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The Way of the Shaman Paperback – January 1, 1990
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This classic on shamanism pioneered the modern shamanic renaissance. It is the foremost resource and reference on shamanism. Now, with a new introduction and a guide to current resources, anthropologist Michael Harner provides the definitive handbook on practical shamanism – what it is, where it came from, how you can participate.
"Wonderful, fascinating… Harner really knows what he's talking about."
CARLOS CASTANEDA
"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."
STANILAV GROF, author of 'The Adventure Of Self Discovery'
"Harner has impeccable credentials, both as an academic and as a practising shaman. Without doubt (since the recent death of Mircea Eliade) the world's leading authority on shamanism."
NEVILL DRURY, author of 'The Elements of Shamanism'
Michael Harner, Ph.D., has practised shamanism and shamanic healing for more than a quarter of a century. He is the founder and director of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies in Norwalk, Connecticut.
- Print length208 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1990
- Dimensions6.12 x 0.64 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100062503731
- ISBN-13978-0062503732
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Wonderful, fascinating...Harner really knows what he’s talking about.” — Carlos Castaneda
“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.” — Stanislav Grof, author of The Adventure of Self-Discovery
“Harner has impeccable credentials, both as an academic and as a practicing shaman. Without doubt (since the death of Mircea Eliade) the world’s leading authority on shamanism.” — Nevill Drury, author of The Elements of Shamanism
What Yogananda did for Hinduism and D.T. Suzuki did for Zen, Michael harner has done for shamanism. — Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob, authors of Higher Wisdom
About the Author
Michael Harner, Ph.D., has taught anthropology at various institutions, including the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia University, Yale University, and the New School in New York, and has practiced shamanism and shamanic healing since 1961 when he was initiated into Upper Amazonian shamanism. He is the founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies in Mill Valley, California.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperOne; Anniversary edition (January 1, 1990)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 208 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062503731
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062503732
- Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.12 x 0.64 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #30,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #27 in Shamanism (Books)
- #67 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)
- #179 in Mental & Spiritual Healing
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
"What Yogananda did for Hinduism and D.T. Suzuki did for Zen, Michael Harner has done for shamanism, namely bring the tradition and its richness to Western awareness. Michael Harner is widely acknowledged as the world's foremost authority on shamanism and has had an enormous influence on both the academic and lay worlds," say Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob, in their book "Higher Wisdom."
See complete bio on shamanism.org
The founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Dr. Michael Harner (Michael J. Harner) pioneered the introduction of shamanism and the shamanic drum journey to contemporary life and is recognized as the world leader in this movement. In 1980 the publication of his classic book "The Way of the Shaman" launched the worldwide shamanic renaissance.
The internationally eminent Swedish anthropologist Åke Hultkrantz wrote that Mircea Eliade and Michael Harner were the two great authors on shamanism. Eliade himself wrote that Michael Harner's works were stimulating and original.
In his half century of anthropological fieldwork, cross-cultural studies, experimental research, and firsthand experience, Michael Harner arrived at the core methods of shamans worldwide. The applicability of this core shamanism to contemporary Westerners has been substantiated by the experiences of his thousands of students. The experiential methods are simple, safe, and have been used successfully by them with positive life-changing results.
Honoring the oral tradition of indigenous shamans, for the last quarter of a century Dr. Harner has conveyed his shamanic knowledge first-hand through teaching and experiential work rather than through writing. Today he and his staff annually teach thousands of students internationally who, in turn, introduce thousands more to shamanism.
Michael Harner is not just an anthropologist who has studied shamanism; he is an authentic white shaman, observes the distinguished transpersonal psychologist Stanislav Grof. Dr. Harner began learning about shamanism in 1956-57 while studying with the Shuar (Jívaro) tribe of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and started practicing shamanism during his 1960-61 stay with the Conibo people of the Peruvian Amazon. He subsequently returned to the Shuar for additional practical training in shamanism. He became recognized as a shaman by the indigenous shamans with whom he worked, including ones belonging to the following peoples: the Conibo and Shuar (formerly Jívaro) in South America; the Coast Salish, Pomo, and Northern Paiute in western North America; the Inland Inuit and the Sami (formerly Lapps) in the Arctic; and the Tuvans of central Asia.
In Russia, assembled Siberian shamans of the Buriat people publicly declared Michael Harner a great shaman upon witnessing his shamanic healings in 1998 (the word, shaman, comes from Siberia). They also said he proved that one could do both science and shamanism.
Perhaps Dr. Harner's greatest contribution has been his pivotal role in bridging the worlds of indigenous shamanism and the contemporary West through his fieldwork and research, experimentation, writings, and original development of the core methods of shamanism. By introducing these methods to the West, he started the movement that is returning shamanism and shamanic healing to the spiritual life of peoples throughout the planet.
Michael Harner received his anthropology Ph.D. in 1963 from the University of California, Berkeley, and has taught at various institutions, including UC Berkeley, Columbia University, Yale University, and the Graduate Faculty of the New School in New York, where he was chair of the anthropology department. He also served as co-chair of the anthropology section of the New York Academy of Sciences. He left academia in 1987 in order to devote himself fulltime to shamanism. In 2003 he received an honorary doctorate in recognition of his achievements in shamanic studies. In 2009, he was honored by California Pacific Medical Center's Institute for Health & Healing with the "Pioneers in Integrative Medicine Award." He also received special academic recognition through the presentation of sessions dedicated to him at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Philadelphia. Three organizations of the AAA joined together to recognize him for his "pioneering work" in shamanism "as an academic and advocate" and for his role during the last forty years in the "exponential growth in anthropological studies of the importance and significance" of shamanism.
