Drinking the Four Winds: A Shamanic Love Story

Drinking the Four Winds: A Shamanic Love Story, by Ross Heaven

When Ross Heaven, a psychologist and ex-pharmaceutical industry consultant, embarks on a shamanic apprenticeship in the rainforests and mountains of South America his intention is to unlock the secrets of San Pedro, the mescaline cactus that has been used as a sacrament and teacher plant in Peru for millennia, and to learn about love and healing. What he finds is more remarkable, painful, enriching, liberating and extraordinary than he could have imagined.

Ross Heaven was described by Guardian newspaper journalist James Shreeve as "the Joseph Campbell of our times". The director of The Four Gates Foundation for spiritual and shamanic wisdom, Ross is a psychologist, presenter, and the author of more than 10 books on shamanism, plant medicines, and the healing traditions, including The Hummingbird's Journey to God (the first book to be written about shamanic healing with the plant teacher San Pedro), Plant Spirit Shamanism (about ayahuasca and San Pedro healing and the therapeutic uses of other plants), Plant Spirit Wisdom (about healing traditions and practices with native European plants), and The Sin Eater's Last Confessions (about the folk-healing practices of Wales).

As well as his work with native shamanism, Ross has visited Peru since the 1990's to work with the ayahuasceros and curanderos of the Amazon and Andes, and with ayahuasca and San Pedro, the two legendary sacraments and teacher plants used by the shamans of these regions to heal the mind, body, and soul, and to unlock new levels of expanded consciousness.

He now offers the same opportunity for others, with retreat programmes and journeys to Peru where participants can work with indigenous healers and explore and expand their awareness through shamanic encounters with visionary plants. He has also worked with the shamans and plant healing traditions of Haiti and his experiences in this area are recorded in his book Vodou Shaman, of which Publisher's Weekly said "This stands out as one of the most articulate and well-intentioned guidebooks available".

In his workshops, Ross draws from his cross-cultural knowledge of shamanism and its healing possibilities for creating new ways to understand ourselves, our connections to the Earth, and the journeys we are on. Order from Amazon

The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide

The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys, by James Fadiman. Called “America’s wisest and most respected authority on psychedelics and their use,” James Fadiman has been involved with psychedelic research since the 1960s. In this guide to the immediate and long-term effects of psychedelic use for spiritual (high dose), therapeutic (moderate dose), and problem-solving (low dose) purposes, Fadiman outlines best practices for safe, sacred entheogenic voyages learned through his more than 40 years of experience--from the benefits of having a sensitive guide during a session (and how to be one) to the importance of the setting and pre-session intention.

Fadiman reviews the newest as well as the neglected research into the psychotherapeutic value of visionary drug use for increased personal awareness and a host of serious medical conditions, including his recent study of the reasons for and results of psychedelic use among hundreds of students and professionals. He reveals new uses for LSD and other psychedelics, including extremely low doses for improved cognitive functioning and emotional balance. Cautioning that psychedelics are not for everyone, he dispels the myths and misperceptions about psychedelics circulating in textbooks and clinics as well as on the internet. Exploring the life-changing experiences of Ram Dass, Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, and Huston Smith as well as Francis Crick and Steve Jobs, Fadiman shows how psychedelics, used wisely, can lead not only to healing but also to scientific breakthroughs and spiritual epiphanies. Click here for more information or to order.

“James Fadiman’s manual offers helpful and well-informed guidance for those who seek ‘the divine within’ through sacred plants and psychedelic substances.” - Daniel Pinchbeck

“Approaching his subject from intimately historical, psychological-cultural, and accessibly authoritative perspectives, Fadiman’s psychedelic magnum opus establishes the benchmark reference for anyone interested in understanding, experiencing, or supervising the effects of this unique family of psychoactive substances.” - Rick Strassman

James Fadiman, Ph.D., did his undergraduate work at Harvard and his graduate work at Stanford, doing research with the Harvard Group, the West Coast Research Group in Menlo Park, and Ken Kesey. A former president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a professor of psychology, he teaches at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, which he helped found in 1975. An international conference presenter, workshop leader, management consultant, and author of several books and textbooks, he lives in Menlo Park, California, with his filmmaker wife, Dorothy.

