Villoldo started his career in a brain laboratory in San Francisco where he and others were studying the development of psychosomatic disease. According to Villoldo, "One day I realized that I had been looking out of the wrong end of the microscope, becoming caught in the minutiae of neurons and brain chemistry, and missing the larger picture of the mind. I decided to leave my lab and traveled to the Amazon, to work and study with medicine men who had no MRI’s and brain scans, only the power of the mind and local herbs to heal their patients."
High up in the Andes mountains, Villoldo discovered a group of healers who specialized in treating illness before it manifested in the physical body. They achieved this by working on a person's Luminous Energy Field rather than the physical body.
Villoldo eventually returned to The United States and founded The Four Winds. The Four Winds Light Body School offers students extensive professional training in energy medicine based on the 50,000-year-old wisdom teachings of the ancient Americas. The school's goal is to teach people how to become modern day shamans who "learn to live in balance, and share their skills to be of deepest service and make a difference in the world."
Villoldo learned a great deal about energy medicine and healing with sacred plants in the Amazon. He has authored several books on the subjects and produced the beautiful and informative documentary, Amazonia: Healing With Sacred Plants.
Another fascinating video related to this subject is Peru: Hell and Back which is a National Geographic Adventure exclusive.
Books by Albert Villoldo:
Healing States: A Journey Into the World of Spiritual Healing and Shamanism
Dance of the Four Winds: Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel
Island of the Sun: Mastering the Inca Medicine Wheel
Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas
Mending The Past & Healing The Future With Soul Retrieval
Yoga, Power, and Spirit: Patanjali the Shaman
The Four Insights: Wisdom, Power, and Grace of the Earthkeepers
Courageous Dreaming: How Shamans Dream the World into Being
Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment