The Way Of The Shaman Analysis

“The Way of the Shaman: a guide to power and healing”

In The Way of the Shaman, Michael Harner tells his story of experiences while he searches to understand the philosophy of shamanism. His story is presented in his book The way of the Shaman: a guide to power and healing in which he shares his interactions with indigenous people from the upper Amazon forest of South America as well as to western North America and Mexico. Harner takes the reader along on his shamanic journey of enlightenment. Harner begins his book with an introduction that gives a noteworthy definition a shaman. Harner’s defines a shaman as

“ whom we in the “ civilized” have called “medicine men” and “witch doctors”-are the keepers of the remarkable body of ancient techniques

that they use to achieve and maintain well-being and healing for themselves and members of their communities. He also proclaims that the ubiquitous nature of shamanism, as an account of the universal qualities of shamanism throughout time regardless of the geographical location. Furthermore, Harner states that, “These so-called primitive peoples lacked our advanced level of medical technology, so they had excellent reason to be motivated to develop the nontechnological capacities of the human mind for health and healing. The basic uniformity of shamanic methods suggests that, though trial and error people arrived at the same conclusions.”
Harner shares the story of his first fieldwork as an anthropologist on the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes among the Jivaro Indians. He said that he was able to acquire a great deal of information about their culture during his visit from 1956 to 1957, but learned little about shamanism. This paper will review Michael Harner’s story as well as his methods used to explore the healing power of shamanism and focus on Harner’s reformulation of shamanism.
Michael Harner the Scholar
Introduction: In order to understand the dynamics behind Harner’s book, a brief history of Michael Harner professional life must be shared. He taught anthropology in the Graduate Faculty of the New School for social Research in New York, was the Cochairman of the Anthropology section of the New York Academy of Sciences, was a visiting professor at Columbia, Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, and where he received his PH.D. He also served as assistant director of the Lowie Museum of Anthropology. In addition to this Harner is the author of several books and is currently acting as the director of the Center for Shamanic Studies, which he founded. Harner also continues to do research to further develop the principles and practices of core shamanism and is actively involved in teaching Westerners how to live and practice as shamanic healers throughout the world. (Harner)
Harner’s First Journey
Harner writes that he was invited by the American Museum of Natural History to make a year-long expedition to the Peruvian Amazon to study the culture of the Conibo Indians of the Ucayali River region in 1960 and 1961. It was during this fieldwork that Harner says that he had catalytic experiences that led to his discovering the way of the shaman. He notes that the Conibo and Jivoro people that he was living with were very friendly, but did not talk freely about the supernatural Nonetheless, he was later told by Tomás, elder of the village that if he really wished to learn, He “must take the shaman’s sacred drink made of ayahuasca, the soul vine.” Harner accepted the challenge. Harner bartered a rifle and bullets as a form of payment in order to acquire knowledge about shamanism. Later that night the people and the animals of the village were quieted and Harner partook of the shamanic potion. Harner described the effect of the ayahuasca as creating a feeling of moving numbness. He wrote, “As my eyes seemed to adjust to the gloom, the moving scene resolved itself into something resembling a huge fun house, a supernatural carnival of demons. In the center, presiding over the activities and looking directly at me, was a gigantic, grinning crocodilian head, from whose cavernous jaws gushed a torrential flood of water.”
Upon recovering Harner’s first shamanic mission, his first task was to seek council from his secure cultural attachment base. They were a couple of evangelist at the local mission. He was told by them that his experience was very similar to events that happened in the Book of Revelation concerning a war in heaven. He then went back to the village to get feedback about his journey from what he called a supernaturally knowledgeable blind shaman. According to Harner, this shaman had experienced many excursions into the spirit world with the aid of the ayahuasca drink. Harner recounted his adventure to the blind shaman and was told that he had seen “the true masters of the world.” The shaman was very impressed by Harner’s story. The shaman also told Harner that he had not encountered anyone who had learned so much on his first ayahuasca journey. In addition to this the blind shaman told him, “You can surely be a master shaman.” According to Harner, this was the catalytic event that caused him to seriously study shamanism. Harner says that evidence of consistent findings exists in reference to basic shamanism knowledge; however it was largely eradicated by the inquisition. Harner felt that in order for a shaman to perform he needed power from his guardian helper or and helping spirits. According to shamanic teachings a true shaman experiences visionary states of consciousness to travel to inner worlds and are able to connect with humanlike creatures.
Harner’s Shamanic Findings
During this experience Harner said that the creature he encountered “were the true masters of humanity and the planet. We humans were the receptacles and servants of these creatures. For this reason they could speak to me from within myself.” Some of Harner’s other key findings include the fact that suffering was a required to draw the helping apparitions into one’s realm of existence. Harner also states that when engaging in shamanic practice, one moves between an Ordinary State of Consciousness (OSC) and a Shamanic state of Consciousness (SSC). He goes on to say that these states of consciousness are the key to understanding “Ordinary reality” and “Nonordinary reality.” The difference in these states of consciousness can be illustrated by referring to animals. Let’s consider a creature such as a dragon. It would be considered by us as ‘mythical’ when in an OCS state, but when one is in a SSC this creature is real and generally a useful helper to the shaman. In addition, near death experiences are a qualifier for those seeking the path of shamanism. During the first attempt to discover the way of the shaman Harner was actually poisoned with ayahuasca and had to be given an antidote to recover. And finally there are Practices that assist in inducing SSC, which include singing, dancing and drumming.
New Shamanism in the making
“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 what shaman”
-Stanislav Grof, M.D.,