Complete bio for Michael Harner, plus links to articles and videos, can be found at shamanism.org, the website of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.
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As a cultural relativist and somewhat of a deconstructionist and instrumentalist, I pragmatically consider all conceptions, and especially those spiritual frameworks, religious interpretations and the identifying of entities, in this case power animal spirits and plant spirits with journeys to the lowerworld visualized in the shamanistic state of consciousness, as all perceived through the human interpretative mind, the mind that filters, interprets, categorizes and projects reality according to its linguistic, social, tribal and cultural preferences. Therefore I take Shamanism face value while simultaneously recognize the serious limitations it occurs.
Shamanism interprets the trance as an entry into a lowerworld, with various spirit guardians and techniques to achieve their presence, as well as the techniques to remove the evil or negative powers spirits that cause illness to others. So there are many specifics you must believe in, in order to accept the whole shamanistic teachings.
Ultimately, I find you must be under the influence of a sacred psychedelic plant (as many Shamans are) to understand or perceive reality outside the limited human mind, and once you do you can interpret reality entirely different or with a broader view in perspective. It is under this trance of wider perception, of a "mind at large' (Huxley) that you can at least perhaps enter areas of genius and radical wonder beyond the rational discursive mind, into the world of imagination and visionary realms of non-empirical but entirely "real," despite its subjective nature. The use of psychedelic or etheogenic plants I think is crucial to perceiving reality beyond the Western logic into shamanistic dimensions. And even then reality is limited to our understanding and we must make choices as to the existence of lowerworlds and power animal guardian spirits.
And yet there is a level of medicine that modern technology does not cover, another dimension. And it appears that the shaman's consciousness is symbolic for something much different than modern medicine, a realm of emotional, spiritual, neurological that in someway is tapped into with shamanism. This guide, may be a powerful animal spirit, or perhaps our higher selves or our through our DNA messaging us. This guide, or helper could be our own neurological make up, or God, however what it really is beyond the symbols of tunnels, plants, animals and insects is phenomenally not known, however its with shamanism that this part of the human consciousness is touched on and used. So it appears to me that there is something very significant about shamanism despite its lack of explanation through our rational and modern scientific minds.
On page 175, Harner writes: "Possibly science will eventually find that the unconscious mind of the shaman's patient, under the influence of sonic driving, is being 'programmed by the ritual to activate the body's immune system against disease. . . The burgeoning field of holistic medicine shows a tremendous amount of experimentation involving the reinvention of many techniques long practiced in shamanism, such as visualization, altered state of consciousness, aspects of psychoanalysis, hypnotherapy, meditation, positive attitude, stress-reduction, and mental and emotional expression of personal will for health and healing. In a sense, shamanism is being reinvented in the West precisely because it is needed."
This book was one of many texts I studied when learning shamanism, and although I have others, it remains the most useful and complete book.
Harner's passing from this plane in 2018 was a loss to those of us who studied his work, but I have no doubt he is still passing on wisdom to those who seek him out on a different plane.
I want to be upfront and say at the recommendation of a friend took the FSS core shamanic workshop in Phoenix, AZ. Knowing very little about shamanism and not having read the book before the workshop I had no clue what I was about to experience and in retrospect it was a gift I didn't have any preconceived notions about what I "should" be experiencing. During the workshop my hands and feet began to pulse and I also felt heat in my hands during a shamanic exercise. Since I had no preconceived notions I know what happened was a "pure" experience. I also had some intuitive experiences during the divination exercise that were on the money that I can't explain. This is not a recommendation for Harner's workshops. I only want to convey my experience made me a believer in shamanic ways and altered states of consciousness. I know after the workshop shamanic practices are not all psychological bunk, drugs, or placebo effect. In fact I would recommend not taking any drugs as the experience will be totally pure.
Regarding Way of the Shaman, it is well written, not too long, and easy to read. I enjoyed reading Harner's account of his ayahuasca journey. You get a sense of how extremely heightened the senses become on ayahuasca and also how risky it can be to drink ayahuasca without the assistance of an experienced ayahuasca shaman. You can feel his panic when finding himself lost in the jungle. The age of the book shows when Harner refers to tape cassettes, but the centuries old information is still useful. Harner was one of the first to put together the common threads from many shamanic cultures into a core practice. He explains where the word shaman comes from and that it was selected for use because it was relatively new term not colored by connotations by words such as witch doctor and sorcerer. While this work may well fall into what has come to be termed neo-shamanism, I make a distinction between this work and blended or new age shamanism such as Reiki-shamanism, shamanism and chakras, etc. Harner bases his work on the actual shamanic practice and as he uses it himself he stays true to the basics of shamanic practices. I also don't feel he enhanced or exaggerated anything like some authors to make it enticing, exciting or add commercial value. He gives straightforward basic information on states of consciousness/altered states of consciousness, the shamanic journey and how to journey, extraction, power or totem animals, drumming and rattling. I would recommend this book as a good primer for the novice.
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The cost was fair
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Bright blessings
Merl 🌺
Reviewed in Australia on May 17, 2023
The cost was fair
Most important the fast delivery
Bright blessings
Merl 🌺