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Zen and the Art of Bowling

Illumination: The Shaman's Way of Healing

Illumination: The Shaman's Way of Healing, by Alberto Villoldo. Illumination guides the reader on a healing journey, forged by the timeless wisdom of indigenous cultures and the latest theories of neurobiology. Through various stages in this journey of initiation, we grow to understand the causes of our suffering and how to free ourselves from the pain and drama of our unhealed emotions. Life itself invites us to be initiated through many means—the possibility of love, the loss of a parent or friend, the birth of a child, or a serious health crisis. True initiation is empowered by facing personal challenges and experiencing the spiritual rebirth—or illumination—that follows.

Unifying this book is the sacred process of transforming toxic emotions into sources of power and grace. Illumination shows us how to bid a joyful goodbye to the people and places we have met, discovering a sacred space where the spirit inhabits, uniting the body and soul. When we learn to let go from difficult situations and problems, to accept our lives as they are, we can begin to identify with a self that is eternal.

Recounting his own experiences, tracing the mythologies of an array of cultures, and expanding his inquiry into the field of neurobiology, Alberto Villoldo shows readers how they can benefit from these sacred practices. Click here for more information or to order.

Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., is the author of several books, including Shaman, Healer, Sage; Courageous Dreaming; The Four Insights; and Mending the Past & Healing The Future With Soul Retrieval. A psychologist and medical anthropologist, Villoldo has studied the healing practices of the Amazon and Inka shamans for more than 25 years. While at San Francisco State University, he founded the Biological Self-Regulation Laboratory to study how the mind creates psychosomatic health and disease. Dr. Villoldo directs The Four Winds Society, where he trains individuals in the U.S. and Europe in the practice of energy medicine and soul retrieval.

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Einkorn: Recipes For Nature's Original Wheat

Psychedelic Healing

Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy and Spiritual Development, Neal M. Goldsmith Ph.D. Banned after promising research in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, the use of psychedelics as therapeutic catalysts is now being rediscovered at prestigious medical schools, such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, NYU, and UCLA. Through clinical trials to assess their use, entheogens have been found to ease anxiety in the dying, interrupt the hold of addictive drugs, cure post-traumatic stress disorder, and treat other deep-seated emotional disturbances. To date, results have been positive, and the idea of psychedelics as powerful psychiatric--and spiritual--medicines is now beginning to be accepted by the medical community.

Exploring the latest cutting-edge research on psychedelics, along with their use in indigenous cultures throughout history for rites of passage and shamanic rituals, Neal Goldsmith reveals that the curative effect of entheogens comes not from a chemical effect on the body but rather by triggering a peak or spiritual experience. He provides guidelines for working with entheogens, groundbreaking analyses of the concept--and the process--of change in psychotherapy, and, ultimately, his own story of psychedelic healing. Examining the tribal roots of this knowledge, Goldsmith shows that by combining ancient wisdom and modern research, we can unlock the emotional, mental, and spiritual healing powers of these unique and powerful tools, providing an integral medicine for postmodern society.

“Written with personal warmth and passionate engagement, Psychedelic Healing makes a compelling case for the medical and social benefits of a therapy practice that encompasses substance-induced experiences of transcendence. With scrupulous care, Neal Goldsmith explores the great promise of this reemerging field, while proposing a path forward that avoids the mistakes made a generation ago. This book is valuable reading for those who would like to see a crucial new chapter open in consciousness studies and the mental health field.” - Daniel Pinchbeck

Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist specializing in psychospiritual development. A frequent speaker on spiritual emergence, drug policy reform, and postmodern society, he lives in New York. Click here for more information or to order.

Mavericks of the Mind

Mavericks of the Mind: Conversations with Terence McKenna, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, Laura Huxley, Robert Anton Wislon, and Others, by David J. Brown, et al. Loaded with new material--a new introduction, additional interviews, as well as new photos and artwork--the second edition of Mavericks of the Mind also includes the transcripts from the events that brought together interviewees from the book to debate philosophical topics in roundtable discussions. This stimulating collection features in-depth conversations with accomplished thinkers, such as Terence McKenna, Laura Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, Rupert Sheldrake, Riane Eisler, and Robert Anton Wilson. The interviews explore such fascinating topics as the frontiers of consciousness exploration, how psychedelics effect creativity, the relationship between science and spirituality, lucid dreaming, quantum physics, morphic field theory, interspecies communication, chaos theory, and time travel.

