Customer Reviews

Primal Awareness: A True Story of Survival, Transformation, and Awakening with the Rar?muri Shamans of Mexico

5 star:		(5)
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2 star:		(1)
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Although some articles have been written about what is happening to my people regarding the drugs, lumbering and violence, only Don Jacobs has captured the spiritual understandings that have allowed us to live in balance for thousands of years. As a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Award, as the Directorof the Sierra Madre Alliance and as a half-Raramuri Indian, I can say without reservation that Primal Awareness will help make the world a better place if enough people read it. I agree with Dan Millman's review of the book when he said it is a 'suspsne story that embraces realms of psychology,anthropology and magic.'

Forget all of those bogus, would-be "shamans" and read this book if you want to viscerally understand what primal people have to teach a civilization too far from its roots to heal itself. Don Jacobs is the most courageous human being I can imagine - from his daring "horse-whispering" exploits with wild mustangs and his death-defying vision quests in the land of the Raramuri to his theories and propositions which boldly challenge all of our assumptions. He reminds us that we are literally "this close" to being fully- realized. even psychic, humans, our main impediment to our greatness being those comforts we cherish. Having read this book, I know that I will never be the same.

At times I was saddened to tears, other moments I was inspired. This is truly a unique book, combining a remarkable true life story with a more "scholarly" analysis of the thinking processes that differentiate between indigenous thinking and traditional wetsern thinking and how we can all regain our amazing "primal awareness' to help us live a full and balanced life.

Primal Awareness tells the story of Don Trent Jacobs's remarkable vision of the human mind and heart and the compelling spiritual quest that brought him to it. Sam Keen calls the book "A philosophical quest for the lost ark, filled with adventure." Eagleman Ed McGaa says it "reveals" the psychology that underlies holistic Native American thinking." Dan Millman says that Primal Awareness is "a suspense story and a spritiual quest that embraces realms of psychology, anthropology and magic." Through his initiatic experiences with the Raramuri shamans of Mexico, Jacobs shows how we can rediscover our primoridal mandate that unites all things and helps us find ourown inner strength and harmony.

There are many positive words I could share about this book which I am so grateful to Don Trent Jacobs for writing.
I want to choose just one. As a performer I was immediately taken with the idea of FEAR AS ALLY. What draws an actor to various roles is the need to transform, to become, to create a character. "The essence of life is associated with going forward in the face of fear." This could well be the actors motto, and having read Don's book, I am fortified once again by what is often intuited in life, and yet in this careful and personal account builds for the reader a psychic structure for its truth. I recommend it for everyone, whether in a high powered corporate circle, or finding one's singular way through life's possibilities.

although my rating of two stars is in sharp contrast to the others before me, i feel there are only small discrepencies between our reviews. i am fascinated with native american culture, namely sioux, and have just began what i hope to be a long lifetime of learning about such an interesting people. however, i feel that don jacobs focuses on a divergent but related topic to the point of losing his aim: mysticism. apart from believing in the unseen, i am a scientist at heart, as i can only assume many other readers identify themselves as. i literally couldnt finish this text, although i did enjoy most of what i read. telepathically communicating with horses, depicting clarevoyantism as real, being jack london's reincarnate!! such fanciful and superstitious thinking. in short, if you have an inclination to such metaphysics, this book is appropriate; otherwise, look elsewhere.