Customer Reviews

Medicine Woman

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Upon receiving this title as required reading for graduate studies, I thought to myself, where can I find the cliff notes? That was then. Medicine woman has awaken my womaness and my spirituality. I have not experienced anything so powerful in quite a long time. As a passenger on the journey of finding the true self, when my stop came I did not want to get off. Bravo Lynn! This book is for the dreamer and the lover of life. It is definetly worth reading and passing on.

After reading the book Medicine Woman and the San Francisco Review of Books on the back which says this is an Autobiographical I have to question a few things.

I come from Manitoba and have lived there over 50 years. I've never heard of a Crowley and the Cree First Nations in Manitoba that I was raised with would not be seeing a Kokopelli or a Kachina. It's not part of their culture.

The last and final huge mistake is the fact that most of this story could not have taken place outside without huge huge bottles of mosquitoe repellant as anyone who lives in the bush in Manitoba knows especially those who may have a reason to go naked in the woods.

Perhaps Lynn shouldn't be peddling her strange brand of spiritualism as true when it's not. There are enough charlatans in the world without one stealing someone's culture and calling it her own for the sake of the almight dollar.

Carole

Though this is a good FICTION book, I am amazed that Lynn Andrews thinks we are dumb enough to believe this is an autobiography. Give me a break!! After doing some research on the internet, I am also amazed to find out that her live-in companion at the time this was written was David Carson (co-author with Jamie Sands in Medicine Cards book) who, at the time, claimed HE helped her write it. Also note that in the Medicine Cards book, David dedicates the book to three aunts, and two happen to have the names Ruby and Agnes---the same two female characters in Medicine Woman...hmmmmm. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. There are plenty of other SINCERE and HONEST books about Native American Shaminism and spirituality without wasting your time on this one.

Having read this book with ever more incredulity as I turned over the pages, I realized that this author is just out there for people's hard earned money! Do not waste your time or money on this fictitious nonesense. There are so many wonderful books about shamanism and native American spirituality on the market that are for real. This is certainly not one. Just check out this woman's web site to see how she is milking the public for her own gain!

When I read Medicine Woman I taken aback at how it possibly could have convinced anyone that it was anything other than a mildly absurd romance. Still, not being a native person or living in Manitoba, where the events of the novel take place, I thought it presumptuous of me to offer judgement on the events related in this work. A quick search on-line lead to me the Canadian Journal of Native Studies, who reviewed Andrews' work when it first came out, but here is a small taste of what the Manitoba native community thought of her work:

'... the novel reaches its misinformed heights when the narrator arrives in Canada. True to a Californian's perception of Manitoba, the narrator steps off a plane in Winnipeg and sets off across " the Canadian tundra." The time is year is supposedly spring, yet Andrews describes the "grand rolling fields" where "green grasses twisted and curled in the wind" (p.21) Prairie grass does not get long enough to blow in the breeze until July, which means that the narrator either does not know what season it is, or believes that it is cold enough on the "tundra" at all seasons to justify her "sweaters, wool socks, and flannel pajamas."

Andrews' first encounter with the Cree in Crowley typifies her misguided and often insulting perception of native people. Throughout the book, the natives treat her with indifference, insult, or degradation, and the narrator is either too slow-witted, or too taken with the esoteric nature of her experiences to realize it. Although supposedly a reserve town, Crowley is just like all the Western towns in Hollywood movies. It consists of some houses and a "Trading Post" full of "brown round-faced children eating Hostess cupcakes." All the adults are dressed in cowboy clothes because they are roping cattle at a Rodeo down the road. The Manitoba Cree undoubtedly practice cattle roping during the summer when their trap lines are inactive, although Andrews has not suggested what they would use for cattle in the black spruce and muskeg marsh lands in which most of them live.'

The directions which Andrews obtains from the Indians at the Trading Post are sufficiently vague so that she does not know whether to follow the road or to search for Agnes Whistling Elk up on the "Black Mesa." It is not surprising, therefore, that Andrews is unable to find either Agnes or a geographical feature which does not exist in Manitoba.'[...]

This is an okay story compared to later books , but it should read in big letters: Fiction or Fictional account based on events. The Lakota and other Native Americans have taken Andrews (as well as Castaneda and others) to task for forging their spirituality and have called on her to reveal the book as fiction both in person and in various articles on the web. (...)

When I first read it, I thought it was a wonderful story but was perplexed by the essential bimbo-ness of the author's character throughout the novel. She was always whining. She acted like a "girl" well throughout the first books of the series yet she wasn't a girl for anyone who did the math. Then I logged on and found out what she charged for her seminars and it was all very clear. Each book read more and more like a screenplay rather than spiritual instruction. She definitely targets her market and it appeals to the little girl love of fairy tales and exotic fantasies that live on in many adult women. For the spirituality that an adult requires, however, it's a bad hash of not much.

I bought this book thinking it was nonfiction, but as I read it I found it harder and harder to keep from being angry and dismayed. The story seemed a poor stew of bits and pieces of "Native American" spirituality" but the gullible public had made it a best seller. The "mysterious" events, the meetings with "the tall Indian man" all seemed contrived.
Maybe I was just jealous because the Great Spirit chose *her*?
I stopped reading and started trying to find out more about the writer and her subject.
First stop was the writer's web page: Here I found what she is selling.
Next, I searched for people mentioned in the book like Hyemeyohsts Storm and Agnes Whistling Elk. I cannot tell you what I decided about them. You will have to do this research yourself because I am afraid of lawyers.
I read the Amazon.com reviews. I found others who shared my skepticism, but many who thought this a truly spiritual work.
I am writing this review for the latter. Seek enlightenment elsewhere. You will have to find your own path.

I respect most books, but this one is going into a tub of water to be dissolved to make handmade paper.

For Ish, who would have called Lynn V. Andrews "a plastic oreo."

I have read 2 of Andrews books; Medicine Woman (1981) and Jaguar Woman (1985). I read the second because I wanted to make sure that my opinion of Medicine Woman was justified. I am interested in shamanism and am always looking for books to read that address these experiences. While Medicine Woman and Jaguar Woman are not the worst books on shamanism I've read they are close to the bottom of the list. Andrews writes in a breezy fashion that reminds me of what you would find in the pages of tabloid magazines in the grocery story check-out line. I would have to characterize her writing style as "enlightenment" with an emphasis on "lite." I did not find her narrative particularly satisfying, nor did I have much empathy with her trials or those of her mentor. And after reading the information about the author on the book jacket, I had even less. This woman lives in Beverly Hills, of all places. If you are interested in alternate human experiences, I would recommend the following books. 1. Any of Carlos Castaneda's books, particularly "The Art of Dreaming" (1993) and "The Fire From Within" (1981). 2. "Spiritwalker: Messages From the Future" (1995) by Hank Wesselman. 3. "The Sorcerer's Crossing" (1992) by Taisha Abelar. 4. "The Reluctant Shaman" by Kay Cordell Whitaker. 5. "The Message of the Sphinx" (1996) by Graham Hancock (not quite in the same class, but a great read).

I kept on checking the spine to make sure it said "non-fiction", but it did. Andrews uses such a variety of native terms (ranging from Cree, Lakota, Zuni and Mayan)that it seemed to be more new-age mumbo jumbo than something to take seriously. Seems like Andrews may belong to the "Wanna-be" tribe.

The woman who wrote this book used the teachings she was given without permission, the sort of behavior that gives European Americans a bad name. The book is somewhat flawed by a self-indulgent focus on herself, though the information she passes on is valuable. Please give these teachings the respect they deserve without idealizing the author.