Product Description

The phenomenal bestseller, with more than 500,000 copies sold worldwide, now with a new epilogue from the author--The Chalice and the Blade has inspired a generation of women and men to envision a truly egalitarian society by exploring the legacy of the peaceful, goddess-worshipping cultures from our prehistoric past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8385 in Books
• Published on: 1990-10-12
• Released on: 1990-10-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Nevill Drury, author of The Elements of Shamanism
"Harner has impeccable credentials, both as an academic and as a practicing shaman. Without doubt (since the recent death of Mircea Eliade) the world's leading authority on shamanism."

Stanislav Grof, author of The Adventure of Self-Discovery
"An intimate and practical guide to the art of shamanic healing and the technology of the sacred. Michael Harner is not just an anthropologist who has studied shamanism; he is an authentic white shaman."

Carlos Castaneda
"Wonderful, fascinating . . .Harner really knows what he is talking about."

Customer Reviews

Excelent
This is a very good book .It is well written and you can see that the Author did some good research.

What Harner thinks "Westerners" want
This is the fourth time in the past decade I've read this book cover to cover (as opposed to looking up specific factoid and techniques) and I'm finding that this time through, I'm not so fond of it. It's not that it's horrible; it's just not as impressive to me these days, now that I know more than I used to.

Harner's book is pretty much a classic on NEOshamanism; it forms the foundation of core shamanism, a shamanic practice that is (mostly) devoid of specific cultural trappings. His background in anthropology, as well as experience training as a shaman in the Jivaro and Conibo tribes, make this a well-researched and well-informed book. There are plenty of endnotes, and a good bibliography, so it's easy to trace where he got his information from.

The problem is the presentation of the practical material. First off, my main complaint is that his selection of techniques seems incredibly arbitrary. He draws on the tobacco ties of certain Native American traditions, Jivaro-flavered sucking shamanism, and the spiritual canoe from a particular Northwest Native tribe. And he seems to ignore a number of shamanic practices that may not be necessarily appealing to the New Age crowd, such as spiritual dismemberment and reassembly.

Also, he fails to mention that even within a specific culture there are several types of shamanism. He should have, IMO, either billed this as a form of healing shamanism, or stuck to one of the cultures he trained in, rather than adding in elements of numerous cultures. He doesn't quite draw shamanism far enough away from its cultural roots to make it fit together well; rather than doing as Peter J. Carroll did with Chaos magic, and making a system that is not at all culturally specific (and so can be plugged into any culture), Harner attempts to make (certain) cultural artifacts relevant for people outside that culture, while also trying to make it relevant to modern mainstream American (and other postindustrial) culture. Unfortunately, the end result still retains enough of the original cultural material (such as biases against certain animals like snakes and insects) without explaining the contextual relevance of such elements.

Finally, he waters down certain pieces of information. "The SSC [Shamanic State of Consciousness], it can be said, is safer than dreaming," he says (xxii). Yet shamanism, even in modern practice, is NOT safe. He doesn't talk about spiritual defense, other than talking about how one's power animal and other guardians are supposed to protect you. He barely brings up any dangers, other than seeing animals with bared fangs. Nor does he talk about how close to the edge shamanism can bring a practitioner (or the skills needed to maintain a proper balance).

In short, this is shamanism for the living room. The techniques itself are solid, despite the contextual issues, and can be easily used by most people who pick up this book. If presented as a book on shamanic techniques, I give it a four. However, as a book on *shamanism*, I give it a two. This balances out to three out of five.

how-to guide for shamanism
Shamanism is not a religion.

A shamanic journey is something you can do, rather easily, if only you try.

you do not need anything other than this book.

Mr. Harner is not in the business of lying to you. He has no time for telling you "truths."

This is a "For Dummies" guide to shamanic practice.

Do not be afraid. If you are interested, buy the book. Do the excercises. See what happens.