• Explores how wetiko covertly operates both out in the world and within our minds and how it underlies every form of self-destruction, both individual and collective

• Reveals how wetiko's power lies in our blindness to it and examines how people across the ages have symbolized wetiko to help see it and heal it

• Examines the concept of wetiko as it appears in the teachings of the Kabbalah, Hawaiian Kahuna shamanism, mystical Christianity, and the work of C. G. Jung

In its Native American meaning, wetiko is an evil cannibalistic spirit that can take over people's minds, leading to selfshness, insatiable greed, and consumption as an end in itself, destructively turning our intrinsic creative genius against our own humanity. Revealing the presence of wetiko in our modern world behind every form of destruction our species is carrying out, both individual and collective, Paul Levy shows how this mind-virus is so embedded in our psyches that it is almost undetectable--and it is our blindness to it that gives wetiko its power. Yet, as Levy reveals in striking detail, by recognizing this highly contagious mind parasite, by seeing wetiko, we can break free from its hold and realize the vast creative powers of the human mind.

Levy explores how artists, philosophers, and spiritual traditions across the ages have been creatively symbolizing this deadly pathogen of the psyche so as to help us see it and heal it. He examines the concept of wetiko as it appears in the teachings of the Kabbalah, Hawaiian kahuna shamanism, Buddhism, and mystical Christianity and through esoteric concepts like egregores, demons, counterfeiting spirits, and psychic vampires. He reveals how visionary thinkers such as C. G. Jung, Sri Aurobindo, Philip K. Dick, Colin Wilson, Nicolas Berdyaev, and Rene Girard each point to wetiko in their own unique and creative way. He explores how the projection of the shadow self--scapegoating --is the underlying psychological mechanism fueling wetiko and examines wetiko in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, showing that we can reframe the pandemic so as to receive the lessons and opportunities embedded in it.

Revealing how the power of imagination can cure the wetiko mind-virus, Levy underscores how important it is for each of us to bring forth the creative spirit within us, which helps shed the light of consciousness on wetiko, taking away its power over us while simultaneously empowering ourselves.

Paul Levy is a pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence and a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for more than 35 years. He is the founder of the Awakening in the Dream Community in Portland, Oregon, and the author of several books, including Dispelling Wetiko. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Foreword by Larry Dossey, M.D.

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION
Wetiko in a Nutshell

PART I
Spiritual Traditions and Creative Artists
1 It's All in the Psyche
2 The Kabbalah's Remarkable Idea
3 The Masters of Deception
4 Sri Aurobindo and the Hostile Forces
5 The Mind Parasites of Colin Wilson--Fiction or Reality?
6 The Enlightened Madness of Philip K. Dick--The Black Iron Prison and Wetiko

PART II
Wetiko in the World and in Our Minds
7 Are We Humans Terminally Insane or Just Waking Up?
8 A Cancer of the Soul
9 Duped by the Beast of War
10 Other Lenses Helping Us See Wetiko
11 Scapegoating--How Darkness Hides in the Light
12 René Girard's Take on Scapegoating and the Shadow

PART III
The Coronavirus and the Wetiko Virus
13 Covid-19 Is a Symbol of a Much Deeper Infection
14 The Coronavirus Contains its Own Vaccine
15 Quantum Medicine for the Coronavirus

Epilogue

APPENDIX
The Four Ignoble Blindnesses of Wetiko--A Play on the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism

Notes

Bibliography

About the Author

Index