Shamans, Healers, and Medicine Men

Simply one of the best surveys of shamanism available, along with Kalweit's first volume, Dreamtime and Inner Space.

Whether you're interested in the ethnographic aspects of shamanism or in the practice of it, this book is chocked with fascinating information and revelatory insights. Even though I just read the book carefully (underlining and notating along the way), I've already started re-reading it because there was so much to mull over. This second reading is just as engaging. Kalweit is an ethnologist and psychologist, and he adeptly blends both fields in this book. He has studied shamanism himself, so far from being coldly academic, the book offers working understandings of shamanic cultures. It's engrossing while being outrageously informed about the hidden aspects of indigenous life. Finally, Kalweit manages to make this book relevant. Seemingly "primitive" or antiquated wisdom is turned inside out and fits effortlessly over modern life. For instance, his fascinating discussion on trance states eases into the realization that every state of being is a trance state, including the one we use for ordinary reality. Whether we're watching television, operating in the world through our cultural conditioning, or eating absently (or in full thrall), we're in a trance state. I have no doubt that this book will yield new insights no matter how often I read it.

Excellent book written from the perspective of the accounts from historical records. Lots of wisdom of shamans direct from their own words. The author guides you through all the aspects of shamanisn in the words of the shamans themselves. Very well done and categorized by subject. I learned alot from this book. Why I am called a shaman in traditional sense. This book taught me that a traumatic life threatening situation CAN change your life!