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www.shamansociety.org 41 Practitioners who work in the middle world may find his descriptions of middle-world spirits a bit confusing. Harners perspective is that middle-world spirits are amoral and seldom compassionate and can be manipulated by unethical shamans to do harm which he sees as sorcery. There is a kind of risky dualism in this that the compassionate spirits reside primarily in the upper and lower worlds and non-compassionate spirits dwell only in the middle-world. Readers who do work with middle world spirits such as faeries vegetation spirits elemen- tals weather spirits and spirits of places and find them to be capable of compassion toward humans might disagree. Harners objective is to allow the numerous journey ac- counts to reassure newcomers to shamanism that their own journeys are in line with a long-standing tradition of visionary experiences in the spirit world. They will see that their own journeys parallel the same landscapes spirits and adventures that indigenous shamans have been having in the other worlds for thousands of years. These journey accounts by Westerners are interspersed with Harners comments and teachings that point out how in remarkable and sometimes miraculous ways people in contemporary Western societies are exploring the same realms that have existed since time immemorial. Some of these reports include experiences that as Harner says cause us to remember our union with the infinite the ineffable the total universe giving us knowledge that is beyond the confines of language. Like shamans of old we are not bound by what he calls a fractious and perilous world willing to quarrel interminably about spiritual matters on the basis of belief in old stories left by the founders of the major religious traditions. The shamans way is to acquire spiritual truths first-hand discover his or her own stories and become what many cultures call the one who knows. Harner reas- sures us that we need not even accept his own stories if they interfere with finding our own. For Harner the shamans drum is the ballot box of spiritual freedom. He suggests that the unbound shaman is a lesson about how the spirits can set us free. If spirits can miracu- lously unbind the shaman so can they liberate humanity from its limiting bindings of belief and disbelief. The heavenly upper world realms that are described in the many journey accounts in this book show that each of us can approach the divine through shamanism in our own authentic way. And if by chance we dont see God perhaps we will be like the Canadian Athapaskan people whom Harner quotes Those who drum themselves up to heaven dont see God. They just see people who are working for God. And thats a good place to start. Or end up. ABOUT THE AUTHOR TOM COWAN has been a shamanic practitioner for 30 years. He has studied with and taught for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and is on the board of directors of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. He is the author of several books on shamanism and Celtic spirit-ways. He lives in New Yorks Hudson River Valley. the foundation for shamanic studies a non-profit public charitable and educational organization Pioneered by Michael Harner author of Cave and Cosmos and The Way of the Shaman Authentic. Effective. Powerful. WWW.SHAMANISM.ORGWWW.SHAMANISM.ORG Workshops training programs in shamanism shamanic healing worldwide including the UK Europe USA Canada Latin America Australia and Asia STUDY CORE SHAMANISM Workshops training programs in shamanism shamanic healing worldwide including the UK Europe USA Canada Latin America Australia and Asia