Spirit of the Rainforest [Paperback]

Must reading for anthropologists, missionaries, new-agers, skeptics, and believers. A shaman from the Yanomamos of Amazonia speaks of his spiritual journey and his encounters with an assortment of spirits, marauding, vengeful, and mean-spirited tribesmen, anthropologists, missionaries and whites. It is an insider account of his society and his attempts to make sense of conflicting spirit views and values and the impacts on his life, family, and village.
If you are a new-ager, the shaman's journey will surprise you. If you are an anthropologist, you may be disturbed by the pedophilic, rude, desecrating, orchestrating, self-serving, cruel, callous acts of the social scientists described.
If you are a missionary, you may be embarassed and ashamed of those that bring a gospel and behave in a manner less than Christian.
Definitely an insightful book on a modern clash of cultures and values where jungle meets civilization.

This book contains some disturbingly gruesome details of real wars the Yanomamo tribes of the Amazon had with one another.... It is never-the-less an awesome look into the world of evil deceiving spirits who fight for the souls of these indians and who "quake" at even the thought of Jesus, and who the Yanomamos
shamans caught lying about Jesus. The Indians know Jesus as "Yai Pada" and the Father, who they call "Yai Wana Naba Laywa". They knew of Jesus before the first white man came. The evil Spirits only wanted to lead these Indians to a life of war and revenge. Which reminds me about what Father Amorth a Catholic Exorcist wrote about these demons: "I have heard demons tell me many times that they suffer more during exorcisms than in hell. When I ask "Why don't you go to hell, then?" they answer, "Because we are only interested in making this person suffer."

Jungleman the Shaman wrote: "I wish I had known the truth about Yai Wana Naba Laywa when I was a young man--it would have saved me so much pain and misery. But how could I? My spirits lied so much to me and tricked me. They were so beautiful, so wonderful, so hard not to want. They were the best at telling me split-truth. Now I'm at the end of this life, and I'm ready to begin my real life with Yai Pada."

This astounding book might be the last piece of the religion puzzle I have been working, for as long as I can remember.
Jungleman, the omniscient narrator, tells how the Yanomamo Indians lived and suffered because of their association with bad spirits. I would describe it as a classic study in anthropology, not necessarily meant to be of any significant religious importance, but full of religious implication nevertheless.
The Yanomamo had always known of the Great Spirit, who made all spirits, but believed that he was too dangerous to approach. They were surprised that (A) the nabas (white men) knew of the Great Spirit and insisted that the Indians throw away their lesser spirits and let the Great Spirit in, and that only then would they be happy; and (B) that so many of the nabas, even though they knew of the Great Spirit, had not, themselves, let him in, and therefore were not happy. A few of the nabas were reasonably happy, in the knowledge of the existence of the Great Spirit, even though they had not actually let him in. But the Indians who had not let the Great Spirit in and continued their association with their lessor-mostly bad--spirits suffered (and the degree to which they suffered is the most astounding part of the book) for centuries with their eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth warrior mentality, killing their enemies, stealing and raping their women, and far worse.
Among the things that ran through my mind as I read Spirit of the Rainforest:
1. The now-extinct 15th Century pre-Columbian Arawak Indians, who associated themselves with good spirits-called Zemis--and lived in peace for 10,000 years and were happy
2. The continuing tragedy of the Israelis and Palestinians under their eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth rule
3. The teachings of Jesus