Shamans, Healers & Medicine Men [Paperback]

Holger Kalweit (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1977

The author of Dreamtime and Inner Space shows that Western medicine and psychology have much to learn from the primal healing methods of shamans. As Kalweit surveys the shamans' training methods and consciousness-developing techniques, he also draws comparisons between the accounts of shamans and those of Western researchers into near-death experiences, "spiritual emergencies," and other altered states of consciousness.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In relating the practices of primal healing within world cultures, Kalweit emphasizes the need for modern science to look to primordial stages to understand the "paralogical, paradoxical processes of life." The book, originally published in German in 1987, does not show the reader how to become a shaman but gives accounts of initiations into altered states of consciousness, which made an individual a healer. Healers develop their unique talents through a variety of inner journeys, some of which include fasting, meditations, and/or lightning. Through the knowledge transferred during inner journeys, shamans are able to heal. Kalweit relates the need for the physiological and biochemical study of visionary experience and the possibility of using archaic practices as healing therapy for modern humanity. For scholarly collections.
- L. Kriz, Sioux City P.L., Ia.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala Pubns (December 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570626561
• ISBN-13: 978-1570626562
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,617,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars [e-mail], September 4, 2000

By 

robert sandoval (fountain valley, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shamans, Healers & Medicine Men (Paperback)

Excellent book written from the perspective of the accounts from historical records. Lots of wisdom of shamans direct from their own words. The author guides you through all the aspects of shamanisn in the words of the shamans themselves. Very well done and categorized by subject. I learned alot from this book. Why I am called a shaman in traditional sense. This book taught me that a traumatic life threatening situation CAN change your life!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, April 13, 2009

By 

Sun Mi Kim (Northern CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shamans, Healers, and Medicine Men (Paperback)

Whether you're interested in the ethnographic aspects of shamanism or in the practice of it, this book is chocked with fascinating information and revelatory insights.

Even though I just read the book carefully (underlining and notating along the way), I've already started re-reading it because there was so much to mull over. This second reading is just as engaging.

Kalweit is an ethnologist and psychologist, and he adeptly blends both fields in this book. He has studied shamanism himself, so far from being coldly academic, the book offers working understandings of shamanic cultures. It's engrossing while being outrageously informed about the hidden aspects of indigenous life.

Finally, Kalweit manages to make this book relevant. Seemingly "primitive" or antiquated wisdom is turned inside out and fits effortlessly over modern life. For instance, his fascinating discussion on trance states eases into the realization that every state of being is a trance state, including the one we use for ordinary reality. Whether we're watching television, operating in the world through our cultural conditioning, or eating absently (or in full thrall), we're in a trance state.

I have no doubt that this book will yield new insights no matter how often I read it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, July 10, 2009

By 

Herr Doktor (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shamans, Healers, and Medicine Men (Paperback)

Simply one of the best surveys of shamanism available, along with Kalweit's first volume, Dreamtime and Inner Space.