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Ayahuasca Medicine: The Shamanic World of Amazonian Sacred Plant Healing
An insider’s account of the journey to become an ayahuasquero, a shaman who heals with the visionary vine ayahuasca
• Details the author’s training and life as a curandero using ayahuasca medicine, San Pedro cactus, tobacco purges, psychedelic mushrooms, and other visionary plants
• Offers first-hand accounts of miraculous healing where ayahuasca revealed the cause of the illness, including how the author healed his mother from liver cancer
• Shows how “ayahuasca tourism” symbolizes the Western world’s reawakening need to connect with the universal life force
For more than 20 years American-born Alan Shoemaker has apprenticed and worked with shamans in Ecuador and Peru, learning the traditional methods of ayahuasca preparation, the ceremonial rituals for its use, and how to commune with the healing spirit of this sacred plant as well as the spirit of the San Pedro cactus and other sacred plant allies. Now a recognized and practicing ayahuasquero , or ayahuasca shaman, in Peru, he offers an insider’s account of the ayahuasca tradition and of its use for expanding consciousness and achieving healing through access to other dimensions of being.
Shoemaker details his training and his own curandero practice using ayahuasca medicine, tobacco purges, psychedelic mushrooms, and other visionary plants. He discusses the different traditions of his two foremost teachers and mentors, Don Juan in the Peruvian Amazon, an ayahuasquero, and Valentin in Ecuador, a San Pedro shaman. He reveals the indispensable role played by icaros, the healing songs of the plant shaman, and offers firsthand accounts of miraculous healing resulting from ayahuasca’s ability to reveal the cause of an illness, including how he healed his mother from liver cancer.
The author also addresses the rising popularity of Northerners traveling to the Amazon to seek healing and mind expansion through ayahuasca and shows how this fascination is triggered by humanity’s reawakening need to connect to the universal life force.
• Details the author’s training and life as a curandero using ayahuasca medicine, San Pedro cactus, tobacco purges, psychedelic mushrooms, and other visionary plants
• Offers first-hand accounts of miraculous healing where ayahuasca revealed the cause of the illness, including how the author healed his mother from liver cancer
• Shows how “ayahuasca tourism” symbolizes the Western world’s reawakening need to connect with the universal life force
For more than 20 years American-born Alan Shoemaker has apprenticed and worked with shamans in Ecuador and Peru, learning the traditional methods of ayahuasca preparation, the ceremonial rituals for its use, and how to commune with the healing spirit of this sacred plant as well as the spirit of the San Pedro cactus and other sacred plant allies. Now a recognized and practicing ayahuasquero , or ayahuasca shaman, in Peru, he offers an insider’s account of the ayahuasca tradition and of its use for expanding consciousness and achieving healing through access to other dimensions of being.
Shoemaker details his training and his own curandero practice using ayahuasca medicine, tobacco purges, psychedelic mushrooms, and other visionary plants. He discusses the different traditions of his two foremost teachers and mentors, Don Juan in the Peruvian Amazon, an ayahuasquero, and Valentin in Ecuador, a San Pedro shaman. He reveals the indispensable role played by icaros, the healing songs of the plant shaman, and offers firsthand accounts of miraculous healing resulting from ayahuasca’s ability to reveal the cause of an illness, including how he healed his mother from liver cancer.
The author also addresses the rising popularity of Northerners traveling to the Amazon to seek healing and mind expansion through ayahuasca and shows how this fascination is triggered by humanity’s reawakening need to connect to the universal life force.
- GenresDrugs
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2014
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164 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 22, 2017
This short book covers a wide range of topics concerning ayahuasca medicine and curanderismo. The author is quick to point out the many misconceptions that surround the practice, and offers clear warnings to those who, upon venturing into this miraculous terrain, develop the precarious fantasy of "playing shaman." Playing shaman, or even venturing into the terrain of Sacred Power Plants without "preliminary rudimentary education and controlled investigation can lead to possible possession of the body by unknown subtle energies, permanent psychotic mental states, and even to a loss of the soul." Yet, and Shoemaker emphasizes this point, if one is well prepared and able to steer clear of such egomaniacal delusions, products of "the endless maze void of soul", the possibility of coming to understand that the true source of ayahuasca healing is from within becomes available. Our inherent capacity to heal ourselves begins to unfold. This ability of ayahuasca to potentiate or activate our latent self-healing potentials affords us the eternal realization of freedom. Ayahuasca is not simply a hallucinogen, for in moments of receptive clarity it can bestow the seeker with true visions that "render knowledge directly from the spirit world"; these are the "gifts of grace."
