About Salka Wind

This web site is a product of my studies with the Andean paqos (mystic/shaman) don Americo Yabar (don Américo Yábar) and other paqos of the Andes. It is my best attempt to share with my culture what I have learned in the Andes, an approach to engaging with the world that engenders a loving and mutually supportive relationship with Nature and the Cosmos. I hope it will serve as a resource for those who are following a similar path or who simply want to know more about Andean mysticism. My thoughts and representations of the Cosmovision of the Andean paqos inevitably reflect my own cultural upbringing, my intellectual penchants and academic background, and my heart; they do not represent don Américo or the other paqos other than through their effects on me.

Please feel free to browse through the various sections of this site (available through the menu along the top of the page) to see what may be interesting or useful to you. I have decided that my blog may provide the best context for me to eventually share all that I can in writing about the Andean Cosmovision. As some of the posts in my blog build upon previous ones you might want to start with the earliest post and work your way up to the present. I hope you enjoy the site.

About the Author

My name is Oakley E. Gordon. I received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Utah in 1984. I was originally drawn to psychology by an interest in the psychology of consciousness, and I have been studying Andean mysticism under the tutelage of the Andean mystic Americo Yabar since 1994. This adventure has included numerous trips to Peru to work with don Americo and other paqos of the high Andes.

This is one of my favorite pictures of me with with the Qero (Q'ero) of Peru. It would be much more impressive if I was actually making any sound. While I have a couple of quenas (flutes) at home that I play I was having a heck of a time getting any noise out of the Qero quena I had borrowed.