Can anyone out there point me in the direction of some info on Alberto Villoldo? He will shortly be appearing at St James' Church, Piccadilly, as part of its "Alternatives" programme.
These Amazon reviews of his book "Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas" caught my eye:
I approached Alberto Villoldo's [AV] tome with an open mind since a member of my family is now engaged in AV's shaman training. With each page I became more concerned for her welfare and stability. By the time I finished Shaman, Healer, Sage, I was downcast; AV seemed as grounded in reality as a J.K. Rowling fantasy - perhaps even less so. I know all too well that I can't intervene; she'll have to learn on her own how to distinguish fact from fiction, the healer from the promoter.
Thanks!Villoldo has been a disgrace within his profession for decades, an example of the worst forms of exploitation of white fantasies, misconceptions, and wishful thinking about Native people, and with a long and ignoble history of deceiving the poor unfortunates who actually think this nonsense has ANYTHING to do with what Natives in South America do or practice.
NOTHING in this book is practiced anywhere by ANY Native people. Silliness like "lightworking" is strictly from the New Age movement. This book is only for people who delude themselves into thinking a book can make them a "shaman." Sorry, Villoldo has sold you a load of snake oil.
Any help one receives from Villoldo's books or workshops is purely coincidental, just the Placebo Effect at work.
Even worse, some people are harmed (and even die) because they turned to Villoldo instead of people who could actually help them.
AV definately gives his material a new age spin. However, I know a shaman who has been traditionally trained in the Blackfoot Tradition, by AV, and by Don Antonio, one of AV's mentors. To say AV's material does not have anything behind it is sheer rubbish. I always find it interesting how individuals can read a book or do a little internet gabbing and then condemn someone as unqualified or delusional or whatever. The fact that you came here for a review, and focused on two negative reviews at Amazon, makes me wonder what's up. Why don't you just go to the talk and ask Villoldo yourself about these things.
Calm down! It merely struck me as odd that any reputable anthropologist would want to be associated with "Alternatives". And I can't afford the train fare from York and a night in London to see Villoldo in person.
http://www.intuition.org/txt/villoldo.htm
I'm not sure I'm reading this correctly. Is he saying that 'laying on of hands' made the cancer worse, but then says it healed it?VILLOLDO: Yes. For example, I remember years back when I was practicing and working with people more directly, I worked with a number of people that were cancer patients, that had gone to see a psychic healer who had done laying on of hands on them. And what happened is that the cancer had metastasized all over their body, because cancer loves energy; it just spread all over the body. Here again was an example of trying to do spiritual healing from a Western, allopathic, medical perspective. Instead of ten milligrams of medicine, we'll do ten minutes of laying on of hands, instead of looking at what the cause of the situation is.
MISHLOVE: And the cancer got healed.
VILLOLDO: Right. The cancer did great. So it points to looking at what the underlying causes are -- what transformational journey must that person undergo to recover their health, how much they heal themselves. Because in shamanism all healing is self-healing, and as you know, all healing truly is self-healing.
That's how I read it - the patient was fighting their tumour and the healer healed the cancer rather than the patient.Originally Posted by meercat
Thanks Matt, I'm easily confused, and these sort of things don't help much....
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