Lessons in Courage

By: Bonnie Glass-Coffin, Oscar Miro-Quesada

Narrated by: Leanne Bennet

Buckminster Fuller reminds us, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.” This book provides just that model, as well as concrete practices for living it. The model is derived from ancient wisdom traditions, modeled on the pulses, cycles, and seasons of our beloved Earth Mother. It deeply grounds the listener in a “this world” spirituality that blends indigenous cosmologies, earth-honoring ritual, and time-tested models for living with modern sensibilities.

The proposed text presents the biography of an extraordinary man, who has awakened to his own purpose in life as a servant to conscious evolution for all humanity. His life story, full of adventure, cosmic “interventions”, and synchronicity is on par with that of the luminaries documented in these biographies and the time has come for his story to be told. Don Oscar’s story is also the story of each one of us. The only reason his story has not been told until now is that he was first charged with creating opportunities for others to awaken to their higher purpose through his teachings as part of an oral tradition.

Now, after completing his “compacto” (sacred contract) with his Andean teachers and mentors, he has been released from service to tell his story in writing. And it is an extraordinary story, dealing with nothing less than individual, spiritual, and planetary transformation.

Oscar Miro-Quesada originated the Pachakuti Mesa tradition of cross-cultural shamanism, and is the visionary founder of The Heart of the Healer (THOTH) Foundation. He is a respected kamasqa curandero and altomisayoq adept from Peru and has been guiding cross-cultural ethno-spiritual apprenticeship expeditions to sacred sites of the world since 1986, with special emphasis on Peru and Bolivia. He has been a popular faculty member at numerous US educational centers. His work and programs have been featured on CNN, Univision, A&E, and the Discovery Channel.

Bonnie Glass-Coffin, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized professor of anthropology at Utah State University. She has studied with Peruvian curanderos since 1982 and is author of The Gift of Life: Female Spirituality and Healing in Northern Peru. She began apprenticing with don Oscar in 2005, experiencing the transformative power of these wisdom teachings and integrating these deeply into her life. This deep apprenticeship has enabled her to take a leading role in presenting OMQ's life-work to a wide audience. She currently lives in Logan, Utah.

"Oscar Miro-Quesada, my dear friend of over 30 years, is both a Western-educated psychologist and traditionally initiated shaman. His book, Lessons in Courage, is a profound, articulate, and gripping account of Oscar's deep-rooted apprenticeship with don Celso Rojas, a renowned curandero from Salas, Peru. Oscar is a true genius, a genuinely warm and loving individual, and these qualities shine through in the book. A compelling tale about our human quest for wholeness, Lessons in Courage openly chronicles Oscar's befriending of sacred and profane dimensions of life, giving us a brilliant rendition of the uncompromising light so often encountered at the end of the tunnel." (Raymond Moody, M.D., Ph.D., author of Life After Life)

"This is a great book that can attune the worlds of indigenous peoples with the rational scientific traditions of the modern world. It guides us toward incarnation of all levels of ourselves. Oscar embodies this wholeness and reveals the processes learned in his own epic journey through fields of reality from the Earth to the Star people, from contemporary academic knowledge to the depth and power of indigenous wisdom and ritual, most especially the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of cross-cultural shamanism. Lessons in Courage is an indispensable classic for our generation...." (Barbara Marx Hubbard, Foundation for Conscious Evolution)

©2013 Rainbow Ridge Books (P)2020 Beacon Audiobooks

Great Book - Well Written and Narrated

I highly recommend this book as essential wisdom for the present times. A great audiobook that will deepen your connection to nature and yourself.

Amazing stories - but needs a new audio reader

Amazing stories & inspiring words overall but they really should redo the audio book with another reader. The reading style of the reader was painfully abrasive, lacking cadence and proper tonality and hard to listen to. She mispronounced almost every quechua word and a few other random words!

Rare, Precious, Practical and Transformative!

I highly recommend this audiobook. It is a deeply personal glimpse into a mans soul who has since become a master ceremonialist and healer. Wonderfully narrated.

This Audiobook Is Amazing....

This audiobook is beautiful, honest and inspiring. A staple for your book collection if you are looking to deepen your connection to nature and yourself.

Must Be Re-Recorded

I’ve listened to dozens of audiobooks and this is my first review.
Dr. Bonnie Glass-Coffin did an excellent job taking the listener through don Oscar’s personal history, struggles and journey into the world of shamanism.
I have better idea of who don Oscar is now- the shaman and the man.
The author also introduced the reader to some basic concepts of shamanism and rituals such as the Pachakuti Mesa tradition.

This could have been a great book had it not been for the narration which was disappointing, sloppy and unpleasant.
I was surprised to hear a female narrators voice.
My first thought was that the author narrated the book herself. This was not the case.
The narrator, Leanne Bennet was unable to pronounce the most basic terms and names like Hopi and Carl Jung.
I caught myself thinking, “Did she just say ‘Hoppy’?”
She repeatedly mispronounced fairly well-known Quechuan terms such as Pachamama with a European flair, “Pacha Ma-Ma.”
More difficult Quechuan words forget-about-it, she’d simply sound out or make up her own pronunciation.
Why wouldn’t one simply ask or Google it?

Secondly, why would an author choose a female to narrate a masculine male shaman’s life story?
Was she a family friend?
Did she do the narration at a discounted rate?
The lilting, “Disneyesque” tone of Ms Bennet’s voice and cadence reminded me of a kindergarten teacher reading “The Little Train That Could” to a group of school children.

Yet another distraction was the editing. About three- fourths of the way through the editing got sloppy. Listening to the repeated clicks of the recorder’s pause button and re-recording of the mess-ups was annoying.

I’m not an expert, but I do know that language and the way certain words are intoned are an important part of ritual and ceremony. Getting the pronunciation and intonation correct is sometimes vital to the process.

In summary, the writing and story telling was excellent and a great service to don Oscar, his teachers and their traditions.
The narration was horrendous and a disservice to don Oscar, his teachers, the Quechuan people, the Hopi, Carl Jung and listeners who want to learn about these traditions and do these rituals correctly.

The Ancestors of seven generations are cringing every time this book is played.
Hopefully the author will one day choose to re-record this book properly.