Transpersonal Psychology Review
September 1, 2008
Adam J. Rock, Stanley Krippner
Previous research concerning the relationship between the shaman’s conscious experiences and the ‘spirit world’ suggests that shamans are realists in the sense that they conceptualize their multi-layered universe (e.g., upper, middle and lower world) as real, objective and independent of the perceiver. However, these studies have neglected to analyze the logical coherence of a realist...
Anthropology of Consciousness
May 1, 2008
Zeljko Jokic
ABSTRACTThe main aim of shamanic initiation among the Yanomami people of the Upper Orinoco River region in Venezuela is the metamorphosis of the human body into a cosmic body, or what I term “corporeal cosmogenesis.” During the initiatory ordeal, the neophyte undergoes an intense experience of death through dismemberment by the spirits and subsequent rebirth, thus overcoming the human condition...
Anthropology of Consciousness
May 1, 2008
Adam J. Rock, Jessica Wilson, Luke Johnston et al.
18 citations
ABSTRACT The subjective effects and therapeutic potential of the shamanic practice of journeying is well known. However, previous research has neglected to provide a comprehensive assessment of the subjective effects of shamanic‐like journeying techniques on non‐shamans. Shamanic‐like techniques are those that demonstrate some similarity to shamanic practices and yet deviate from what may...
Social Compass
March 1, 2008
Hanneke Minkjan
Despite the fact that the Netherlands is one of the most secularized countries of Western Europe, different forms of religiosity have emerged, such as charismatic movements and alternative spirituality. Some people are seeking to find security and religious fulfilment in the complicated context of modern Dutch society through unusual, irrational and creative new spiritual practices. Neo-shaman...
Social Analysis
2008
Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer
8 citations
An analysis of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in the Russian Federation reveals a variety of village and urban reactions to crises of faith and power. The significance for group identity and instances of synergistic group belief are discussed. The transition that has seen amorphous underground shamanic practice lead to the institutionalization of shamanic cosmology is reflected in the recent...
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies
2008
Adam J. Rock, Stanley Krippner
6 citations
Attempts to elucidate the kinds of "thing" or "things" to which the term shamanic journeying image is referentially linked must grapple with two related questions: what is the fundamental nature of shamanic journeying images, and how might the origin of a shamanic journeying image be found? The first question is ontological, concerned with the nature and essence of shamanic journeying images....
Documenta Praehistorica
December 31, 2007
Jalal Rafifar
9 citations
Four seasons (1998–2002) of ethnological and archaeological researches in the northern part of the Iranian Azerbaijan have revealed hundreds of carved and scratched drawings and figures on rocks and in subterranean rock-shelters. An anthropological study reveals remarkable information about the situation and the limits of the cultural domains, the cultural relations and the process of cultural...
The Beauty of the Primitive
July 1, 2007
Andrei A. Znamenski
1 citation
Abstract The increased attention given to shamanism in humanities studies and in popular culture since the 1960s is usually associated with two names: Mircea Eliade and Carlos Castaneda. Eliade, a Romanian-born philosopher and religious scholar, released Le Chamanisme et les techniques archaiques de l'extase, the first grand treatise on shamanism, which became an academic bestseller after its...
The Beauty of the Primitive
July 1, 2007
Andrei A. Znamenski
Abstract Carlos Castaneda's first book, The Teachings of Don Juan, and two subsequent texts were described as anthropological accounts, which gave them credibility. Coming straight from the Sonoran Desert, Castaneda's ethnographic accounts could easily appear to readers to be authentic anthropology. The fact that Castaneda refused to specify the identity of his characters brought an intrigue to...
Pomegranate The International Journal of Pagan Studies
March 8, 2007
David Hill
James L. Pearson, Shamanism and the Ancient Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Archaeology (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2002), ix + 198 pp., $72 (cloth), $27.95 (paper)