Customer Reviews

Entering the Circle: Ancient Secrets of Siberian Wisdom Discovered by a Russian Psychiatrist

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1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am by no means a shaman, and I don't want to get caught in a debate over the authenticity of this book, but I can make a few comments that might be helpful. I had the opportunity to hear the author interviewed on the radio. I taped the interview and listened to it several times, both before and after I read the book. One thing that is not in doubt is that this woman is highly intelligent, articulate, and unaffected. She is an MD and also a psychiatrist, and whether you think much of those fields or not, a manipulative fool she is not. She was much more intelligent than the woman who was interviewing her. She was also completely spontaneous and candid about her experiences. Please note also that she remarks in the beginning of her book that she condensed her experience for the sake of better story flow. Also note that Umai did (does?) speak Russian. I found this book way way more believable than Castenada (and of more value!) but the final word on what is 'real' and 'not real' in the human experience will have to come from someone else.

I give my opinion as a shaman trained in Buryat Mongolian shamanic traditions. While Ms. Kharitidi's book is the first popular book in the English language that handles the topic of Siberian shamanism, it is nevertheless not a true reflection of Siberian shamanic beliefs. The Altai share almost identical shamanic beliefs and customs with the Buryats and I found very little in this book that was familiar. I did find a lot of ideas drawn from contemporary Russian mysticism, which has nothing in common with Siberian shamanism. If one reads carefully one realizes that the author's contact with the shamaness Umai (I question this name because it is the name of the Siberian womb goddess and not a name given to human babies) is very limited--less that 24 hours--and they were unable to communicate because they had no language in common. The writer's supposed apprenticeship to the shaman is based on a series of dreams, not that I as a shaman discount the value of dreams, but this nevertheless seems to be a rather shaky basis on which to base her teachings. If you want to read a book that presents authentic Siberian shamanic beliefs and practices try Riding Windhorses by Sarangerel. You will learn very little about real Siberian shamanism if you read Dr. Kharitidi's book.

Olga Kharitidi is a Russian physician and psychiatrist now residing in the USA. She was born in Siberia and worked for some years in a Novosibirsk psychiatric hospital. She has traveled in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Siberia in search of secrets of healing, long the property of isolated, ethnic enclaves which she believes can have a global impact on mental and physical well-being. Dr. Kharatidi first encountered such hidden knowledge of healing in a seemingly chance encounter with a `kam' (shaman) in the Altai, a mountainous region of Siberia that increasingly appears to be the source of many of the world's mystical traditions.

Northern Asia, particularly Siberia is regarded as the 'locus classicus' of shamanism. It is inhabited by many strikingly different ethnic groups and many of its Uralic, Altaic, and Paleosiberian peoples observe shamanistic practices even in modern times and many classical ethnographic sources of "shamanism" have been recorded among Siberian peoples. According to historical research, many civilizations had begun their migrations across our Earth from this area. Human settlements dating back as far as 300,000 years - long before the remotest thought of recorded history - have been found there. Legends say that this region, called "the navel of the Earth" is energetically connected with outer space, the name of the chief goddess of the region being the Altaic word for the star system known to us as the Pleiades.

Coterminous with the land of Altai there exists according to legend the realm of Belovodia - the blessed land - a fabled Shamballa-like civilization of highly spiritually evolved beings devoted to guiding the planet's destiny; apparently however one can see the entrance to Belovodia only whilst in a modified state of consciousness as it is said to lie in a different dimension. And one can visit only at the express invitation of Belovodia's enlightened inhabitants.

The orthodox, materialistic views of health, and indeed of reality, so long inculcated by her upbringing, education and work in the then-USSR were challenged by her serendipitous experiences with the living traditions she met in snowbound Siberia, meeting people and undergoing experiences that reinforced her sense of an ancient and hidden knowledge of healing, that it might be possible to bring out into the open, if it could be done in the right way. Of the nature of trauma as transformation and development, she writes, 'Ancient cultures understood that human life is a journey with inherent transitions that are innately traumatic, and need to be managed.

Dr. Kharitidi's debut book, "Entering the Circle," is a remarkable account of her spiritual adventure over the course of a few days and the long process of her integrating the transformative experiences she underwent into her life and work.

Joining an ailing friend on a spontaneous trip to the Atai Mountains, Dr. Kharitidi is taken into apprenticeship by Umai, a native Shaman who guides her through a series of (to her) bizarre, magical, and often terrifying experiences that open her eyes to a wellspring of deeper learning and another facet of reality. On the road to Belovodia, she encounters revolutionary mystical teachings while discovering ancient secrets of magic and healing, even of the conquest of physical death, that had been the exclusive property and practice of a lineage of shamans. Returning to her life as an urban professional, the author finds some of her experiences in the Altai confirmed as fact by a physicist friend deeply involved in quantum research.

