Why do so many people search in remote jungles and mountains for an experience that breaks with their ordinary life? An experience that, at times, provides wisdom but, at other times, involves being buried in hell.

In this book, Manuel Almendro synthesizes almost forty years of coexistence and scientific research with healers, healers and shamans of the Peruvian Amazon jungle and the Mexican Sierra Mazateca. With a solid academic rigor, but at the same time sprinkled with personal stories that give credibility and amenity to the text, the author introduces us to indigenous worldviews, in the historical contexts of shamanism and delves into the research that is being carried out on the traditional indigenous medicines. It is a critical reflection that highlights the decline and abuse of plant takings that are causing death and widespread desolation, while delving into the therapeutic potential that permeates traditional medicines.

Uniting his experience in the psychological field and medical research in indigenous traditions, Almendro points to new protocols in the healing pathways of mental and bodily pathologies.