Shoefoot’s Testimony with Commentary

This is the video version of the same podcast.

If you have time, I recommend listening to the unedited version of Shoefoot’s testimony first (see link below), and then checking out my commentary on it. That way you’ll get the full emotional impact of his story, and afterwards you can listen to my comments to add to your understanding of what he went through. We only removed about 20 minutes of his testimony, however, so you’ll hear most of it just by listening to my commentary on it. 

Now, if you happened to notice that I pronounced “Yanomamö” several ways, I know! If you’re the type who gets their knickers in a twist about such things – I get it! Me too! In the past I always said “Yanomamo” (long “o”), but when I watched the video of Shoefoot’s testimony again, I thought I heard the woman at the beginning say, “Yanomame” (long “e”). I figured she had it right, but even as I was recording the video, I was thinking … “That’s not right. An umlaut is never pronounced that way.” So I tried to remember how it is pronounced, and I switched to Yanomama (short “a”). But that sounds too much like Yano yo-mama! LOL.

This is the type of thing that can drive me crazy, so I just went back and listened to the original video again, and Mike Dawson says “Yanomamo” (long “o”) @ 27:32. He’s an expert on the Yanomamö language, so I’m sticking with this from now on!

Hope this blesses you!

PDF of Chapter One (See below)

Spirit of the Rainforest by Mark Andrew Ritchie (book)

Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman’s Story: Ritchie, Mark Andrew: 9780964695238: Amazon.com: Books

Don Shire Ministries

Don Shire is a musician and missionary who is based out of Virginia USA but has several international mission projects. You can click on his link below to find out more about him and to support his work.

DSM INTERNATIONAL – Home (donshireministries.org)

Dawson Family Ministry

The Dawson family have been missionaries to the Yanomamo since the 1950’s. Joe and Millie made original contact and began process of translating the Scriptures into their language. You’ll hear Shoefoot talk about Joe and Millie when he first heard about Jesus.

Gary Dawson and Mike Dawson are their sons, and Gary in particular is a gifted Yanomamo translator. To learn more about the current generation of Dawson and their mission click on the Mission Padamo Aviation and Support link below.

Mission Padamo Aviation – Working With The Yanomamö in Venezuela (mpaviation.org)

Mike Dawson Biography (book)

Growing Up Yanomam’o: Missionary Adventures in the Amazon Rainforest: Mike Dawson: 9781602650091: Amazon.com: Books

Pharmakia: The Biblical View of Drug Use (Print or ebook)

Pharmakia: The Biblical View of Drug Use: Orem Jr, Robert A: 9781733967907: Amazon.com: Books

I’ll Never Go Back: A Shaman’s Story (DVD)

I’ll Never Go Back – DVD (lighthousetrails.com)

I’ll never Go Back – online (unedited version)

I’ll Never Go Back – Shaman Testimony on Vimeo

Pharmakia: The Biblical View of Drug Use

Chapter One: Drug Use in Shamanism

 

Deep in the rainforest of Venezuela, a Yanomamö shaman grinds the bark of an ebene tree into powder. The shaman, Jungleman, is about to ask his spirits for guidance. His tribe is at war with another tribe, and his people are pinned down in their village. They have no food and their children are starving to death.

 

Jungleman has another shaman named Spear blow the hallucinogenic ebene powder into his nose through a long hollow stick. As the ebene alters his consciousness, Jungleman can see and speak with the spirits that guide his tribe, and he begins to dance and talk with them:

 

That night Spear blew ebene into my nose again and we danced with our spirits. We needed much direction from them for the hard time ahead. The village was so hungry. The children were always crying. Some had already died and my spirits were not able to get them to revive. We needed a spirit that could just give us food in the [village] so we didn’t have to go and get it. But my spirits didn’t know of any such spirit.

 

“What shall we do now…?” I asked Jaguar Spirit and the others. “We can’t grow anything in our gardens. We can’t hunt. We can’t sleep. We can’t even go to relieve ourselves.”

 

[Jaguar Spirit said,] “It’s time for you to move.” 

 

      —Spirit of the Rainforest,  p.41

Chapter One

Drug Use in Shamanism

Shamans were once known as “witch doctors” and “medicine men.” They have been a part of primitive cultures for thousands of years. A shaman functions as both priest and magician. It is his job to communicate with spirits and to use their supernatural knowledge and power to help his people.

