Customer Reviews

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology)

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This book is the ultimate book for understanding the beliefs and practices of Shamanism, written by one of the world's foremost experts on religion and sociology. I cannot stress to you enough how thoroughly Eliade manages to cover the subject. A good portion of the book focuses on the Shamanic traditions of Siberia and Central Asia, the heartlands of Shamanism. Amongst the Mongols, Yakut, Chuckchi, Saami (Lapps) and other people of that region Shamanism was first observed, and is stil practiced today in many regions. Eliade goes into great depth about the beliefs and symbolism, about the clothing and ornamentation, about the meaning of ritual tools and amulets and much more. Everything from the axis mundi to ecstasy and trance states to helper spirits to Shamanic ideas of death and illness is covered in superb detail. But Eliade goes far beyond a simple survey of Shamanic beliefs and practices, almost literally taking you into the world of the Shaman. After reading this book, you will understand the Shamanic mindset and world view far more than you ever thought. And, as I said, Eliade goes far beyond the traditional forms of Shamanism in Siberia and Central Asia. In this encyclopedic work, Eliade explores the Shamanic traditions of the Americas (North and South), Australia, Indonesia, Oceania, Tibet, China and beyond. Even the Shamanic traditions of the ancient Indo-Euorpeans, such as the Greek myth of Orpheus, Persian views of the after world and the Germanic God Odin, are given treatment. This book is very lengthy, well written, extensivily bibliographed and filled with detailed accounts and accurate information on virtually all facets of Shamanism. I cannot recommend this book enough. Even after all these years, "Shamanism" remains perhaps the definitive book on Shamanic beliefs and thought. To truely understand Shamanism and its role in Siberia/Central Asia, you must read this book.

I agree whole-heartedly with the many earlier reviewers who have praised this extraordinary book. However, it has given rise to some controversies, and prospective purchasers might as well be aware of them. Given the richness of the volume, I consider them minor, but a chorus of praise invites disappointment.

First of all, the original French edition was in 1951 (and was one of the author's post-war works apparently not written in his native Romanian). The revised and updated English translation (the fine work of Willard Trask) first appeared in the Bollingen series in 1964. Princeton University Press issued the Bollingen edition in paperback in 1972, and this appears to be the version currently in print. Hence, it is, obviously, more than a little out of date bibliographically. Some people are troubled by this, but there is no way the book could have been expanded to deal with the explosion of research and publications which followed its appearance (although about two hundred titles, mainly post-1948, were added to the 1964 bibliography and notes). Just be aware that it may not mention something important.

[Since this review was originally posted, the MYTHOS edition for which it was written has been replaced by a new Princeton printing (January 2004), with a preface by Wendy Doniger, describing the book's importance and limitations with clarity and considerable authority. (She is the Mircea Eliade Distingiushed Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago.)]

Also because of the book's age, Eliade still used terms and ideas which were common in European scholarship in the first half of the century, but have been largely abandoned since, and in some cases never made much of an impression on the English-speaking scholarly world. He takes for granted the ancient Babylonian origin of several ideas about the cosmos, some of which the "Pan-Babylonian" school seems to have been reading into ancient texts. This has some importance for his attempts to trace the diffusion and relative ages of certain ideas. He also uses (and doesn't really define) cultural descriptions like "Palaeo-Arctic" which originated in anthropological theories current in the 1920s. This is where the age of the book really is important to keep in mind.

Of more importance are some of his working assumptions about the nature of Shamanism. Correctly observing that the word entered western European languages from Russian, which had borrowed it from Siberian tribes, he tends to regard the reindeer-herders of the Eurasian sub-Arctic as the model of "true" shamanism, in relation to which other, similar, phenomena, are to be classed. This is reasonable, but, as he sometimes suggests, the Siberian forms have a complex history of their own, and cannot be taken as primitive. It should also be kept in mind than the assumption that reindeer herding was an early precursor of full domestication has been challenged. If it is a secondary imitation of southern pastoral systems, the pristinely archaic nature of the cultures based on it cannot be taken for granted, and their internal history is not independent either.

Because many Siberian forms involve elaborate physical (and sometimes verbal) gymnastics, culminating in a trance state, while others consist only in a trance state, often chemically induced, he treats the latter as secondary (and "degenerate") offshoots. It is easier to see the difficult and complex form being simplified than it is to see a pure trance developing into a demanding theatrical display, but it is not demonstrable. However, Eliade did not intend it as a contribution to later debates over psychedelic drugs, even if it has been read as such. (Eliade doesn't help matters by citing as corroboration for his view the widespread claim that in the "good old days" shamans didn't just dance their flights to the otherworld, they were seen flying through the air!) A very different view is suggested Gordon Wasson's studies of the Vedic Soma, which he relates to the use of fly agaric mushrooms as an intoxicant by the reindeer-herders Eliade invokes for the opposite purpose. In I.M. Lewis' several studies of ecstatic religions he rather brusquely dismisses Eliade's position; one would have hoped for a fuller response.

Finally, Eliade treats out-of-body experiences ("Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy") as definitive of shamanism, and spirit-possession as a side issue. However, possession experiences do seem to be central in several cultures which are commonly described as shamanist, and the distinction may be more important to Eliade's need to limit the material than to anything else.

I would also add that Eliade's copious material on shamanic initiation experiences bears a striking resemblance to some accounts of extra-terrestrial abductions and medical experiments. How did Fox Mulder miss this?

