Table Of ContentPRAISE FOR MICHAEL HARNER AND THE WAY OF THE SHAMAN
“What Yogananda did for Hinduism and D. T. Suzuki did for Zen,
Michael Harner has done for shamanism—namely, bring the
tradition and its richness to Western awareness. Michael Harner is
widely acknowledged as the world’s foremost authority on
experiential and practical shamanism, and has had an enormous
influence on both the academic and lay worlds.”
—from Higher Wisdom, by Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob
“Wonderful, fascinating.… Harner really knows what he’s talking
about.”
—Carlos Castaneda
“An intimate and practical guide to the art of shamanic healing
and the technology of the sacred. Michael Harner is not just an
anthropologist who has studied shamanism; he is an authentic
white shaman.”
—Stanislav Grof, author of The Adventure of Self Discovery
“Harner has impeccable credentials, both as an academic and as a
practicing shaman. Without doubt (since the recent death of
Mircea Eliade) the world’s leading authority on shamanism.”
—Nevill Drury, author of The Elements of Shamanism
Michael Harner’s Related Books
The Way of the Shaman
Hallucinogens and Shamanism
The Jívaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls
Copyright © 2013 by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of
this book, except for brief review or short quotation, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher. For information
contact North Atlantic Books.
Published by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712
Cover collage by Claudia Smelser. Cave photo © ollirg/Shutterstock.com. The nebula is from a
Hubble image of a small region within M17, also known as Omega or Swan Nebula; it was
obtained from NASA’s John Glenn Image Gallery.
Cover design by Claudia Smelser
Cave and Cosmos: Shamanic Encounters with Another Reality is sponsored by the Society for the
Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to
develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and
artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish
and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.
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MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes
only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any
suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is
at the reader’s discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.
Information on the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, a nonprofit incorporated public 501(c)(3)
charitable and educational organization, may be found at its website: www.shamanism.org.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harner, Michael J.
Cave and cosmos : shamanic encounters with another reality / by Michael Harner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
eISBN: 978-1-58394564-3
1. Shamanism. 2. Spirits. I. Title.
BF1999.H37517 2013
201′.44—dc23
2012022873
v3.1
To My Wife,
Sandra Harner,
a Rose Constant and True
To My Children
And to All Those Who Have Worked to Save the Ancient Knowledge
All royalties from this book go to the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, a
nonprofit, incorporated public (501)(c)(3) charitable and educational
organization dedicated to the preservation, study, and transmission of
shamanic knowledge for the welfare of the planet and its inhabitants.
The shamanic way of healing presented in this book should not be
considered as an exclusive method of confronting medical problems. It
should be viewed as an adjunct to orthodox medical or psychological
treatment, unless contrary medical advice is given.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I wish to express my gratitude to the thousands of students who
contributed shamanic-ascension and other kinds of experiences to the
archives of the Shamanic Knowledge Conservatory (SKC) of the
Foundation for Shamanic Studies. This book would have been impossible
without their help. I especially thank those whose experiences were
drawn from the SKC archives in recent years for the Celestia Study.
A lifetime of acknowledgments almost book length in themselves is
due to the multitude of persons and peoples who helped me on the long
path to Cave and Cosmos. To be practical, however, I reluctantly restrict
myself now to expressing my thanks for assistance received by the
Foundation primarily during the last half-decade or so for various
purposes, including staffing, indigenous assistance, the SKC, and work on
this book.
Of immense importance has been the generous help of my longtime
friends and supporters Dr. Baron A.M.F. and Dr. Melinda C. Maxfield
(the Maxfield Foundation), without whom this book would not have
been possible. Equally important has been the generosity of Betsy
Gordon, Dr. Angeles Arrien, and the foundations carrying their names. I
gratefully thank them. I thank also the members of the Board of Trustees
of the Foundation for their steadfast support, donation of time, and wise
counsel. In recent years they have included Dr. Maxfield, Robert Lee
Morris, Dr. Frances E. Vaughan, Ralph M. Field, Heather Burch, and Dr.
Jeffrey David Ehrenreich, besides the three officers of the Foundation:
Susan Mokelke, Sandra Harner, and me.
Other major supporters of the Foundation and its work during these
years include Bokara Legendre and the Tara Fund, Elizabeth Marshall,
Edgar Brown, Della Clark, Don Ensslin, the Estate of Margaret Cohan,
the Fetzer Institute, the Frank Pace Jr. Foundation, Alicia L. Gates, the
John Fetzer Memorial Trust, Susan Mokelke, Robert Lee Morris, Claudia
Kuntze, the Shared Vision Charitable Foundation, the Sterling Fund, the
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, John and Jessica Schairer,
the Seattle Foundation, and the Flow Fund Circle. Numerous others—too
many to list here—also helped through their donations, their support as
faculty members or as members of the Circle of the Foundation, or in
other capacities. I thank them all with deep gratitude.
Two remarkable persons in particular must also be recognized. One is
the Foundation’s vice president, Sandra Harner—my wife, adviser,
editor, cheerleader, critic, and partner in our shamanic adventures for
half a century—who has supported and participated in this endeavor
with a patience and modesty I have long admired. This book would not
exist without her. The other is Susan Mokelke, whose electronic
sophistication, generosity, creativity, and tireless work as executive
director of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies have been essential to
give me time to complete the book. She also assisted with the numerous
details involved in its final preparation for publication.
I give my immense thanks to Noelle Burch, who for years has done the
vital work of at least two persons at the headquarters of the Foundation
with remarkable efficiency and grace. Over a span of years, former
research associate Gizelle Rhyon Berry did excellent and essential work
organizing the archives of the SKC for the Mapping of Nonordinary
Reality (MONOR) project. Coleen Judson for a time was able to follow
up her work. I also thank Louis G. Leeburg, James Harner, and Carolyn
Fee for their efforts on behalf of the Foundation.
I express my great appreciation of the Foundation’s excellent faculty
members, all experienced shamanic practitioners as well as teachers,
now led by Susan Mokelke. They are too numerous to list here, but I
must express my gratitude to fellow anthropologist Bill Brunton, editor
emeritus of our journal, Shamanism, who until retirement was always
ready to undertake important international missions for the Foundation
despite hazards to his health.
I must also honor another faculty member and anthropologist, the
inimitable late Heimo Lappalainen, for his pioneering work on behalf of
the Foundation in Siberia and Central Asia, and especially for his role in
the success of the 1993 FSS expedition to Tuva.
