Search results for ""Author Jez Hughes""

The Heart of Life is an exploration into the depths of what it means to be alive, when the 'cellophane packaging we wrap around life to keep it safe and sterile has been unwrapped and discarded'. It reveals how the ancient path of shamanism and indigenous wisdom can offer us solutions to the many problems facing the modern world, both global and collective. It offers a unique cosmology that explores how these problems, from potential global ecological catastrophe to the multitude of mental and physical illnesses afflicting individuals, are intrinsically linked and how they can be treated. How the soul sickness that is affecting the modern world may well be the initiation we are going through as a species. This is illustrated through the personal and professional experiences of contemporary shaman Jez Hughes, who cured himself successfully of convulsive fits and mental illnesses using shamanic methods and has since gone on to treat thousands of people in the same way.

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Written for those who are experiencing mental illness, or whose loved ones are going through such episodes, or who are mental wellbeing practitioners, this is a guide to the potentially transformational experience of that which we label mental illness. It explores the ancient concept of the "shamanic sickness", whereby the prospective shaman underwent many years of mental distress as part of their initiation, and looks at what this can teach us about mental health. It argues that, in some cases, what we seek to medicate could actually be a calling to a path of service and healing. The book also explores our cultural biases around mental illness. What we define as pathological, many cultures see as a sign of being inspired and in touch with greater powers. It looks at our uneasy relationship with altered states of consciousness and how these might hold the key to healing many symptoms of mental illness. Finally it looks at how we, as species, have come out of balance in our relationship to nature and the devastating affect this is having on our mental health. By learning from ancient indigenous cultures who have remained in balance with the natural world, this book looks at solutions to heal this modern imbalance and find a way forward for the Earth and ourselves.

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