Medicine for the Soul: The Complete Book of Shamanic Healing Paperback – July 16, 2012

This book was excellent, and probably the most practical book on shamanism, magick and spiritual healing you will find. I read about a book a week, and many are on shamanic/spiritual practices, but I have yet to find one this hands on and practical in the way that do many books promise, but rarely deliver.This book also offers a certification at the end if you take a test, and submit your work journal. I was a bit skeptical if a certification from a book would merit anything, but this book is very thurough and in depth. I've taken many classes on shamanic practices and other types on healing, and this book has everything you need. If you work your way through all the exercises in this book, you will have a lot of practice under your belt, and a lot of the excersises make you test your own results, so you will know exactly how proficient you really are.This book covers all the info and training you need to become a healer, but does not offer lots of background, theory, studies or culture. It is almost exclusively training excersises. That being said, if you are new to shamanism, this book will be a great aid, but you might want something less practical and more info oriented to balance the hands on nature of this book.Overall, a great book, and highly recommended!

Great book for those exploring shamanism as a novice or to review concepts and practices. The author explains various rituals and how to do them. He also explains the what, why and how to Shamanic practices while interweaving the historical and geographic relevance. An excellent manual for the newly practicing, and a good read. Well written!

Really good book sans fluff. It is choc-full of techniques to help yourself and others. It explains rationale and aids in personal growth and development. Really happy to have this in my library for reference. I may even work towards certification.

I am listening to it right now. There are topics on this CD set that have not been covered in other books on shamanism. I also appreciate the exercises. I have already gotten messages from the Divine since I started this course!

Reading this book has opened me up to a whole new world of healing for myself and my Reiki clients. I have recommended this book highly to many others interested in the subject.

I downloaded a sample and liked the no nonsense approach and writing style however after purchasing the book and reading through the first few chapters was sad to see that this is yet another book full of second hand information. The writer shares information from an outsider and shares the information way too casually.I was willing to overlook a few "odd practices" or lack of precautionary measures which would keep seekers safe but it just seemed to get worse the more I continued on. I really wanted to like this book but the incorrect information and unsafe practices left a bad taste for me.I gave this book 2 stars because I appreciate the style of the book and the effort the writer put into it. He is clearly good at articulating ideas but sadly the book feels hollow to me and not in a "hollow bone" kind of way.I feel that there are more inspired teachings out there that will hopefully stress the importance of proper energy management, and protection as the first lesson rather than the sidenote which it seems to be in this text.

On the surface, Medicine for the Soul appears to be a no nonsense approach to the concepts and practice of shamanism with the opportunity to get a formal diploma from the Four Gates Foundation. The book does a good job of explaining common shamanic healing techniques and giving a how to description for students to follow. Unlike many books, there are no client testimonies or case studies. It may be possible to learn the early exercises without prior experience but it is hard to imagine someone succeeding in the more advanced practices without some one on one training. The information is not as complete as the subtitle would have you believe and there are some glaring omissions.I found this book interesting as the author has either read about or participated in shamanism from vastly disparate places. His personal experience with Haitian, Celtic and Peruvian traditions is augmented by a knowledge of other shamanic paths. I particularly enjoyed the section on ethics with topics like the consequences of sex with students, legal issues and the need for insurance. All of this is from the perspective of its British author so the laws may not apply to the reader. I also got the sense that Ross Heaven likes to tread where others fear to go. There is a chapter called Counseling and the Future in which clients seeking guidance can be advised by the shaman who journeys to answer the question and does divination. The techniques are unorthodox in the normal sense of counseling and readers should be advised in the US, if you aren't licensed as a counselor, to avoid calling it counseling.Each chapter begins with a couple sentence summary of content, suggested additional reading and equipment required to perform these exercises. At the end of each chapter is a quick test and at the end of the book are answers to the questions. This will give you an idea if you are remembering and learning the material. The actual course for diploma requires doing the shamanic exercises and writing about your own experiences in 300-500 words. Mr. Heaven states that if you pass his course you will be qualified to heal others. It is hard to say what else is required of diploma seeking students as those interested are advised to email for more information. I am not personally convinced that one could be competent after only completing one correspondence course. As his foundation offers in person courses, I expect students will be told eventually to enroll in these.The first student exercises are to get familiar with shamanic journeying and shadow work. Find one's power and one's geis, then retrieve one's power and find one's power animal and tutelary spirits. If you have prior experience with journeying, you should be able to follow the exercises in chapters 1 to 3. I am not certain a person with no experience whatsoever will have luck getting into the altered state of mind. I've been to workshops where some participants couldn't. I read an interview with Ross Heaven online and he contends that you cannot become a shaman without using visionary plants by which he means hallucinogens. I'm not going to argue one way or the other on the merits of this but mention it because there are shamanic paths that require it and others that do not. This book only touches on the topic of ayahuasca and San Pedro and none of the exercises in Medicine for the Soul include them. He has written other books that go in depth on teacher plants. Chapter 8, Plant Spirit Shamanism, limits itself to the use of herbs.By chapter 5, the student is supposed to be able to perform Spirit Extraction and Soul Retrieval. I discussed this idea with a number of shamanic practitioners and they all balked at the idea of learning to do this strictly from a book. When journeying to do soul retrieval, the shaman is visiting another potentially dangerous realm. The soul pieces that have been lost can be protected by dangerous booby traps. The shaman's spirit can get lost or be attacked. For difficult cases, a shaman may require the assistance of another shaman to execute the tasks safely. These concepts were not presented in the book. The question is does Ross Heaven not believe shamanic worlds are real places or does he not anticipate students will find their way to dangerous places?Doing further research, I discovered that Ross Heaven is controversial in his native Britain. You can search his name and decide whether this matters to you. I am hesitant to recommend this as a guide for absolute beginners without the caveat that you shouldn't try all of this alone. As a stepping stone, it is a reasonable introduction. Try the first few chapters, if it goes well, find a good teacher and read the rest.~review by Larissa Carlson Viana

What I have read so far is good

The excellent book for shamanic healing learning described in easy manner and detailed .

This book is fantastic I love a book that has exercises throughout makes for a better learning experience! It is hard not to love a nice shiny crips paged book to hole in your hands.

Very good my sister is a shamanic healer and she loves this book

I love to read all types of spiritual books. And this one was very good. Hope to get more from this author.

Great item, received in very good time..Would buy again from this seller..