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In this book we learn that the word "shaman" is what the Tungus tribe in Siberia call their medicine men, or witchdoctors. It has been adopted by anthropologists worldwide to describe those involved in such practices. Harner, himself a practicing shaman as well as leading anthropologist, mentions six elements that he says have always been at the heart of shamanism, are still common to its practitioners today worldwide, and have been embraced by today`s secular society as part of the New Age Movement. These six elements of shamanism are at the heart of humanistic and transpersonal psychologies and have also been introduced into "Christian" psychology. Harner describes these ingredients as: visualization, hypnosis, psychotherapy, positive thinking, positive speaking (self-talk), and Eastern meditation techniques. These are occult practices, and its significant that Harner lists visualization first. It is the most powerful occult technique and the fastest and easiest way to get in touch with occult forces. It is something to be acknowledged as a serious aspect of reality when so many peoples all over the world, primitive or not, have come to the same practises. Another question would be what you make out of this knowledge. More research and proper investigation has to be done. Here the book is falling short. This book must be a nuisance to atheists.

I have read the critiques knocking Harner. Well, I agree that it is not the traditional idea of shamanism, but having said that, I'm glad I read the book years ago and learned how to "journey." Now, I don't believe in spirits or gods, but I suspend my disbelief, you might say, when journeying. I actually think of it as an exploration of my own subconscious mind, and yet I'm fascinated by what I've encountered on my journeys and I'm very grateful to Harner for showing me how to do it. Apparently the problem is that he calls it shamanism, which gets shaman traditionalists in a pique. It is BASED on shamanic techniques, but I wouldn't consider it traditional shamanism either. I have no wish to spend years trying to become a shaman, and it's doubtful that I could, since I'm a skeptic about gods and spirits, but I've derived much benefit from my journeying, no matter what you call it. If, as I suspect, it is all in my mind, then Wow, I'm impressed by what I find in the cellar (or cave), and I'll let it go at that. Thanks again, Dr. Harner, for teaching me the techniques for journeying and meeting my power animal. It's been an instructive and entertaining trip for an atheist who's open to elements of traditional wisdom without swallowing everything I find.

I appreciate Harner's approach because he does not diminish the varied ways of doing shamanistic travel. This book is the starting place for his techniques which primarily rely on drums or rattles. It is an easy to follow book with a very applicable and straightforward technique. A 10 year old could do it. If the book works for you, you can contact the foundation that Harner has and find local groups or techers to build on what the book teaches.

In the preface to this edition Harner states that, "Shamanism has subtly returned to the world, even in urban cetners..." Harner suggests that this modern resurgence in shamanic practice is due to many becoming disenchanted with the past age of faith. Seeking to distance themselves from the earthly authority of the spirit world as exemplified through churches, this generation has yet to find an adequate substitute in any other religion. Because we've been raised in a culture of empiricism, valuing experimental results, when this same process is applied to the spiritual world we find the attraction to shamanism. As explained in the book, "Shamanism is a methodology not a religion." The past centuries of deterministic Newtonian viewpoints have ironically caused a resurgence in spiritual interests. Harner argues that advances in the medical field have spurred near-death experiences which provide a window into another reality. I would add that Albert Hoffman's synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide in the late 1930s sparked an interest in other worlds, the notorious chemical had been used for thousands of years in visionary ceremonies of indigenous tribes (usually in the form of lysergic acid amine, present in morning glory seeds) but was re-introduced by science. Shamanic work is attractive to moderns because these practices can be carried out in spite of our busy lives. Additionally, shamanic work provides an ecological framework in the time of a renewed distress over our disconnection from nature, a shaman does not distinguish between the environment and family. The most important aspects of this book are the discussions of cognicentrism, how the people most prejudiced against a concept of non-ordinary reality are those who have never experienced it, a point I can confirm with gusto. Distinguishing between the shamanic states of consciousness (SSC) and the ordinary states of consciousness (OSC) provides a framework that can allow even the most skeptical western minds to accept shamanism as a reality for many people, even if it doesn't apply to his or her own experiences. Interpretations of ethnographic studies have been muddled because of misunderstanding these two states of experience. When a shaman speaks of talking with animals and healing ceremonies to retrieve souls, we know those things can't happen in ordinary reality so we dismiss them immediately. But the developed indigenous mind has a built-in understanding of the difference between the two types of experience and needs no preface to extraordinary claims, something our society lacks and the key component that leads to cognicentrism. Native peoples are sharp and accomplished hunters who have tremendous knowledge of their local environments so they are far from being naive or stupid. Harner defines a shaman as, "a man or woman who enters an altered state of consciousness at will to contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality in order to acquire knowledge, power and to help other persons" and the Way of The Shaman provides a solid introduction to the concepts and practices of a shaman that are nearly universal, taking special care to demonstrate how they can fit into the modern lifestyle. Harner's approach to drumming induced trance states is particularly acceptable to the suburban white spiritual seeker, shying away from entheogenic substances. However, I could easily see how a practicing shaman would have problems with the methods or suggestions in this book. The specifics about what to expect in the lower world or other details could easily condition someone away from trusting direct experience. Additionally, the focus on healing shamanism is an appropriate topic but neglects to fully recognize the prevalence of shamanic wars which are outside of the noble savage archetype that Harner bolsters. Yet despite these shortcomings, Harner's approach to shamanic work is particularly resonant for the archetypes and minds of our modern society. I would suggest The Way of the Shaman as a guidebook to gain an initial understanding of other realities and as a spark to begin a few initial adventures into them through the drumming practices detailed within. After a read through this book I'm interested in exploring details behind Harner's earlier work with the Jîvaro tribes. Life in an indigenous society is painted as quite idyllic in The Way of the Shaman, for example the Macaebos drank guayasa instead of coffee all day. The tea creates a perception of euphoria and builds a happy community. Sounds like a great society. But I don't think I can conclude anything about the noble savage as perception vs. reality and their shamanic practices until reading Eliade's Shamanism. After participating in a sweat lodge ceremony and receiving powerful visions, I'm completely sold on the idea that there is a non-ordinary reality. I'm just not entirely confident of the framework that Harner provides. I can understand why the Hopi consider that all life is one. The Hopi believe that all life, animals birds, insects, trees an plants appear only in masquerade during ordinary experience, that they surely have a human-like experience in another world. Perhaps this perception sounds a little too non-rational for most people but after a shamanic experience these truisms become more and more real. In a time where we face unprecedented shifts in our way of life, a new respect for our surroundings are far from an unwelcome suggestion.

