Robert Levy began climbing the shamanic mountain in 1995, learning from such western shamans as Eve Bruce, Lynn Roberts, Michael Harner, John Perkins, Tom Cowan, and Alberto Villoldo. He studied with indigenous shamans Ipupiara Makunaiman from the Ure-e-wau-wau tribe of Brazil and his wife, Peruvian shaman Claicha Toscano. It was they who first named him Shaman. He was a co-founder of the New York Shamanic Circle and that circle has become one of the most important shamanic communities in New York City. His books include: Shamanism, The Book Of Journeys (Co-authored with Eve Bruce; Shamanism for Teenagers, Young Adults and the Young at Heart; Reiki: Empowered By It, Embraced By It, Claimed By It; Shamanic Reiki: Expanded Ways of Working with Universal Life Force Energy, Co-authored with Llyn Roberts.