This audiobook examines how ayahuasca affects the brain from a neuroscientific perspective and how its effects on consciousness relate to ancient esoteric texts.

Javier Regueiro not only provides general information about ayahuasca, but he bridges the cultural gap between the native and the current use of ayahuasca by Westerners. This guide offers background about the plant medicine, its history, and how to engage with and learn through its use. It includes stories of Javier's personal experience of transformation as well as stories from those he's guided in ceremonies.

In When Plants Dream, Pinchbeck and Rokhlin explore the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental impact that ayahuasca is having on society. "Part One" covers the background; what ayahuasca is, where it is found, and its cultural origins. "Part Two" explores the role and practices of the ayahuasquero in both Amazonian and Western cultures. "Part Three" examines the medicinal plants of the Amazon, looking particularly at the ingredients in ayahuasca and their therapeutic qualities, covering the most up-to-date biomedical research. Plus much more....

Born in West Africa in the early 1950s, Somé was kidnapped at age four by a French Jesuit missionary to be trained as a priest, for the next 15 years enduring the harsh regimen of a seminary where his native language and tribal traditions were systematically suppressed. At age 20 he escaped, but when he returned to his Dugara people in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) they rejected him as an outsider. To reconnect with his native culture, Somé underwent a month-long initiation into shamanism.

Western medicine has not been particularly successful at getting people relief from conditions like depression, chronic pain, migraine headaches, addiction, and PTSD. Dr. Tafur helps us to understand why. Too often, the Western medical approach fails to address the emotional dimension of illness. This is where traditional plant medicines, with their ability to alter consciousness and open channels of communication to our emotions, offer so much promise.

This audio collection brings us five essential sessions, featured in the Ram Dass documentary film Becoming Nobody, presented here in their entirety. Each beautifully illuminates a core dimension of Ram Dass’s wisdom. Through teaching stories, true accounts, eye-opening revelations, and his one-of-a-kind sense of humor, this legendary teacher helps show us the way out of the prison of our self-identity - and into the joy of being at once “nobody” and the universal divine at play in the world.

Chris Kilham (Fox News' "Medicine Hunter") has worked closely with South American shamans for two decades and has sat in ayahuasca ceremonies with at least 20 different shamans. Through his "Ayahuasca Test Pilots" program, Kilham has brought numerous people to the Amazon to engage in ceremonies with maestro ayahuasceros. Clear, concise, straightforward, and well informed, The Ayahuasca Test Pilots Handbook is an indispensable guide for anyone curious about this unusual plant medicine.

In The Wisdom of the Shamans: What the Ancient Masters Can Teach Us about Love and Life, Toltec shaman and master storyteller Don Jose Ruiz shares some of the most popular stories from his family's oral tradition and offers corresponding lessons that illustrate the larger ideas within each story. According to Ruiz, their teachings are not primitive or reserved for a chosen few initiates but are instead a powerful series of lessons on love and life that are available us all.

One of the main tenets of shamanism is a belief in the power of ceremony to manifest change in the physical world. Virtually all shamanic traditions use a variety of ritual practices as tools for personal transformation, healing, and celebration. Now, in this exciting and practical book, Toltec shaman and New York Times best-selling author don Jose Ruiz introduces and explains a wealth of these shamanic rituals and ceremonies, and provides a detailed and accessible guide to performing them on your own.

An extraordinary compilation of legends and rituals about nature's ever-present signs. From the birds that soar above us to the insects beneath our feet, Native American healer Bobby Lake-Thom shows how the creatures of the earth can aid us in healing and self-knowledge.

In this full-length audio curriculum, we have the opportunity to honor and partake in this legacy, directly and in the original way, through the spoken word. With don Oscar's personal guidance, listeners are offered singular apprenticeship in: the principles and methods of Peruvian curanderismo; guided shamanic journeys of transformation and healing; empowering rituals; and a treasury of other insights, many shared here with a Western audience for the first time.

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 and microdose) purposes, Fadiman outlines best practices for safe, sacred entheogenic voyages learned through his more than 40 years of experience.

In every mystical wisdom tradition, nonordinary states of consciousness have served as essential tools for discovering why we are here and how we can live richer, more meaningful lives. For over 40 years, Stanislav Grof has tested and brought these methods into the field of modern psychology. Are emotional states and behavioral patterns explained solely by brain chemistry and life experience - or could they be expressions of far vaster universal energies? Which specific mind states most powerfully accelerate integration and healing of the self? And how do you access these states? In The Transpersonal Vision, Grof answers these questions - and raises many others - in a stunning summation of his groundbreaking life's work. You will learn about transpersonal psychology's daring forays into the worlds of the shaman and the mystic; how your perinatal (birth and prebirth) experience profoundly affect you even today; what past-life, near-death, and out-of-body phenomena teach us about our life purpose; and much more.

Shaman Durek, a sixth-generation shaman, shares life-altering shamanic keys allowing you to tap into your personal power. Through new information you will banish fear and darkness from your life in favor of light, positivity, and strength. Shaman Durek’s bold and sometimes controversial wisdom shakes loose our assumptions about ourselves and the very world around us. He ultimately teaches us how to step fearlessly out of this Blackout (the age of darkness we are currently experiencing) and access a place of fierce empowerment by use of techniques of timeless Shamanic tradition.

