The Power Path: The Shaman's Way to Success in Business and Life

Of all the leadership, business, motivation, women's empowerment, and new-age books I have read, this is the only one that I refer to nearly every day. Regardless of how you feel about Shamanism, this book is an insightful guide to owning and maintaining your personal power. I pull it out whenever I'm having a rough or boring day and it helps me to refocus my efforts. After all, the Stevens define power as "potential" so what better time to develop that potential than when I'm not feeling so powerful? I always end up feeling stronger and more motivated after reading a few passages or doing some of the exercises. I have always thought of Shamans as mystical "healers" who give and give, but now I am starting to see them more as Chiefs who lead and help others find their power. Trying to see difficult people and situations as having "potential" has greatly helped me to cope with frustration and feel more peaceful.

This book is a 'must read' for anyone working to be truely successful in their business and personal life. It is also a must read for those who tend to think of Shamanism as primitive, unenlightened or somehow unnatural and not connected to the 'real' world. In fact through-out his book, Jose Stevens uses example after example from the world of nature as a way of teaching us to look to nature to help guide us in our business practices. Recently we have been given one example after another of corporate practices that have not followed the path of 'true power' or what Dr. Stevens refers to as 'The Path With Heart.'The Power Path has become a permanent reference book guiding my practice as a clinical consultant in a residentail and out-patient drug and alcohol treatment program. It is also being read and used by numerous staff including the CEO. This is not a 'one shot' read but a book to be studied and used as a guideline for ethical and successful business and life practices. It is filled with deep insight and knowledge. This is a book about true power.

This book does an excellent job of describing the path of power and its elements. There is a difference between moving along the linear path to power or taking the one of the shaman, the path with heart. Our current business environment follows the linear path which is solely focused on the physical world and rarely venturing from the visible to the invisible. This book is extremely relevant right now as we are going through a transformation of corporations. Taking the view of the Shaman, which incorporates the more spritual side of the equation creates a balanced path which leads to success not just for the CEO, but for all concerned, employees, shareholders..gee what a concept!!!Jose and Lena Stevens have studied shamanism with shamans from all over the world. Their ability to take these esoteric concepts and apply them to an organization is really quite brilliant. A corporation is really a tribe and the dynamics for success are the same as in a tribe. Their descriptions of successful groups and their functioning is fascinating. I know for myself it will enhance my experience of working with corporate teams and make things a lot more productive. Every company needs a medicine man/woman, so give this book to your favorite CEO and buy stock in the company. Enjoy.

Jose' is a Basque-Mexican-Irish American who, with his wife Lena, are some of the most sought after organizational consultants in the industry. What makes them unique is their thorough grounding in psychological understanding (Jose received a Ph.D. from the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco, a true source of cutting-edge education), and they both have undergone shamanic apprenticeships.This book is extremely timely given the current down-turn of our economy (which is going to get a lot worse before it gets better), and the old paradigms of business (which truly must undergo a transformation--see another book, The Cultural Creatives by Paul Ray and S. Anderson).The Power Path is definitely not a book on puff-ball New Age spirituality. It pulls no punches, it is gritty and real, but is also astonshing in its capacity to convey the terrain of power and our relationship with it. This is no beating around the bush writing--pragmatic and practical, the teachings and ideas are deeply informed by their apprenticeship with Huichol shamans (they obviously paid attention)--but the ideas in The Power Path are also tested, refined, and applied in the very real domain of corporations where the issues of power are just as tangible and real as the issues of power a shaman faces in his or her training, and in his or her practice and service throughout life. In my estimation The Power Path is one of the freshest articulations of the shamanic theory about power, energy, thought, and intention, all components that determine our own determination of our own destiny. What is extremely hopeful, I think, is the potential that these central teachings to the shamanic life at large can revolutionize the way we do business, the way we lead, the way we govern.Frank MacEowen

As one who has over 30 years employment experience in large corporations and who also has deep respect for the wisdom that indigenous cultures can teach, I feel qualified to share my opinion of this book. In all fairness, I must say that in the last six months I have also benefited from some of the other teaching/consulting services that Jose and Lena Stevens offer through their Power Path Seminars firm. The objective of "The Power Path" book is to explain, in very practical terms, the ten rules of power that are universally practiced by the healers and leaders of indigenous peoples and how to apply them for maximum benefit in the every-day business world. Jose Stevens, ph.d is qualified to teach the tenets of indigenous understanding having studied such knowledge for ten years under a Leader/Healer (Shaman) in the Huichol tradition in the Sierra Madre of central Mexico. However, this book is not about anthropology or Carlos Castaneda-like mystical journeys. Stevens guides the reader through useful self-discovery with simple language and effective self-administered exercises. If as I, you feel concerned about right applications of power both in one's inner space as well as in the marketplace, then you may find this book a very useful teaching tool. I have. Why should one be concerned with power? Steven's sums up the challenge of power with this introductory paragraph: "Whether you like it or not, the game of life here on the planet is all about power: striving for it, achieving it, holding on to it, manipulating it, giving it away, giving it up, losing it, stealing it, fearing it, lusting for it, trading it, investing in it, searching for it, learning about it, and mastering it. If you say that you are not interested in power, that you are above or beyond it, that you think it is overrated, that you believe it is the root of all evils, or that the world would be better place without such emphasis on it, then you are fooling yourself dramatically."