Review: 'The Shaman and Snow White'

Originally published in 2011 'The Shaman and Snow White -- Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Shamanic States of Consciousness and Certificate 18 Healing' by Simon Ralli Robinson is a very personal account of the psychedelic-shaman territory. Robinson, from Dumfries in Scotland, undertook shamanic initiation and apprenticeship in Iquitos, Peru and took part in numerous San Pedro ceremonies in Cusco. This book is based on his dissertation, written as part of his Holistic Science masters degree at the Schumacher College, in Devon.

The important and combining element of this book is Robinson's own life. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was part of the British rave scene. During this period he had a child (Daisy) with a girl who chose to cut him off and who later told him that the child was not his. The question of her paternity is the central theme in driving the personal, psychological aspects of the book. Through bouts of depression, dabbling in party drugs -- "a little speed a few times but this could hardly be thought of as excessive, especially compared to what teenagers will consume nowadays" (Robinson 28) -- he began searching for meaning in the world, against the backdrop of a daughter he was not sure was his or not...