The Shaman's Last Apprentice

by Rebekah Shaman

The Shaman's Last Apprentice is the true story of an English woman's apprenticeship with an Ayahuasquero shaman. A vision summons Rebekah from the mountains of Machu Picchu and leads her to a little village tucked away on a tributary of the Amazon River. There she learns the ancient wisdom of the powerful plant Ayahuasca, discovers the truth about herself, and brings back a message of hope from this sacred place, for these times of instability and change.

Genres: Travel

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 16, 2013

Reviews

[Ludivine V. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The process of apprenticeship described in this book will make laugh anyone who actually went through a real apprenticeship from a Peruvian curandero, and actually, can even be dangerous for those who would start practicing shupar or other techniques as described in the book, without the proper training and protection.

First of all, in that part of the Amazon, apprenticeship goes through master plant dietas, done in isolation in the jungle for weeks or even months. The author did none of that, and strangely, it wasn't even offered by the maestro.

Second, she describes that she started singing some icaros in English in her first sessions... It doesn't happen like this. Icaros are either received from the maestro, or from the plants, and will not be given in the first ceremonies. One has to first manage to control the trance, and to clean oneself, before starting to receive anything. In any book about Ayahuasca, you will never read that indigenous people start screaming random icaros on their first ceremonies, it takes time to be able to sing icaros properly.

And third, about shupar, sucking bad energy on Ayahuasca. She describes she starts doing that at some point, very shortly in her training. It never happens like this. This is a dangerous operation to do, and curanderos do it only when they have dieted enough to have a strong mariri that will prevent the bad energy to go in their body. It is very unlikely that a shaman will tell somebody with no dieta and no mariri to suck someone's energy.

There are still many things in this book that doesn't sound true at all, 100% fake story from my point of view, and even wondering if the author has really been to Peruvian Amazon.

[S Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

I have done Rebekahs online Cacao ceremonies through lockdown and decided to read her book to get to know her a bit better. I love her energy in ceremony and the book didn't disappoint. I loved it, it is a book I would read again, great little bits of simple wisdom, simple but powerful.

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Nici Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have recently had the privilege of working with Rebekkah over the lockdown period through the Internet fulfilling a lifelong ambition. I’ve had the books for years but not got round to reading them before. I thoroughly enjoyed The Shaman’s Last Apprentice learning about Rebekah’s life before and her year long apprentice training in the Amazon with a Shaman. You feel like you can see, smell, touch all the scenes, plants, rivers, places as they are so beautifully and thoroughly described. It’s a very nice, interesting story right up to the last chapter which leaves you having to forge a opinion on the Shaman’s true motives. It was lovely to learn more about Rebekah and how she came to become the woman she is today.

[R.B. Aiken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is truly an amazing story. Before this book I had never actually read a story book. Everything I had read was Spirituality type Self Help books.

I have now moved on to reading Paulo Coelho books and other story books, but The Shamans Last Apprentice to this day is still the best story book that I have read.

A must read, cant speak highly enough about it!

[Belamoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a lovely and simply said, genuine story of something so deep as becoming a Shaman. Inspiring.