Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences (A Midland Book) [Hardcover]

Felicitas D. Goodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1990 | Series: A Midland Book

"The book is clearly written for the general reader and includes many descriptions of trance experiences. It may serve as a good introduction to the nature and appeal of the shamanic revival in modern Western cultures." —Theological Book Review

"... a case study in experiential anthropology that offers a unique mix of autobiography, mythology, experiential research, and archaeological data to support a challenging thesis—that certain body postures may help induce specific trance states." —Shaman's Drum

"This is a spellbinding and exceptionally readable book by an extraordinary woman." —Yoga Journal

"And suddenly the understanding of my own vision washed over me like a mighty wave... For life or for death, I was committed to that mighty realm of which I was shown a brief reminder, the world where all was forever motion and emergence, that realm where the spirits ride the wind." —from the Prologue

Goodman reexamines our notions of the nature of reality by studying the ritual postures of native art assumed by her subjects during trance states. For readers desiring to discover this world of ancient myths, she has included a practical guide on how to achieve such ecstatic experiences.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anthropologist Goodman ( Speaking in Tongues ) documents the effects of body posture on trance experience. Intrigued by the physical changes that take place during trance states, she began to record the observations of students who entered a trance-like condition while concentrating on the sound of Goodman's rattle for 15 minutes. Whenever she led a workshop in trance journeys--whether in Berlin, Vienna, New Mexico or Ohio--her subjects' journeys always lasted for 15 minutes, but where they went and what they saw, heard and learned, maintains Goodman, depended on the particular body posture they had assumed. One position conjured up sensations of flying; others took subjects into an underground realm; in some the journeyer was transformed into an animal. From the "Tennessee diviner" to the "healing Bear," the postures are derived, according to Goodman, from ancient, even prehistoric traditions, known to us through cave drawings, anthropological description and other sources. Yet much of what the trance journeyers have to say about their experiences often sounds the same, calling into question Goodman's basic thesis. Illustrations not seen by PW .
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"The book is clearly written for the general reader and includes many descriptions of trance experiences. It may serve as a good introduction to the nature and appeal of the shamanic revival in modern Western cultures." - Theological Book Review " ... a case study in experiential anthropology that offers a unique mix of autobiography, mythology, experiential research, and archaeological data to support a challenging thesis that certain body postures may help induce specific trance states." - Shaman's Drum "This is a spellbinding and exceptionally readable book by an extraordinary woman." - Yoga Journal "And suddenly the understanding of my own vision washed over me like a mighty wave ... For life or for death, I was committed to that mighty realm of which I was shown a brief reminder, the world where all was forever motion and emergence, that realm where the spirits ride the wind." --from the Prologue --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr (August 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253327644
• ISBN-13: 978-0253327642
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,823,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Felicitas D. Goodman, Ph. D.
Academic background
Felicitas Maria Johanna Daniels was born of ethnic German parents in Budapest, Hungary, on January 30, 1914. She was the elder of two children. In her youth, she was educated by the Roman Catholic order of Ursuline nuns, though her family was Lutheran. As a young woman, she attended the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and in 1936 earned her degree as an interpreter. It was here that she met her future husband, Glenn H. Goodman, an American from Ohio.

In 1947, Felicitas, Glenn, and their first three children immigrated to Columbus, Ohio, where Glenn became a professor of German at Ohio State University. Her fourth child was born a few years later. During this period, Felicitas taught German and English and worked as a translator of scientific articles.

In 1965, when she was 51 and her children were grown, she returned to graduate school completing a master's degree at The Ohio State University in linguistics in 1968 and a doctorate in cultural anthropology in 1971. From 1968 until her forced retirement in 1979, at age 65, she taught linguistics, cultural anthropology and comparative religions at Denison University, Granville, Ohio.

Contributions to anthropology
Felicitas Goodman made two major contributions to the field of anthropology: one concerned "glossolalia" or "speaking in tongues;" the other concerned religious ecstatic trance.

