About the author
Margaret De Wys is the author of Black Smoke: Healing and Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Ecstatic Healing: A Journey Into the Shamanic World of Spirit Possession and Miraculous Medicine, both published by Inner Traditions International. Black Smoke recounts her experience of a cancer diagnosis and the ayahuasca rituals and apprenticeship with an Ecuadorian shaman that followed, describing what she presents as her own healing process. Ecstatic Healing broadens the scope to spirit possession as a healing practice more generally, drawing on her direct experience with the Brazilian healer João de Deus and the African shaman Credo Mutwa, and including accounts of psychic surgery and possession rituals. Both books are written as first-person narrative rather than clinical or historical study, situating personal experience with ayahuasca and spirit-possession healing traditions at the center of the account. They are aimed at readers already interested in shamanic healing traditions from the Amazon and beyond.
📖 Where to start with Margaret De Wys
💬 What our editors say about Margaret De Wys's books
“De Wys provides a candid account of her journey from skepticism to active participation in global shamanic practices, detailing psychic surgeries and spirit possessions with John of God. While the narrative effectively bridges…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Ecstatic Healing: A Journey Into the Shamanic World of Spirit Possession and Miraculous Medicine
“De Wys delivers an emotionally raw account that may appeal to those drawn to mystical experiences, yet it might frustrate readers seeking rigorous anthropological data or scientific validation of shamanic efficacy. Those…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Black Smoke: Healing and Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon
