TY - BOOK AU - Razam, Rak TI - Aya awakenings: a Shamanic odyssey SN - 9781583948002 U1 - 299.8142 PY - 2013/// CY - Berkeley PB - North Atlantic Books KW - Pilgrims and pilgrimages KW - Shamanism KW - Travel KW - Amazon River Region KW - Ayahuasca ceremony N1 - Table of Contents Departure 1.Seekers of the Mystery 2.Wheel of Fortune 3.Jungle Fever 4.Space Cadets 5.Cosmovision 6.Hamburger Universe 7.Surfing 8.Ayahuasca Disco 9.Logos 10.Night of the Black Puma 11.Downtime 12.Seeds 13.Beasts Initiation 14.Shaman School 15.Snakes and Ladders 16.Heart of Darkness 17.Return to the Source 18.The Love Creek Session 19.The High Frontier 20.Stairway to Heaven 21.Down to the River to Pray 22.The Hero's Journey Return 23.Secret Women's Business 24.The Prime Directive 25.Up River 26.When Stones Dream 27.Paying the Earth 28.Talking with Kevin 29.Illuminated 30.Final Flight. Notes N2 - Experiential journalist Rak Razam sets out to document the thriving business of 21st-century hallucinogenic shamanism starting with a trip to the annual Amazonian Shaman Conference in Iquitos, Peru, where he meets a motley crew of “spiritual tourists,” rogue scientists, black magicians, and indigenous and Western healers and guides, all in town to partake of the ritual–and the medicine–of ayahuasca, “the vine of souls.” Combining his personal story with the history of Amazonian shamanism, Razam takes the reader along on an entertaining, enlightening adventure. In areas of Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru, the traditional herbal brew known as ayahuasca or yajé is legally used to heal physical ailments and to cleanse and purify the spirit by connecting it to the web of life. Sting and Tori Amos have admitted sampling it in Latin America, as has Paul Simon, who chronicled the experience in his song “Spirit Voices.” Aya Awakenings works as a cautionary tale, a travelogue, and a memoir, but primarily acts as a portal through which readers are able to gain more information about the perils and the promise of spiritual reconnection through ayahuasca. “A memorable–and deeply personal–journey into the hearts and minds of those who carry on the shamanic traditions of ayahuasca.”–Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/235834/aya-awakenings-by-rak-razam ER -