Jungle Medicine

by Connie Grauds

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San Rafael, CA: Center for Spirited Medicine 2004. 206 pp $14.95 10 pp refs

Connie Grauds is an unusual person. She has apprenticed herself to a Peruvian shaman, Don Antonio and learned shamanic herbal treatments – in addition to being a conventionally trained western pharmacist.

Grauds points out that herbal remedies contribute significantly to our western pharmacopoeia.

120 clinically useful prescription drugs worldwide are derived from plants, around 39% of which are used in the U.S. And 47 of these 120 drugs are derived from plants native to the tropical rainforests. (p. 17).

"Sangre de grado… Dragon's blood…" Don Antonio wiped some of the red sap from the tree and rubbed it vigorously on the back of his hand till it formed a white paste. He told us that he used sangre de grado orally to treat diarrhea, and topically to heal wounds, that it both stops bleeding and disinfects the wound. "It's the rainforest's mercurochrome," said Charles, adding that scientific research on sangre de grado had shown it to be effective in treating a variety of ailments. The proanthocycanidins extracted from this sap are currently being used in wound-healing, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory medications, and to treat Herpes simplex and infections diarrhea. Various other applications are also being tested. Another case of modern science validating traditional indigenous plant medicines. (p. 48).

You wanted to learn about the garden and my healing work, didn't' you? Then you must experience the Earth and its plants with your heart, not just with your mind. That's the difference in our medicines. My medicine has magic in it, yours does not. Spirit does the healing, not science. Science is good, it is knowledge. But spirit has the real power. (p. 99).

Asked whether he was interested in learning western medicine, Don Antonio replied,

I am not interested in learning your medicine. I don't need any machines in order to make a direct diagnosis. I can see into my patients with my own eyes. And my medicine is medicine from nature and spirit, which heals not only their bodies but their hearts and souls, too. I'm sorry but I'm not interested, because your medicine does not have any magic in it. (p. 94). When Grauds developed a pustular infection in her toe, she resisted using the antibiotics she had brought with her and invited Don Antonio to treat her. She reports on his successful treatment,

What most struck me about the treatments was the unquantifiable ingredient in don Antonio's ministrations, the care and attention he showed to me, his patient. I'd never felt this level of sensitivity and intimate concern in a Western medical setting, not even in the throes of my bout with cancer. I saw how this level of compassionate attention implied in the medical term "attending physician" was a largely unfulfilled promise in the West. (p. 105).

“Don Antonio, how do you know if a physical problem needs a spiritual healing?
… And does the spirit that heals come from you, the plants, or somewhere else?" "It's all the same," he answered softly. "In the end it cannot be explained."
(p. 110).

Don Antonio is a strict teacher, demanding firm commitments from anyone who would be his apprentice.

"If you do not follow the required disciplinas there will be painful spiritual consequences. I must tell you this for your own good." [...] "Many ask to apprentice with me, but no one yet has become a shaman. Years of apprenticeship alone do not make a shaman. Most fail because they do not obey the rules and live the disciplinas. Weak commitment does not survive the testing." Then he added in his best mentoring voice, "The deeper the commitment, the stronger the medicine." (p. 119).

As she advanced in her knowledge of plant lore and treatments, she learned to work with the remedies more deeply.

One of the shaman’s ways of healing is through song, which can markedly enhance the action of the remedies.

You might say the concept of magical healing songs is as far from a pill in a bottle as Jesus Christ is from Isaac Newton. Both have their place, neither one necessarily cancels out the other, and the two together are better than either alone. In my case, the scientist who formerly dispensed pills in a bottle, became a singer dispensing spirit in a song. Becoming an open channel for spirit had made me, for the first time, an inspired pharmacist!" (p. 161).

This is a delightful, insightful, healing book, warmly recommended to anyone interested in shamanism and particularly in shamanic herbal remedies.

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