Rating: 
Summary: A must have for Lightworkers
Review: I've read this one twice! Appears to have been written from the heart. Very informative. I keep it on my bookshelf along with B. Weiss, N. Walsh, D. Virtue, and J. Redfield
Rating:
Summary: SHAMAN, HEALER, SAGE by Alberto Villoldo
Review: In SHAMAN, HEALER, SAGE, Alberto Villoldo spells out practices for personal and collective transformation of consciousness. The techniques elaborated are his own synthesis and interpretation of ancient healing practices. He strongly emphasizes that they must be employed with the highest code of ethics and integrity. What can heal can also hurt. Therefore, much of shamanic training is dedicated to developing ethics and values grounded upon a deep reverence for all life. To Villoldo's mind, energy healing from someone with inadequate training is basically black magic, regardless of one's good intentions.Shamanic energy healing is not about rules or ideas. It is about vision and spirit - about realizing our luminous nature in infinity. It is about being caretakers of the Earth - speaking with thundering rivers, whispering mountains, and hearing the voice of God in the wind. In the world of the shaman, there are no divisions between mind, spirit, and matter. There is nothing to transcend and nothing in need of yoking. Said his teacher, Don Antonio, "We are luminous beings on a journey to the stars." As Villoldo portrays it, the Illumination Process of the shaman is a direct interaction with the forces of Spirit. It allows us to taste infinity and renew ourselves from the source that animates and informs all life. In experiencing infinity, the illusions of old age, disease, and death are shattered. Every cell in our body is informed and renewed. Our immune system is unfettered, healing is accelerated, miracles and spontaneous remissions become common occurrences. According to Villoldo, The Luminous Energy Field contains an archive of our personal and ancestral memories. That informs the chakras which organize our physical and emotional world. Erasing negative imprints in the Luminous Field enable the immune system to efficiently eradicate an illness. Amazon shamans believe that when all the chakras are cleared, one acquires a "rainbow body." One can visit the spirit world and die consciously because one knows the way home. One is not stalked by death, but claimed by life. In the shamanic view, the four survival instincts - fear, feeding, fighting, and sex - are mirrored in the first two chakras. An unbalanced first chakra manifests as feelings of scarcity. When cleared, we know with every cell of our body that we are cared for and sustained by the universe. The second chakra has the capacity to digest negative emotions and expel them as waste. The tool of the third chakra is visualization. Balancing the third chakra improves the surrounding world since, according to the shaman, we dream our world into being. The nature of the fourth chakra, the heart, is impersonal love. The fifth chakra, the throat, gives voice to the feelings of the heart. In the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth chakras, development becomes transpersonal as we explore ever more subtle domains. We master death, time, invisibility, and the ability to keep a secret. It is said that all the desires of one with an awakened third eye come true. Therefore, a number of healers holding the same vision can manifest its truth for the planet. To develop the shaman's way of seeing, we need to see with the eyes of the mind and the heart. Villoldo gives visualization meditations as to how to develop and strengthen those connections. The result is primary, direct, immediate, multisensory perception (synesthesia). The seer learns to track the origin of illness across time by finding the wounded "face" of the patient. Once it appears, it will reveal its story. Before healing, the shaman summons the organizing principles of the Universe and aligns himself with them. He invokes a sacred space for healing and maintains it through the purity of his intent. That protects him from absorbing negative energies. After completing his work, he closes the sacred space so that it will not become contaminated. Otherwise, the forces of nature would no longer respond to his call. Villoldo says that he has seen healers who neglected to close their own sacred space absorb toxic energies from their client and become ill themselves. Villoldo gives detailed steps for the Illumination Process of energy healing. It works by combusting and digesting toxic wastes that obstruct chakras and fuel imprints. Clear light is employed to overwrite information contained in the blueprint to prevent reorganization of the disease. Thus, the Illumination Process integrates and transforms emotional wounds into sources of knowledge and wisdom. According to Villoldo, every form of energy has consciousness and frequency of vibration. Just as the brain has receptor sites for specific chemicals, we have receptor sites for specific energies. Villoldo cautions his students that negative energies are attracted to those with whom they share an affinity. Students may be drawn to work with those having similar psychological issues. In that case, an afflicted energy might change hosts -- passing from the patient to the healer. According to Inka prophecy, we are now in a period of great chaos and upheaval. It will last until the year 2012, when "the paradigm of looting and pillaging the Earth brought by European civilization will end and the ways of the Earth peoples will make a comeback. The conquistador will perish by his own blade." The Inkas speak about a new human, Homo Luminous, being born - a being connected by luminous threads spanning across time, anchored in infinity. Says Villoldo, "We are that new human. Our question no longer is can we make a quantum leap into who we are becoming, but rather dare we do so." In that dynamic, courageous vision, SHAMAN, HEALER, SAGE offers great hope and promise for our world -- for the individual and collective transformation of consciousness necessary to heal our planet. It inspires and encourages us to realize our luminous nature in infinity -- in the birth of a new humanity in harmony with the forces of nature, at one with all life, and at peace with the world.
