Long overdue to have a thread on him as a notorious and obvious fraud.
I added Solevo to the thread title. There are several famed academics with the first three names that we don't want him confused with.
As you point out, his mother was born in Connecticut. Photos of him are also revealing, a fair skinned man teaching entirely white Americans. He's the son of a mestizo, meaning his father was mixed ancestry and culturally assimilated, likely had little or no identification as Native growing up.
Videos are equally revealing. No Peruvian accent at all. I'm sure he's not and never has been Native or he would brag about it. I haven't found much on his early life but feel it likely he grew up in the US, only went to Peru as an adult and likely is a US citizen. He's as much of an outsider as those he panders to.
One of his followers wrote this book and one of the reviews is revealing.
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https://www.amazon.com/Peruvian-Shamanism-Pachakuti-Mesa-Revised/dp/0972051120 I thought this book would be a look at another persons experience in traditional Peruvian practice.... But
it mostly seemed to me to be highly altered, watered down and westernized, and it seemed like half of the book was based off other books written by westerners. The online descriptions here on Amazon seemed to suggest this book was about Peruvian curnaderismo, but upon reading the book I found out that
his is a new age system created by mixing in many modern western ideas into a Peruvian cosmology. The online descriptions here on Amazon seemed to suggest this book was about Peruvian curnaderismo, but upon reading the book I found out that his is a new age system created by mixing in many modern western ideas into a Peruvian cosmology (
the organization is even named after the Egyptian God Thoth).
A lot of the practices dont seem like what I see in Peru.... They mostly seem like an imitation of shamanism using western occult ideas infused with Andean cosmology. Like taking the names and characters from the Andean mysticism, but using western style occult and
sometimes even westernized eastern religious ideas to try and connect with the Peruvian energies. A lot of the info in the book was just quoted from other books written by westerners, and I personally was hoping for more personal knowledge learned in Peru rather then quotes from academics studying the traditions as an outsider....
The parts that bugged me the most was when he would try to equate Peruvian cosmology using western terms that arent really the same. Sure, Uchu Pacha and Carl Jungs id might share a couple similarities, but they arent really the same - equating them as the same actually misses so much of the bigger picture and just
turns the claims into misinformation that really misleads people and waters these traditions down more.... I would hope a student of the healing arts would want to preserve these traditions without watering them down so much.