Review: 'The Jaguar that Roams the Mind'

I'm reading this book now, and i very much enjoy it. I view the authors experiences as a kind of psychotherapy, without a therapists guidance. Maybe i'm wrong about this, but it's how i view his experiences. By, the way,there are now a few human trials using some other psychedelic substances for psychiatric disorders. Check out MAPS.org for info.
There is one minor thing that i've found, while trawling through the internet about Ayahuasca. There is a frequently stated belief that Ayahuasca cures cancer, and the example most often used is that of Professor Emeritus Donald Topping, and no one has bothered to look into this example. I did, and have found out, to my disappointment, that Professor Topping died of cancer in June 2003. He was not cured of cancer by Aya., and i'm sorry to tell you this.
Susana Bustos' book "The healing power of the Icaros, A Phenomenological Study of Ayahuasca Experiences", quoted in Ch. #2, page 36,footnote #4, used Professor Toppings research, i believe, to support this belief. (He wrote of his experience with Aya. on the MAPS.org website), here's the link:[link]
I only write about this, because i don't want us to be misled by our own false hopes. The destruction of a false hope feels as painful as the destruction of true hope, and i don't want any of you to go through that. Screw false hopes.
The reason that i'm interested in Ayahuasca use, is that i'm being treated for depression and other stuff. I've read that Aya. can relieve depression or even cure it. (Is that my false hope showing)? Also, a few researchers have stated that Aya. use in a religious/spiritual setting, has helped alcoholics and addicts to a large degree. The only interest that i have for Aya. is to attempt a CURE for Depression or other mental illnesses.
I love this book, and found it in my public library. Thank you for writing this book, Mr Tindall!
Sincerly, Scott B.

i didn't find it cliche' an easy enough term for anyone, but rather a common disease with an uncommon route.. easy enough to pooh pooh ayahuasca tourism, yet there are many who are spiritually bereft whose search for meaning , for wholeness in dysfunctional lives ( in itself can called be cliche, doesn't help those suffering).
I enjoyed the book, respect the authors journey.

Robert,
The Invisible College comes in two flavors... PDF and Print.

Free PDF Versions: [link]
Paper Versions: [link]

We are going to print soon with the 5th edition.
I will contact you, over at your Blog. Maybe we have lots to talk about.

Blessings,
Gwyllm

Hi Gwyllm,

That's great. Is the Invisible College Magazine a webzine or is it printed the old fashioned way? If you have any questions, you can always reach me through our blog: roamingthemind.com

We are doing a review of the book in The Invisible College Magazine out this month.

An enjoyable read btw.

Right! I probably would've had the same reaction -- I know Mark Plotkin did before he read the manuscript. I guess the aesthetic question is, did my work escape the cliches of the genre successfully? Having freshly written the work, I myself won't know for many years, probably...

Anyways, I'd be happy to do the interview with you. I've already got one up I did with Ivar Verploegh at Ayahuasca-info: [link]

Robert, I'd like to follow up with a short interview if you have time, send us your email in the contact">[link] form.

I'm always wary of books that claim to be journeys of awakening because they run the risk of becoming overly spiritual and more about the hero than the journey, but as I said, you managed to pack a good amount of real first-hand research on modern ritual in there. Let's say I was initially skeptical of the format but was ultimately rewarded by your vivid descriptions of the various shamen and ceremonies and rituals you took part in along the way. I know other people I showed the book to were skeptical as well... Another gringo goes to the jungle to find spiritual wisdom story. Yes, cliched, but chock full of information as well.

Thank you, jamask. I really appreciate that. Why didn't you just come out and say that, man?

As you probably picked up from reading my book, I've always loved quest narratives, and I really felt the genre deserved one. There's some great books out there by educated Westerners, like Davis' One River, Plotkin's Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice, or Pendell's Pharmakognosis, but I never felt like anyone really took on depicting how the intelligence of the plant brew works to heal -- and I decided to make myself a test subject in writing the book.

Also, I don't know if you or other reader's would recognize this, but it seems a good time to clarify the issue. Everything in the book happened, and so in that sense it is non-fiction, but I prefer to call it non-fictional magical realism, because that's just the way reality is down there. On the other hand, I do shape the material in a way an anthropologist could not to create a flowing narrative that has a hero's journey narrative arc to it. That seems to be what you objected to the most -- I hope that feature won't get in the way of serious students of Amazonian shamanism, because I believe there is much the book has to offer them as well.

Best, R

I really hope to get around to making it to Peru to experience ayahuasca for the first time eventually. This has been a dream of mine for the last 2 years. But financial pressures alway seem to get in the way :(
I could just order and do it at home, but something tells me that having your ego explode into a million pieces while sitting your own puke in a small inner-city apartment all the while the pressures of daily life tugging at the back of my mind is not a good idea. In the long term, sure, I can see myself doing it in a Western setting, but at least the initial introduction to it, where I see myself head-on crashing into the major healing obstacles, would probably pan out better for me in some jungle hut with experienced facilitators around. Guys, this bugs me so much right now, not being able to go while constantly reading about on people's transformative experiences. :(

Robert, I wanted to congratulate you for giving us some of the best portrayals of modern ayahuasca use in South America, across the spectrum. The book was fun to read and made me appreciate the deeper huasca culture out there.

I appreciate jamesk's thoughtful review of my book, The Jaguar that Roams the Mind. Perhaps I deserve to be taken to task for using the time-worn paradigm of the hero's journey to couch the narrative. But I had a goal in mind: I wanted this text to be accessible to a wider audience than most books on shamanism are, and I wanted to offer insights into the nature of healing in depth. As well, my journey simply came out a hero's journey. Perhaps this reflects the fact that experience tends to compose itself into time-honored patterns, archetypes, if you will. Oh well.

But there is truly a jewel to be found in this "cliche" of finding "his true self, the jaguar within, and the root of all healing" that we need to clarify. As Richard Grossinger writes in his Planet Medicine, pg 181:

The patient of a shaman no doubt also has an "inner child," but that child is experienced as a raven or a wild bear and thus liberated to transmute, finally, into something larger than the neurosis. The so-called neurosis may have been no more than the unborn "shaman" within, careening toward its voice. No real growth can happen as long as the victim state requires either comforting or revenge. In fact the more deeply wounded the victim, the more powerful must be his or her potentiation in order to overcome the wound.

May this not be a cliche for others within their own experience.