنی و ببخشیشون و... من هرازگاهی کتابهای اینجوری رو میخونم تا ببینم آیا راهکار یا تمرین درست حسابی برای اثبات ادعاشون دارن یا نه که تقریبا همشون یه حرف میزنن و چیزیم برای اثبات ندارن ته تمریناتشون هم مراقبه و... هست اگر ۲ ستاره دادم برای اینه که توی این کتاب در رابطه با چاکراهها یه سری توضیح سر راست داده نیاز نیست توی اینترنت بگردید تا بخونید چاکراه چیه حداقل تنها نکتهی مفیدش همین موضوعه که با خوندن این کتاب متوجه میشید توهمی به نام چاکراه چیه.
April 17, 2023
25 yrs of research when into this by an accomplished anthropologist. Ultimately he was able to decode methodologies of energy healing used by the ancient South American peoples and these are still effective today.
Dr. Villoldo describes this energywork via the lens of the incredible lineage of the medicine men & women in Peru today & within the framework of shamanism. The teachings are still very pragmatic, detailed and highly functional. Dr. Villoldo describes well patterns of disease as the present in our bodies and systems, their origins & resolutions and arrives at much the same findings as Eckhart Tolle, Barbara Brennan, Gregg Braden, Donna Eden, Itsak Beery Shaman Durek & Deepak Chopra- all illness is manifested energy & can be unmanifested in a very pragmatic & sequential way.
This is a really good "How To.." manual and offers very useful tools that can be incorporated into your practice.
Dr. Villoldo describes this energywork via the lens of the incredible lineage of the medicine men & women in Peru today & within the framework of shamanism. The teachings are still very pragmatic, detailed and highly functional. Dr. Villoldo describes well patterns of disease as the present in our bodies and systems, their origins & resolutions and arrives at much the same findings as Eckhart Tolle, Barbara Brennan, Gregg Braden, Donna Eden, Itsak Beery Shaman Durek & Deepak Chopra- all illness is manifested energy & can be unmanifested in a very pragmatic & sequential way.
This is a really good "How To.." manual and offers very useful tools that can be incorporated into your practice.
June 28, 2022
Author, Dr. Villoldo, writes about how his path in life led him to be a healer that heals with energy medicine.
I enjoyed reading this and it was written in a nice quick flow. The doctor’s history with the many different communities where he practiced energy healing with was interesting.
If you are looking for a book that teaches you how to be a healer then this is not the best book. To be honest I don’t remember too much of the lessons. The author does have his own classes but for myself, I don’t have that kind of money. It is not a bad read, I just wanted to learn more about how I can become a healer and this made me think it might be out of my reach.
I would read more books by the author just because this was well written. It might be good for someone who is researching holistic healing but they have read nothing about the subject before.
I enjoyed reading this and it was written in a nice quick flow. The doctor’s history with the many different communities where he practiced energy healing with was interesting.
If you are looking for a book that teaches you how to be a healer then this is not the best book. To be honest I don’t remember too much of the lessons. The author does have his own classes but for myself, I don’t have that kind of money. It is not a bad read, I just wanted to learn more about how I can become a healer and this made me think it might be out of my reach.
I would read more books by the author just because this was well written. It might be good for someone who is researching holistic healing but they have read nothing about the subject before.
November 12, 2022
I wouldn't say believe everything about the studies but an extremely unbiased analysis and personal recollection to have on file. I am at a point in my life where I am out of practice and have had to stop reading half way through until I feel ready. This is a hard read but an important one for anyone involved with metaphysical studies. It has accurate forewarnings and does a good job of describing the importance of avoiding cultural appropriation. I wish the book came with a bolder disclaimer. Do not take this book lightly it is not fun and games. You can really hurt yourself and others if you do anything in this without following the proper channels. If you are not actively involved in a healing or exorcism, don't read past the first half. I'll be waiting for my time.
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August 13, 2024I started reading this book after my initiation into the Munay Ki Rites. Alberto Villoldo, in simple and beautiful language, explains his process to become an anthropologist working in pharmaceuticals, to one of the great shamanic apprentices of the Inca mountains. His apprenticeship with his teachers while discovering the wisdom of Mother Earth and her creatures, as well as healing himself and healing people from human pain. There are passages that speak of specific healing techniques and rites as well as deep learnings of the soul. I enjoyed it enormously because you can perceive in him that sensitive and simple man who has become a Shaman and who knows that this information is for everyone.
December 6, 2017
Good overview of the author's experience in the mystic world and how they are validated through his training in anthropological psychology. Though the book can stand alone in its high-level instruction of some of the shamanic rites, the narrative piques curiosity into a fuller understanding of his exploration, discovery, and interpretation of events in his own biography. The combative marriage of his Western academic training with his exotic field experiences makes for an interesting read and entices the reader to seek out more accounts of his learning journey covered in other of the author's publications.
November 25, 2024
I read this in addition to my training in guiding medicine journeys- and found it to be an essential part of understanding the fundamentals. What are we doing when we take part in this medicine. How to create and hold the protective energy field, the opening and closing prayers, how to read and feel the chakras.
As someone who has guided journeys for 4 years I know I still have so much to learn. But I do take issue with everyone feeling like they can guide and lead. Shamanism and guiding medicine is a life long commitment to doing the work yourself - doing work outside of the medicine. unfortunately this part is often skipped. We can only guide people as far as we have come.
As someone who has guided journeys for 4 years I know I still have so much to learn. But I do take issue with everyone feeling like they can guide and lead. Shamanism and guiding medicine is a life long commitment to doing the work yourself - doing work outside of the medicine. unfortunately this part is often skipped. We can only guide people as far as we have come.
January 22, 2018
Still good 18 years later
I chose 5 stars to rate this book because it is true. The healing methods he describes are effective. The stories he tells are vivid, and the book is energetically active, you can feel him as well as the subjects of his stories transferring energy and love directly into you. I will now look up his more recent work. The only thing disappointing is that the training he offers so the West and the rest of the world can receive the teachings is cost prohibitive to many, as of now myself included.
I chose 5 stars to rate this book because it is true. The healing methods he describes are effective. The stories he tells are vivid, and the book is energetically active, you can feel him as well as the subjects of his stories transferring energy and love directly into you. I will now look up his more recent work. The only thing disappointing is that the training he offers so the West and the rest of the world can receive the teachings is cost prohibitive to many, as of now myself included.
January 21, 2020
It was beautifully written and almost poetic at times. He shares some of his journal entries from traveling in Peru and the Amazon mostly about his training with indigenous Shamans. Most of the time I thoroughly enjoyed it but there were moments when I was truly skeptical. His story about being able to feel an invisible dagger in a client's body left over from some kind of altercation and then pulling the invisible dagger out really left me feeling duped. There is a decent amount of how-to information as well.
October 25, 2020
Well what can I say. I got half way through relatively happily. I did not feel it was teaching me particularly anything new but it was interesting in terms of the side stories and anecdotes.
However then it lose me. When a book goes onto some form of visualising type exercises to increase insight and connection I get lost.....partly because I’ve tried similar to no avail and I switch off as it doesn’t resonate.
It’s a shame because I was recommended this as part of my spiritual journey and of course I am not knocking this book I’m simply recounting it’s impact on me.
However then it lose me. When a book goes onto some form of visualising type exercises to increase insight and connection I get lost.....partly because I’ve tried similar to no avail and I switch off as it doesn’t resonate.
It’s a shame because I was recommended this as part of my spiritual journey and of course I am not knocking this book I’m simply recounting it’s impact on me.
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