The Way of the Shaman is a good introduction to the teachings of Michael Harner, and a good introduction to shamanism in general. I'm posting a review of this book, years after he inscribed a copy of this book to me, because of some of the ridiculous, negative comments some reviewers have written. Please be aware that, "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." Do people who trash his work think these credentials were made up? Do those critics think Harner made up the bases of those credentials? Michael Harner is the most unguru of gurus I've ever met. To questions of, "How do I . . . What does this mean . . . Can I . . . I am I any good at this" or anything else you might ask, his only response, every time is "Go ask your power animal!!!" If you want to lean on him, or put him on a pedestal, he's not the guy for you. In the "Way of the Shaman" (or in one of his workshops) he tells of how he started out life as an altar boy and almost immediately became an atheist. As an anthropologist studying shamanism in the jungles of South America, he pestered the shamans so much about what journeying was like, they told him to do a journey himself. Not only did he remember the journey, unusual it itself, he told his story to the nearest Americans he could find, a pair of fundamentalist Christians, "a cut above the average" missionary. They pointed out that his journey paralleled the Book of Revelations in the Bible. (Subsequently, subversive that Michael is, he was happy to report that those Fundamentalists are now shamans.) One of the most useful distinctions he teaches is that shamans are aware that the world is divided into ordinary and non-ordinary reality. A shaman walks between these worlds. Our mainstream American culture is firmly rooted in ordinary reality. Those who dwell only in the world of non-ordinary reality might be living full-time in a lunatic asylum. Both worlds exist, whether or not we believe in them. To further clarify his work, in a conversation we had a couple of years ago, Michael reiterated that he teaches shamanic techniques for divination and healing ONLY! He certainly does not do sweat lodges or anything like that. As for those who criticize him for taking money. Well, renting or maintaining space takes money. Feeding people takes money. He also points out that shamans are hardly uncompensated for their services in traditional communities. How could they not be? If they are working as shamans, journeying between worlds, they can't be doing other kinds of work, such as bringing home the bacon, figuratively or literally, or weatherproofing whatever dwelling they live in. Shamans have the expenses of living in ordinary reality, too. It just so happens that in our culture, money is usually the medium of exchange. For those who complain that Michael promises shamanism in return for a week end and fees, go to his website and read the material on it. Is he promising or guaranteeing that people will become shamans in that time? Or is he offering people the introduction to shamanism? As far as bringing shamanism to suburbia: If someone does not introduce shamanism to suburbanites, how else will it reach them? Some of us have experiences that do not fit into an ordinary-reality paradigm. We have experiences that have no validity in suburbia or any other geographic locality in the United States. A talent for walking in non-ordinary reality is simply not a recognized gift in these here United States. If you are one of those people, it can be enormously reassuring when someone, such as Michael, validates that, yeah, there are ways of looking at the world other than what your mainstream society teaches you, that perhaps, you are not nuts, but merely a walker between worlds without knowing it. Not only are there different ways of looking at the world, there are different worlds. For those native shamans, try to place this book in context. It was published decades ago, well before a lot of stuff was available on shamanism. It was also written for those with little or no knowledge of shamanism. Your experiences and strengths may be different. Also, if you yourself are a working shaman, you probably live in a culture where your niche in life is recognized and supported, both physically and spiritually. You do not have to be introduced to the idea and reality of shamanism because your culture lives it. One of the things that Michael pointed out in one of his workshops is that as societies become more "civilized", shamans are the first to go. They are replaced by priests because power structures demand to be spiritually legitimized. People in power need need priests to validate their actions, to say, not in so many words, "Yeah, God is on my side!" Kings and princes do NOT need some shaman piping up, "Well God didn't say that on MY journey!" Try to give Michael the benefit of the doubt: Try not to approach this book with the notion that he is a charlatan, or a rip-off artist. Remember, he started out life as an altar boy, then as an educator, not a shaman. In this book, he in introducing shamanism to mainstream Western Cultures, that had no knowledge of it, or context in which to place shamanism. Remember, too, that bridging different cultures in ordinary reality is a different kind of walking between worlds.