At once a modern odyssey and a timeless dreamscape, "Entering the Circle" is an inspiring story of personal growth and an insightful work about the limitless potential of human spirit.

Olga Kharitidi is a gifted storyteller. She invites the reader to taste, smell, hear and see the Landscape and people of another time and dimension.

I have read this book three times and found that I got something different from it each time. First, the narrative of her amazing experiences was compelling and carried me along much as good novel does. I was intrigued by her willingness to recount her subjective experiences with such confidence. Many of us with paranormal experiences hesitate to expound on them so openly - risking ridicule and perhaps even ostracism - as well as the fact that we often discount our own (subjective) experiences because we lack an external "objective" validation of them.

The second and third readings found me paying more attention to the lessons and wisdom and questions of people she describes - the shaman Umai, the Russian physicist, and those she meets in her subjective experience reveal interesting and widely varied perspectives.I believe you will find Olga Kharitidi fascinating as well.

Ms. Kharitidi's account is very engaging and very readable. The skeptic in me wondered occasionally if the material was hers or a compilation of several of her patients; in any case one tends to believe the experiences are true regardless of whether the propositions (world view) therein are. The book inspires us to realize (1) that the GREATER "reality" is much richer in content and possibility than our scientific and religious traditions proclaim, (2) that we would do better to insist on less certainty, and (3) that there is more inside of us than outside of us. I ask myself, who am I to rate this sort of book? I would have given it five stars except that my little ego objected that while Ms. Kharitidi suggested WHAT is out there (in here), she did not give me instructions on HOW to follow her.

I was hooked within seconds by the compelling story. As someone who has lived and worked in Russia I can vouch for the authenticity of the living conditions of ordinary Russian people.

For me this book was exciting to read like The Celestine Prophecy but it seemed that it was so much deeper. I gained deep insight into possible causes of negative human behaviour linked to trauma which damages the soul energy. The cures of deeply disturbed patients are profound and I had to smile at Olga's way of making her ancient shamanic practices acceptable to her stern Russian colleagues by describing them as experimental dissociative techniques!

A book about a medical doctor who has crossed the boundary into esoteric healing practices which could have profound implications for all people trying to understand where their negative behavior patterns come from. I would be delighted if she would visit the UK to share her experiences with likeminded people.

An interesting venture into Russian mysticism perhaps, not nothing to do with shamanism as practiced by Siberian peoples in past or present. Belovodia is a Russian concept, as is most of what Ms Kharitidi has to say. She seems to have spent virtually no time in the Altai, and people there say that shamanic initiation simply doesn't happen the way she says. She does no service to Siberian peoples by hanging her ideas onto them. The people of the Altai indeed have rich spiritual traditions worth getting to know.

A medical practitioner's meeting with shamanism in the wilds of Siberia is a story that is both authenicated by her background and the fact that she recieved healing for problems that medicine could not even fathom. This author writes her story from a very personal perspective and I find no reason not to believe her experience with one of the oldest methods of healing that the human species posesses. Read this and find yourself in a another world of experience and knowledge. This work contributes to the archives of human healing methods and knowledge that are important to human survival and connectedness.

Stop massing with the masses and come eye-to-eye with your own reflection. Discover what Olga Kharitidi did during her journey into the Kam Kingdom of Siberia: you are the mystery behind the mystery of this thing we call life. In Olga's journey from psychiatrist to visionary we discover that psychotic and psychic are cousins of the same reality. Both worlds respected and neither feared by the masters of the mission. Whether we call them Shamans or Kams they each serve the same cause - to help lift the veil, to help each of us engage our potential for shared humanity. In this refreshing read, we as the audience have the opportunity to experience a unique story as told by one human. Rather than re-digesting the Western pronounciation of new age wisdom 'enter the circle' and experience mysticism first hand. If you're tired of listening to the flapping of other mouths and ready to hear the inner voice which yerns to be set free then order this book today. The only hidden agenda is the one lurking within each of us. L. Sauls (space@marsweb.com)

Many have dis-liked this book, feeling that it is not valid, and a pure fictional account. This is not what I found, so much as it is an account of Siberian magick from the viewpoint of a first-timer. There are many assumtions made, and literary additions that seem unlikely, but at the core the methods described are the same as found in many reference books about Siberian magick - she may have even intended to compile information from other books into a narrative extraction for the sake of readability. I happen to find prose much more readable than the tombs of 'scholarly' reference books, and this book takes about one day to finish. All in all, a worthwhile glimpse into Siberian magick. Just dont use this as a reference for practicing it - let it spark the interest, and then get more accurate books if it was interesting.