Customer Reviews

Circle of Shaman: Healing Through Ecstasy, Rhythm, and Myth

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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Oh so pleasant! Circle of Shaman is like mead wine for the spirit. It drenches the minds eye with sweet images of the mystical experiences found in everyday life. If we only will open to them. Karen Berggren's story is an intoxicating adventure in the borderlands where the mundane and mythic worlds embrace.

Books on shamanism run the gamut from one's steeped in academic objectivity to those engulfed in spiritual narcissism and personal grandiosity. Circle of Shaman differentiates itself from these by being a heartfelt personal encounter that connects its knowledge with respected psychological and anthropological treatises. One is not required to accept that these events happened in some distant land the reader will likely never see, nor that the experiences are the result of some special quality possessed by the author. The occurrences remain plausible yet filled with wonder.

Berggren has noticed that in a universe whose existence is vibration, new states of being can be accessed by allowing ourselves to resonate with it in non-habitual ways. Knowledge specific to various states of being can thus be captured through entraining (resonating) to new rhythms. Entrainment provides a way to communicate across the thresholds separating the worlds of body, emotion, mind, and spirit. Our language is filled with metaphors for this experience like, "two hearts beating as one," or the Beach Boys "picking up good vibrations." We all know its there.

Circle of Shaman is a comfort to anyone struggling through their own "shamanic initiation," or any of the crises related to a spiritual emergence. Besides authenticating the experiences for those who have had them, Circle of Shaman is a delicious invitation for everyone to simply join in the dance.

Carlisle Bergquist

Vantage Quest

blessings, thank you for your inspiration gifted to others through your work, journeys and ecstatic love. Your book jumped off a shelf and into my life, having read half of it i embarked on my own shamanic journey and experienced the ecstacy for myself. It had me in tears on many occasions and has helped me to come to terms with my life experiences which i know look upon as lessons. from which i've learnt the skill of healing and now walk between the worlds. karen, may your journeys always be fulfilling and may the goddess always smile upon you. blessed be.

The author takes you on an intimate and compelling personal journey into the subtle dimensions of spirit and shamanic experience without sacrificing intellectual content. Her theory of the world crisis we find ourselves in acting as a collective shamanic intiation crisis was a major ah ha! for me. The second half of the book focusing on healing through drumming, dance, and ecstasy gave words to some of the ineffable and anomolous experiences I've had at drumming circles. I knew I was experiencing something positive and profound, but could never quite put my finger on what it was. I can now and I'm relieved to know I'm not just crazy. I've been able to use Ms. Berggren's suggestions to cultivate and deepen these experiences in a healing way. I highly recommend this engaging story to anyone interested in shamanism, spirit work, drumming, trance dance, or alternative healing.

What an amazing book. It deals with subjects that, until now, I had not contemplated contemplating. It was not only informative but a fun book to read. I enjoyed reading it because the stories were real, because they were told in a warm and friendly way and because they opened my eyes to new and profound possibilities.

Since reading this book two excellent things have happened to me. I contacted the author and found her to be as genuine and caring as the book implied. Secondly, I have been following its guidance and found it to work.

This is an excellent book. It is friendly and educational. It is good to read and it works. What more can one ask for?

As a student of shamanism with a secret love to dance, I had heard you could combine the two, but I wasn't sure how other than dancing my power animal. I was very excited by the possibilities of this book, that ecstatic dance offers another means to journey and have visionary experiences and I wasn't disappointed! The author's gentle but explicit guidance gave me the confidence and inspiration I needed to explore this technique. I find it works best when I'm seeking guidance for my self, or just getting in touch with the deeper healing rhythms in my body and surroundings, but I'm also beginning to use it in my journeys for others. Thanks for opening up a whole new world for me!!

I bought this book thinking that I could learn something about Shamanism.
I was terribly disappointed. The book reads like a flight of fantasy into a world of Harry Potter stories. I am sure that the authoress is dedicated to her knowledge.
Myself I have had 65 years of the knowledge of spirit and the spirit world, and healing. Constant help and direction daily from the age of 12 by spirit personalities especially by a personal Spirit Guide, and don't worry I have been a real Doubting Thomas at times. But I've been made to look really foolish because of it.
I believe that it is not helpful to introduce, as in this book, this kind of fantasy into the world of western spiritualist or occult knowledge.
Man will always laugh and denigrate such things. I have found that some people who start in mediumistic development love to float off, and talk in fantastic and estatic ventures. These people are more often than not of the female gender. And one then unusally passes over their ectastic verbalism.
This doesn't help mankind to move forward into greater knowledge of the spirit realm.
One doesn't talk in the way that the authoress talks in this book. Many of these things are kept to oneself, as they should be. I have learnt so many things about the this sort of knowledge, but have always been told by spirit to keep it to myself.
This sort of knowledge should generally be held back for those who have studied the subject of Shamanism.
Personally I had to look at all the of the websites on the Net to get a basis of the knowledge of Shamanism, so that I could get some sort of understanding of it. This book didn't give me that.
The only thing that I find is that having had 65 years of knowledge and experience with a powerful Spirit Guide giving constant guidance and help.
And with a Higher Spirit Guide ocassionlaly talking to us. I have never come across any unusual animalistic spirits, drumming, or smoke, or the need of any sort of music.
Even if uneducated levels of spirit try to upset things. As we know those types of spirit are only attracted to people who have that type of earthy personality. Like is always attracted to like.
I have always heard the Spirit Guide speaking since the age of 12, and have constantly seen spirit personalities. In fact as one gravitates to the higher realms one finds that as one purifies the spirit, there is no need for lower levels of animalistic help to direct someone.
The level of knowledge becomes more clear and pure. And when one is able to lift oneself into the state of dedicated trance there is increasingly less interference from lower entities. They have difficult interposing themselves on higher levels of spirituality.
But in the end no-one knows the level of spirituality attained by another person.

I was VERY excited about the simplicity and honesty of this book, and was prepared to call Karen "my sister". At least until I reached page 111.

Karen brought up so many subtle nuances that I and many other Shamans encountered that it was almost as if she knew me in my youth.

However; Karen honestly admits on pages 111, 120, and 158 about using Marijuana and other "psychotropic sacraments".

I am NOT a proponent of using ANY psychotropic substance (Datura, DMT, Hayascua, LSD, Peyote, or in her case Marijuana). It IS true that halucinogenics will open the doorway to the visionary experience, but IMHO the would-be Shaman loses any control over the visionary experience, and a Shaman without control over the experience is IMHO a worthless Shaman.

I am a firm believer in the philosophy that drugs are not necessary (never were necessary for me). I personaly feel that it is an insult (interpret the word sin if you prefer) to yourself and your Creator to add unnecessary toxins to your body.

I love Frank Foolscrow's reply when somoene asked him if he used peyote. His reply was "No I do not need drugs. Wakan Tanka (The name he used for the Great Spirit) can take me higher than any drug."

I encourage questions and comments about my reviews; Two Bears.

Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)