In 1968 I spent time deep in the rain forest of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Beginning then and ever since I have become close to the Shuar, Achuar, Quechua, and other indigenous peoples. At one point while in the Amazon rain forest I grew so violently sick, without the possibility of reaching any hospital or medical care, that I became resigned to my death. An old Shuar shaman using plant medicine his culture knows and has applied for thousands of years saved my life.