SHAMAN HEALER SAGE

This is, I suspect, an important book. If so, it is unlikely to be read by those who could benefit most from it: the scientific and medical establishment; and that purely (or impurely!) by reason of its 'New Agey' title and content. A pity, because a more discerning examination shows that this is a contribution to humane knowledge that, unlike so many in this genre, meticulously reveals its sources in the best scholarly fashion. This is the story of a young man, seemingly destined for a brilliant and well paid career in medical science, who threw it all up and went on a search for ancient wisdom in the Amazon forests. Villoldo is also a qualified anthropologist, and twenty years ago he embarked on a long search for the traditional knowledge of the Native Americans of Amazonia. The present book is both the fruit of that investigation and a moving account of his adventures among the forest-dwelling people. Commendably, the author refrains from claiming that his account represents the 'ancient tradition'of the Inka (Inca) or whoever, recognising that it is his interpretation of what he was told by the local shamans. As an anthropologist, Villoldo will also be aware that the idea of a single, originating individual or body of knowledge is a concept peculiar to literate civilisation and foreign to oral cultures without the blessing, or curse, of literacy. Much of what Villoldo tells us about the 'luminous body' and the 'chakras' resonates with the work of Castaneda and later imitators. Villoldo draws an interesting comparison between the Hindu models of the 'energy body' and the similar but not identical Amazonian models. The former portray the energy body as internal to the human person, the latter as connected, through the medium of what Villoldo calls the 'luminous energy field', to the entire universe. All this is fascinating stuff. I'm not too sure, however, about the ethics of warning the reader against trying out the many exercises given here without proper instruction, while outlining those exercises and procedures in great detail!