As she plunged into her graduate anthropological studies, Felicitas noted frequent discussion of an odd kind of speech people spoke while they were "possessed." As a linguist, this intrigued her. Ethnographers called it "unintelligible speech" or "unintelligible gibberish." This speech reminded her of Bible stories about the "unknown tongues" spoken by the Apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). For a seminar in anthropological linguistics conducted by Erika Bourguignon at Ohio State, Felicitas chose "glossolalia" as the topic of her paper. Dr. Bourguignon supplied her with sound tapes of such speech from Pentecostal denominations in Ohio, Texas, and the Caribbean. On the basis of this research she developed a working hypothesis that the striking accent and intonation patterns of such speech, as well as certain phonetic features were NOT a different kind of natural language, which was the "received view" on her field. These features expressed bodily changes that a person underwent during trance, accompanying or possibly even facilitating the religious experience. (1969. "Phonetic Analysis of Glossolalia in Four Cultural Settings." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 8: 227-239.)

To test her hypothesis further and explore its possible cross-cultural significance, she conducted fieldwork with Spanish-speaking Pentecostals in Mexico City in 1968. This experience validated her hypothesis: the syllables uttered during speaking in tongues were different, but the accent and intonation pattern, as well as certain phonetic features, were the same. They seemed biologically fixed.

But would these insights hold for non Indo-European languages? She conducted further field-work among Maya (Pentecostal) speakers in Yucatan which confirmed her hypothesis. Her study remains the definitive word on this phenomenon to this day. (1972. Speaking in Tongues: A Cross-cultural Study of Glossolalia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2001. Maya Apocalypse: Seventeen Years with the Women of a Yucatan Village. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press). Glossolalia is simply patterned vocalization without content which can even be imitated upon a single hearing.

Religious ecstatic trance: Dr. Goodman's research, publications, and on-going experience in this field are her major contribution to anthropology. In her book, Where the Spirits Ride the Wind, (1990, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press), she notes how trance experience was a normal part of her life until the age of puberty when she was advised to leave behind the experiences of childhood. Happily, Felicitas did not do that. The interest remained with her throughout her life. Felicitas recognized two dimensions to reality: consensual and alternate. Consensual reality is the arena of common, ordinary, human experience. Alternate reality is parallel to consensual reality. It is the abode of the spirits, the ancestors. This, of course, is how Felicitas understood and interpreted reality in the contemporary western world. It was very different in antiquity. Until the time of Origen (circa 253 AD), the notion of "supernatural" simply didn't exist. Reality was one: spirits, gods, ancestors, and humans lived in one world. This is why biblical and other ancient reports speak of humans communing with spirits, deities, or ancestors on a regular basis. This is a concept and understanding to which westerners can return, if they choose. Felicitas was unaware of this concept. Despite her excellent qualifications as a scientist, she sometimes lapsed into ethnocentrism and anachronism, ever threatening pitfalls for anthropologists.

Felicitas' views of Christianity and antiquity were shaped by the Ursuline nuns, her primary grade teachers in Budapest. She was ever grateful to them for offering young girls the opportunity for quality education. Nevertheless, these "Catholic Christian" views are and for a long time have been antiquated and discredited. Felicitas' comments on "hell" as a notion that derived from agricultural religions such as Christianity are not based on good evidence. There is no word in Hebrew or Greek that can be translated "hell." The word never appears in the Bible nor should it in an honest translation. The notion derives from a much later period.

Nevertheless, Felicitas believed that the spirit world (the abode of the deity and the deity's entourage) could be accessed by humans, and this chiefly in an alternate state of consciousness (ASC). With her students at Denison University, she developed a ritual to enter the ASC and make contact with the spirit world. Ritual is essential to this contact.

The Cuyamugue Institute in Santa Fe, NM
It was first in 1960 that Felicitas went with friends from Ohio State University to Santa Fe, New Mexico. She fell in love with it and the ambient Native American culture almost immediately. Began to search for small property in the area, and in 1963 her realtor found 300 acres for her (more than she wanted) in the area known as Cuyamungue, the name of an ancient pueblo in the area. In 1965, accompanied by friends and relatives, she discovered a place to erect a building on her property, and thus the Institute had its beginning.

