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Ayahuasca: The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul
A comprehensive autobiographical account of the transforming experiences possible with ayahuasca
• Reveals the protocols of a traditional ayahuasca retreat and the importance of its ritual diet, isolation, and sacred songs
• Relates an extensive personal account of the traditional indigenous use of ayahuasca for healing and revelation
The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul is an autobiographical account of the author’s work with ayahuasca, a potent and sacred plant brew of the Amazon region that is known for its extraordinary visionary and healing powers. As she learned from her experience, with the help of ayahuasca we are able to grasp our paradoxical nature, the first step to acceptance of ourselves in both our glorious and dark aspects. Ayahuasca teaches us how to release the illusions we hold about ourselves and makes it possible to integrate our many diverse aspects to acquire our true power.
This book reveals the ritual protocols that must be followed prior to partaking of ayahuasca, including the traditional preparatory “diet”--which requires enduring austere conditions, isolation, and only small amounts of bland food before receiving the powers of the plant spirit from an ayahuasquero, a healing master--and the sacred songs, icaros, that are sung when imbibing the substance. Although the use of ayahuasca is growing among “underground” spiritual seekers and through the burgeoning ayahuasca tourism trade in South America, few of its seekers understand how it is used traditionally and the importance of the rituals the indigenous people follow. With this book, the author hopes to restore the importance of these indigenous practices so that we may truly understand all the gifts of ayahuasca.
• Reveals the protocols of a traditional ayahuasca retreat and the importance of its ritual diet, isolation, and sacred songs
• Relates an extensive personal account of the traditional indigenous use of ayahuasca for healing and revelation
The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul is an autobiographical account of the author’s work with ayahuasca, a potent and sacred plant brew of the Amazon region that is known for its extraordinary visionary and healing powers. As she learned from her experience, with the help of ayahuasca we are able to grasp our paradoxical nature, the first step to acceptance of ourselves in both our glorious and dark aspects. Ayahuasca teaches us how to release the illusions we hold about ourselves and makes it possible to integrate our many diverse aspects to acquire our true power.
This book reveals the ritual protocols that must be followed prior to partaking of ayahuasca, including the traditional preparatory “diet”--which requires enduring austere conditions, isolation, and only small amounts of bland food before receiving the powers of the plant spirit from an ayahuasquero, a healing master--and the sacred songs, icaros, that are sung when imbibing the substance. Although the use of ayahuasca is growing among “underground” spiritual seekers and through the burgeoning ayahuasca tourism trade in South America, few of its seekers understand how it is used traditionally and the importance of the rituals the indigenous people follow. With this book, the author hopes to restore the importance of these indigenous practices so that we may truly understand all the gifts of ayahuasca.
- GenresSpiritualityPlants
227 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 10, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 5, 2012
If there were a way to give this book 1/2 a star, I would.
Riddled with amateurish prose and references to pop-shamanism, this book smacked of appropriation and is filled mostly with new-age nonsense. I barely got through it, the only redeeming value a few pages of an interview with an experienced ayahuascero.
If you're interested in the subject, skip this and look up some of what hopefully are more scholarly or at least journalistic accounts of the plant and its effects.
Riddled with amateurish prose and references to pop-shamanism, this book smacked of appropriation and is filled mostly with new-age nonsense. I barely got through it, the only redeeming value a few pages of an interview with an experienced ayahuascero.
If you're interested in the subject, skip this and look up some of what hopefully are more scholarly or at least journalistic accounts of the plant and its effects.
May 27, 2013
This book is how to do ayahuasca without doing ayahuasca. Throughout the book the author goes thru many experiences while going through the sacramental use of ayahuasca. I was impressed with how much she was able to remember her visions while on ayahuasca and putting her experiences into well written descriptive paragraphs. I very much enjoyed reading this book! Highly recommend to anyone interested in psychedelics, hallucinogens, or shamanism!
September 26, 2012
Joan Parisi Wilcox reports an adventure in healing using the assistance of Peruvian shamans and psychedelic medicine in "Ayahuasca: The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul."
Unfortunately for Wilcox, it seems as though she undertakes her Ayahuasca adventure with the main goal being that of writing a book about Ayahuasca.
