I just finished reading Encounters with Power and I just wanted to say thank you to Jose for writing such a wonderfully kind, insightful and inspirational book. It was a great help for me as I work to integrate the experiences I had on a recent retreat with a shipibo shaman that brought to fore a lot of difficult repressed childhood trauma. Please pass along my sincere gratitude for the help he has given me through the stories of his experiences.

Articles by José Luis Stevens
José Luis Stevens, PhD is the President and Co-Founder (with wife Lena) of Power Path Seminars, an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and indigenous wisdom to business and everyday life. José completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol (Wixarika) Maracame (Huichol shaman) in the Sierras of Central Mexico. In addition, he is studying with Shipibo shamans in the Peruvian Amazon and with Paqos (shamans) in the Andes in Peru. In 1983 he completed his doctoral dissertation at the California Institute of Integral Studies focusing on the interface between shamanism and western psychological counseling. Since then, he has studied cross-cultural shamanism around the world to distill the core elements of shamanic healing and practice. He is the author of twenty books and numerous articles including The Shaman’s Book of Extraordinary Practices, How To Pray The Shaman’s Way, Encounters With Power; Awaken The Inner Shaman; The Power Path; Secrets of Shamanism; Transforming Your Dragons; and Praying With Power.
A New Jose Stevens Article
The World Election Pt 1 & 2
Read More: The World Election Pt 1 & 2The election is over and not only the nation, but the world has spoken. Yes the world! For this election went way beyond the people of the United States. People everywhere voted, not necessarily with official ballots, but with their hearts and minds.
A New Jose Stevens Article
The Presidential Candidates and Personal Responsibility Pt. 2
Read More: The Presidential Candidates and Personal Responsibility Pt. 2If you read my recent article (click here to read) you became familiar with the various candidates for president and vice president and how they are symbols for the public’s projections, both positive and negative. Let’s take these ideas a step further here.
A New Jose Stevens Article
What is Reality Anyhow? and Learning to Sort Thoughts
Read More: What is Reality Anyhow? and Learning to Sort ThoughtsHave you ever been speaking to someone and listened incredulously as they told you something that revealed how seriously they were deluding themselves? Perhaps it is a parent whose child is in a lot of trouble abusing drugs or has severe learning disabilities and you hear them talking glowingly about how their child is going…
A New Jose Stevens Article
An Encounter with the Brujo Dolphins
Read More: An Encounter with the Brujo DolphinsThe cool reddish brown water swirled all around me as I looked up at a peerless blue sky, white billowy storm clouds rising in the heat of the Amazon basin all around.
A New Jose Stevens Article
Understanding Stubborness
Read More: Understanding StubbornessStubbornness is one of the two main dragons or obstacles for 2008 (along with self-destructiveness) and therefore it is good to understand how it operates in our current times. Stubbornness is both personal and global and influences almost everything, being a favorite strategy of the false personality to maintain control.
A New Jose Stevens Article
Youthing or Aging. Is one better than another?
Read More: Youthing or Aging. Is one better than another?Must we get old and decrepit? Is getting old and grey honorable or is it just a drag? Is youth all its cracked up to be? Where are we headed?
A New Jose Stevens Article
Positive & Negative Poles as Useful Tools
Read More: Positive & Negative Poles as Useful ToolsJust about everything in our experience has positive poles and negative poles, something that determines whether those experiences are enjoyable, satisfying, and joyful or painful and disconnecting. Positive and negative poles impact roles, goals, attitudes, modes, centers, levels of perception, needs, and values.
A New Jose Stevens Article
Notes From Peru
Read More: Notes From PeruLena and I returned from Peru just a week ago, so these observations can best be described as preliminary and have yet to be integrated over the next weeks and months. Nevertheless I feel compelled to write about the journey because it has been so extraordinary, mysterious, and life changing.
A New Jose Stevens Article
Working With the Laws of Attraction
Read More: Working With the Laws of Attraction“The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne, an Australian television producer, has become a runaway best seller along with the DVD by the same name. You know something is making a splash when it manifests in a five-page article in Newsweek magazine.
A New Jose Stevens Article
Cheap Lessons in Ecuador
Read More: Cheap Lessons in EcuadorIn late January 2007 I traveled to Ecuador to give a keynote address and provide private sessions to a woman’s leadership conference in the capital city of Quito.