Ayahuasca: The Visionary and Healing Powers of the Vine of the Soul

Since I have thought about taking a trip to Peru to experience an aya retreat this woman's personal experience was eloquent and thoughtful as well as real and meaningful. I felt like I had the privilege of experiencing this journey through her eyes, mind and writing in order to help me determine if I am ready for such a journey myself. I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down!

This is a great account of Joan Wilcox's experiences with ayahuasca within the context of the true Amazon shaman traditions and her own spiritual journey. A must read for anyone interested in shamanic wisdom and the use of ayahuasca and other plants as teachers.

Worth a read! The author makes no issue of her less than lifetime experience with ayahuasca, making her account very personal and readable in that context. This is not a reference book, but a personal account - and in this vein, well written, well executed and lacking much in the way of distracting waffle. The good - An honest picture of who and what ayahuasca is. A clear and forthright account of the authors experiences. The ayahuasca experience tends to be very hard to describe in terms of language as much of the experience is so far beyond words that attempting to convey all but the driest details is impractical to say the least. Try describing the taste of a pear to someone who has not eaten one - you'll get the difficulty involved quickly. The bad - Tends to 'drift' in a few places, but not in a way that is seriously detrimental to the overall text. Little else to worry about so I am happy overall with the lack of criticisms available. The last word - A worthwhile read for anyone interested in Ayahuasca journeying. It is not a recreational pursuit and the author conveys this clearly - anything that tastes that bad AND has such strong purgative reactions within the body is never going to be a recreational drug,.. a point the author makes quite clearly.

This book didn't hold much interest for me. There was some fascinating tales of peoples lives and the positive effects of their Ayahuasca experiences, but all quite forgettable in the end. The reason I bought it was because I really liked her previous book: Masters of the Living Energy: The Mystical World of the Q'ero of Peru This one seemed to be more of a compilation of stories than an in-depth study or exploration of the plant medicine, which I guess I was hoping for.

Beautiful book

What I really like and respect about this book, in addition to the excellent factual material it provides about ayahuasca, is the intensity of the personal viewpoint it provides. There are a lot of books that cover the science of ayahuasca, and its history and ethnobotany. There are even some good books, like Metzner's, that combine sciene with excerpts from experiences by "regular" people. But this is the only book I've found that showed in a sustained way what it's really like to study with this plant teacher from a personal perspective. In fact, that's what the author frankly explains as her intent, and it's what she delivers--beautifully. If you don't want a memoir, an intimately personal experience, then don't read a memoir. You can't, as at least one reviewer has done, blast a book for being exactly what it claims to be! But if you do want a personal portrait that also includes excellent additional factual material, then this book is among the best. In addition, I think there is little that is self-indulgent about this author. Some reviewers have charged the author with wearing rose-colored glasses and romanticizing her experiences. Have they read the same book? Maybe their memory is selective. I found the author to be surprisingly frank, especially about her fears and about the embarrassing situations that came up during her ayahuasca retreat. She certainly doesn't try to "pretty" things up in the least. Yes, she does take an intensely spiritual perspective, even what some might call "New Age," which some might not agree with. But I found her insights heart-felt and sincere. I also found her experiences caused me to ask a lot of questions about my own journey. For instance, when she is visited by the "spirit doctors," she becomes frightened and asks them to leave. It caused me to wonder how I would react to unexpected and startling spiritual events. As the author says, it's one thing to think about such things. It's another to actually live them! I also found this author to be fair-minded about the allure of the ayahuasca tourism trade (she doesn't support it) and about the growing underground trend to treat ayahusaca as just another psychedelic experience. She speaks out strongly on this, asking all of us to respect indigenous tradition. In fact, her respect for this plant teacher is everywhere evident in this book. I say "thanks" to Joan for putting it all out there for others to learn by. Because of her book, I have a much better understanding of and appreciation for what the ayahuasca retreat experience can be like--not through the eyes of a scientist, botanist, or other professional, but through the eyes of someone not unlike most of us. Sure, this is only one person's experience, but the author also presents testimonies from several others, a few of which say they wouldn't work with ayahuasca again. This is an account of the rigors and the mysteries of working with visionary plants that really takes you there, into the jungle, to share the experience. I think it's a page-turner and that the author has a sensitive eye and ear for the environment. She transported me there, into the world of an ayahuasca retreat in the Amazon, like few other books on the subject. That's why I highly recommend this book for those who want a real glimpse behind the scenes of an ayahuasca retreat.

This is the personal account of the author's well planned and intentional journey to Peru to experience ayahausca in a very authentic setting, particularly compared with the almost embarrassing casualness with which a lot of fairly aimless and clueless westerners are now endeavoring to "experience' ayahausca. I have read several other books with different perspectives about the ayahausca experience, including the excellent "The Cosmic Serpent", and appreciate different approaches and perspectives about this tradition, the plants themselves, and the various environments for their use. I don't expect every book to be the same as apparently some critical reviewers do. Again, this is a Personal Account. Let it be that and enjoy. I found it to be well written, honest, very interesting, and a page turner. Previous to reading this, I had read her wonderful and well received "Masters of the Living Energy" , about the work of Q'ero masters of ancient Peruvian traditions. I felt the same measured, informed and respectful voice of the author throughout both books, as these different traditions as well as her direct experiences with them, were shared and described.

Maybe you want help deciding if the ayahuasca experience is something you want to attempt. Maybe you hope that someone you can relate to, someone a little like you, is doing the thing you dream about, and telling the tale. You probably hope that when the story is told it's as honest as it can be when revealing personal information about the journey, and that the author describes both the difficult and the sublime instances of the story with little regard for how it might make them appear to the reader. I'm guessing your mature and well read yourself, and so you know the book won't have everything you need, won't satisfy all your questions and isn't the last or final word on the subject. I imagine the particular flavor your searching for usually requires that you wander through the whole subject garden, alighting on many pages as you seek to satisfy your own particular preferences. Joan Parisi Wilcox isn't even a little bit like me in the way of profession, gender or background. We have nothing in common there, but her honesty, courage, determination, and deeply personal insights left plenty to savor as I buzzed happily through the pages.

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