Product Description

In his third book on native spirituality and ecology, John Perkins takes fellow travelers deep into the jungles of Ecuador, to the home of the Shuar and their healing shamans, or curanderos. Hoping to help the Shuar, who face Western encroachment and the destruction of native forests, Perkins comes to realize that it is the mind and soul of the Western, "developed" cultures that are most in need of help and healing. The Shuar believe that the perceptions of a people, their "dream" creates individual and communal reality. Our distorted vision of the human being at the top of nature's pyramid contrasts vividly with the native dream of an intricate, intimate relationship among all participants in the web of life. Through their music, myth, herbal medicine, and the sacred ceremony of the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca, the Shuar invite us into a dream that they have made reality-one that is nourishing and life-sustaining and in which the great privilege of being human is in embracing our role as caretakers of Mother Earth.

Offers both personal transformation and cultural awakening, since the curanderos of the Shuar-like shamans the world over-are catalysts for profound change.

Explains the life-sustaining world view of an endangered indigenous culture, affirming the U.N. Year of Indigenous People.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127066 in Books
• Published on: 1994-04-01
• Released on: 1994-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780892814596
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

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

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

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

Customer Reviews

To Create a New World, We Must Create a New Dream
John Perkins' book, THE WORLD IS AS YOU DREAM IT is one of those rare books that tells a riveting story at the same time as it provides deep insights into what makes us who we are and the world what it is. I was so riveted to this book that I couldn't put it down for a second until I finished reading it.

The big idea in THE WORLD IS AS YOU DREAM IT is outlined by shamans in Ecuador who describe to Perkins the difference between living one's fantasies and living one's dream -- and how this difference has enormous personal and global repercussions. Healing involves changing one's dream; replacing a dream of illness with one of health. As one shaman tells Perkins, "I don't heal. I simply help them change their dream."

Perkins has been bringing people to learn from native shamans for many years -- living true to a desire he had since childhood to see indigenous peoples teach westerners their ways, and in so doing, change the course of history. Shamans have a strong need to change things, and Perkins does a fabulous job of describing some of his experiences visiting native shamans in Ecuador who demonstrate their healing and psychonavigation skills. A doctor who was part of Perkins' group was certain she died after ingesting ayahuasca (also known as "vine of the soul", or "vine of death") -- and she was also certain that a Shuar shaman brought her back to a healthy body by sucking the toxins from her and vomiting them nearby.

What impresses me most about THE WORLD IS AS YOU DREAM IT is the way Perkins illuminates the big picture of what humans are doing on Earth at the same time as he shares moving personal accounts of people who come to the Amazon and Andes to receive healings and gain vision in their lives. We are all interconnected, and dreaming this dream together... and we change this world by changing our perceptions. Dream change is an essential skill that everyone concerned with the future of humans on Earth has a vested interest in, and that we all can learn.

If you are ready to journey to a place where "what we dream, happens", this is the book for you!

A vital insight into our culture
This book allowed me to value a part of my soul that our culture foolishly and fearfully demands is not valuable. One of the concerns raised in this book that I found very useful is: That our culture has substituted our "valuable life experiences" for "beliefs in fantasy experiences". Read this book if you want to start appreciating the differences between: Dream vs fantasy; Life vs knowledge; Value vs belief; Support vs product; Diversity vs poverty;

Kevin Bethel MD

Great book for the both the inner and outer explorer
I highly recommend this book. It is a true account of a doctor who takes people into the rain forests to stay with the people of the forest. Everyone involved begins to question the reality in which they live. Along with documented medical healings, many take an inward journey into the soul with a great shaman. The doctor still continues to take people into the forest, and the book contains information to get in touch with him. This was one the first books I read when I began to search for something more than the capitalistic concrete souless world around here. I truely enjoyed this book.