E ager to learn more about shamanism and indigenous cultures, I was pleased to be given the opportunity to review this attractive-looking book.
      What sets it apart from most other books of its kind is the fact that it consists of first-person narratives, meaning that each particular shaman’s story is told in the shaman’s own words. Therefore, the information comes directly from its various sources, and is therefore relatively ‘clean’. Surprisingly, too, it’s highly readable – no doubt thanks to a great deal of skilful editing.
      To produce Shamans of the World, the editors, Nancy Connor and Bradford Keeney, travelled all over the globe – and to some very remote places – recording and transcribing many hours of conversation with a large number of remarkable healers – among them, Walking Thunder, a traditional Dine (Navajo) medicine woman; Otavia and Joao, two renowned healers from Brazil; Gary Holy Bull, a Lakota Yuwipi man; a number of Guarani healers from South America; Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, a high Zulu shaman; several traditional Balinese healers; Ikuku Osumi, Sensei, a Japanese master of seiki-jutsu; a number of shakers from St. Vincent Island; and, lastly, a host of Kalahari Bushmen healers.
      “These people were a fountain of knowledge,” explains Connor, “willing to share as much of it as we could understand.” That the book contains so much variety is certainly a bonus, and helps to sustain the reader’s interest.
      Reading Shamans of the World made me realise that shamanism is a universal spiritual path, and that there is very little difference between, say, the shamanism of the South African Zulu people and that of the American Indian Lakota.
      These sometimes striking similarities between various shamanic traditions are difficult to explain – unless one accepts, like me, that shamanic beliefs and practises, unlike those of organised religion, are in accordance with spiritual and natural law, and make up a kind of ‘science’.
      The first chapter of the book is an account by the aforementioned Walking Thunder, who tells us her story with honesty, warmth and a touch of humour, almost as though she were talking to an old friend.
      Born in 1951 in the Navajo Nation, New Mexico, Walking Thunder was initiated into the shamanic path and began learning about traditional medicine from an early age. Among other things, she explains a little about sand paintings which are created to help heal people – not just physically, but spiritually. They are used, for instance, to help bring a patient strength and independence in life.
      The reader is likely to find some of the accounts in the book – and indeed some of the shamans – more compelling and engaging than others.
      What appealed to me in particular were the accounts given by the compassionate Guarani shamans of eastern Paraguay, one of whom is named Ava Tapa Miri (which means little seagull man), and is the chief shaman of his community.
      While still a teenager, and a troubled one at that, he began to feel “the call of the spirits,” and started receiving, in dreams, visits from his deceased shaman father, who taught him the knowledge he needed to follow in his footsteps.
      “I cried all night long during this period of intense dreaming,” he explains. “I began dancing and singing all the time. I was filled with the spirits of a new life.” In this time of great global environmental difficulty, “it is the shamans who can guide us,” he says. “Please pray for us and know that we are here to help the earth continue.”
      Unfortunately, not all of the shamans featured in the book were able to articulate themselves as well as Ava Tapa Miri and others, with the result being that the information they’ve given is completely vague, and sometimes incomprehensible.
      Many of the Kalahari Bushman healers, for instance – whom I found a little too self-assured – mention such things as ‘nails’ and ‘arrows’, which are spiritual ‘objects’ that supposedly hold power, and can be used to heal others.
      “One way to think about an arrow and a nail is a condensation of the Big God’s power,” explains one of the Bushmen healers. “When an arrow is inside of you,” he continues, “it will get hot when it is awakened.” Interesting though this information is, I fail to see how anyone other than a Kalahari Bushman healer could possible make adequate sense of it.
      It should be mentioned that all of the information in Shamans of the World first appeared in Bradford Keeney’s ten-volume Profiles of Healing series, and, in Connor’s words, “stands alone as a gateway to each of them.”
      This book, then, could be seen as an introduction to some of the world’s strongest shamanic traditions, and I can see how it might encourage the reader to investigate a particular tradition further, and thus read some of Keeney’s other works.
      I recommend this book to anyone who is relatively unfamiliar with shamanism and wants to learn more. On the other hand, those who already know a fair bit about the topic might find it a little on the dull side.
      All in all, this is a well-produced and informative book, bound to inspire and uplift.