An extraordinary story of an ordinary man

By John Vibes

PERU (INTELLIHUB) — It has been nearly a year since I was first approached by an author and shaman named Sergey Baranov about sharing research and possibly making contributions to Intellihub.com.

It was not long after that he became one of our most dedicated international writers, contributing articles on a wide variety of topics. During this time I learned that Sergey was on a similar path as myself.

Not only is Sergey a practicing shaman, but he is also an author who had to deal with the mainstream publishing industry, a painful experience which led Sergey to a further transformation and spiritual growth.

I can relate personally to his story since I have had a similar experience with a mainstream publisher which has also taught me a painful lesson.

Not long ago, Sergey was visited by film maker and musician Ben Stewart for a Huachuma (San Pedro) ceremony. During his visit, Ben was kind enough to take the time to share Sergey’s story by interviewing him for a new episode of his show “Waking Infinity”.

In the interview, Sergey spoke of his introduction to shamanism and his struggle to share his uncensored message with the world. Sergey and Ben had synchronistically been introduced to the world of shamanism by the same shaman Don Rober, just three years apart.

Adding to the synchronicity of this journey, I had actually crossed paths with Ben Stewart at the Free Your Mind Conference which I helped to organize last year in Philadelphia, just a few months before Ben and Sergey were destined to meet in Peru.

For both of them the experience was life changing, and for Sergey it brought him back years later to continue walking his path and serving the sacred plant-teacher Huachuma. Through a series of intense Huachuma journeys Sergey was given the message that he should write a book, so he followed that intuition and started writing his aptly named book “Path”.

When he finished his book and it became time to look into publishing, Sergey encountered someone in the publishing industry through his ceremony work and was told that his book could become a hit if he put it in the hands of his new acquaintances. Excited to get the word out, Sergey allowed them to prepare the book for publishing using their own editor, who was trained in commerce, not spirituality.

With the editor taking way longer than expected, Sergey began to receive the intuition that his book was being tampered with, so after waiting patiently for months he finally asked to see his manuscript, finished or not. After going through the first few pages Sergey was disgusted to find that his book had been totally rewritten and filled with lies.

When he confronted the publisher about this blatant censorship he was given the opportunity to sell out, to compromise his message and have a book filled with lies sold in hundreds of stores.

His book could have been an instant financial success if he were to sacrifice the true message of his story, but Sergey turned down the offer and was eventually convinced to translate “Path” to English and publish it himself.

The topics that Sergey covers in his book are extremely important, but also extremely controversial. Research involving psychedelics, ancient spirituality and lost civilizations is some of the most censored material on the planet.

Earlier this year Intellihub.com did a series of exclusive articles documenting the censorship of Graham Hancock and Rupert Sheldrake by the “TED” conference. Like Sergey’s research, their work delves into the world of psychedelics and spirituality which questions the dominant scientific paradigm.

It would take an entirely separate article to address the root causes behind the heavy taboo placed on the use of the ancient shamanic plants and to delve in to the negative attitude which prevails in the western world toward shamanism. For now though, I would like to leave the reader to ponder the important question that this episode ends off with.

Get your uncensored copy of “Path” today!

Shamansworld.org

Writer Bio:

John Vibes is an investigative journalist, staff writer and editor for Intellihub News where this article originally appeared. He is also the author of an 87 chapter e-book entitled “Alchemy of this Modern Renaissance” and is an artist with an established record label. You can find him on his Facebook.

For media inquires, interviews, questions or suggestions for this author, email: vibes@intellihub.com or telephone: (347) 759-6075.

Read more articles by this author here.

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