For example, we may grow beautiful, organic food but because it’s coming from depleted soil, it has much less nutritional value. These conditions are the products of our Western lifestyle, of pesticides and pollution in our air and water. But in all the villages I visited, I found no cases of heart disease, cancer, or Alzheimer’s disease. My initial funding came from Big Pharma, which saw the Amazon as nature’s pharmacy and hoped to discover the next breakthrough cure for cancer, heart disease, or dementia there. I trained as a medical anthropologist, and I spent many years in the Amazon. KK: Does that also include inanimate things, like water and rocks?ĪV: Absolutely.
As the health and fate of the earth go, so go ours. For example, if the bees are dying, then part of us is also dying. In the West, we have doctors who specialize in illnesses, like oncologists, and in organs, like cardiologists, but none who specialize in the whole being-not just the whole body, but the entire ecosystem. These systems are integrated and holistic. Traditional Chinese Medicine is another one. Ayurveda is one of the most ancient ones, and probably the closest and most similar one to One Spirit Medicine. KK: Is it then similar in scope to the ancient Indian system of Ayurveda?ĪV: There are 11 different systems of medicine on the planet. Western medicine sees disease as happening in organs and tissues, whereas One Spirit Medicine sees disease as a symptom of your world being out of balance, manifesting through an organ or a tissue. So if you create the conditions for balance, then disease simply goes away.
Health, then, is a result of a clear and collaborative relationship between nature and your own being, your own ecosystem, including your gut (which is an entire ecosystem inside your body). How does that system work?Īlberto Villoldo: I believe that the cause of all disease is a disconnection from nature-from our own nature as well as from the ecosystem. Katy Koontz: You describe One Spirit Medicine as a healthcare system. Recently, he spoke with Unity Magazine editor Katy Koontz about why it’s vital that we recognize our connection not only with each other, but with the earth we all share. Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., is a Cuban-born psychologist and medical anthropologist who has spent more than 30 years studying the healing practices of Amazonian and Andean shamans in South America, as well as those of Native Americans in the southwestern United States. The New York Times famously called Villoldo the “Indiana Jones of the Spirit World.” His teachings bridge ancient shamanic wisdom (in a system he calls One Spirit Medicine) with the latest scientific developments in nutrition, biology, and neuroscience.
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