Because she continued to live in Columbus, OH, she divided her time between there and Cuyamungue. In 1978, Dr. Goodman founded the Institute which today is known as Cuyamungue: The Felicitas D. Goodman Institute which continues her research into altered states of consciousness and holds workshops about the postures which she admits are but one door to alternate reality.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and Fascinating, May 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences (A Midland Book) (Paperback)

I was perplexed at the "Publishers Weekly" review of this
book, citing that "all of the descriptions sound the same".
Whoever wrote that must not have clearly read the book.
The experiences people have differ greatly with the TYPE of
posture, and this is clearly explained in this book, as well
as in a book by Belinda Gore ("Ecstatic Body Postures: An
Alternate Reality Workbook). I have personally attended a
seminar of this work, and continue to practice it, with
others, and our experiences are not the "same". They are
amazing, rich, deep, and healing - and different for different
people.
This particular book is a wonderful story of how anthropologist
Felicitas Goodman was led to even formulate her thesis in the
first place- by great trial and error, working with hundreds
of people all around the world - a work which has continued
for over twenty years. She describes in detail the experiences
of many people as they "journey" by assuming the postures, to
a specific drumming or rattling beat. She shares how the Cuyamungue Institute was founded over 25 years ago - a combination of practical hard work and magical, inspirational
experiences. She shares how, over time, certain postures revealed
themselves as "fitting" into various catagories- such as healing,
divining, metamorphosis, lower world journey, and so on. In addition to being a wonderful insight into shamanic types of
endeavor, this is a story of the life of a dedicated scholar, led by many insights and observations, to develop a body of work
which is a scientific research work in progress, as well as being a possible link to the ancient roots of humanity. I recommend it to anyone interested in spirituality,
the psyche, somatics, healing, and shamanism.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars trance, petroglyph symbols, January 11, 2011

By 

Joan A. Adamak "Joan Adamak" (Prescott Valley, AZ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences (A Midland Book) (Paperback)

Although it is ten years since this book was written and reviewed, I recently came across it again in my library and desire to bring it to light once again. I have been practicing various techniques of metaphysics for forty years and it is interesting to me how this scientist experimenting with her students, could prove that many of the pictographs, petroglyphs and other ancient symbols were instructions on how to induce a self-trance by using certain body positions to effectuate various results. I think this confirms the statement in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun and I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to delve further into this subject matter. The book was fascinating to me.

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shamans, Witch Doctors, and Medicine Men, December 10, 2005

By 

ROBERT REESE (EASTON, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences (A Midland Book) (Paperback)

I can't say this book was very exciting, but it certainly was thought provoking. Here's why: Anthropologists now say humans like us have been around for more than 100,000 years (probably much longer). But human history only goes back 5000 years or so. In those 5000 years we've gone from mud huts to intercontinental jet travel. What were our early ancestors doing for those other 95,000 (or more) years? Just sitting around in caves, looking into the campfire? For 95,000 years? And if they did have a culture, where are the artifacts? This book may hint at the answer.

On the walls of Egyptian tombs there are representations of men floating in the air at about a 50 degree angle--with erect penises. Similiar drawings (thousands of years older) are found in caves throughout Europe and southern Africa. This seems to have been a widespread "art style" that lasted thousands of years. The author tells of combining some of these postures with rhythmic sounds: chants, drum beats, and rattles. It seems as though different body postures determine what sort of "trip" one experiences upon entering an altered state of consciousness.

Is it possible that shamans, witch doctors, and medicine men were on to something? Maybe the reason that no sophisticated artificts from early peoples are to be found is that those early people took a different path than us. A path not towards technology, but one that lead to the developement of altered states of consciousness. Could it be that those cave drawings and the author's reconstructions are all that remain of an sophisticated prehistoric science?