Shamans of The Global Village - Episode 01: Octavio Rettig & The Sonoran Desert Toad (2016)

Shamans of The Global Village Episode 01: Octavio Rettig & The Sonoran Desert Toad

Indigenous people across the globe have used natural and sacred Earth medicines for millennia to heal, illuminate and connect them to the web of life. From ayahuasca and San Pedro in South America, psilocybin mushrooms and Salvia Divinorum in Mexico, Peyote in North America, Kambo in Brazil, Iboga in Africa, and DMT-acacias in Australia, etc., each of these psychoactive medicines needs a healer to connect them to their patients: the shaman.

This investigative-adventure documentary series examines not just these shamanic medicines, but the shamans that wield them. Shamans of the Global Village is unique with a focus on both indigenous and modern men and women learning to become shamans, what drives them, what their backgrounds are, and why the role of the shaman is vital in the 21st century. If, as Marshall McLuhan said, we are now a “global village”, then we need our own healers that understand the deep power and sacredness these ancient Earth medicines can reveal.

Journalist Rak Razam interviews and sits in ceremony, experiencing healing medicine ceremonies with Western shamans across the globe, in countries where these plants are legal. Razam shows how the modern shamanic resurgence is being passed on from indigenous tribes to these new wave medicine people working in the Global Village, in the cities and the jungles of the 21st century. The show focuses on personalities, not just medicines, to bring alive the role of the shaman in the modern world.

Full 60-minute pilot episode of the documentary series Shamans of The Global Village. In full 1080p resolution (1920x817).

What is a shaman in the 21st Century? How do they heal? Come on an intimate journey into the world of modern global shamanism with Western practitioners and see never before filmed footage of ancient medicine practices… Episode #1 goes to Mexico and features Dr. Octavio Rettig, a medical surgeon from the University of Guadalajara specializing in treating addictions. Rettig has trained with indigenous tribes and now uses the sacred toad medicine, tribal chants and spirit wisdom to shamanize his patients in ceremonial initiations and facilitate deep healing. Journey with us into a world of beauty, truth and awakening…