Indigenous People

Is madness part of a deeper calling? How is being transgender -- transitioning from one gender to another -- a spiritual process? Machete Mendias, female-to-male transgender activist and artist, discusses his life beyond the borders of gender identity, normality, and conventional definitions. Machete describes his childhood experiences with visions, ritual self-harm and hair-pulling (trichotillomania), and medications, as well as the role of transgendered people as healers, mystics, and shamans.