Shamans serve as a link between the spiritual world and the physical world, and they are always consulted when a tribe makes important decisions. The shaman will in turn consult with his spirits, as Jungleman did in the example above. Jungleman (a real shaman) described his role this way:

I am a man of the spirit world, “shamans” we are called. The shaman is almost always the leader of his village. If he is a good shaman—I mean that if he can avoid the bad spirits and get the good ones—he can lead his village to good hunting, tell them when and where to plant, who to make war with—all the things that will make them into a great village.

The key to being a good shaman is contacting and using the right spirits. Shamans use magic to do this. Their magic is highly ritualized and often includes the use of drugs.

The specific rituals used by shamans vary, but there is a general pattern. A shaman will first prepare himself for his encounter with the spiritual realm. (Shamans are usually male.) He may fast, pray, bathe, or paint himself. He may put on special masks or amulets. He may chant, sing, cast spells, recite incantations, isolate himself, or dance. He may do all of these. At some point during these rituals the shaman will take a drug. The drug alters the shaman’s consciousness, and he is able to communicate with the spirits while in a drug-induced altered state.

Not all shamans use drugs, but drug use is common in shamanism. When European explorers started sailing the globe during the 1500s they found shamans using drugs all over the world. Native North American shamans were using peyote and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Aboriginal shamans in Australia were chewing the hallucinogenic leaves of the pituri shrub. Oriental shamans were smoking opium and marijuana.

Shamanism is not as widespread as it was five hundred years ago, but it is still practiced among primitive people groups all over the world, and many shamans still take drugs during their rituals. Native North American shamans still use peyote. Some South American shamans snort ebene, while others drink the psychedelic brew ayahuasca. A few shamans in Asia still smoke opium, and shamans in Africa still use marijuana to contact their gods.

Regardless of the specific drug, the purpose of drug use in shamanism is always the same: Shamans take drugs so that they can contact spirits.

When shamans make contact with spirits they experience different levels of communication with them. Sometimes a shaman will simply pray to a spirit and ask it what course of action he should take. At other times he will summon a spirit (make it appear), and will then ask the spirit for help or guidance, as Jungleman did with Jaguar Spirit.

Shamans also contact spirits by entering the spirit world via “shamanic flight.” During a shamanic flight the shaman’s soul and spirit enter the spirit world, but his physical body stays where it is.  Shamans encounter many different kinds of spirits while in the spirit world. The most common are spirits of animals, spirits of their ancestors, nature spirits, and demons.

When a shaman makes contact with a spirit he gets on with the business at hand. Shamans do not communicate with spirits or enter their realm for kicks. There is a practical reason for their efforts. For example, as Jungleman said, they use the supernatural knowledge of spirits to find game and to defeat enemies. Shamans used to be called “medicine men” and “witch doctors” because, in addition to using medicinal plants, they often petition spirits to heal ailing or injured members of their tribe.

In his book The Spirit of Shamanism, Dr. Roger Walsh describes shamanic flight and the experiences shamans have while in the spirit world:

The shaman . . . [enters the spirit world] to learn, obtain power, or to diagnose and treat those who come for help and healing. During these journeys shamans may experience themselves exploring other worlds and meeting the people, animals, or spirits who inhabit them, seeing the cause and cure of a patient’s illness, or interceding with friendly or demonic forces.

We will look more closely at the shaman’s spiritual encounters in Chapter Fifteen. At this point we only need to grasp the basics of shamanism.

First, we need to understand that much of what shamans do in their magic is done to alter their consciousness. The rituals of fasting, praying, chanting, meditating, and taking drugs all alter the shaman’s state of spiritual sensitivity.

Second, we must understand that a shaman’s spiritual encounters are real. Some shamans have been found to be frauds, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Most shamans really do communicate with spirits. They do, in fact, gain supernatural knowledge and power through the practice of magic.

Third, we need to understand that the shaman himself has neither supernatural knowledge nor power. These come from the spirits, and they are given to the shaman when he opens the door to their world with drugs.

*Shamanic flight is the same phenomenon as astral projection.