When challenges occur in our lives it can be difficult to stay tranquilly aligned to the sacred and follow all the wonderful advice, tips and strategies we have learned to get our bodies, mind and spirit back on track. Isn’t it strange that just when we need some of these aids the most, we manage to forget all about them – or lose the will to use them – even though we know at some level that they are likely to help move us on.

Sometimes it’s a health crisis that throws us into uncertainty. People who have lived their lives holistically, eaten consciously, consulted great people skilled in the healing arts and been committed to strong spiritual practices can suddenly have their faith shaken when faced with a life-threatening health diagnosis. Should they go the traditional route being advocated by their doctors or choose holistic methods to restore themselves to wellness? Making the right decisions in these moments is so important. There cannot be a right or wrong choice – this is such an individual matter.

For psychologist, medical anthropologist and shaman Alberto Villoldo this choice was an extremely intense one. He was in Mexico delivering a keynote talk and found that without any warning he was unable to walk more than a few steps without collapsing. Friends suggested he was exhausted, but he knew that something was terribly wrong. Before leaving his home in Miami for the trip, he had had a huge range of tests by medical experts. He called them and received the devastating news that during his 30 years of research in Indonesia, Africa and South America he had picked up a long list of nasty micro-organisms, including four varieties of parasites, a host of toxic bacteria and assorted worms. His heart and liver were close to collapse and the doctors said that his brain was riddled with parasites. The doctors advised him to seek the best possible care available and immediately put his name on a liver transplant list. But where, he wondered, was he going to get a new brain?

 

 

After the conference he was due to head to the Amazon with his shaman wife, Marcela, to lead an expedition into the jungle to work with shamans who have journeyed beyond death. He stood in Cancun airport staring at his options: Gate 15 – the flight to Miami where he would be admitted to a top medical centre for treatment; or Gate 14 – the flight to Lima and the Amazon where he would be with Marcela in the land of his spiritual roots. The doctors said that his tests indicated he should already be dead. Miami was the logical choice, but as Alberto writes in his extraordinary book One Spirit Medicine: ‘…in that moment I summoned up the courage to put my future where my mouth was – to live what I had taught to so many.’

The shamans welcomed him lovingly – they had known him for years and he felt welcomed by Mother Earth as he lay down on the earth and pressed his body close to her. That night in an ayahuasca ceremony in the jungle, Alberto was too weak to drink the sacred vine, but his wife drank for them both and he received healing throughout the night. This extraordinary ceremony was the beginning of a healing journey without any promise of a cure, but Villoldo knew that whether or not he lived, he would be healed.

 

 

His journey took time and absolute commitment on his part. He combined the spiritual medicine from the shamans with Western medicine, and consulted his doctor friends David Perlmutter and Mark Hyman to help him clear his body of all the parasites and toxins. Having achieved fantastic results for himself, he developed the One Spirit Programme to help others clear their mind and heal their brain as he has done. This programme is outlined in his fascinating book, and Villoldo suggests that people will feel tremendous benefit after a week – but doing it for six weeks will help people experience the extraordinary healing benefits that Villoldo now enjoys. He certainly is thriving, and a great model and inspiration to us all for what is possible!