Shamanism: An Expanded View of Reality (Quest Book)

Rating:
Summary: Very Nice Overall Read
Review: I'm not quite sure how to categorize this book. Its really a nice little collection of brief essays concerning Shamanism in some way shape or form. I believe no few of which appeared in Shaman's Drum (a wonderful magazine in and of itself). There are alot of names you'd expect to see in such a book: Mihaly Hoppal, Joan Halifax, Mircea Eliade, Michael Harner, Serge King, etc. Overall thats a pretty broad scope there, from New Age neo-shamanism to social scientists, so you get a variety of perspectives.
Each article contributes something else to the overall books. There are articles about shamanism and madness, the ecstatic state, ESP and other paranormal phenomena as relating to shamanism, dreams, the question of whether shamanism is archaeic or modern, Native American prayer pipes, shamanism and Theosophy, the role of shaman as adventurer (filled with info on traditional African and Hawai'ian culture) and so forth. Other articles focus in on specific traditions, so that we get articles on the Tamang Shaman of Nepal, Australian aboriginal medicine men, and perhaps most unusual of all an article by Rabbi Yonassan Gersham on Jewish Shamanism, interperting Prophets from Ezekiel to the Baal Shem Tov (founder of the Hasidic movement) as shaman. There are also a couple articles on famous healers such as Rolling Thunder and Wallace Black Elk (who is actually more New Age pseudo-Shaman than anything else).
Overall, this is a very nice book to read, especially if you are interested in history, religion, archaeology, anthropology or so forth. The articles are all relatively short and easy reads, and many of them present some very unique perspectives. Overall worth getting.