Paul Levy, Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil

[Pono Aloha]

This book came out in January 2013. The description from amazon:

There is a contagious psychospiritual disease of the soul, a parasite of the mind, that is currently being acted out en masse on the world stage via a collective psychosis of titanic proportions. This mind-virus—which Native Americans have called "wetiko"—covertly operates through the unconscious blind spots in the human psyche, rendering people oblivious to their own madness and compelling them to act against their own best interests.

Drawing on insights from Jungian psychology, shamanism, alchemy, spiritual wisdom traditions, and personal experience, author Paul Levy shows us that hidden within the venom of wetiko is its own antidote, which once recognized can help us wake up and bring sanity back to our society.

He also wrote a book entitled The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis

About the Author
In 1981, Paul Levy experienced what his doctors considered to be a nervous breakdown. In actuality, it was a spiritual awakening, one that changed his life's path forever. Since 1993, he has been giving talks and facilitating groups to help others in the process of awakening from the collective dream. A Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for more than thirty years, he has intimately studied with some of the greatest spiritual masters of Tibet and Burma. The author lives in Portland, OR.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1583945482

Endorsed by the usual twinkies: Caroline Myss, Brad Steiger, Ralph Metzner, and that well-known expert on shamanism, Sting.

[ShadowDancer]

His website is

http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/

Here is a bit from the site where he mentions others who are discussed on NAFPS:
http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/the-masters-of-deception/

A few days before my interview on Why Shamanism Now? Internet Radio Show, I received an email from the well-known anthropologist, author and shamanic practitioner Hank Wesselman. He mentioned that what I am calling “wetiko” the Hawaiian kahuna tradition was also familiar with, and called these mind parasites the “‘e‘epa.” He mentioned that he talks about these archon-like entities in his latest book The Bowl of Light: Ancestral Wisdom from a Hawaiian Shaman, which I immediately went out and bought. When I found the section on the ‘e‘epa, my eyes almost fell out of my head, as the description of the ‘e‘epa by an esteemed Hawaiian kahuna shaman was almost word for word what I had written in my book Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil.

As my research deepens, I am realizing ever more fully that every wisdom tradition in the history of our planet has its own language and symbol system for illuminating what the Native Americans have been calling wetiko. Having just finished an article on how the Kabbalah described the evil of wetiko in its own unique way, I had recently started doing research for a new article on how a particularly powerful practice in the Islamic tradition was specially crafted so as to dissolve the pernicious effects of wetiko. After learning about the ‘e‘epa, I was left with the feeling that I was fated to continually find an ever-expanding number of wisdom traditions that articulate the wetiko psychosis, each in their own way. By whatever name we call it, wetiko is undoubtedly one of the most important discoveries ever made. Indicating the supreme importance of developing knowledge about how this predator of the mind operates, Don Juan from the Carlos Castaneda books refers to it as the “topic of topics.”

Hank Wesselman is covered here: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3362

[Pono Aloha]

As usual, Wesselman has turned a complex subject on its head. Traditionally there are 'e'epa, defined by the respected elder Mary Kawena Pukui:

'e'epa  --  nvs. Extraordinary, incomprehensible, abnormal, deceitful, peculiar, as persons with miraculous powers; such persons. Many 'e'epa characters in mythology were born in strange forms, as a plant, an animal, or a piece of rope. Cf. 'epa 1, 'epa'epa, kino 'e'epa. The menehune, Nawa, and Namu of Wao-lani in Nu'u-anu Valley were 'e'epa. Trickery or deceit that passes comprehension is also 'e'epa. ho.'e'epa Mysterious, mystifying, incomprehensible. Ho'e'epa wale ho'i na hana a kela keiki, that boy's behavior is certainly mysterious.

The quotes from his website show that other harbinger of New Age gobbledegook, that certain concepts are "universal."

[Epiphany]

During the first year of his spiritual emergence, Paul was hospitalized a number of times, and was told he was having a severe psychotic break from reality. Much to his surprise, he was diagnosed as having a chemical imbalance and was informed that he had manic-depressive (bi-polar) illness, and that he would have to live with his illness for the rest of his life. Little did the doctors realize, however, that he was taking part in a mystical awakening/shamanic initiation process, which at times mimicked psychosis but in actuality was a spiritual experience of a far different order, completely off the map of the psychiatric system. Fortunately, he was able to extricate himself from the medical and psychiatric establishment so that he could continue his process of self-discovery. Thankfully, as Paul freed himself from the shackles of psychiatry, he found his spiritual teachers, who instead of seeing Paul as crazy, recognized that he was beginning to spiritually awaken.

http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/about/

He describes at length his experience in psychiatric hospitals in the early 80s http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/psychiatry-almost-drove-me-crazy-2/ And he says that anyone going through psychosis should stay clear of the mental health system and instead become a shaman. http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/we-are-all-shamans-in-training/ Or at least go to him for healings.

Deeply inspired by the work of C. G. Jung, Paul combines Jung’s insights in psychology, alchemy, shamanism, and dreaming into a unique synthesis. Paul’s work is “psycho-activating” in that it “activates the psyche,” touches the unconscious, and thereby stimulates our “dreaming.”

"Psycho-activating"....... so what happens when one of his clients suffers a psychotic breakdown with all this "activation"? Does Levy and a team of trained people take care of them? Probably not. Would he discourage someone from going voluntary to a psych hospital if they wanted to? What if a person wanted to try or even needed to take meds? What happens when someone has to be taken involuntarily to a hospital?

Does he know how to help people become stable? Does he have a supervisor, any peers, those who provide checks and balances to make sure he himself isn't going crazy again (still), especially not all over his clients?

Paul lives in Portland, Oregon. For people not in the Portland area, he does phone sessions.

This all looks so unethical. Nuage Shame-onism isn't going to help anyone become mentally stable.

[Epiphany]

Paul Levy is also coordinator for the Portland Oregon branch of Padmasambhava Buddhist Center http://www.padmasambhava.org/centers.html#OR

One of his students is the herbalist Scott Kloos:

He spent seven years studying the human psyche (his own and others) in Paul Levy’s Awakening in the Dream group. Paul’s unique synthesis of the Dzogchen School of Tibetan Buddhism, Western Alchemy, Jungian Psychology, the Dreambody Psychology of Arnold Mindell, and shamanism deeply shaped his view of the world and his approach to healing and working with plants.

http://www.elderberryschool.com/faculty/

That word he uses - "wetiko" - according to this wiktionary it is an alternate form of wihtikow, from a Cree word.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wetiko
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wihtikow#English

http://books.google.com/books?id=P0SIaOFLCmkC&pg=PA244&lpg=PA244&dq=wihtikow&source=bl&ots=pFhKbjlVPD&sig=RTNafkq-N_ZxjdogjJOng_C6Zg4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KyL_UblY4eeIAtDFgegG&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=wihtikow&f=false

So he is appropriating something that is not from his own culture, changing the definition for his own purposes, claiming that it is  "currently manifesting as a world-wide psychic epidemic"and that he knows how to dispel it.