The Green Labyrinth: Exploring the Mysteries of the Amazon [Hardcover]

"One or the most courageous, skilled and unconventional writers working in Canada." (Winnipeg Free Press )

"Fraser strikes the perfect balance between eager spiritual adventurer and keen-minded journalist. With skills like hers, she can just let go and write." (Calgary Herald )

"Sylvia Fraser is an exceptional writer whose gifts set her apart form the poseurs." (Now Magazine )

"One can relax and enjoy Ms. Fraser's writing, which is rich yet superbly honed." (New York Times Book Review )

In the critically acclaimed "The Rope in the Water", Sylvia Fraser described her three-month pilgrimage to India in search of "something larger than myself, something deeper, something more." In "The Green Labyrinth", Fraser continues her journey, this time deep into the jungle of the Amazon in the company of shamans, traditional spiritualists practicing ancient rituals. At the heart of Fraser's quest lies the mind-expanding drug "ayahuasca", a gateway to worlds beyond her own, to a better understanding of the mysteries of existence. Fraser takes us to shamanic sanctuaries that hover at the edge of our modern world, providing a portal to the unknown. Along the way she introduces us to a diverse group of pilgrims searching for their own answers with the help of shamans and ayahuasca. Through meaningful visions and with spiritual guidance, Fraser and her fellow travellers acquire insight into their emotional and psychic lives, and discover that many of the answers they are searching for lie within themselves.

For three months, Sylvia Fraser traveled through the jungles, mountains and deserts of Peru, exploring the mysteries of ancient cultures, as well as the healing wisdom of today’s shamans, who practice rituals using mind-expanding substances to heal body, mind and spirit.

Inspiring this journey was Fraser’s desire to drink the highly psychoactive plant medicine ayahuasca. What intrigued her were reports of Western scientists willing to testify that ayahuasca visions were not just hallucinations, but actual journeys into other realms of reality. Some researchers have even claimed that ayahuasca is as important for opening up the field of consciousness to systematic investigation as the microscope is to medicine and the telescope to astronomy.

With Fraser as our guide, we climb the mountain redoubt of Machu Picchu, legendary fortress of the Incas, then travel through Peru’s coastal deserts to see ancient Nazca line-drawings, so impressive in scale and artistry that they’ve been popularly attributed to aliens. But more importantly, Fraser takes us along the Amazon River to several shamanistic sanctuaries that hover at the edge of our modern world. There we meet a diverse group of questers searching for their own answers. During a number of shamanic ceremonies, Fraser ingests ayahuasca, propelling her on terrifying but illuminating journeys into the unknown that, ultimately, force her to reassess Western concepts of what is “real” and what is not.

Accessible and rich in humor and insight, The Green Labyrinth engages the reader in a series of unusual adventures while probing the higher mysteries.

An award-winning journalist and novelist, Sylvia Fraser is the bestselling author of ten books, including "The Rope in the Water: A Pilgrimage to India", the internationally acclaimed "My Father's House:A Memoir of Incest and Healing", and "The Quest for the Fourth Monkey: A Thinking Person's Guide to the Psychic and Spiritual Revolution" (previously published as "The Book of Strange").