Paul Levy - Wetiko: Healing the Mind-Virus That Plagues Our World

I want to dedicate this book to Rina Sircar, one of my primary teachers, whose love could fill the whole universe and then some.

In addition, this work is dedicated to all of us human beings who have chosen to incarnate at this particularly challenging time in history. Let us all be in service, elevating our species to its proper place in the cosmos as stewards of our precious home, planet Earth. Being human is not an easy gig. We all deserve a gold star.

We moderns are faced with the necessity of rediscovering the life of the spirit; we must experience it anew for ourselves. It is the only way in which to break the spell that binds us.

C. G. JUNG

Wetiko

In this time of unprecedented crises on almost every level, our challenge is to become aware of and shed the insidious trance of destruction that has come over us. Only as we awaken can we become the spiritual warriors necessary to free ourselves and our world of this life-threatening spell and step into a prophesied golden time. In this powerful book, Paul helps us look within ourselves and this illness to awaken the amazing potential that Creator has given us to thrive as good stewards of this precious home planet and all our relations.

BROOKE MEDICINE EAGLE, EARTHKEEPER, INDIGENOUS WISDOM TEACHER, AND AUTHOR OF BUFFALO WOMAN COMES SINGING AND THE LAST GHOST DANCE

Never before in human history has there been a time when we so desperately need the insights and profound wisdom that Paul Levy is offering us in this book. As Levy wisely admonishes us, only by developing a conscious, thriving inner spiritual life can we dispel wetiko for good. Otherwise, we will only collude with the darkness we believe we are fighting.

CAROLYN BAKER, PH.D., AUTHOR OF COLLAPSING CONSCIOUSLYAND LOVE IN THE AGE OF ECOLOGICAL APOCALYPSE

Paul Levys first book, Dispelling Wetiko, is a classic and brought an expanded awareness of the dark force that has invaded Western culture. If you are one of those who wonder how we are to deal with it now that the genie is out of the bottle, Levys new contribution, Wetiko, is a compelling read that will provide you with new tools for your toolbox. A most important book!

HANK WESSELMAN, PH.D., ANTHROPOLOGIST AND AUTHOR OF THE RE-ENCHANTMENT AND THE BOWL OF LIGHT

Wetiko is a gift to the world. Paul Levy brilliantly and beautifully dissects the wetiko illness and shows us how we can break its insidious spell. There are no topics more important than this, and Paul Levy writes exactly what we need to read.

DERRICK JENSEN, ECOPHILOSOPHER AND AUTHOR OF A LANGUAGE OLDER THAN WORDS

In Wetiko, the power and authenticity of Pauls narrative is in the grounding of his own lived experience of the collective human psychosis of wetiko. This important and timely book maintains that the spirit of healing is hidden within the illness and exhorts a shamanic journey of re-membering and reintegrating the innate wholeness of our true Self. Urging conscious co-creativity as a healing response and engagement. Wetiko invites us to free our imagination to literally embody the imaginal cells of the potential metamorphosis of our species.

JUDE CURRIVAN, PH.D., COSMOLOGIST, HEALER, AUTHOR OF THE COSMIC HOLOGRAM AND COFOUNDER OF WHOLEWORLD-VIEW

This remarkable book, deeply rooted in Jungian psychology and the wisdom traditions, addresses the contagious psychospiritual disease of the soul that constitutes the crisis of humanity. The author brilliantly integrates a broad range of archetypal themesfrom mythology, alchemy, religion, and quantum physicsto unearth the deeper meanings of our individual and collective soul-sickness. A must-read for anybody who is interested in a transformation of consciousness.

URSULA WIRTZ, JUNGIAN PSYCHOANALYST AND AUTHOR OF TRAUMA AND BEYOND

Paul Levy has made a lifes work out of studying wetikodealing with it in himself and shining the light of consciousness on it in the human world. In this book, he examines this mind-virus from multiple angles, helping the reader to achieve a full recognition of wetikos nature, its terrible dangers, and the secret gift it contains. Wetiko is a book of urgent relevance and vital importance for everyone, alerting us to dire dangers and opening our eyes to our astonishing and wondrous potential as we engage with the multiple, simultaneous world crises that we face in these critical times.

ROBERT SIMMONS, AUTHOR OF THE ALCHEMY OF STONES AND COAUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF STONES

After reading Paul Levys work on wetiko, I knew I had to meet him. I drove from Boston, Massachusetts, to Portland, Oregon. This man Paul, he is something. He knows things. He experiences things in ways impossible to explain. All I can say is, that which walks with me knows that Paul Levy has been placed here to help usto help us mitigate the climate crisis, the sixth extinction, this pandemic, racism, and this wetiko without and within if only we listen. But we must all do this work if our children and our childrens children are to experience The Mother. Read this book. Mitakuye Oyasin.

THOMAS BALISTRIERI, ED.D., ASSISTANT TEACHING PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND GLOBAL STUDIES AT WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND LAKOTA YUWIPI (MEDICINE) MAN

Acknowledgments

Its an unusual experience as a writer to not be able to find words. This is certainly my experiencefor I feel a bit speechless, beyond my capacityin trying to adequately thank the individuals who have played key roles in helping this book come to fruition. Even though Im its author, I can easily feel like I didnt write this book, but rather, was simply dreamed up to be the instrument by the nonlocal field for the words to come through and arrange themselves in a meaningful form on these pages. This creative process couldnt possibly have taken place without the selfless and caring help of countless others who personified the spirit of being in service. Feeling other peoples love and support for ones work is invaluable, not quantifiabletruly priceless.

I first want to thank my longtime friend Larry Berrywho has always been there, without fail, in whatever way was needed, for the many years of loving and never-ending support Ive received from him in helping to get my work out. I want to express immense gratitude for the incomparable Donna Zerner for freely sharing her many brilliant gifts in helping this booknot to mention myselfsee the light. I also want to acknowledge the generous support Ive received from Kendra Crossen Burroughs in ways I could only imagine.

I want to give a shout-out of thanks to Robert Simmons, who went out of his way to connect me with Inner Traditions. And I also want to thank Richard Grossinger, who coincidentally enough, was the person who helped publish my previous work on wetiko and then played the same role for this book, albeit in totally different circumstances. My sincere appreciation to my editor, Meghan MacLean, and all of the wonderful people at Inner Traditions for their seemingly never-ending support to help this work see the light of day. I also want to gratefully acknowledge the help of a close friend of mine who for years has endlessly contemplated the idea of wetiko with me, who, for reasons of his own, wishes to remain anonymousyou know who you are.