FACING FEAR: The Economic Hit Man touches the Jaguar. Hidden Truth Revealed with John Perkins
What Researchers Found
The Story
John Perkins was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Amazon rainforest in 1968. He got very sick from eating local foods like squirming grubs and drinking chicha, a spit-fermented beer. He could not keep food down and thought he was dying, unable to reach medical help. A shaman offered to heal him and led him on a vision quest that night. With eyes closed, Perkins saw an amorphous form ahead. The shaman yelled to touch the jaguar. The form shape-shifted into a jaguar. He heard a voice like his mother's saying the food and drink would kill him. He realized his negative perceptions caused his illness, while the healthy Shuar people ate the same things. After the quest, Perkins changed his mindset, accepted the local diet, and recovered quickly. He became the shaman's apprentice. He learned to confront fears, alter perceptions, and take actions to change reality. This led him to study shamanism globally, leave his economic hitman career, write books like 'Touching the Jaguar,' and found nonprofits to promote a life economy focused on long-term benefits for people and nature.
This account describes a shamanic vision quest during severe illness, not a typical NDE with veridical perceptions. There are no claims of impossible sensory access to external events, specific verifiable details, or independent verification; the 'insight' is internal and about personal perceptions of food, with no evidential strength for veridical perception.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.
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What Researchers Found
This account describes a shamanic vision quest during severe illness, not a typical NDE with veridical perceptions. There are no claims of impossible sensory access to external events, specific verifiable details, or independent verification; the 'insight' is internal and about personal perceptions of food, with no evidential strength for veridical perception.
Score reflects verifiable perceptions reported. A low score indicates the experience was primarily spiritual or subjective, not that it didn't occur.
Score reflects transformation as described. Domains scored 0 indicate the topic was not discussed, not that no change occurred.