Description

Preserving the ancient wisdom of an extraordinary culture, Way of the Ancient Healer reveals the creative power of healing that lies beyond the limits of our everyday awareness. This book provides a comprehensive overview of traditional healing practices in the Philippines, exploring their origins, world influences, and role in daily life. Author Virgil Mayor Apostol, a descendant of a long line of Filipino healers, blends historical research with detailed descriptions of the spiritual belief system that forms the foundation of the Filipino healing tradition. Offering a rare look at modern-day healing rituals, Apostol discuses his own shamanic healing experiences and presents examples of sacred practices that have developed from the concept that everything in nature contains a soul or spirit.

 

Front Cover Endorsement

"In Way of the Ancient Healer, Virgil Mayor Apostol brilliantly blends the art and science of the sacred teachings of Filipino traditional healing to help people find their path toward health and happiness."

—Deepak Chopra, author, Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul

 

Back Cover Testimonials

“A brilliant account of the ancient Filipino healing arts written by one of its authentic practitioners and teachers. Essential reading for anyone interested in indigenous health and healing.”

—Bradford P. Keeney, PhD., author of Shaking Medicine: The Healing Power of Ecstatic Movement, Bushman Shaman: Awakening the Spirit  through Ecstatic Dance, Shaking: The Original Path to Ecstasy and Healing, Aesthetics of Change, and The Creative Therapist: The Art of  Awakening a Clinical Session

 

“Interest in complimentary and alternative therapies is on the rise, and Virgil Mayor Apostol’s Way of the Ancient Healer is a fascinating cross-cultural exploration of the nature of health, illness, and healing in the Philippine tradition that will be of special interest to those reconsidering the methodologies of traditional shamans for healing and problem-solving.”

—Hank Wesselman, PhD, anthropologist and author of Spiritwalker: Messages from the Future and Awakening to the Spirit World: The  Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation (with Sandra Ingerman)

 

“This brilliant and powerful work is a must for everyone in the healing arts as well as those who would increase the depth and breadth of their humanity. It is not only the first major study of the extraordinary practices of the visionary healers of the Philippines, but offers the reader inner knowledge of human possibilities once thought to be mythic, now shown to be real.”

—Jean Houston, PhD, founder of Mystery School, Ashland, Oregon and author of A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story

 

Supporting Testimonial

“The recent upsurge of interest and research into the connection between the mind and body that reaches into the spiritual, a largely ignored realm for decades, shows that science acknowledges that there is much that we do not yet know. The mechanisms that link the nervous system, immune system, and endocrine system have only begun to be understood, and it is perhaps this avenue that will fruitfully provide the initial understanding of the link between spirituality and health, and the secrets of these healing traditions, including Filipino healing as presented in this book.”

—Edward K. Fujimoto, DrPH, MPH, CHES, BSME, professor (retired) of the DrPH Program in Preventive Care, Loma Linda University 

 

Book Review

“Virgil Mayor Apostol’s book, Way of the Ancient Healer, is a welcome addition to the library of world healing traditions focusing on his own Filipino heritage and the traditional healing skills he not only learned, but painstakingly researched and documented for the book. It is an enriching and incisive study that provides historical and cultural context to paint a panoramic overview of traditional healing practices in the Philippines.
    The power of the book resides in the way the author makes palpable to a wide audience the intricacies of often arcane, esoteric, shamanistic, and spiritual foundations that flowed into the actual healing traditions while documenting how these traditions developed and became a vital source of diverse healing rituals.
    Virgil Mayor Apostol makes a strong bid for further investigation and understanding of what he feels is a vital healing tradition that thrives within the Philippines. He feels these traditions can have an active place in the world that is more open to looking into other holistic traditions as well as finding new bridges between tradition and modernity.
    Way of the Ancient Healer succeeds in introducing the healing methodology of the ancient and traditional Filipino healing and health traditions, and I recommend this book as an integral component to its understanding.”

—Vincent Giordano, Vanishing Flame, January 2011

 

"Reading about Native and Indigenous Healing from the perspective of a Native person of mixed heritage is both refreshing and educational. Most people including myself formerly were not taught the true breadth, heritage and medicine culture which the ancients practiced and subsequently passed on to us by way of traditional teachings. The indigenous Filipino's have made in the past amazing contributions which we now know were spread wide and far.

     Mr. Apostol as a Native person of Filipino heritage has brought all of us closer to a better and more informed idea and valuation of the actual practices of these Ancient Healers. He has done so in a well researched, fair and unbiased way. The book makes a strong addition to the enthnographical contributions of merit published to date on not just Filipino heritage but Native and Indigenous heritage of North and South America all together. Recommended reading and for the library.”

—Dr. Anthony B. James, Founder of the SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine