Black Smoke: Healing and Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon

(Paperback, 2nd Edition, First Paperback Edition)

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Description

A diagnosis of cancer leads to healing and transformation in the Amazon jungle

Explains in vivid detail De Wyss experience of being healed from cancer through visionary ayahuasca rituals in Ecuador

Describes her apprenticeship and relationship with the shaman who cured her

Explores the ways this spiritual medicine can heal the emotional origins of disease now plaguing our modern technological culture

Chosen as one of the Top 10 Books of the New Edge by Jonathan Talat Phillips on The Huffington Post

When composer and Bard College music professor Margaret De Wys learned she had breast cancer, the diagnosis shattered her comfortable life. Seized by fear, crushed by existential loneliness, she couldnt respond when her loved ones reached out to her. To everyones concern, the illness propelled her away from her family and deep into the Amazon to work with Carlos, a charismatic Shuar shaman and master of medicina milenaria, an ancient mystical tradition with a highly sophisticated and precise technology of healing. In Black Smoke, De Wys writes of her amazing encounter with Carlos as he guided her into a world of potent visionary plants, harrowing initiations, ritual purification, and miraculous healings, including the complete disappearance of her cancer. It was, as Carlos called it, the path of the warrior.

Sharing a journey not only through cancer but also through self-transformation, De Wys provides an intimate inside look at the shamanic ceremonies of ayahuasca and the ways this spiritual medicine can heal the emotional origins of disease now plaguing our modern technological culture. Capturing her physical, emotional, and holy voyage through a world that differs vastly from our own in its perception of healing and wholeness, she offers a revealing chronicle of spiritual insight and a trenchant exploration of the limits of idealism. She not only provides a probing look at how our society can learn and benefit from indigenous wisdom but also weaves a cautionary tale about how potentially dangerous it is--on both sides--to try to cross those frontiers.

Reviews

Black Smoke is a wonderful, beautifully written story . . . a true adventure told in a style that rivals the best of novels. This first-person account by an extraordinary woman of her inner and outer journey through darkness into light is a must read for anyone interested in healing. * John Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of Shapeshifting, Spirit of the Shuar, and Confessio *
This is unlike other books on ayahuasca in that it is not just a Westerners romanticized memory of a wild time once had. The author offers us an honest appraisal of the impact on her, on her shaman/mentor, and on Western participants of the clash of cultures and ideologies that is usually also a part of the ayahuasca experience for non-natives who drink the brew. Are the visions real Can ayahuasca really heal a Westerner who is so in his head that he wants to psychologize (and so disempower) every spiritual encounter he has How does immersion in a rational, mind-and-money-orientated Western culture begin to affect the medicine man himself And what happens when the American legal system becomes the judge of an age-old practice of rainforest healing Margaret De Wys has written an interesting book that explores these questions, making it an adventure story that is more grown-up and real than other books on a similar subject. * Ross Heaven, therapist, workshop leader, and author of Cactus of Mystery and Shamanic Quest for the *
De Wys has written an extraordinarily informative book about Carlos, a Shuar Ecuadorian shaman, who uses not only ayahuasca and tobacco but many other plants and practices for healing. His ways of teaching her illuminate the real complexity and rigor as well as the amazing successes of his own traditions training. In addition, De Wyss personal story of healing, learning, and transformation is unsentimental, engrossing, and explores the confusions that arise when one mixes indigenous cultural values with Western materialism and medicine. * James Fadiman, Ph.D., microdose researcher and author of The Psychedelic Explorers Guide: Saf *
This book will thrill and support all readers traveling--or wishing to travel themselves--into the unknown and the mystery of the human spirit. * Josie Ravenwing, author of The Book of Miracles: The Healing Work of Joao de Deus *
Black Smoke is a profound, vibrant personal story of healing and transformation, both medical and spiritual. A clear, objective account of how immersion in ayahuasca shamanism cured De Wyss breast cancer and transformed her into a healer. As we follow her path, we come to understand her calling and grow with her as she comes into her truest self--the most valuable gift an author can offer. I highly recommend you receive this gift, in De Wyss beautiful, healing memoir. * Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D., author of Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy *
In the end, Black Smokes greatest strength is the theme of liberation, which de Wys examines quite consistently through a number of devices. * Psychedelic Press UK, June 2014 *

Author Bio

Margaret De Wys is a composer and sound installation artist whose musical works have premiered with dance groups and orchestras across the country and been performed at venues including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. Since her initial experience with ayahuasca, she has traveled extensively and worked closely with many traditional healers throughout the world. Currently working with Joo de Deus in Brazil, where they see more than 1,200 people a day, she also takes groups to the Amazon in Ecuador to work with Carlos, the shaman who healed her of breast cancer. The author of Ecstatic Healing, she lives in upstate New York.