In contrast Harner’s reformulation of shamanism differed from the ways of the Conibo and Jivoro shaman.

It lacked key components of the ancient practices of shamanism. For example, the use of prerecorded songs, rattles, and drums could all clear the pathway to a SSC for the “new shaman” on his spirit journey. Suffering was not required to appease the masters and spirit helpers anymore. A simplified version of shamanic techniques and exercises could be used to achieve altered states of consciousness. Essentially, anyone could become a shaman, by simply following Harner’s basic shamanic methods of restoring and maintain personal power without the use of faith or the aid of the shaman’s sacred

drink.
Conclusion
There are a number of inherent quality issues associated with Harner’s initial fieldwork. The first being, that he used questionable objective competence based research. This can be seen in several ways. His use of descriptors such as “primitive” when writing about the native people and their practices resounds throughout his book. Secondly, flawed procedure can be seen by his participation in the shamanistic rituals which included his use of a known hallucinogen such as ayahuasca, piripiri, maikua tea and tobacco water. It should be noted that ayahuasca is a tropical vine native to the Amazon region, known for its hallucinogenic properties. He used his recollection of mentally altered states of his own and others as a basis for his fieldwork findings. It was here that it became very “difficult to distinguish the spurious from the effective”. (Harner). Harner’s colonialistic approaches to shamanism devalued the quality of his work and allowed a detailed and intimate understanding of the context of shamanism to be undermined. Harner initially says he wants to share his basic discoveries of the shamanic hidden worlds to shamanic explorers; however, it morphed into something of a more materialistic nature.
In 1987 Harner left the scholarly community to devote The Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

Harner’s desire of financial gain was now disguised as his advocacy of shamanism as a guide to power and healing. It appears that Harner became trapped in a cyclic loop. His primary focus was to attempt to experience the high he felt after his first shamanic journey, in a manner that could be easily sold to the American middle- class as a profit making machine for further development of his foundation for shamanic studies. Harner is one of a long list of scholars who have exploited cultural phenomenon for personal gain. He simply gathered the essentials, reconfigured and reformulated them so that he could claim it as his own. Harner’s desire to enhance human understanding was lost along the way and instead exchanged for a capitalistic approach to human understanding. Harner’s disregarding of the culturally secretive nature of shamanism among the native people, left him vulnerable to being misinformed. His superiority based view made him assume that these conquered people would be willing to reveal the true essence of their coveted practices with an outsider. That being said, Harner took several creative liberties when writing about his

findings
More important is that the functions of and the techniques of ancient shamanism and modern shamanism have very distinct differences when answering the question of why we are here. At the end of the day both shamanism and western medicine have the same quest. We all dream for prosperity and long