The Shaman

Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians

by John A Grim

"Shamanism, which has always drawn widespread interest from anthropologists and missionaries, is now exercising a wide appeal in the popular world among seekers for a new physical, psychological and spiritual ecology. When the smoke of faddism and romanticism finally clears, researchers into this reality will have contributed a truly lasting body of literature to human and especially religious experience. Dr. Grim has made such a contribution to the literature on the subject in a highly readable book that the interested lay person might study with interest. The book can also be recommended for persons contemplating missionary work among tribal peoples, as well as for university undergraduate libraries."-Sociologist Analysis.

"Grim’s book explores shamanism from a perspective from which both scholars and laypeople can profit, precisely because it explores the basic patterns of the relationship between the shaman’s activity and the belief systems and social activities of the surrounding tribal people. And because his focus is always implicitly on the relevance of ancient shamanism to modern social and spiritual concerns, The Shaman is useful to anyone interested in efforts to render our lives meaningful and to deal with illness, anxiety and suffering. . . .The Shaman has relevance both to scholars and to anyone interested in the spiritual dimensions of healing, the psychological aspects of the transpersonal, and the ecological foundations of authentic spirituality."-AHP Perspective.

"There are twenty-one pages of notes and twenty-five pages of bibliography, which indicate the extensive research by the author on the subject he has chosen. It is written in a scholarly manner and style, and probably will have its greatest appeal to other scholars who are similarly oriented in knowledge and interest."-Journal of Oklahoma State Medical Association

— ©1988