Lori

In the indigenous cultures of Central America, what western medicine terms a mental illness is understood as signaling the birth of a healer or shaman. Mental disorders are viewed as spiritual emergencies that require support from sages in the community who understand the connection we have to the spirit realm. A shaman walks the thin line of insanity and bliss. There is nothing casual about how this calling presents itself. Those who become shamans must make a sacrifice: The mind must be rewired in order to make room for the soul. This is what happened to Lori Morrison several years ago.Upon the death of her husband of twenty-three years, American-born Lori found herself living alone on the edge of a volcanic crater lake in El Salvador in contact with the spirits of hundreds of Mayans trapped beneath the waters waiting to be set free by her. In the throes of a full-blown mental crisis, she went from hospital ER to locked ward, to a daring adventure in the jungles of Colombia, where a team of local brujos helped her complete her transition into the role she currently plays as a healer and spiritual counselor. It is a powerful memoir of a woman coming to recognize herself and gifts that she has previously rejected so she may fulfill her destiny.