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Review
"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." -- Nevill Drury, author of The Elements of Shamanism
"Wonderful, fascinating . . .Harner really knows what he is talking about." -- Carlos Castaneda
Book Description
My first prolonged fieldwork as an anthropologist took place in 1956 and 1957 on the forested eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes among the Jivaro [HEE-varo] Indians, or Untsuri Shuar. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm Divided On This Book,
By Zekeriyah (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Way Of The Shaman (Paperback)
It really would be more fair of me to give this book three and a half stars, but it doesn't work that way so I'll leave it at four. Anyway, I must admit that I am of two different mind concerning this book. Harner, who has indeed studied Shamanism amongst various indigenous peoples such as the Jivaro of Ecuador, certainly does know his stuff. I will grant him that. However, in this book he strips it down to it's core, removing many of the cultural trappings, in order to take the reader into the world of the Shaman. This is not a book about Siberian, Native American, Aboriginal, African, Voudon or any other form of Shamanism. Instead, it focuses on Harner's "Core Shamanism" and even attempts to instruct the reader on how to become a Shaman. This presents some serious questions for us. First of all, is this cultural piracy? Shamanism is an old tradition, and can be found among many traditions. No one people, however, have a monopoly on Shamanism. After all, the Shamanic traditions of, say, the Yakuts, Chuckchi and Buryat are just as ancient and valid of those of the Pygmies, Bushmen or Yanomami. Harner seems to be very aware of this and tries not to attach his Shamanic tradition to that of any one particular culture. And certainly more recent traditions do draw from Shamanic background. Voudon and Santeria, as well as certain movements amongst the Native Americans and Australian Aborigines illustrate this. Why shouldn't westerners find a tradition that is acceptable to them? In the end, the reader needs to come to his own conclusions on these issues before he reads through this book. After all, it is a book instructing the reader in Harner's Core Shamanism. I certainly would recommend it to people with an interest in Shamanism and/or Neo-Shamanism, whether from an anthropologic perspective or from a "New Age" perspective. Others, however, might be disappointed or even offended in this book. It all depends on your views I suppose. The best I can say is buyer beware.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Commercialism and Pseudo-Shamanism,
By JohnBishopJr (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Way Of The Shaman (Paperback)
Harner deserves most of the blame for starting the modern Pseudo-Shaman movement, where silver spoon fed suburbanites engage in loads of wishful thinking by imagining one can learn to be a "shaman" quickly and painlessly for only the price of a $$$ book or an "advanced" seminar lasting three days for $$$What the pseudo-shamanism movement is is merely the New Age movement with a new marketing angle, since both movements have always been far more about commerce, and very little about enlightenment other than lightening the contents of people's wallets. REAL shamans don't charge money, don't make a living off it, don't hang out a shingle on the internet or at new age fairs. They also don't live in the 'burbs or profit off of people who do. They remain in their traditional communities where they are needed. Even worse, some members of the pseudo-shaman movement wind up DYING, as have some people very badly "trained" by Harner who tried to do sweatlodges. This book, and all of Harner's books, are beyond nonsense. They actually threaten (and sometimes take) the very lives of the poor misguided saps who fall for them.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A misleading book,
By Makula Aulanchis "wirnggit" (Jerez de la Frontera, Spain) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Way Of The Shaman (Paperback)
I think Harner's error is not that much in that he takes shamanic work out of native context, but that he puts people at danger by making them believe his sanitized teflon-wrapped package. If this is all day-dreaming - then it's no big deal, why can't suburbanites spend some time reconnecting with their subconsciousness?If, on the other hand, we take this stuff for real - if there is an energy body, if there are worlds into which the energy body travels during the "altered states of consciousness", then the Harnerian method is not only irresponsible, it is downright dangereous. It takes decades to train an indigenous shaman precisely because these passageways into the astral and beyond are so tricky, its inhabitants so unpredictable and our mind so untrained and incapable of distinguishing between what is personal and what is impersonal. Any would-be "shaman" working out of his own personal space, or "subconsciousness" is asking for trouble. I have, as the years go by, started to look at the Harner Enterprise (which he runs together with his wife) as a tremendous money-making machine. It is all rather shameless and it is perhaps no wonder that Harner himself is not being taken seriously anymore. If you want to be a shaman, go into nature, pray to God, talk to your allies and ask them to send across your path a true teacher who will be devoted to your progress into this amazing Mystery. God ALWAYS answers when the plea comes from a pure, humble heart. I think the Harners lost that innocence necessary for contacting the spirit world in a wholesome and beneficial manner. Moreover, they have apparently never been trained in understanding the energy body and how it works during ASCs. That's why this book is unconvincing, unreliable and potentially dangereous.
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