The Scalpel and the Soul: Encounters with Surgery, the Supernatural, and the Healing Power of Hope by Allan J. Hamilton, M.D. New York, NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008. Biblio., index; notes; 272 pp.; $23.95 (hardcover).
Reviewed by Jaime Blanco. Reprinted from Shaman's Drum, Number 76.
One day when Doug Alderson was a young man, only eighteen and hiking alone on the Appalachian Trail, he felt so lonely that he began to talk to rocks and trees. Then a strange thing happened: he heard a response. “The earth answered in a way that a river does when it flows shallowly over rocks,” he writes in his memoir, The Vision Keepers: Walking for Native Americans and the Earth. Part of nature’s answer to Alderson included a vision of an older version of himself heeding the teachings of Native American elders and working to protect the environment.
In this engaging and delightful book, Alderson tells the story of his quest to manifest that vision and
become that person. He relates how he met and became friends with the renowned Muskogee Creek medicine man Bear Heart, who agreed to teach him. Writing in a style that is both humble and quixotic, Alderson describes his subsequent pursuit of an earth-based spirituality, exploring everything from a Cheyenne Sun Dance to peyote ceremonies, from sweat lodges to sacred spots, and from spirit visitors to prophetic dreams.
The Vision Keepers relates engaging accounts of two walks Alderson organized in the 1980s to bring attention to Native spirituality and environmental concerns for the earth. One was a seven-month, 3,800-mile walk from Point Reyes, California, to Washington, D.C., and the other, a four-month walk retracing the Trail of Tears backwards across the American Southeast, from Oklahoma to Tennessee. On both journeys, the walkers became a small band of visionaries, spreading a heartfelt message—the need to support Native American rights, environmental protection, and world peace—from person to person, across the nation.
Alderson ends his book by calling attention to the Hopi prophecy that describes four cycles, or worlds, of human life (the third ended with a great flood). The prophecy warns that humanity now occupies the fourth, a world plagued by powerful technologies and the endless quest for material wealth, and it predicts that this cycle will end in earthquakes, hailstorms, and hurricanes. However, the Hopi prophecy also offers a message of hope. It predicts that a man called “pahana” [the lost white brother] will come wearing a red cap and cloak, and he will plant the seeds of a fifth world cycle, during which people will learn to live in harmony with each other and with the natural world.
Throughout the book, Alderson reiterates a simple but vital message of hope and reconciliation in defense of Mother Earth. While he openly and honestly talks about how America’s Native cultures have been struggling to overcome the plagues of alcoholism and poverty, he also calls attention to positive efforts to restore the earth and its ancient, indigenous wisdom. As Alderson reminds us, visions can become reality!
Janisse Ray, author of three books of nonfiction, has just been awarded an honorary doctorate from Unity College in Maine.
Reviewed by Jaime Blanco. Reprinted from Shaman's Drum, Number 76.
One day when Doug Alderson was a young man, only eighteen and hiking alone on the Appalachian Trail, he felt so lonely that he began to talk to rocks and trees. Then a strange thing happened: he heard a response. “The earth answered in a way that a river does when it flows shallowly over rocks,” he writes in his memoir, The Vision Keepers: Walking for Native Americans and the Earth. Part of nature’s answer to Alderson included a vision of an older version of himself heeding the teachings of Native American elders and working to protect the environment.
In this engaging and delightful book, Alderson tells the story of his quest to manifest that vision and
become that person. He relates how he met and became friends with the renowned Muskogee Creek medicine man Bear Heart, who agreed to teach him. Writing in a style that is both humble and quixotic, Alderson describes his subsequent pursuit of an earth-based spirituality, exploring everything from a Cheyenne Sun Dance to peyote ceremonies, from sweat lodges to sacred spots, and from spirit visitors to prophetic dreams.The Vision Keepers relates engaging accounts of two walks Alderson organized in the 1980s to bring attention to Native spirituality and environmental concerns for the earth. One was a seven-month, 3,800-mile walk from Point Reyes, California, to Washington, D.C., and the other, a four-month walk retracing the Trail of Tears backwards across the American Southeast, from Oklahoma to Tennessee. On both journeys, the walkers became a small band of visionaries, spreading a heartfelt message—the need to support Native American rights, environmental protection, and world peace—from person to person, across the nation.
Alderson ends his book by calling attention to the Hopi prophecy that describes four cycles, or worlds, of human life (the third ended with a great flood). The prophecy warns that humanity now occupies the fourth, a world plagued by powerful technologies and the endless quest for material wealth, and it predicts that this cycle will end in earthquakes, hailstorms, and hurricanes. However, the Hopi prophecy also offers a message of hope. It predicts that a man called “pahana” [the lost white brother] will come wearing a red cap and cloak, and he will plant the seeds of a fifth world cycle, during which people will learn to live in harmony with each other and with the natural world.
Throughout the book, Alderson reiterates a simple but vital message of hope and reconciliation in defense of Mother Earth. While he openly and honestly talks about how America’s Native cultures have been struggling to overcome the plagues of alcoholism and poverty, he also calls attention to positive efforts to restore the earth and its ancient, indigenous wisdom. As Alderson reminds us, visions can become reality!
Janisse Ray, author of three books of nonfiction, has just been awarded an honorary doctorate from Unity College in Maine.
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