Beery Itzhak - The Gift of Shamanism: Visionary Power, Ayahuasca Dreams, and Journeys to Other Realms

To my parents, Chaim Kolodzianski-Beery and Sara Margolis-Beery, who gave me a chance at this lifetime, and to all the spirits who came before me and those who will come after me

THE GIFT OF SHAMANISM

Itzhak Beerys The Gift of Shamanism offers clear teachings as well as riveting testimonials about what becomes possible when we walk this path with humility, reverence, and discipline. He is to be commended as he has created very good medicine. I love this book!

HANK WESSELMAN, PH.D., ANTHROPOLOGIST AND AUTHOR OF THE SPIRITWALKER TRILOGY AND COAUTHOR OF AWAKENING TO THE SPIRIT WORLD

Itzhak Beery is a master storyteller who shares his fascinating journey from skeptical nonbeliever to gifted shamanic healer and teacher. The Gift of Shamanism is filled with powerful and engaging stories of transformation that inspire us to tap in to our shamanic potential. Brilliant book!

SANDRA INGERMAN, AUTHOR OF SOUL RETRIEVAL, WALKING IN LIGHT, AND COAUTHOR OF SPEAKING WITH NATURE

In this beautiful book Itzhak Beery, a powerful seer and agent of change, illumines through the ancient art of storytelling the mystical worlds coinciding with everyday reality and the inner magic we each carry.

LLYN ROBERTS, AUTHOR OF SHAPESHIFTING INTO HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS AND COAUTHOR OF SPEAKING WITH NATURE

The Gift of Shamanism is eloquent and mesmerizing. it offers an utterly fresh perspective that may reveal shamanic wisdom embedded in your own long-neglected life circumstances.

ARIEL ORR JORDAN, PSYCHOTHERAPIST,
WRITER/DIRECTOR, AND FILM PRODUCER

Itzhak gifts us with an eclectic array of healing stories that bridge sacred tradition and present-day living. This wonderful healer teaches us how to connect with spirits and forces that diagnose and heal.

MARGARET DE WYS, AUTHOR OF
BLACK SMOKE AND ECSTATIC HEALING

The wonderful message of Itzhak Beerys excellent book The Gift of Shamanism is that everyone has this gift. it is our birthright. Through personal stories from his own life and the lives of his many clients, Beerys contribution to readers is his deep understanding of what makes a shaman and how a shaman lives in this confusing world. Even better, his story teaches us to trust the visions of the spirit world to ease the burden of uncertainty and empower our personal lives with wholeness and meaning.

TOM COWAN, AUTHOR OF
FIRE IN THE HEAD AND YEARNING FOR THE WIND

I heartily recommend this book to learn how Itzhak Beery works, including how he facilitates spirit communication and spiritual healing, helping people connect with their shamanic abilities, such as visions, out-of-body experiences, dreams, and his work with ayahuasca. Beery has distilled his years of experience into this marvelous volume.

LEWIS MEHL-MADRONA, M.D., PH.D, AUTHOR OF REMAPPING YOUR MIND, COYOTE MEDICINE, ANDEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE COYOTE INSTITUTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book was predicted many years ago by my friend, a well-known psychic, Frank Andrews, who encouraged me to write my stories even though I protested; I am forever grateful for his vision. This book could not have happened if it wasnt for Joe Kulin, my longtime friend turned my literary agent, who believed in me and held my hand even at times when I lost faith. Gratitude to my client Roberto Guerra, the filmmaker who made me promise at his deathbed to resume my art career by illustrating this book. Huge credit goes to Ehud Sperling and the Inner Traditions team that guided me every step of the way.

I am grateful beyond words to my wife Margalit who was always there for me, listening to my outlandish stories and growing frustrations, and to my children Ariel, Tal, and Shira who tolerated my unexpected excursions into the unknown shamanic territories of the Andes and Amazon and came out to support me.

My thanks to June Balish, Mindy Melemed, Nora Logan, David Rothenberg, and Shira Beery who took their precious time to help me sort it all out and to Thieu Besselink whose firm encouragement and friendship I valued immensely. Huge thank you to my dearest friend, Ariel Orr Jordan, whose loving, guiding hands and generosity of spirit I tremendously value. His first recognition of the shaman in me pushed me to become who I am today in spite of my inner doubts and protests. Our daily early morning exchanges as we walked around Washington Square Park were a great laboratory for this book. Deep gratitude goes to Samuel Jakob Kirschner who walks the seeker-of-truth path with me. Both Ariel and Samuel play major parts in my life and in this book, and I thank them for the many years of adventures and unwavering sacred brotherhood. And to Barbara Ensor for her loving support, thank you.

I am forever indebted to my teachers and mentorsfirst and foremost Don Jos Joaquin Pieda who initiated me into his familys tradition and Ipupiara (Dr. Bernardo D. Peixoto) and his wife Cleichafor their trust and their love throughout the years. I am thankful for the generosity of the many incredible shamanic teachers and elders from around the world whom I was fortunate to encounter during this great journey that gifted me with their treasured knowledge. I hope I am worthy of their teachings; their names could fill up a whole chapter in this book.

I want to give special acknowledgment to John Perkins for his inspirational work and for writing the foreword to this book.

My fellow core members of the New York Shamanic Circle are most treasured by my family and me; thank you for your support, challenges, friendship, and invaluable teaching during the past eighteen years. I also want to express my special thanks to my clients and my students around the world who taught me so much more than I taught them.

Most of all, I am in reverence and gratefulness to the Spirits of the unseen worlds and my spirit guides for teaching me and allowing me to interact with them to bring healing for those in need. And for those of you whom I never thanked for their contribution to the book and my life I do so now.

FOREWORD

John Perkins

In 1968 I spent time deep in the rain forest of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Beginning then and ever since I have become close to the Shuar, Achuar, Quechua, and other indigenous peoples. At one point while in the Amazon rain forest I grew so violently sick, without the possibility of reaching any hospital or medical care, that I became resigned to my death. An old Shuar shaman using plant medicine his culture knows and has applied for thousands of years saved my life.

How did that work? I asked him.

The spirit of the plants did it, he replied.

A Calvinistic New Englander and recent business-school graduate, I could not comprehend the meaning of his answer but I was grateful nonetheless. I wondered what these people in the jungle knew that we didnt. As payment for his help, the shaman demanded that I become his apprentice. In the months and years that followed I had the opportunity to listen to the stories of the Shuar. One of the things that impressed me the most was learning how difficult it is for the peoples of the rain forest to maintain their ways of life and livelihood at this time. It became obvious to me that they desperately need our help to stop the encroachment of a civilizationminethat threatens their traditional ways and the vast knowledge of their medicines.