Description:
Ethnographic reports on shamanism portray a varied and specified practice, describing each shaman as identifying with a specific type of medicine power, such as the ability to find lost objects, change weather, or manage stomach trouble. However, contemporary nonnative practitioners seem to have borrowed the term in a very generic sense. Samuels, the author of numerous books on conventional medicine and creative imagery and visualization (Seeing with the Mind's Eye), and Lane, a registered nurse, author and director of the Arts in Medicine program at the University of Florida, introduce practices that readers can use to become a
Ethnographic reports on shamanism portray a varied and specified practice, describing each shaman as identifying with a specific type of medicine power, such as the ability to find lost objects, change weather, or manage stomach trouble. However, contemporary nonnative practitioners seem to have borrowed the term in a very generic sense. Samuels, the author of numerous books on conventional medicine and creative imagery and visualization (Seeing with the Mind's Eye), and Lane, a registered nurse, author and director of the Arts in Medicine program at the University of Florida, introduce practices that readers can use to become a visionary healer. The authors focus on guided imagery to strengthen intention and commitment, invoke guardian or animal spirits, and "restory" reality. They also provide instruction on making a medicine wheel, moving energy, and creating sacred spaces through prayer and ritual. Undoubtedly, Samuels and Lane are accomplished healers. But while they do remind readers that the shaman's path is a lifelong endeavor, their book gives the impression hat a few exercises can create an at-home, do-it-yourself shaman, without the rigors or the years of apprenticeship under qualified teachers that traditional shamanism often demands.
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Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
Release date: 17 July 2003
ISBN-10 : 047141820X |
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