Customer Reviews

Bone Games: Extreme Sports, Shamanism, Zen, and the Search for Transcendence

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Don't be deceived by the title. This book leaps beyond mere 'games' and instead zeroes in on a wide spectrum of outdoor adventurers. The author, Rob Schultheis, compares a wide spectrum of athletic psyches to himself, hoping to explain the lure to nature's most extreme challenges. His writing may stray from scientific methods, but his anecdotal and personal style is engaging and often based in Eastern philosophies. Overall, a solid collection of musings in a topic rarely navigated, sprinkled with harrowing accounts of unbelievable triumphs and near-misses.

This book is an old favourite of mine. When I came across it on sale a few years ago in the Daedalus catalogue, I bought a bunch of copies to give to friends, mostly martial arts types. This book is not about martial arts per se, I can't help feeling that what Mr. Schultheis has to say is important to all martial artists and those involved with peak athletic performance. While mainly focused on high-risk sports and survival situations, I think most readers will be fascinated by his obsessive search for the consummate mind-set in which the seemingly impossible is accomplished with ease.

Schultheis is a runner and a climber, and when climbing in the Colorado Rockies, he had a bad fall which triggered a kind of peak experience. As he describes it: "Something happened on that descent, something I have tried to figure out ever since, so inexplicable and powerful it was. I found myself very simply doing impossible things: dozens, scores of them, as I climbed down Neva's lethal slopes. Shattered, in shock, I climbed with the impeccable sureness of a snow leopard, a mountain goat."

This experience sets the author off on a quest to find the key to this altered state of consciousness. And what a quest it is! He ranges from Shamanism to long-distance running, mountaineering in Nepal, Plains Indian vision quests, and survival at sea. He doesn't specifically deal with martial arts, but the state of consciousness he seeks is known by various terms such as "muga-mushin" and "heijoshin" in the Japanese Martial Arts. More recently Mihaly Cziksentmihaly has researched what he calls the "Flow" state and written extensively on it. While Schultheis doesn�ft seem to come to any firm conclusions, it's certainly not through a lack of effort, and it sure is fun being along for the ride.

Also an old favorite of mine. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to get more juice or joy out of their sports and/or adventures. I'm an endurance runner and when my running gets stale I pick up Bone Games and re-read it for a refresher on how to keep my running interesting and exciting. Anyone who enjoys sports, including hiking, running, climbing, adventure racing or whatever would get value out of this one. Anyone who enjoys a good adventure story would like it as well. It's well written, interesting, and therefore, easy and quick to read.

A mix between Brad Lewis' "Assault on Lake Casitas", Heart of Darkness, Walden and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". Throw in some JOhn Muir and youre set. A kindred spirit of anyone who has ever found a balm for existential anxiety in testing the limits of the human body and spirit.

I found this book very intresting and would recommend it to anyone intrested in "the search for transcendence". The reading is easy and flows well.