The Flying Witches of Veracruz by James Endredy

[newageshaman]

Just thought i'd share this really interesting book about shamanic datura use, For anyone interested in these plants i would definitely recommend. If anyones read it then what are your thoughts? This is the first book i've read by Endredy and i must say its a great read, supposedly based on his real life accounts of an apprenticeship with a group of Brujos who taught him the proper use of datura and even some brugmansia.

[Micromegas]

Cool man thanks I just bought this based on your recommendation. Seems like an interesting fellow. A few of his other books looked alright too but a bit much in the new age "shamanic techniques" direction for me personally to purchase.

[simhanada]

very cheap on booktopia right now, less than $10.

[Micromegas]

Hi newageshaman, what were your thoughts?

Personally, the best thing about this book is that it doesn't take very long to read, so you don't waste much of your life.

Everything happens far too easily with far too much ego stroking - "look everybody I am Master Shaman I will scare you with my power animals" - and lacking in a significant amount of detail to really elucidate the concepts of "witchcraft".

I read about Endredy and he appears to have had an interesting life, so I do not doubt he knows many things.

But this book reads like a pop-novel he bashed out in a few months relying on concepts he stole from other books, most notably Castaneda (which also may not be entirely true). There are the beginnings of some very interesting concepts but he provides no thorough detail and that is a grave concern. In between the pithy dramatic witch battles he makes comments like "I studied for three months learning the art of dreaming" or "flying in my dreams" etc. well were are the details buddy if this is supposed to be a serious work? I believe some of the events he recounts can and do happen in animistic cultures but he needs to provide more than his say so, it needs some detail. His spirit eagle comes and picks him up from a cave and transports him to his house in Arizona so he doesn't have to shit in a sacred cave. Well ok but should I just believe that even though you haven't explained anything about the acquisition of that knowledge?

I think the books of Castaneda are a literary gem (especially 3 and 4) with the potential to alter people's view of the world, and this novella/pop novel has nothing on them at all. In the works of Castaneda the "double" is a fully extrapolated concept with defined mechanisms. For Endredy all his "friend witches" are just cruising around as their double bodies, one is even a monkey then turns into a man to kill his own son with an obsidian blade given to Endredy by a dead shaman in a graveyard during a session on datura to cut out the gall bladder of another mystical monkey??? Alright, possibly, but not without considerable more detail Mr. Endredy.

the witches of veracruz is a New Age nonsense manifesto dressed up to look like something else. It appears to have been written with mass consumption and heightened drama in mind and left me feeling slightly offended. If you want to know about sorcery, there are far better sources in the the anthropological literature.

I can't believe no review on the internet has questioned the validity of this story. I don't doubt he had an experience in Veracruz with "witches" but this story is blatant hyperbole and it's the raging egotism that draws the initial red flag.

Based on his life, I have respect for Endredy , but I certainly won't be reading anymore of his books. I didn't take very much from this book, something tantalizing but completely undeveloped, a sense of frustration, a thought that he's cashing in on the New Age movement and his personal reputation.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Micromegas

[newageshaman]

Hey micromegas I apologize if you didn't like the book, It does seem to be a bit rushed with alot of spelling mistakes and the occasional missing word. But in answer to your question the only reason i bought this book was it was the only one to come up when I searched for datura in Amazon books. I didn't mind it personally, though as you said it lacks alot of the purported detail that you would expect from someone who was legitimately under the tutelage of the Brujo's in Veracruz. I can understand your not liking this book due to lack of details, I mean seriously a quick google search uncovers more in the ritualistic usage of datura then reading through here.

[Micromegas]

Haha no need to apologise the book offers something very tantalsing but it doesn't deliver, saying it feels rushed is quite accurate.

Many of the concepts in the book do exist. The cutting of figures in amate (fig) paper for example is a fascinating aspect of sorcery and culture in the veracruz region that may or may not have developed from spanish idolatry (i.e. created the need to produce and then dispose of pagan idols quickly in ceremony) but it is so poorly developed in the book.

Same with all the the other witchcraft concepts you just get left wanting.

This book doesn't include datura but i found it very engaging and much more "truthful" and detailed than endredy:

Meeting the Medicine Men: An Englishman's Travels Among the Navajo Paperback

by Charles Langley

A chance meeting with a young Navajo Indian propels an English traveler out of his middle-class London life and into the world of the North American Indian Medicine Men, where people believe that witchcraft can bring ruin and even death. Only the Medicine Men have the knowledge to do battle with witches, lift curses and restore the sick to health. The larger-than-life Blue Horse is one of a dwindling band of Medicine Men traveling the vast Navajo reservation of New Mexico and Arizona, ministering to the victims of evil spirits. Charles Langley, former London newspaper editor, finds himself serving as Blue Horse's bag carrier and chauffeur, eventually becoming his apprentice. He sees Blue Horse perform incredible feats - predicting the future, uncovering the past, curing the sick and communicating with spirits. At first bemused by what he sees, Langley attributes Blue Horse's successes to luck or fraud. But logical explanations soon fall short. In Meeting the Medicine Men, Langley studies the accumulating evidence that Navajo Medicine Men really can cure the sick, change history and foretell the future and explores a culture that has endured since the Ice Age but is now cracking under the pressure of the modern world.

http://www.amazon.com/Meeting-Medicine-Men-Englishmans-Travels/dp/1857885074/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389368430&sr=1-1&keywords=Meeting+the+Medicine+Men