Medical anthropologist Alberto Villoldo has studied the shamanic healing practices of the Amazon and Andes for more than 25 years. He is the founder of the Four Winds Society, which trains modern shamans in the practice of energy medicine. He directs the Center for Energy Medicine in Chile, where he investigates and practices the neuroscience of enlightenment.

In his mid-20s, Villoldo was the youngest clinical professor at San Francisco State University, where he directed the Biological Self-Regulation Lab to investigate how energy medicine changes the chemistry of the brain. He soon realized that the microscope was the wrong instrument to answer the questions he was asking. Other scientists were already studying the hardware, Villoldo wanted to learn to reprogram the system.

He heard stories about people in remote parts of the Amazon who claimed to know such things. Recognizing this investigation would not be a part time pursuit or brief sabbatical, Villoldo resigned his post at the university and traded his lab coat for hiking boots and a ticket to the Rainforest.