Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasies, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans

Rating:
Summary: I question this author's intent and premise...a strange book
Review: This is one of those interesting books written by an academic mind who yearns to be part of authentic spiritual experience but just can't make the leap himself. Because he is stuck in the domain of the scholar, and can't quite cross the bridge into firsthand mystical and shamanic experience himself, the only thing left for him to do, as author, is to pick apart his subject--in this case, shamanism--with a rather "slice and dice" approach. The book is like an unveiling of his unconscious desires to experience these realities, but since he doesn't he can only attack them. This is a book that claims to respect contemporary shamanic practitioners, yet the author dismisses, left and right, the authentic shamanism and shamanic practice that is re-emerging among Western peoples and cultures where these arts have been supressed. Western culture is a diseased culture, one profoundly marked by an addictive consumerism, a continuing ethos of global imperialism, and a rather one-dimensional existence devoid of spirit and soul. Shamanism, and even Wallis' so-called "neo-shamanism" (is it "neo" if it is re-emerging according to the same patterns as the ancient times?) offers a profound antidote to these ailments. However, Wallis, in his rather Anglo-philic view on things seems to do nothing in this work but exercise (or rather seek to exorcise) the rather large chip on his shoulder by attacking some of the foremost proponents and tried and true practitioners of shamanic consciousness, healing, and vision in the modern milieu. Among the people he seems determined to flay is Michael Harner (founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies) who will one day be considered the Freud of our time, or the D.T. Suzuki of our time, for re-introducing the shamanic journey into modern life as a problem-solving tool; and Frank McEowen/MacEwen (sp.?) (an Irish-American shamanic teacher recoginized as a shamanic wisdomkeeper, not only by traditional Irish healers and seers for bringing aspects of the Celtic and pre-Celtic shamanic traditions of Ireland into the public eye, but also by indigenous shamans). When I was done reading this book, honestly, the only thing I was left with were questions about the overall intent and premise of its author. If you're genuinely interested in shamanic readings that do not criticize modern Western practitioners, or make racist attacks against Celtic descendents trying to bring back aspects of their visionary traditions, I recommend the writings of Holger Kalweit, Dreamtime and Inner Space, and Hank Wesselman, a Western anthropologist who is both scientist and shamanic practitioner.