Rating: 
Summary: worthwhile
Review: In this book Villoldo provides us with a glimpse into Andean healing practices. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from Villoldo's Journal written during his training sesions with the teachers from the Q'ero nation, and with the healers he encountered in the Peruvian and Brazilian rainforest. Villoldo then goes on to describe the foundations of energy medicine and ends most chapters with simple exercises to give us the taste of what he is writing about. Myself i am interested in parallels between various shamanic practices and energy training in martial arts and SHS provided several useful tips. However, the practical usefulness of this book is probably limited, because even the simplest exercises need verification and support by a qualified teacher. I find the information in this book to be (to the best of my knowledge) accurate, provided by a competent and well-trained specialist. The stories about the Q'ero shamans and their training are especially interesting. These people have a sophisticated understanding of consciousness and of the issues related to death and dying. As all indigenous shamans, they are intimately connected to nature and show amazing skills taping forces residing within the majestic landscape of the Cordilleras. i think it is high time we start to look at the Q'ero with new respect. In my view this is probably one of the best books available on Peruvian shamanism and its applicability to the Western practice of "integrative medicine". i recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, inspiring, and highly useful . . .
Review: One of the other reviewers glibly offers an inaccurate comment regarding "Dr. Villoldo's lack of detail and other concerns regarding truthfulness in contemporary shamanism". If you read the entire article ["The Selling of the Shaman and the Problem of Legitimacy"] the author [Donald Joralemon] doesn't end up unbraiding Villoldo, though it may seem that way at the outset when he is hypothesizing, i.e. stating certain thoughts to begin his argument/query. To the contrary, in one of his footnotes Joralemon makes it seem like he respects Villoldo. The article is a fascinating look at the way an anthropologist tries to come to terms with his craft, and the way it alters and possibly threatens the ways of life that he is studying. Villoldo is only an ancillary figure in the story Joralemon is telling, the principal character being Don Eduardo Calderon, a Peruvian jungle shaman/entrepreneur. The author is generally quite honest in the way he lays out his thoughts. Note also that the full title of the periodical is 'Journal of Anthropological Research'. [One might have a very difficult time searching libraries for the journal 'Anthropological Research' since it doesn't really exist.] The aforementioned reviewer is probably one of those folks who attempts to forge a reputation based on slandering others, then thumping his/her chest about what a great person he/she is for seeing through the foibles of those whom he/she has unjustly depicted as villains. Villoldo has suffered many times at the hands of students who have become furious and slanderous because he doesn't fall into the trap of trying to depict himself as perfect. Some of these silly folks are looking to project upon him the archetypal "guru" role, e.g. expecting him to look and act and think like one of their previous 'Eastern' gurus. Others criticize his teachings for blending in techniques that they cannot verify as being from South America. In actuality, he is only using such methods to help [Westerners] access the spirit of the Andean seers/shamans/healers, by effectively moving aside their/our occidental prejudices and ways of being/seeing. The rites of passage which his students undergo under his guidance are arguably genuine and life-transforming. Still other former students/critics don't like the fact that he is making a good living doing what he loves the best. Too bad for them, I guess. There was even a certain married couple who for years pulled all sorts of shenanigans behind his back, whose real motive was probably to take over his foundation/organization, rather than sweating to build up their own. Anyway, please buy/read this book--it's a really good one. Read in combination with Joan Parisi Wilcox's 'Keepers of the Ancient Knowledge: The Mystical World of the Q'ero Indians of Peru' and Elisabeth B. Jenkins' 'Initiation : A Woman's Spiritual Adventure in the Heart of the Andes', you'll get a phenomenal tutelage from three excellent writers, all whom have studied/journeyed in Peru under the guidance of some of the same medicine people. And two of Villoldo's earlier works, which tell the story of his own journeys into Inca shamanism, are definitely worth checking out as well. They are 'Dance of the Four Winds' and 'Island of the Sun'.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you Dr. Villoldo
Review: This book has completely changed my life, as well as the lives of the many people I have touched, since reading Shaman, Healer Sage in late 2003. After finding myself (totally unexpectedly) on the path of shamanism, I found and read this book. I will admit, I did have many reservations on much of the books teachings. Frankly, it just didn't seem possible that such a profound level of healing, could be so simple. I mean, if it was this easy, why hadn't I heard of it before, or come across someone who was a shaman and could do these wondrous things. At 50 years old, I really didn't know what a shaman was, short of the 1992 Sean Connery movie "Medicine Man", in which the diminutive shaman (who Connery had made very angry) scared the hell out of me. Not a good start for me.
Anyway, I had just spent several months, looking for someone to teach me about shamanism. After reading his book, I decided that the good Dr. was probably a very good place to start. I read two more of his books, just because I'm an eternal skeptic, then I reread Shaman, Healer Sage again. Did I mention that I'm a skeptic???