June 9, 2015
Great anecdotes about the different styles of curanderos, altered states of consciousness, and the potential for brujeria by malevolent vegetalistas.
April 22, 2025
It is with mixed feelings that I read the last page. At the beginning I found myself thinking that some of the text was unnecessary, especially the lines where Alan throws shade at Carlos Castaneda, even if that may or may not be true. The astonishing personal stories were interesting to read about and towards the end more fact-based information, so I absolutely take something with me from the reading experience, especially all the facts about curranderos.
January 10, 2018
Quite simple but enjoyable description of his own journey on the spiritual path. It would have been nice if it had bit more content, more descriptions of his hundreds of experiences with psychedelics and what valuable things he had learnt from them. Still very much appreciated book.
February 3, 2018
Great Book
Alan Shoemaker delivers a straight forward and easy to read style. The book is helpful for those interested in Ayahuasca and the sacredness of this incredible medicine.
Alan Shoemaker delivers a straight forward and easy to read style. The book is helpful for those interested in Ayahuasca and the sacredness of this incredible medicine.
February 12, 2017
Really interesting.
September 20, 2014
When I finally received the much-anticipated book of Alan Shoemaker in the mail, which is not a small achievement in Mexico, I was surprised that not more pages were filled with Alan’s experiences in the magical world of San Pedro and Ayahuasca, Sacred Power Plants and revered medicines. Then again, if the stories are good and the words used well, you only need a certain amount of pages.
Beautiful and inspiring art – full color - is included in the book, and that gives that extra illustration that words can’t convey.
The foreword by Peter Gorman, a journalist and gifted writer and storyteller, immediately pulls you into the story of Alan’s past in Iquitos. It’s honest, very honest, and I like that.
Alan effortlessly continuous with a pleasant writing style, describing his search for a 'maestro' with whom he can apprentice and learn about the Sacred Power Plants.
He describes his own unique path, sharing with his readers both his lessons and achievements, but also his honest mistakes and doubts. While you are drawn further into Alan’s adventure, he shares a treasure of facts and knowledge about these Divine medicines and the way of the shamans, curanderos and ayahuasqueros.
I valued Alan’s honest and modern view of the use the Sacred Power Plants, and his down to earth advice to aspiring visitors to the Iquitos area, in search for the ‘Divine within’ and maybe even the ‘Healer’ within, eventually able to ‘heal’ others, if called by the spirits.
Sometimes I thought that Alan was cutting corners with a story, and I personally felt I missed a few more details, a conversation, or an intimate emotion. But other than that this book gives a refreshing and very authentic look on the world of Sacred Power Plants. I should not have expected any less from a man who has dedicated his life to the research of the medicinal plants of the Amazon, sacred or not.
Beautiful and inspiring art – full color - is included in the book, and that gives that extra illustration that words can’t convey.
The foreword by Peter Gorman, a journalist and gifted writer and storyteller, immediately pulls you into the story of Alan’s past in Iquitos. It’s honest, very honest, and I like that.
Alan effortlessly continuous with a pleasant writing style, describing his search for a 'maestro' with whom he can apprentice and learn about the Sacred Power Plants.
He describes his own unique path, sharing with his readers both his lessons and achievements, but also his honest mistakes and doubts. While you are drawn further into Alan’s adventure, he shares a treasure of facts and knowledge about these Divine medicines and the way of the shamans, curanderos and ayahuasqueros.
I valued Alan’s honest and modern view of the use the Sacred Power Plants, and his down to earth advice to aspiring visitors to the Iquitos area, in search for the ‘Divine within’ and maybe even the ‘Healer’ within, eventually able to ‘heal’ others, if called by the spirits.
Sometimes I thought that Alan was cutting corners with a story, and I personally felt I missed a few more details, a conversation, or an intimate emotion. But other than that this book gives a refreshing and very authentic look on the world of Sacred Power Plants. I should not have expected any less from a man who has dedicated his life to the research of the medicinal plants of the Amazon, sacred or not.
April 7, 2014
It is quite difficult to write any book with extensive research into ayahuasca that is not worthy of five stars. It is very important for the future of our society that ayahuasca, and connectivity with dimensions that are not visible to the naked eye, be embraced. Alan Shoemaker puts forth a very readable and admirable experience in this work, and it should be read by every free thinking person possible.
September 11, 2016
Good introduction to the world of Peruan healing
If you don't know much about Shamanism, curranderos and plant healing in Peru, this is a good reading. A plus for the personal stories and experiences shared by Alan.
If you don't know much about Shamanism, curranderos and plant healing in Peru, this is a good reading. A plus for the personal stories and experiences shared by Alan.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews