Eliot Cowan

Who is Eliot Cowan?

Eliot Cowan is an American-born healer, teacher, author, and founder of the alternative healing technique known as Plant Spirit Medicine.

Born in 1946 in the United States, Cowan was raised in Chicago, Winnipeg and San Francisco. He received a degree in Anthropology from Pomona College and pursued post-graduate study in documentary filmmaking at UCLA. In 1970, while living on a farm in Vermont, he became distraught because one of his goats was sick. Unwilling to accept a "hopeless" diagnosis from a veterinarian, he began to read about herbalism and treated the goat with a plant. The goat healed, and Cowan's work in Herbalism began. In 1971, he traveled to England to study acupuncture, receiving Licentiate, Bachelor and Master of Acupuncture degrees from J.R. Worsley at the College of Traditional Acupuncture, Leamington Spa, England.

After a number of years practicing acupuncture, he came across an article on the Huichol Indians of the Mexican Sierras. The article caused him to travel to Mexico and meet them. A series of dreams, encounters and experiences guided him to apprentice with Don Guadalupe Gonzalez Rios, an eminent Huichol shaman.