The World Is As You Dream It : Shamanic Teachings from the Amazon and Andes

From Library Journal
Environmentalist, teacher, and activist Perkins established Earth Dream Alliance to preserve indigenous people, their environment, and their shamanic traditions. This book is a fascinating account of how he and others, through contacts with cultures such as that of the Otavalans, Salasacans, and Shuar, concluded "that in order for life to continue as we know it, we must all change our dream from the one of materialism and domination...to a more spiritual, cooperative, and Earth-honoring one." He recounts shamanic journeys to encourage the reader's self-empowerment, so that knowledge long buried by Western culture may be rediscovered. Recommended for large public and academic libraries, especially those with New Age and anthropological collections.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Perkins is an eco-activist who aims to save not only the rain forest but also the ancient native cultures that make their homes within it. His book offers a thrilling view of those cultures as experienced by American travelers, especially Perkins himself. Inspired by childhood visions, Perkins sought and studied with South American shamanic teachers who introduced him to their rituals and, more important, their religious conceptions. He shares their beliefs about healing and dreaming, about psychotropic drugs and magic. Vividly written, his effort will surely appeal to those interested in shamanic traditions. Pat Monaghan


Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D., Harvard Jeffrey Professor of Biology, Director of Harvard Botanical Museum, author of Plants of the Gods
A magnificent book! It has a place of honor in my personal library....a most valuable contribution.


Thomas Berry, author of The Dream of the Earth and The Universe Story, with Brian Swimme
Through John Perkins we learn this truth as it is taught with special vividness by indigenous people.


Book Description
The story of shamanic teachings that have revolutionized modern concepts of healing, the subconscious, and the powers we all have to alter our reality.


About the Author
Nationally acclaimed environmentalist, teacher, and activist, John Perkins has traveled widely in pursuit of native wisdom, writing and lecturing on the importance of indigenous cultures to the survival of the planet. He is a founding member of Dream Change Coalition, a non-profit organization devoted to protecting rain forests worldwide and to preserving indigenous cultures. John Perkins is also the author of Shapeshifting, The Stress-Free Habit and Psychonavigation as well as the audiocassette Dream Change.

ANNOTATION

Acclaimed environmentalist, teacher, and activist Perkins travels widely, writing and lecturing on the importance of indigenous cultures to the survival of the planet. Here he takes fellow travelers deep into the jungles of Ecuador, to the home of the Shuar tribe and their healing shamans, or curanderos. "A masterly and understanding exploration of shamanic inner thinking."--Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D., Harvard Univerity. (Inner Traditions International)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Deep in the rain forests and high in the Andes of Ecuador, native shamans teach the age-old technique of dream change, a tradition that has kept cultures like those of the Otavalans, Salasacans, and Shuar alive despite centuries of conquest. Now these shamans are turning their wisdom and power to the problem of curing a new kind of illness - that created by the industrial world's dream of dominating and molding nature.

In this, his third book on native spirituality and ecology, John Perkins tells the story of these remarkable shamans and of the U.S. medical doctors, psychologists, and scientists who have gone with him to learn the techniques of dream change. The shamanic teachings have sparked a revolution in modern concepts about healing, the subconscious, and the powers each of us has to alter individual and communal reality.

FROM THE CRITICS

Thomas Berry

The dream not only drives the action, it also guides the action. Through John Perkins we learn this truth as it is taught with special vividness by indigenous people...

Richard Evans Schultes

A magnificent book! It has a place of honor in my personal library. Perkins' The World Is As You Dream It is a masterly and understanding exploration of shamanic inner thinking. It is thought-provokingly written, a most valuable contribution...

Library Journal