Ayahuasca Medicine: The Shamanic World of Amazonian Sacred Plant Healing
“Ayahuasca Medicineis a highly readable collection of incredible stories about miraculous healings and life with indigenous healers sure to entice anyone with an interest in ayahuasca and other psychoactive plants used in Latin America. Cautionary advice admixes with infectious enthusiasm for the topic, and provides a valuable contribution to the literature on practical applications of psychedelic plants’ effects.” (Rick Strassman, M.D., author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule and coauthor of Inner Paths to Outer Space)“Alan Shoemaker has seen it all, and done it all. In this book he narrates his life story with humor and passion. A read sure to be of interest!” (Dennis McKenna, Ph.D., ethnopharmacologist and author of Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss and coau)“Ayahuasca Medicineis a revealing journey on the Western shamanic path with one of the most preeminent gringos on the Iquitos frontier. Alan Shoemaker’s apprenticeship with the medicine ayahuasca is rich in wonder, frank in detail, and embodies the cultural metamorphosis those of us who connect with the power plants must undergo. And as a new generation of Western seekers comes to the jungle in search of the mystery, Alan’s greatest wisdom may be his understanding that true healing comes from within. As well as the plants and the curanderos, Westerners are being groomed to be their own teachers, and Alan Shoemaker stands foremost among them.” (Rak Razam, author of Aya Awakening: A Shamanic Odyssey)“Alan Shoemaker has had more adventures than most people can even dream of, and he has written a fascinating book of both stories and ideas. The stories are brash, revelatory, and filled with self-deprecating humor; the ideas come from an immense knowledge of ayahuasca shamanism. This is a memoir of twenty years of experience with shamans and seekers and rogues of all kinds--an honest and deeply personal take on Amazonian shamanic practices and beliefs.” (Stephan V. Beyer, author of Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon)