Customer Reviews

Coyote Medicine: Lessons from Native American Healing

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book blew me away. I have reread much of it so many times and bought multiple copies for friends. I have filled the margins of my copy with notes and filled notebooks with essays and thoughts inspired by Dr. Mehl-Madrona's book. It is nothing short of miraculous itself, in addition to describing medical miracles and how they are brought about by spiritual intervention and Native American healing.

A child prodigy, Lewis Mehl-Madrona hitchhiked to a local college while still in high school, read philosophy science voraciously and was the youngest peacetime graduate of Stanford Medical School. The more impressive since his childhood was at times difficult.

At medical school, Dr. Mehl-Madrona became interested in shamanic traditions and attended some sweat lodge and tipi ceremonies. Here he encountered otherwordly phenomena such as blue light, sparks, sensorial stimulation and miracle cures in cases that were deemed too far gone by western doctors. Most importantly, Dr. Mehl-Madrona learned how shamans talked to patients, asked questions about their families and lives and spent long periods of time with them. The author learned that shamans tap into the inner healer of the patient, and consider themselves only partially responsible for any cure.

At the same time, Dr. Mehl-Madrona was encountering negligent and dehumanizing healing practices in his western medical pursuits. A few spine-chilling tales display the callousness and arrogance that exists in some hospitals and clinics. One example: two obstetricians made a bet concerning the fastest C-Section birth and the winner, very triumphant at seventeen minutes, accidentally tied something shut in the woman's internal organs. It was fixed and the woman even wrote a letter of thanks to the hospital! Such is the blind and sometimes unjustified trust the public has in the medical establishment.

The book is wonderfully woven with many colorful strands of storytelling. On one level, it is a memoir of Dr. Mehl-Madrona's journey to reconcile his western medical training with holistic and in particular Native American healing. He is part Native American, so this pursuit poignantly reflects his mixed heritage. Poignant because Dr. Mehl-Madrona often felt like an outsider in all areas of his life, as a Native American man, as an American man, as a western doctor and as an aspiring and ultimately successful shaman.

Another strand of his story is the Native American tradition of healing itself, which we discover in almost the same timeframe that he does. We are introduced to the traditional practice of storytelling as a healing technique at the same time that he is. Early in the book, when the doctor is a resident, he is tending a man whose medical condition is exacerbated (and perhaps caused) by his intensely critical nature. A wonderful passage in recounts Dr. Mehl-Madrona's tentative attempt at telling a story to the cynical patient, himself a psychologist, who groans with sarcasm as the story begins. As it continued, he was intrigued, however, and even hazards a guess at the meaning, to which guess the doctor gives an ambiguous confirmation. The great part of this passage is how Dr. Mehl-Madrona successfully enacts the role of enigmatic shaman even though he himself is still unsure of the story's meaning.

Coyote Medicine also discusses the role of the supernatural in shamanic healing, and the perception of magic and nature. For anyone who ever sat in the woods or even on his aparment steps late at night and felt a mystical connection to something unseen and bigger than himself, Coyote Medicine is a kindred spirit.

At one point the author goes on his vision quest and meets his power animals and is given shamanic healing tools. We as readers are present at many important moments in his life, including personal and family struggles (his first wife, according to the book, seemed to wrestle his children away from him and resented his shamanic efforts), professional travails (Dr. Mehl-Madrona's questioning intelligence, sense of dignity for the patient and also his holistic beliefs created friction with several different western medical institutions). When, at the end of the book, the author finds an accepting partner and on a professional level, a venue where he could combine holistic healing with Western, we feel as thought a close friend has triumphed in the face of great odds.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in healing, either for herself or others, and also about finding one's own individual path, as difficult as and untraveled as it might be, but that is true to the traveler.

Many blessings on this book and thank you Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona.

Robert Murray Diefendorf, Author of Release the Butterfly

Coyote has always been a special animal to me, so the title jumped out at me. The two feathers and physician's symbol on the cover present a beautiful balance. The physician's symbol has the twin serpents and the two wings of the one. In the background is the four, the Mystery.

Lewis' experiences are related in an interwoven manner. He rushes through life in the quest for medical expertise and validation. In doing so, he trips himself into bouts with infinity as his beautiful plans fall through, day-by-day, year-by-year. However, his rapidly depleted physical/mental being is slowly but surely filling from the inside out. The book is a wonderful, candid sharing of one human's journey to clarify his purpose, his vocation, and to realize such.

He seems like a powerless pawn at times. Have you felt that way? I have. It takes courage to choose the walk toward balance with a fellow being. Lewis had to learn the way of the warrior to survive his path as a healer.

The sweat lodge accounts are beautifully done. I felt it better than any other accounts I have read. Although I have not participated in a lodge, I have experienced years of "spirit stuff". He is talking from experience. Lewis tells us without violating the trust of his friends, manifested or otherwise.

The visions he describes are direct accounts, rather than attempts to relay deep knowings into a form the reader may understand. Visions come in dreams, in rituals, in waking, everyday consciousness, you name it. If we need it and are open to input, we will receive guidance. A vision is experiential, so there is no way to relay the richness and life of such an experience.

Ya gotta walk the walk--it's the only way.

I laughed pretty good at his experience learning to talk with the desert. I too learned this while out alone walking in the desert. At first I thought my spirit friends were nuts--and said so--but I did it and learned a lot. You'll have to read the book to find out.

There were tears of joy and tears of sorrow while reading this book, and a lot of laughter. Thank-you for making the great leap and taking the risk of sharing, Lewis!

This book is a well written merging of two subjects. The first is a personal sharing of Lewis Mehl-Madrona's upbringing and life experience as a half N.A. Native, his pursuit of a medical degree and specialty and his increasing disillusionment with the "science" of medicine as it is now widely practiced. The second is about Lewis' discovery of N.A. Native spirituality and shamani sm. He leads us on a winding path of discovery that introduces us to the intriguing characters who use shamanism to heal others, often while their own lives are in disarray, to those who sought healing and perhaps most importantly, to the spirits who assisted in the ceremonies. While pursuing this path of curing the individual, rather than the symptom, it seems that Lewis will lose site of his original goal to obtain his medical speciality. But, as so often occurs, as he helps others to heal, the path circles around to encompass his own needs and he completes his original path, a more well-rounded and enlightened human. More capable of understanding. More capable of giving what is really required. I found the writing to be powerful, the personal drama riveting and the glimpse into the ceremonies, symbolism and spiritualism of the N.A. shaman both moving and educational. After all these years of hearing the stories shared by N.A. natives, but not really understanding, I finally "got it". This book slaked a thirst I didn't know I had. Lewis not only shared his story but acted as a teacher and I know that I've grown as a result. I highly recommend it and hope that we'll hear more from this writer.

"Coyote Medicine" is a tremendous source of insight and experience within the path of shamanism and health. Dr. Mehl-Madrona's story-telling is magnificent and at times very suspenseful hitting directly on our sensitive health and spiritual issues we face culturally. But, he doesn't give you easy answers, because his path to becoming a healer was very complex. For me, this book opened up parts of my consciousness and answered questions I was asking and some of those I hadn't yet asked. This book was truly a God-send and I am savoring every word I read.

I have no Native American blood, but every page of this book awakened fresh awareness why I feel such despair in dealing with what is called "healing" among American practitioners of medicine. I have a niece who went from terminal cancer to no traces of cancer in ONE sweat lodge and prior week of preparation with Mehl-Madrona. She was able to believe.

His approaches will grate on those who value dogma and replicable rigidity over substance and intuitive responses to the individual. This book rates ten stars in my response to it. It moves toward sanity; away from the profits to be made in pushing destructive "medicinal" drugs that mask rather than cure.

On combining Native American and Western medicine. Unbelievably good. I was stunned, I would never have thought a book this good could be written. I went back and bought another copy for a friend after I got my first copy. Beyond merely outstanding. Good coverage of Native American holistic approaches to healing- true healing, not mere treatment without regard for the patient as a human being. The biography part was quite relevant. This book gives me a great deal of hope in the future of medicine- just reading it feels great. I hope to see more from this author, I'd set up a standing account at Amazon to buy anything he puts out whenever it comes out, as I do with Tom Brown, Jr., books.

This is THE best book on Native American spirituality I have ever read. Lewis Mehl-Medrano did an excellent job of sharing his autobiographical experiences as a "half-breed" in learning the spirituality of his family in a way that was relevant to those readers unfamiliar with N.A. spirituality. His presentation was refreshingly non-New Age in an honest, clearly written description of Native American healing beliefs and practices juxtaposed with his training and experiences as a western-trained medical doctor. The book was inspirational without being syrupy or lecturing. I truly enjoyed this book and will read it again.

Having suffered from a chronic major depressive illness for what seems like forever, and finding no relief from subscription anti-depressant medications, I was starting to panic because I was losing hope in the medical treatments that were being given to me to relieve my symptoms. I had long ago given up hope of finding someone who could possibly find the cause of this depression and be able to cure it once and for all. Thanks to fate, I guess, I picked up Dr. Mehl-Madrona's book and the rest, as they say, is history. He is director of the Center for Complementary Medicine in Pittsburgh, a two-hour drive for me, which was a small price to pay for the possibility of actually getting well. Upon first meeting Dr. Mehl-Madrona, I was struck by his unassuming, unpretentious and unthreating manner, especially in light of the fact that he is intellectually gifted. He was unlike any doctor I had ever met. We mapped out a course of treatment, which was not conventional by any stretch of the imagination. But, after only a few short months of treatment, I am a different person, a whole person, thanks to Dr. Mehl-Madrona's healing methods which integrate all levels of being - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. I literally owe my life to this wonderful doctor. He put me in control of my healing, but he was there with me every step of the way. He treated me as an equal, as a partner in the healing process and the results have been nothing less than amazing.

Read this book. It is a revelation of the lack of compassionate health care that is rampant in our society today. Dr. Mehl-Madrona is a light in our world who passes that light on to his patients and readers in order for them to see clearly the medical establishment that has lost touch with what's real and what's sacred about being human. If you take away nothing else from this review, remember this. Don't give up, don't ever give up. There is hope. And he goes by the name of Lewis-Mehl Madrona, M.D.

I am a registered nurse who has struggled with the reasoning behind many of our current medical practices for chronic care. Dr Mehl-Madrona's book has convinced me I am on the right path in pursuing a career that recognizes alternative therapy can serve as an adjunct to conventional medicine. Thank-you for a most enjoyable and rewarding book.

As more and more of us in the medical profesion start to learn from our ancestors; and more importantly, as we start to listen to our clients and ourselves, I have a feeling that we will hear more about this book. Maybe we will read more from the author as we let him know that he is not alone.

Kevin Bethel MD CM