Abstract
No religious phenomenon appears more bizarre to the modern mind than shamanism. Eliade's comprehensive study illumines the phenomenon, cutting away various accretions and modifications, distinguishing it from related phenomena and relating it to more basic and general ones. Genuine shamanism is a kind of mysticism involving institutionalized techniques of ecstasy, initiatory rites and public spectacles, and a fairly determinate social role. Eliade finds the shamanic ecstasy to be the primary phenomenon and relates it to the pervasive belief in a Supreme celestial Being. The ecstasy, a form of death, is an ascent by a privileged member of the community, enabling him to communicate directly with the Supreme Being. By virtue of this communication the shaman is empowered to inform the community of spiritual matters, to protect it from invisible evils and to render death and its aftermath less mysterious. The shaman's personal experience gives rise to poetic creation in allegory and myth, epic and lyric poetry, thus enriching the community's language. Eliade's erudition is enormous and his analysis convincing. This translation was made from a revised and expanded version of the French text and is presented with the usual Bollingen Series' handsomeness.—W. G. E.