BECOMING SHAMANKA Walking the Medicine Path
by Jayme MacNeil & Peter McSherry
hardback / 514 pages / 8”x10” / $150 / isbn: 978-1-58790-755-5
ABOUT THE BOOK
Becoming Shamanka: Walking the Medicine Path is part memoir, part ceremonial guide, and part exploration of consciousness born from decades of experience within the psychedelic underground. Blending personal narrative, spiritual inquiry, and practical wisdom, the book offers a rare and intimate look into the evolving world of sacred medicines, healing, and human transformation.
At its heart, Becoming Shamanka is the story of becoming—of awakening through life challenges, relationships, ritual, expanded states of consciousness, and the lifelong search for meaning. Through Jayme’s deeply personal journey, alongside he husbands shared work as underground guides, the book explores the transformation of consciousness not as a destination, but as an ongoing path of self-examination and spiritual evolution.
Drawing from backgrounds in psychology, Eastern philosophy, esoteric healing, Family Constellations, and decades of personal ceremonial medicine work, the authors present a grounded yet visionary framework for understanding the medicine path. Influenced by the teachings of Ralph Metzner and ancient wisdom traditions, they examine the roles of intention, ritual, divination, set and setting, dosing, integration, and being in a sacred relationship with psychedelics.
A highly detailed guide to psychoactive substances, Becoming Shamanka is an invitation into a deeper relationship with the mystery of human consciousness itself. The book bridges the worlds of science and spirituality, psychotherapy and ceremony, personal healing and collective awakening. It speaks to seekers, therapists, guides, and readers interested in the transformative potential of expanded states through psychoactive substances approached with reverence, humility, and care.
SUBJECTS
The making of a modern medicine woman
Dosing Psychedelic Substances
Combining and layering various psychedelics substance
Ego and Shamanic death
Men’s psychedelic work
Psychedelics for intimacy and aphrodisiac use
Plant medicine
Psychedelics substance within a mythopoetic container
The psychedelic underground
Sacred ritual and divination
The feminine path of awakening
Entheogens and empathogens
Personal and spiritual evolution
Expanded states of consciousness
Sacred medicines and ceremonial practice
Underground psychedelic history and lineage
Ritual, divination, and sacred ceremony
Exploration of consciousness
Psychedelic-assisted therapeutic frameworks
Mythology, spirituality, and transformation
Shamanic philosophy and the medicine path
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jayme MacNeil
Jayme MacNeil is a psychotherapist, ceremonial guide, teacher, and lifelong student of consciousness who has spent more than four decades exploring the intersection of healing, spirituality, mythology, and expanded states of awareness. Her work integrates psychotherapy, energy healing, Family Constellations, ritual practice, and psychospiritual transformation within a deeply experiential framework rooted in compassion, integrity, and personal evolution
A longtime student and apprentice of visionary teacher and author Ralph Metzner, Jayme trained extensively in his Alchemical Divination process and later carried forward aspects of his teachings through her own ceremonial and educational work. Over the course of twenty years, she facilitated hundreds of individual and group medicine sessions, women’s ceremonies, couples intensives, and transformational trainings within the psychedelic underground. Her work emphasized intentionality, ritual structure, integration, and the sacred dimensions of healing.
Jayme also served as senior faculty at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and studied with influential teachers in the fields of psychotherapy, Tibetan Buddhism, energy medicine, and ancestral healing. Together with Peter McSherry, she co-developed ceremonial frameworks and guide-training programs that blended psychological insight, spiritual inquiry, and direct experience.
At the center of Jayme’s work is a belief that healing is not merely symptom relief, but a profound process of awakening to one’s deeper nature and living with greater consciousness, responsibility, and authenticity. Becoming Shamanka: Walking the Medicine Path reflects her lifelong devotion to inner transformation, sacred ceremony, and the evolving path of human consciousness.
Peter McSherry
Peter McSherry is an acupuncturist, healer, ceremonial guide, and teacher who has spent more than forty years studying consciousness, spirituality, healing traditions, and the transformative potential of sacred medicines. Drawing from backgrounds in acupuncture, energy healing, ceremonial practice, and psychospiritual exploration, his work bridges ancient healing traditions with contemporary approaches to inner transformation.
Together with Jayme MacNeil, Peter spent two decades working within the psychedelic underground, facilitating individual sessions, couples work, men’s groups, and ceremonial intensives focused on healing, awakening, and conscious evolution. Their work emphasized preparation, intentionality, ritual structure, integration, and ethical responsibility in expanded states of consciousness.
Peter’s approach to healing has been shaped by years of study in Eastern philosophy, energy medicine, Tibetan Buddhist thought, Family Constellations, and the teachings of Ralph Metzner. As senior faculty at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, he helped train students in energetic awareness, consciousness studies, and multidimensional healing practices. Alongside his ceremonial work, he maintained a long-standing acupuncture practice devoted to holistic healing and personal transformation.
His work explores the relationship between body, psyche, spirit, and consciousness, emphasizing the importance of direct experience, self-examination, and grounded spiritual practice. Through both teaching and ceremonial work, Peter has sought to help others navigate the complexities of transformation with humility, discernment, and integrity.
Becoming Shamanka: Walking the Medicine Path is the culmination of decades of lived experience, spiritual inquiry, and collaborative work devoted to understanding the healing potential of expanded states and the deeper mysteries of human consciousness.