15 Best Shamanism Books

Michael Harner introduces his approach to practical shamanism, drawing on anthropological fieldwork and personal experience. He describes altered consciousness, drumming, spiritual journeys, and helper spirits as elements of a practice he associates with healing and personal exploration.

Eliade surveys shamanic traditions across Siberia, Central Asia, and other regions, examining their rituals, beliefs, and accounts of ecstatic experience. His comparative study considers initiation, spiritual journeys, and the shaman's role within diverse religious communities.

Michael J. Winkelman examines shamanic practices through biological, evolutionary, and social frameworks. He investigates altered consciousness, communal ritual, and healing, proposing that these practices reflect mechanisms connecting brain processes, group life, and the development of human societies.

Anthropologist Jeremy Narby investigates Amazonian shamanic knowledge and his own visionary experiences. He proposes connections among serpent imagery, consciousness, and DNA, combining ethnographic accounts with biological research in an inquiry into the possible origins of indigenous knowledge.

Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, and Christian Rätsch examine psychoactive plants in sacred rituals worldwide. Photographs and botanical information accompany accounts of their cultural significance, chemical properties, and associated ceremonies in this revised and expanded study.

Michael Harner explores accounts of shamanic journeys, drawing on his experiences and reports collected through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. He discusses spiritual cosmologies and the practice of journeying within his modern core-shamanism framework.

Sarangerel draws on Mongolian and Buryat traditions to describe recognizing a shamanic calling and developing relationships with spirit helpers. Personal experience accompanies guidance on rituals, meditation, divination, and journeys understood within these traditions as healing practices.

Edited by Michael J. Harner, this collection examines relationships between psychoactive substances and shamanic religious experience. Contributions address Upper Amazon traditions, including Banisteriopsis use among the Cashinahua, and explore the cultural settings surrounding ritual visions.

Stephan V. Beyer examines mestizo shamanism in the Upper Amazon, describing ayahuasca ceremonies, apprenticeship, and relationships with plant spirits. His account explores local understandings of healing, love magic, and sorcery within their cultural and ritual setting.

Terence and Dennis McKenna investigate shamanism, altered consciousness, and patterns in the I Ching. Combining reflections on their experiment at La Chorrera with theories of mind and time, they propose connections between psychedelic experience and the structure of reality.

Serge Kahili King presents his approach to Hawaiian shamanism for everyday settings. The guide discusses dreams, rituals, imagination, and spiritual practices, emphasizing cooperation and offering exercises that reflect the author's beliefs about changing oneself and one's relationships.

Castaneda gathers quotations from eight books about his training under don Juan Matus, adding an introduction and fresh commentary. The selections revisit the teachings he attributes to Mexican shamans about life, death, awareness, and time.

Malidoma Patrice Somé recounts childhood removal from his Burkina Faso village to a Jesuit school and his eventual return. His memoir describes initiation into Dagara traditions, ancestral relationships, and efforts to bridge African and Western worlds.

Shaman Durek presents spiritual exercises intended to help readers confront fear and reclaim personal agency. His approach combines shamanic concepts with contemporary self-help, framing inner change and empowerment through practices he calls spirit hacks and personal exploration.

Don Jose Ruiz shares teaching stories from his family's Toltec tradition, with a foreword by Don Miguel Ruiz. Each story introduces lessons about love, awareness, and the choices people make in shaping their lives.