A thoroughly revised edition of the much sought after early work by Terence and Dennis McKenna that looks at shamanism altered states of consciousness and the organic unity of the King Wen sequence of the I Ching Chapter OneThe Figure of the ShamanOf all the diverse religious institutions that humans have elaborated since before the beginning of recorded history that of shamanism is one of the most singular and is probably one of the most archaic as well The shaman is something of a maverick among religious practitioners While shamanism occurs in virtually every culture on the planet manifesting itself in religious traditions both ancient and modern both primitive and sophisticated the shaman remains eminently individualistic idiosyncratic and enigmatic standing ever apart from organized ecclesiastical institutions while still performing important functions for the psychic and religious life of the culture Comparable but not identical with such similar idiosyncratic practitioners as medicine men and sorcerers the shaman is the possessor of techniques of proven efficacy and of powers bordering on the paranormal the complete understanding of which still eludes modern psychology It is this complex and fascinating figure of the shaman that we want to analyze from a standpoint at once sympathetic interpretative and psychological with a view to answering the following questions 1 What are the traditional aspects of shamanism as it is encountered in primitive cultures 2 What is the nature of the shamanic personality and abilities and what is the psychological role of the shaman in the society at large And 3 Are there institutions analogous to shamanism in modern society The vocation of shaman is found in nearly all archaic cultures from the Australian aborigines to the Jivaro Indians of central Ecuador and Peru to the Yakut tribes of Siberia It is believed to haveoriginated among these Siberian peoples though its diffusion into other c - from Amzon