BACK COVER #
In this riveting narrative of spiritual discovery, American psychologist Alberto Villoldo journeys to Peru to investigate the jungle plant ayahuasca, used by Indian shamans to access the four paths of the Medicine Wheel. Through ritual, ceremony, and the use of mind-wrenching potions, Villoldo enters a fantastic realm of both mind and body, unlocking the secrets of the ancient Quechua masters and the power of the human psyche.BLURBS #
"The stuff of anthropological best sellers. . . . Compelling. . . . A flight of serious fancy, confounding our categories of fiction and nonfiction."-- New York Times Book Review
"A deft balance of Western psychology and native wisdom, novelistic drive and touchingly human characters."
-- San Francisco Chronicle
"The Four Winds is an astonishing book that captures the reader instantly and takes him along on a wild journey into drugs and visions. In its search for universal truth it evokes the magical, mysterious world of shamanism and sorcery. . . . The suspense and tension build to a climax that is both haunting and believable."
-- Tobias Schneebaum, anthropologist and author of Keep the River on Your Right and Where the Spirits Dwell: An Odyssey in the Jungle of New Guinea.
"A vital, well-written, and exciting tale of one man's exploits in the real real world, as he seeks reunion with Nature, the unconscious, the powers of healing, and the naked facts of life and death."
-- San Diego Tribune