The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, and the Sacred Geography of the Body [Paperback]

J. Nigro Sansonese (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1994

Long ago the ancestors of the Greeks, Romans, and Hindus were one people living on the Eurasian steppes. At the core of their religion was the "shamanic trance," a natural state but one in which consciousness achieves a profound level of inner awareness. Over the course of millennia, the Indo-Europeans divided and migrated into Europe and the Indian subcontinent. The knowledge of shamanic trance retreated from everyday awareness and was carried on in the form of myths and distilled into spiritual practices--most notably in the Indian tradition of yoga. J. Nigro Sansonese compares the myths of Greece as well as those of the Judeo-Christian tradition with the yogic practices of India and concludes that myths are esoteric descriptions of what occurs within the human body, especially the human nervous system, during trance. In this light, the myths provide a detailed map of the shamanic state of consciousness that is our natural heritage.

This book carries on from the works of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell to show how the portrayal of consciousness embodied in myth can be extended to a reappraisal of the laws of physics; before they are descriptions of the world, these laws--like myths--are descriptions of the human nervous system.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a philosophical corner of the universe somewhere in the same quadrant as David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous and Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth shines this brilliantly original, if somewhat confounding, investigation into the origin and meaning of myth. Never again will the reader be forced to ponder, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Sansonese spells it out so that even the least enlightened among us can understand--that is, if we have enough power of concentration to follow his highly complex explanations. The clapping of one hand is the sound of our own listening--the actual noises of outer space and inner place. An exploration of shamanic trance and pranayama yoga unravels mysteries of consciousness leading Sansonese to discover the sacred geography whence myth arose--it is in priopreception (subconscious physiological self-perception) that we first heard the stories and the allegories. The bulk of the book is devoted to Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian prehistorical legends as they sprang from our ancestors' anatomy. This is a fascinating read for the epistemologically curious among us, and certainly for the self-absorbed. One imagines Pogo commenting, "We have met the origins of our mythology, and he is us." --P. Randall Cohan

From Library Journal

Much like a musical composition by Claude Debussy, this is an impressionistic book, full of mythological and physiological allusions that affect the reader with "Eureka"-type discoveries. The book's organization is unorthodox, yet it succeeds in convincing the reader that there is definitely a physical connection between the human body and mythologies. Sansonese, who has practiced raja yoga for years and here shows how yoga can be used as an effective means of attaining a deeper self-consciousness, reveals himself to be a natural successor to Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. Readers in public and academic libraries who appreciate and delight in the juxtaposition of science and religion, East and West, will especially enjoy this esoteric volume.
Gary P. Gillum, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, Ut.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Inner Traditions; 1ST edition (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892814098
• ISBN-13: 978-0892814091
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,401,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Myth and Physics: An Unlikely Synthesis, May 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, and the Sacred Geography of the Body (Paperback)

In The Body of Myth, J. Nigro Sansonese compares Greek myths as well as those of the Judeo-Christian tradition with yogic trance practices. His conclusion: A myth is an esoteric description of a heightened proprioception," i.e., of what occurs within the human body, especially the human nervous system, during trance. The author shows how the human body is an atlas of mythic locale. For example, he locates Troy, Thebes, Ithaca, and Hades -- even the hill where Sisyphus struggled with the stone -- within specific areas of the body that serve as the objects of trance. In that light, myths provide a detailed map of the shamanic state of consciousness that is our natural heritage. In the concluding section, the author shows the extent to which the laws of physics share a common ground with myth in the framework of consciousness and physiology. The author noted in his introduction: "Science, we shall see, is ultimately a systematic description of the human organism. Myth properly interpreted, is the key to unlocking that description. A grand synthesis of science, consciousness, and myth - by means of yoga - is the goal of this book." Amazingly, he does it!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars READ THIS BOOK!, October 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, and the Sacred Geography of the Body (Paperback)

The author, a lecturer and practicing yogi, goes through the Old Testament, New Testament and Greek myth to build a convincing case that all myths are allegories for shamaic trance-inducing techniques. When the knowledge of these techniques was lost in western culture, the myths (like the Bible) became stories about how to behave well and keep "God" from punishing you.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Homer as Sadhaka?, July 20, 2001

By 

BlueJay54 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Body of Myth: Mythology, Shamanic Trance, and the Sacred Geography of the Body (Paperback)

The thesis of this book is that the "body of myth" is the physical body as perceived by yogis during yogic trance (samadhi). Proprioception (the "white noise" of the senses idling in the absence of external sensory input) on various anatomical regions, including the senses themselves or other bodily regions, gave rise to an esoteric body of description of interior states experienced during samadhi. These descriptions constitute the stuff of mythology. Thus, the Greek assault upon the very door of Troy represents proprioception on the skull's fissure located at the position of the third eye, the assault being the yogi's breath internally stimulating the fissure during pranayama. The work is interesting, extremely well-grounded in its familiarity with Greek mythology and Patanjali yoga, and is exemplary in its lived scholarship. Like Mircea Eliade, the author is no mere book-bound "scholar" but lives and breathes in these topics. Examples abound--but that is part of the problem. First, although all the myths discussed are capitalized (e.g., the ASSAULT ON TROY), there is nowhere a glossary summarizing these tales for the mythologically challenged. Second, like Darwin, the author argues geologically, adducing scores of examples, layer piled upon layer, that not so much convince as cause conformity from sheer pressure and the weight of example. The thesis would gain empirical support were it discovered that the ancient Greeks were familiar with yogic practices. But nothing like that is known (and is certainly unlikely prior to Alexander's 4th c. BCE Indian campaign). And the Eleusian Mysteries--the major Greek esoteric tradition--remain just that, mysteries. True, it is difficult to prove *any* thesis in *any* literary criticism, because ancient texts do not fully speak to the praxis (which was trasmitted experientially) and because texts, like the gods, are multivalent. Still, an interesting read....