15 Sep Telluride Library: “Plastc Shaman, The True Story of a Deadly Self-Help Retreat,”9/30!
Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library invite the community to a talk and book-signing with Annette McGivney. Happening takes place Wednesday, September 30, 5:30 pm. McGivey will be presenting her new book, “Plastc Shaman: The True Story of a Deadly Self-Help Retreat and America’s Misguided Quest for Wellness.”
Between the Covers will be at the event selling books.
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Annette McGivney,, courtesy Telluride Library.
A spiritual quest turns into a fatal disaster in this gripping true crime investigation.
In October 2009, more than 50 people attended a $10,000-per-person wellness retreat led by a celebrity self-help guru. For these enlightenment seekers, their time in Sedona, Arizona, culminated in a fake Native American sweat lodge ceremony. Three of them would not make it out alive.
The tragedy exposes the dangerous truth about the booming two-trillion-dollar wellness sector, where promises of spiritual awakening and financial success often mask shocking practices underpinned by cultural appropriation and the commodification of nature. Journalist Annette McGivney’s investigation of the wellness industry lays bare the manipulation and greed that allow charismatic influencers to prey on vulnerable people in search of happiness and healing—no matter the cost.
Annette McGivney is an award-winning investigative journalist and author based in Cortez, Colorado. “Plastic Shaman” is her sixth book. Her previous book, “Pure Land,” about the murder of Tomomi Hanamure in the Grand Canyon, won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2018. “Pure Land” was the debut selection for Outside Magazine’s book club in 2017 and named by the magazine on a list of “outdoor books that shaped the last decade.”
McGivney is a frequent contributor to the Guardian, Outside and Arizona Highways; her articles focus on Southwest culture, the environment and Indigenous issues. She is a professor emeritus in Journalism at Northern Arizona University where she taught for two decades.
Annette McGivney is also the founder of the non-profit Healing Lands Project, managed by Grand Canyon Youth. The organizati0n provides guided wilderness trips to underserved populations.
McGivney’s next book, titled “Lucky,” explores the unique, life-affirming relationship between humans and dogs.
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