The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor's Exploration into Traditional Plant Medicine

By Joseph Tafur MD

​

We love this book for a number of reasons: namely, Tafur makes an exceptional case to reframe western healthcare. When healing a person, especially from chronic conditions, it is crucial we consider the person in his/her entirety: one's emotional and psychological health, one's past trauma history, current environmental and situational conditions, one's spiritual state and finally one's physical condition and lifestyle. All these factors play a significant role in one's overall health and wellness. Poignantly, Tafur states, "In these times, we are dealing with an epidemic of soul sickness, i.e. spiritual illness. In order to adequately address this flood of spiritual maladies, we must expand our medical and cultural paradigms" (236). And this is absolutely right. The current medicinal approach is not working. It functions to alleviate the symptoms, not address the root cause of dis-ease. In order to do that, we need to shift our focus more to the emotional and spiritual bodies of patients.

 

Additionally, we endorse this book because it tracks Tafur's experience first finding true healing through sacred plant medicine. The journey-- to look outside the standard medical paradigm--subsequently initiated his path into shamanism. He is a true doctor who views the person through a holistic lens: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and historical body, and he seeks to offer true healing through standardized medical understanding and traditional plant medicine approaches. On top of all that, it is just a great read!!