Her book is cobbled together as well. She patches her shoddy writing up with quotes from other writers, and she gives long and detailed accounts of her dreams and visions that are not interesting.
She also has, evidently at one time, memorized a list of vocabulary words in preparation to take a standardized test, possibly the GRE. It's obvious that she memorized this list because GRE words are liberally dispersed all throughout this Ayahuasca book.
Undulate and coalesce are Wilcox's two favorite GRE words. I know this because Wilcox uses undulate on almost every page of her book. When she is not using undulate, she is using coalesce.
I can't understand why her editor didn't insist that she go through and make different word choices for variety. You can't use the same two GRE words over and over again on every page of your book and then call yourself a writer--it's unacceptable.
And lest I forget, there is also a terrible interview with a shaman included in the book. During the interview, Wilcox clearly states that the shaman is bored and no longer wants to answer her stupid questions.
It was about halfway through this book that I began to wonder if the Ayahuasca would ever be able to cure Wilcox's pretty obvious pretension. A pretension that is almost palpable in all its horrible glory.
Sadly, Wilcox does not end up being healed, which becomes exceedingly clear when, at the end of the book, the reader is subjected to a sampling of Wilcox's poetry.
You can't get more pretentious then adding your bad poetry to your already poorly written and shoddy book.
But now I'm worried, because if Ayahuasca and the Peruvian shamans could not heal Wilcox's pretentiousness, how can it heal anything else? It's safe to say that I went into this book a believer of the healing powers of the vine of the soul but now I have my doubts. . .
Unfortunately for Wilcox, it seems as though she undertakes her Ayahuasca adventure with the main goal being that of writing a book about Ayahuasca.
Her book is cobbled together as well. She patches her shoddy writing up with quotes from other writers, and she gives long and detailed accounts of her dreams and visions that are not interesting.
She also has, evidently at one time, memorized a list of vocabulary words in preparation to take a standardized test, possibly the GRE. It's obvious that she memorized this list because GRE words are liberally dispersed all throughout this Ayahuasca book.
Undulate and coalesce are Wilcox's two favorite GRE words. I know this because Wilcox uses undulate on almost every page of her book. When she is not using undulate, she is using coalesce.
I can't understand why her editor didn't insist that she go through and make different word choices for variety. You can't use the same two GRE words over and over again on every page of your book and then call yourself a writer--it's unacceptable.
And lest I forget, there is also a terrible interview with a shaman included in the book. During the interview, Wilcox clearly states that the shaman is bored and no longer wants to answer her stupid questions.
It was about halfway through this book that I began to wonder if the Ayahuasca would ever be able to cure Wilcox's pretty obvious pretension. A pretension that is almost palpable in all its horrible glory.
Sadly, Wilcox does not end up being healed, which becomes exceedingly clear when, at the end of the book, the reader is subjected to a sampling of Wilcox's poetry.
You can't get more pretentious then adding your bad poetry to your already poorly written and shoddy book.
But now I'm worried, because if Ayahuasca and the Peruvian shamans could not heal Wilcox's pretentiousness, how can it heal anything else? It's safe to say that I went into this book a believer of the healing powers of the vine of the soul but now I have my doubts. . .
June 21, 2019
I enjoyed this book because the format of the retreat the author attended is the same as one I will be attending--quiet, not much socializing, two weeks long. There were parts where she attempted to detail or decipher her personal experiences a bit past the interest of the reader, but overall not a bad introduction to Ayahuasca and the experience of working with it.
March 23, 2024
Blend of personal and factual on this topic
I've read a few books on this topic, one often sensationalized, mythologized, or misunderstood. Joan Parisi Wilcox has the training as an academic (if in English), the self-discipline as a writer by trade, and the informed experience in shamanistic traditions which ground her account. The first half narrates her first encounters with ayahuasca, vividly described and intricately detailed. She attempts the tricky balance of observer and participant, no easy feat in processing the immersion into a disorienting, disturbing, and image-heavy plunge which resists verbal evocation. While the second half, about her ten-day extended series of rituals engaging with various Amazonian plants of healing, slogs and slows due to its journal-like style, and the granular recording of her ever-changing moods and observations, it offers the unfamiliar reader a chance to accompany as it were the author as she confronts the exposures to challenges which outside the jungle realm, cannot be truly replicated. Her set-and-setting, therefore, combine to present a deeper investigation. At least she takes a bit of time to peer into it.