Today, practicing shamanism doesn't mean you have to live in a rain forest or a desert. Thanks to a modern renaissance of shamanic spirituality, practitioners from all walks of life now use powerful indigenous techniques for healing, insight, and spiritual growth. With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman bring together a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders - Tom Cowan, Carol Proudfoot-Edgar, Jose Stevens, and Alberto Villoldo - to present a comprehensive manual for making these practices accessible and available in our daily lives.

Shaman, meaning "intermediary between spirit and the natural world", has become a much overused word in the West. It's not a job title one can give oneself, and in indigenous societies a shaman is usually born to this role. Ya'Acov Darling Khan is one of the few Westerners who have been acknowledged as shamans by indigenous elders or teachers. After being hit by lightning, Ya'Acov took a 30-year journey into the heart of shamanism to seek his own healing and to learn how he could serve others with the wisdom he acquired through his experiences.

Native shamanic traditions tell us that there are cords, strands, threads, and filaments of energy that flow to and through us, connecting us to everyone and everything in the universe. Some energy strands make us feel vibrant and alive. Others deplete and weaken us. Most of us are unaware of these energy strands, but they are extremely powerful forces that surround us every day.

In 2010, Nick Polizzi did something unimaginable. He assembled a group of eight desperately ill patients from around the world and brought them into the heart of the Amazon rain forest to put the mysterious medicines of native shamans to the test. The healing journey that unfolded would change their lives - and his own - forever. In The Sacred Science, we join Nick as he explores these primordial traditions and learns firsthand what it takes to truly heal ourselves of physical disease, emotional trauma, and the sense of "lostness" that so many of us feel in these modern times.

Mantras - sacred sound syllables from the Vedic tradition - have been refined for thousands of years to promote inner healing, spiritual development, and beneficial effects in the world around us. On Healing Mantras, you will join a master practitioner as he demonstrates how to voice over 20 mantras with perfect precision - a key to their effectiveness.

This is the story of Tenzin Palmo, the daughter of a fishmonger from London's East End who became a Tibetan nun. After meditating for 12 years in a cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas, she became a world-renowned spiritual leader and champion of the right of women to achieve spiritual enlightenment.

With eloquent simplicity, one of the world's last Native American medicine men demonstrates how traditional tribal wisdom can help us maintain spiritual and physical health in today's world.

After two decades in the study and practice of medicine, Sarah Seidelmann took a three-month sabbatical to search for a way to feel good again. Having witnessed human suffering early in her career and within her own family, she longed for a way to address more than just the physical needs of her patients and to live in a lighter, more conscious way.

According to legend, when the founder of Zen Buddhism was asked about the main principle of his holy teaching, he replied that there was "nothing holy about it!" Now, a millennium and a half later, Tim Burkett reveals how and why the wisdom of nonholiness is the key to a joyful heart. You don't need to go looking for something sacred - the happiness you seek is right where you are.

For thousands of years, these questions - which span all major spiritual traditions - have served as beacons for spiritual seekers: Who am I? What do I love? How shall I live, knowing I will die? What is my gift to the family of the Earth? As he guides us through these questions, Muller weaves poetry with true stories of love, courage, grief, and transformation in order to show how beauty and wisdom come to us at unexpected times.

America has given birth to a wisdom tradition entirely its own, a spirituality that is as diverse as its people, and that respects the freedom and uniqueness of each individual. Judeo-Christian traditions and the meditation practices of Asia and India...modern science and Native American teachings...Sufism and transpersonal psychology - The New American Spirituality explores what happens when these and other traditions cohabitate our unique cultural landscape.

In this radically illuminating audiobook, Alan Cohen delves into one of the world’s most venerated wisdom texts for answers and brings the lofty and enigmatic concepts of the Tao Te Ching down to earth in fresh, easy-to-grasp language with practical, personal examples we can use to uplift our daily lives.

A comprehensive guide to the foundations of Toltec wisdom, Beyond Fear is essential reading for fans of Don Miguel Ruiz’s New York Times best-selling book, The Four Agreements, which has sold over 8 million copies and has been translated into 46 languages worldwide. Providing instruction in the basic elements of the Toltec spiritual practice, this collection of ceremonies, wisdom, and prophecies empowers readers to shed their fears, judgments, and guilt - an essential step before practicing the Four Agreements.

We tend to think of faith as a commodity you either have or you don't. But in many of the world's wisdom traditions, faith isn't something you possess; it's something you do. "Faith is a willingness to take the next step, to see the unknown as an adventure, to launch a journey," teaches Sharon Salzberg. Now this beloved meditation teacher and author shares her unique understanding of faith, distinguishing it from belief and dogma, to help you cultivate this profound force in your life.

The greatest contribution of the ancient shamans to modern healing is the understanding that in the course of any life we are liable to suffer soul loss - the loss of parts of our vital energy and identity - and that to be whole and well, we must find the means of soul recovery. Moss teaches that our dreams give us maps we can use to find and bring home our lost or stolen soul parts. He shows how to recover animal spirits and ride the windhorse of spirit to places of healing and adventure in the larger reality.

There are pivotal moments in the lives of all seekers when we realize that we've been traveling on our path of growth toward happiness and fulfillment, but, simply put, we want to go faster. How we have been living, working, and loving just isn't enough or even acceptable anymore. We know we're being called to something more significant and expanded - we can feel it. At these times what's needed is not simply more change or an adjustment in our outer life but profound transformation.