David Jay Brown is the coauthor of three other bestselling volumes of interviews with leading-edge thinkers, Voices from the Edge, Conversations on the Edge of the Apocalypse, and Mavericks of Medicine. He holds a master s degree in psychobiology from New York University, and was responsible for the California-based research in two of British biologist Rupert Sheldrake s books on unexplained phenomena in science: Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and The Sense of Being Stared At. David s work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Wired, Discover, and Scientific American, and he is periodically the Guest Editor of the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) Bulletin. David is also the author of two science fiction novels, Brainchild and Virus, and is the coauthor of the health science book Detox with Oral Chelation.

The Religion of Ayahuasca: The Teachings of the Church of Santo Daime

The Religion of Ayahuasca: The Teachings of the Church of Santo Daime, by Alex Polari de Alverga. An insider’s experience and personal transformation with ayahuasca and the religious philosophy surrounding it and an intimate account of the genesis of the Santo Daime tradition. In search of something to restore his spiritual connection to life after his release from captivity as a political prisoner in Brazil, Alex Polari de Alverga had a transformative encounter with Padrinho Sebastiao Mota de Mela, one of the two revered founders of Santo Daime. A potent synthesis of Christianity and indigenous Amazonian practices of entheogen use, mediumship, and healing, the Santo Daime church provided Alverga with an alternative to his disillusionment with modern society. His quest for spiritual initiation eventually led him deep into the heart of the rain forest to Mapiá, one of the spiritual centers of Santo Daime, where he became a teacher and leader of the Daime community.

The Religion of Ayahuasca is a story of a classic spiritual encounter comparable to the Tibetan Saint Milarepa’s search for his teacher Marpa. It is also an intimate account of the genesis of an important religious tradition from its modest beginnings in Brazil to its growth throughout the world, offering an inside look at the spiritually centered village of Mapiá--a model for communities in the 21st century--and at the religious leader who helped create it. Providing insight into the spiritual path the Daime offers, Alverga’s tale reveals the new depths of Being made available through the sacred use of ayahuasca.

Alex Polari de Alverga spent years as a political prisoner during the rule of the military junta in Brazil, enduring torture, brutality, and deprivation. On his release from captivity, he encountered the Santo Daime religion and is currently a padrinho (spiritual father) in the spiritual community of Mapiá.

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international church in Budapest

Drugs of the Dreaming

Drugs of the Dreaming: Oneirogens: Salvia divinorum and Other Dream-Enhancing Plants, by Gianluca Toro and Benjamin Thomas. Oneirogens are plant and animal substances that have long been used to facilitate powerful and productive dreaming. From the beginning of civilization, dreams have guided the inner and outer life of human beings both in relation to each other and to the divine. For centuries shamans have employed oneirogens in finding meaning and healing in their dreams. Drugs of the Dreaming details the properties and actions of these dream allies, establishing ethnobotanical profiles for 35 oneirogens, including those extracted from organic sources--such as Calea zacatechichi (dream herb or “leaf of the god”), Salvia divinorum, and a variety of plants from North and South America and the Pacific used in shamanic practices--as well as synthetically derived oneirogens. They explain the historical use of each oneirogen, its method of action, and what light it sheds on the scientific mechanism of dreaming. They conclude that oneirogens enhance the comprehensibility and facility of the dream/dreamer relationship and hold a powerful key for discerning the psychological needs and destinies of dreamers in the modern world.

Gianluca Toro, an environmental chemist, is the author in Italian of Animali Psicoattivi (Psychoactive Animals) and numerous articles about naturally occurring and synthetic dream-enhancing agents. He lives in Italy. Benjamin Thomas is an independent researcher specializing in the effects of drugs and plant extracts on humans, particularly in Papua New Guinea. He has published many articles covering a wide range of subjects and lives in Australia.

The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications

The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications, by Christian Ratsch. ISBN 0892819782. In the traditions of every culture, psychoactive plants—those known to transport the mind to other dimensions of consciousness—have been regarded as sacred. This book details the history, botany, and use of psychoactive plants and is lavishly illustrated with color photographs of the people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world’s sacred psychoactive plants.