What I read and what I thought about it
I was interested in this topic matter because of my own mental health struggles and my desire to explore beyond the confines of white, western medicine. I think that white capitalist civilization is a chief source of many of the mental health struggles that I have experienced, so I am very frustrated when psychiatrists encourage me to pop a few pills and then resume with business as usual in capitalist America. I once asked my psychiatrist what differences I could expect between a variety of different anti-depressants he had suggested, and he pretty much shrugged and said he couldn't really say. He seemed taken aback by my desire to know for myself how the meds might affect me. He also called me a "weirdo" when I told him I don't use a smartphone. A while after I stopped seeing him, I got a message from his office that he was not longer accepting health insurance, nor Medicaid. Well, that is western psychiatry for you. I mean no shade towards people who do feel served by western psychiatry -- my criticism is towards the providers, not towards patients, who should feel emboldened to pursue whatever medications and routines work for them. Anyway, traditional antidepressants have been very ineffective for me, personally, and I have been very grateful to learn about psychedelics, which, along with the brilliant guidance of my new therapist in San Francisco, have been vastly more effective for me in my battle with depression (short version of it: feel more of your feelings, not less of them, and take up greater agency and autonomy in your own life, not less of it. Also, fuck capitalism. It (capitalism) really does suck, and really causes lots of harm. The only thing it doesn't harm is the bottom line in the bank accounts of the billionaires who own our newspapers, which is why you don't read about these harms very often).
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. A decent chunk of it gives instructions on how to duplicate indigenous healing practices. I skimmed those parts because I doubt that I could learn the traditions of other peoples just by reading a book. But the author's own experience with an ayahuasca trip, which he related in the first chapter, was really entertaining and interesting to read. I also really enjoyed subsequent parts of the book which talked about: indigenous beliefs regarding guiding spirits. The belief is that a person has guiding spirits, which might sometimes be animal spirits, which can guide an individual towards health and prosperity, when an individual is connected with them, and can lead an individual into disease and troubles, when a person is disconnected from them. I think these spirits could be animal spirits or the spirits of ancestors, from what I understand. Whether or not an individual or a westerner believes in these spirits, I think most people can relate to the feeling of being unaligned with themselves and how life can start to spin out of control in those times, and other times when it feels like everything is lined up between self, purpose, and universe (to put it broadly) and that things seem to go better under those circumstances.
At least I really relate to that, and I have been working for myself on trying to stay in touch with the things that feel like energizing spirits to me. For me, it's nothing super out there or woowoo: recently, I've rediscovered my love of watching professional ice hockey, and following the Washington Capitals, and their star player Alex Ovechkin. When I was younger, I loved watching the Caps. Ovechkin had, and continues to have, an absolutely electric energy -- the yellow laces on his skate, his blistering slapshot, the way he lights the crowd on fire during home games. Maybe it seems silly, but while I was reading this book I was thinking about Ovechkin and the Caps as a kind of energizing spirit for me. In general, I'm working on reconnecting with things that I loved as a kid, and not judging myself harshly for loving things that might seem childish -- healing my inner child kind of stuff.
Anyway, solid book, and I am eager to learn more about indigenous healing cultures. When I started the book, I assumed that shaman was just a general term for a spiritual healer that comes from non-western traditions -- like some combo of therapist, psychiatrist, rabbi. But as I read the book, I realized that a key part of being a shaman, in this author's definition, is that the shaman goes on various kinds of vision quests in order to heal the soul of their patient.
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