Touching the Jaguar

Transforming Fear into Action to Change Your Life and the World

By: John Perkins

Narrated by: Tom Taylorson

“This eloquent book inspires us to create a new reality of what it means to be humans on this magnificent planet.” (Deepak Chopra)

This all happened while Perkins was a Peace Corps volunteer. Then he became an "economic hit man" (EHM), convincing developing countries to build huge projects that put them perpetually in debt to the World Bank and other US-controlled institutions. Although he'd learned in business school that this was the best model for economic development, he came to understand it as a new form of colonialism.

When he later returned to the Amazon, he saw the destructive impact of his work. But a much more profound experience emerged: Perkins was inspired by a previously uncontacted Amazon tribe that “touched its jaguar” by uniting with age-old enemies to defend its territory against invading oil and mining companies.

For the first time, Perkins details how shamanism converted him from an EHM to a crusader for transforming a failing Death Economy (exploiting resources that are declining at accelerating rates) into a Life Economy (cleaning up pollution, recycling, and developing green technologies). He discusses the power our perceptions have for molding reality. And he provides a strategy for each of us to change our lives and defend our territory — the Earth — against current destructive policies and systems.

©2020 John Perkins (P)2020 John Perkins

Transformative storytelling for our time

A deep dive into the realm of human change, both from a meta view - that is, how to change a destructive culture - and from a human, on the ground perspective. Both angles, seen through the lens of a man who wandered into the high-profile role of "Economic Hitman," but at the same time made contact with ancient indigenous culture and dedicated decades to translating their messages of survival and 'dream change' into tangible, actionable steps. "Touching the Jaguar" is a journey that hits both sides on a personal level...the idea that each of us is contributing to a detrimental dream, and yet each of us has the capacity to work every day to change the perceptions that make up our reality through the stories we tell and aggregate.

A leadership guide for the changemaker working in big dreams, a practioner's guide for the on-the-ground activist...and a philosopher's guide for a person looking for an internal compass to a map that's gone wild.

Absolutely incredible book

Great book detailing the outlines of how eco-tourism is preventing our loss of rain forest. Also a great account of indigenous peoples thought patters and ways of interacting with our world.

I’m a big fan!

Phenomenal True Story!

I call it a story rather than just a book, because it is told in story format. And story format is the way we live our lives. This author has some exceptional stories to tell, and I certainly plan on listening to some of his others.

Perception changing and inspiring

I bought the audio version of this book. Once I started listening I could not stop. I listened late into the night and the next day. John has the message that this world needs to face about how our society's values are destroying life on this planet. He has experienced both the Western economic perspective and the perspective of the Indigenous peoples whose lifestyle and environment are threatened by Western economic interests. It is heartening that he has faced his own jaguars (fears) and written this book.

We need to understand this message, and now…

John’s story very much appreciated. Excellent writer as well. It’s hard for all of us who come from privilege to make good use of it with courageous self reflection and a desire to give back. John has walked that razors edge in the direction of redemption. Narrator was just Ok….

Another inspiring book by John Perkins!

As always, John Perkins has provided the stories of his life and time spent learning from indigenous peoples as a means to mobilize people to face their fears and change the way they Dream.

Absolutely beautiful

Thank you John Perkins for all the work you do. I am brought to deep sorrow yet have joy that people are out there doing this work.

Something amiss

For some reason hard to pin point the book starts to sound as a prolonged infomercial. Perhaps 60 to 70 percent repetition of the author's book "Confessions of a..."

Sentimental. Something amiss.

Good, but not what I thought

Love John Perkins, but I was hoping this would focus more on facing and transforming your personal fears. It is mostly about his time in the Amazon.