I began formal study with Dr. Villoldo and his staff of shaman instructors in July of 2004. The work of the south was true to the teachings of the book, and I saw (and experienced) healing work that I still find unbelievable. The teachings are just as simple and eloquent as the book that led me to these classes. I found the same to be true about the next two classes. The gifts of healing I have learned so far, have allowed me to heal people of both physical and psychological ailments. In some cases, these people have been treated for, and suffered from these illnesses, for several years. I do not take credit for this work. If you have read the book, you will know why.
I am leaving for two more weeks of study in March of 2005. I read Shaman, Healer Sage before I leave for every class. I noticed that many of my fellow students who took the class on the teachings of the west, seemed to have their copy of the book with them. I believe that not only does the book serve as a helpful reference to what we are learning, but it also serves as an inspiration to those of us who have dedicated our lives to this calling.
Before I close this, I would like to say that I do not intend what I write in this review, to make anyone think this road is an easy one to follow. Much to the contrary. To learn, and apply Dr. Villoldo's teachings take total commitment, and intentions that must be pure. It isn't something you do on a whim, as your entire life will never be the same, and you won't either. This is a serious way of life, that is sometimes a heavy weight to carry. I will say that to be able to do something about someone's suffering, instead of standing by and watching them suffer, is a gift that goes beyond any gift I could ever imagine. I can think of nothing more wonderful to do for someone, than to remove their pain.
If you are going to read one book on shamanism, read Shaman, Healer Sage. You will be glad you did. To Dr. Villoldo, who has taught me so much, as well as all of the teachers who taught him, and the people who are instructors in his classes, I (and the people I have healed) thank you.
Please pray for the healing of the earth and all of her people.
Scott Walker
Rating:
Summary: Shaman, Healer, Sage, and Beyond
Review: This book is , I believe, the result of Villoldo's intense collaboration with his students and the Inca elders during the last 10 years, and his wanderings for twenty years through the healing pathways of Native American, Meso-American, and Amazonian energy medicine. As his student for 11 years, I see the core of his current teaching. In person, Villoldo is a master at group process, and experiential teaching. In Europe, this text is called "The Book" and has attracted a huge following of foreign students. Dr. Villoldo has blended the energy medicine of indigenous people and has created a new shamanism for our time. This book is a Gateway to both the old and the new. This book can also be a Gateway for those that wish to heal, and for those that wish to heal others.
Rating:
Summary: A great journey
Review: This book is an inspiration. It is took me on a journey into life, death, spirit and infinity. It is an exquisite combination of the true experiences of Dr Villoldo in his 25 years in the amazon and Andes and it passes those years of experience onto me - the reader! I feel as if my world view has been broadened and it has given me keys that will accelerate my own process of healing; and my access to beauty and spirit.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and life changing book....
Review: This book literaly fell into my hands in a bookstore when I wasn't even looking. My husband is from Peru and we will be going there next year. My sister in-law has been studying with a shamen for awhile now and as this book lets you know, it is life changing. Though in a great way. We are all ready to relearn the ways of old, since the new ways are not working. Alberto tells his story in a format that is easy to understand. I think you will enjoy this book emensely and learn much from Alberto who studied with the shamens for over 20 years.
Rating:
Summary: AN ELOQUENT MASTERPIECE FILLED WITH WISDOM
Review: This book was in a way, my first introduction to shamanism. Although quite familiar with the works of Carlos Castaneda, it was only after reading this book that I realized that the type of 'sorcery' described by Castaneda is at its essence, a form of shamanism. Dr. Villoldo's writing style is engaging and reflects an inner elegance and sobriety. He has learned much and has much to teach us. His training as an Anthropologist in the Western world coupled with his extensive training with Incan shamans allows him to convey and adapt ancient teachings in to a form that is compatible with the mind-set and lifestyle of the modern day person. In addition, the book provides practical exercises that one can use to begin one's own personal journey on a Path of Knowledge. I recommend this book to anyone with a true interest in shamanism. Also recommended: 'The Chakras'(Patricia Mercier), 'The Path' (Esmeralda Arana)
Rating: 
Summary: Truly awful exploitation of the gullible
Review: Villoldo has been a disgrace within his profession for decades, an example of the worst forms of exploitation of white fantasies, misconceptions, and wishful thinking about Native people, and with a long and ignoble history of deceiving the poor unfortunates who actually think this nonsense has ANYTHING to do with what Natives in South America do or practice. NOTHING in this book is practiced anywhere by ANY Native people. Silliness like "lightworking" is strictly from the New Age movement. This book is only for people who delude themselves into thinking a book can make them a "shaman." Sorry, Villoldo has sold you a load of snake oil. Any help one receives from Villoldo's books or workshops is purely coincidental, just the Placebo Effect at work. Even worse, some people are harmed (and even die) because they turned to Villoldo instead of people who could actually help them.
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