Mircea Eliade's foundational work 'Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy' is a massive 648 page resource work that was first published in '51. Now some fifty-five years later it's still the authoritative reference work on the history, beliefs and practices of shamanic cultures.

By the way, just in case you were initially attracted by the subtitle 'Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy' let me warn you, it's not that kind of book. Or if you're looking for some entertaining reading the likes of Carlos Castaneda filled with vivid, exotic first-hand accounts of interaction with the spirits you'll be disappointed. This is a scholarly reference work designed for serious students in sociology, anthropology, psychology and the history of religion. There's nothing exciting here, unless you find knowledge something to get excited about.

So if you're serious about the subject of shamanic magical practices and beliefs than this is a must own volume for your library. However when it comes time to read it be sure to have a very large glass of water close at hand. It's as dry and dusty a read as you'll ever find.

This book is considered the classic in its field. It's focus is on traditional shamanism worldwide. Contemporary writers such as Michael Harner and Tom Cowan have written more accessible books about the practice of core shamanism. I recommend that individuals seeking a general overview of shamanism begin with those authors and come back to this book for indepth scholarship.

Eliade's book is widely acknowledged to be the definitive work of scholarship on shamanism. It deserves its reputation.

Shamanism is mostly comparative anthropology, describing shamanistic systems from all over the world and relating them to what Eliade considers to be the paradigmatic type, namely, Siberian shamanism.

The shamanic universals are of considerable interest in themselves, not just as evidence of some ancient pan-cultural Ur-religion (although as such they also make interesting thought-fodder). They include initiation experiences (almost always involving the oneiric dismemberment of the shaman by demons), a history of self-healing (frequently the young shaman must and does cure himself of epilepsy or some other such condition), equipment and regalia used, beliefs about the nature and structure of the spirit world, and the claim by twentieth-century practitioners that a few generations back some catastrophe caused a degeneration in the powers shamans are able to command.

The portrait Eliade evokes of the practicing shaman is fascinating, but I have to admit that I read this book as much for insight into the interaction between the human brain and mind as for anthropology. Admittedly dry at times, Shamanism more than repays the effort required to take it in.

As with everything Mircea Eliade wrote, "Shamanism" is a model of a form of scholarship that has all but disappeared in current religious studies. He combines exhaustive thoroughness and faultless analysis, with the sincerest respect for his subject. There is no hint of reductionism, neither of the tiresome and sophomoric urge to subordinate religion to some other discipline (e.g., science or politics). Eliade is as high-minded as he is pains-taking, a very rare combination. Ultimately, I cannot agree with him on his characterization of what shamanic ecstasy is in practice, but no other book influenced me so much in my own work on myth and shamanism, unless it was Eliade's other magisterial landmark work on Yoga.

He didn't really understand that the shaman works less with ritual than with transpersonal power, nor was he right in saying that the shaman always uses "ecstatic" levels of consciousness. Even so, this book remains THE outstanding classic in the history of shamanic studies. Reading it really gives one the sense of shamanism's crosscultural and worldwide validity....and its crucial differences from the bastardized workshop variety so popular just now in America.

Eliade's work, which I first read at university, achieves something quite unique - it's completely scholarly, and yet never loses its deep sense of respect for, or awareness of, its core topic - the search for the divine in earlier cultures, from the Australian aborigines to Eskimos.

Indeed, Eliade's survey reveals the remarkable world-wide commonality of the major Shamanic traditions - death/resurrection within 3 days of initiation, mastery of fire, descent into the underworld and magical flight (shades of Jesus?).

In its humanity and understanding, it matches Geza Vermes' "Jesus the Jew", which explores the multiplicity of revelatory traditions in the biblical Holy Land. Both books enhance the majesty and importance of their central subjects by emphasising that nothing profound or sacred springs from a vacuum.

In short, "Shamanism" is a treasure that one can re-open on any page at any time, and find new wonders.

Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Princeton, 1951)

I didn't keep count of how many times during this survey Eliade says he's just touching on the very surface of the scholarship of a given topic, or that in the limited space provided, he can only manage the barest mention of something. Eliade's "few comments" (p. 511) and fifty plus pages of bibliography, if he is to be believed, are a quick overview on shamanism as it has been practiced for the past two and a half millenia, covering six of the seven continents and thousands of years.

Shamanism is a survey, not a new work; Eliade, here, only attempts to distill what he and others have written in the past, to give the prospective student or researcher an idea of where to begin on a specific topic. As such, the book may not be meant to be read all the way through. Taken as a whole, however, it's an interesting and thought-provoking document about not only shamaism, but many deeper issues; the migration of man over two and a half thousand years, cultural "degeneration" (Eliade's word), the Judeo-Christian tradition and its heavy borrowing from religions that pre-dated it, etc. While Eliade's writing is often thick, it's certainly understandable by the layman, as always (one of the things which made Eliade a consistently popular and well-read anthropologist). It requires a leisurely pace and a good deal of reflection, but is ultimately worth the time (in my case, five and a half months) it takes to finish.

I was assigned this text at a UCLA extension course in 1976. It provided me with a general understanding of shamanism and realization that the practice is not restricted to any one part of the globe. It is cultural phenomena common to all humankind.

I've lost my copy and long for another. It's been twenty years since I read the book, however it made a big impression on me, searching bookshops for all these years. (This course, by the way, was visited by a surprise guest, Carlos Castaneda, who started his research under the guidance of Dr. Clem Meighan at UCLA.)

I'll write another review after receiving a copy this year, 1998.