She eschews romanticizing the culture, for the most part. She's sensible enough to champion the results, even as she judges them better understood within a spiritual search, rather than a psychological methodology or certainly not a recreational pursuit. The "solvent" of this root and vine concoction won't work its power on those coming to it without serious intent and pure humility. For this perspective, the writer earns respect. This topic isn't for the spiritual-but-not-religious consumer of whatever potpourri of New Age wisdom one chooses to mix and match. A predicament for many claiming initiation into Andean insights, much as a couple of generations before, the beatniks and hippies lauded their often shallow interpretations or appropriations of Eastern thought and belief.
However, I retain reservations about those who come into an indigenous framework trying to remodel its influences or fabricate such as her husband does, an "Andean Sound Healing" out of a rooted mindset, an adherence to a particular and enduring landscape, and venerable, deeply rooted, contextual environment. I am sure the Wilcoxes mean well, and there's at least less of the treacly rhapsdodizing many countercultural seekers indulge in, our contemporary updating of the noble savage. Still, the truth that some outsiders aim to repackage the learning and lore of.those whom they admire, the better to market it abroad, unsettles me.
I've read a few books on this topic, one often sensationalized, mythologized, or misunderstood. Joan Parisi Wilcox has the training as an academic (if in English), the self-discipline as a writer by trade, and the informed experience in shamanistic traditions which ground her account. The first half narrates her first encounters with ayahuasca, vividly described and intricately detailed. She attempts the tricky balance of observer and participant, no easy feat in processing the immersion into a disorienting, disturbing, and image-heavy plunge which resists verbal evocation. While the second half, about her ten-day extended series of rituals engaging with various Amazonian plants of healing, slogs and slows due to its journal-like style, and the granular recording of her ever-changing moods and observations, it offers the unfamiliar reader a chance to accompany as it were the author as she confronts the exposures to challenges which outside the jungle realm, cannot be truly replicated. Her set-and-setting, therefore, combine to present a deeper investigation. At least she takes a bit of time to peer into it.
She eschews romanticizing the culture, for the most part. She's sensible enough to champion the results, even as she judges them better understood within a spiritual search, rather than a psychological methodology or certainly not a recreational pursuit. The "solvent" of this root and vine concoction won't work its power on those coming to it without serious intent and pure humility. For this perspective, the writer earns respect. This topic isn't for the spiritual-but-not-religious consumer of whatever potpourri of New Age wisdom one chooses to mix and match. A predicament for many claiming initiation into Andean insights, much as a couple of generations before, the beatniks and hippies lauded their often shallow interpretations or appropriations of Eastern thought and belief.
However, I retain reservations about those who come into an indigenous framework trying to remodel its influences or fabricate such as her husband does, an "Andean Sound Healing" out of a rooted mindset, an adherence to a particular and enduring landscape, and venerable, deeply rooted, contextual environment. I am sure the Wilcoxes mean well, and there's at least less of the treacly rhapsdodizing many countercultural seekers indulge in, our contemporary updating of the noble savage. Still, the truth that some outsiders aim to repackage the learning and lore of.those whom they admire, the better to market it abroad, unsettles me.
April 6, 2025
Valuable insight into the vine of the soul with personal stories and factual information. Joan has a genuine, human and honest way of sharing her story with the Mother of all plants. Interesting how I discovered the medicine working within me as I read the pages.
February 15, 2022
Liked the stories of healing and adventure. Left me with many questions.
September 14, 2019
Interesting read. I'm not much into biographies of individuals but it's a pretty good read. Thank you Ms. Wilcox!
April 17, 2008
A revealing look at the most intense trips you'll ever take. Written like a graduate thesis in anthropology and psychology - the author takes you on some of the most vivid and rediculous trips through the cosmos. Open your eyes, restrict your diet and love the evolution of plants that fuck you up!
May 12, 2008
Good info, but the writer has a vague air of being a bit of a hippy. That always cheeses me off. I HATE HIPPIES!!!!!!
August 4, 2012
Great introduction to Ayahuasca.
December 18, 2009
Joan Parisi is an fantastic writer.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews