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The Four Winds: A Shaman's Odyssey into the Amazon
A psychologist-turned-shaman relates his experiences with ayahuasca, or the "vine of death," as he explores the subconscious amid Inca ruins in Peru
- GenresTravel
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
6 people are currently reading
106 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 23, 2023
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A Peruvian Carlos Castaneda’s voyage of self-discovery in the moonlit jungles of the Amazon basin.
“My breath is hot and humid; my heart beats too fast, and I can smell myself beyond the moist tangle of the jungle.”
“I open my eyes to stare into yellow cat eyes, my eyes, animal eyes….”
Did this educated dude who’d had enough university actually become the jaguar that was stalking him? Well, if you venture to read this far-out book, you might find out. Will you believe it? Is he sincere? Are you into colorful auras? Adventures, shamans, mysteries, sex with aged goddesses? Mainly, are you into drug experiences with ayahuasca? If so, this is definitely your book.
Not me, I’m outta here. I’ve been here before. Books are many, life is short. I’m gonna read something else. DNF. Sorry folks.
A Peruvian Carlos Castaneda’s voyage of self-discovery in the moonlit jungles of the Amazon basin.
“My breath is hot and humid; my heart beats too fast, and I can smell myself beyond the moist tangle of the jungle.”
“I open my eyes to stare into yellow cat eyes, my eyes, animal eyes….”
Did this educated dude who’d had enough university actually become the jaguar that was stalking him? Well, if you venture to read this far-out book, you might find out. Will you believe it? Is he sincere? Are you into colorful auras? Adventures, shamans, mysteries, sex with aged goddesses? Mainly, are you into drug experiences with ayahuasca? If so, this is definitely your book.
Not me, I’m outta here. I’ve been here before. Books are many, life is short. I’m gonna read something else. DNF. Sorry folks.
June 13, 2012
This was a surprisingly fast read, and though I started reading it skeptically, I really enjoyed it. Villoldo makes some observations that ring true during his recounting of what he learned and how in Peru, and the story of his experience is entertaining.
I suppose my skepticism arises from an innate suspicion of - the only word I can think of is hucksterism, oy - but for some reason, anything with a hint of new age sets me on guard for people just out to make some cash. There is also the problem of people focusing on the personal benefit of a spiritual path rather than the search for truth larger than oneself. But Villoldo acknowledges these issues, although he doesn't spend much time on them, and I got the impression he is genuine in his desire to learn from the healers in Peru and to share that knowledge in his own culture.
There is also the perennial problem where anthropology and religion collide, a problem I am starting to think is simply unresolvable. What is appropriate to take from a culture, does communicating someone's most vital rites help us all or devalue the subject? And, of course, any time the word shaman is used in a book for a popular audience, everyone thinks of Carlos Castaneda and has to wonder - how do we know the author isn't just making all this up?
So, I'd like to know more, about Villoldo and about the traditions he shares, but on the whole, I found his book a thought-provoking and worthwhile read.
I suppose my skepticism arises from an innate suspicion of - the only word I can think of is hucksterism, oy - but for some reason, anything with a hint of new age sets me on guard for people just out to make some cash. There is also the problem of people focusing on the personal benefit of a spiritual path rather than the search for truth larger than oneself. But Villoldo acknowledges these issues, although he doesn't spend much time on them, and I got the impression he is genuine in his desire to learn from the healers in Peru and to share that knowledge in his own culture.
There is also the perennial problem where anthropology and religion collide, a problem I am starting to think is simply unresolvable. What is appropriate to take from a culture, does communicating someone's most vital rites help us all or devalue the subject? And, of course, any time the word shaman is used in a book for a popular audience, everyone thinks of Carlos Castaneda and has to wonder - how do we know the author isn't just making all this up?
So, I'd like to know more, about Villoldo and about the traditions he shares, but on the whole, I found his book a thought-provoking and worthwhile read.
June 7, 2018
Wow. I knew this book would be good, but I didn’t know it would be this good. Mind-blowing, spiritually awakening, strange, funny, divine. Alberto Villoldo is a very special person.
March 13, 2010
A book that proves the potency of ritual, and of carefully prepared mind-altering botanicals. The authors story is colorful with soothsayers, healers, shamans and the exotic lands they inhabit. He has worked alongside some incredible people who are beyond themselves in what they do.
August 8, 2011
Loved this book. It opened my eyes to more of the world.
March 22, 2013
Reading it again, this time trying to go a little slower but finding out that pages are just flying by ;-). I really love this book and this author and the whole premise of the book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews