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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How old is shamanism estimated to be?
(a) No one can even guess.
(b) At least 20,000 to 30,000 years old.
(c) Approximately 12,000 years old.
(d) Less than 3,000 years old.

2. What does the Jivaro shaman give to Harner to drink?
(a) The juice of the cacao plant.
(b) A substance made from the datura plant.
(c) Fermented coconut milk.
(d) Water from a mystical underground spring.

3. It is typical for one or more spirits to help guide the shaman through what?
(a) The ninth dimension.
(b) A time-honored ritual.
(c) A series of questions only the shaman hears.
(d) A hidden or non-ordinary reality.

4. With the help of spirit helpers and two tsentak inside his mouth, the shaman can help the patient by:
(a) Swallowing the intruder.
(b) Frightening the intruder out.
(c) Smoking out the intruder.
(d) Vomiting out the intruder.

5. The author shows that all religious traditions share:
(a) Similarities in styles of worship.
(b) One common origin.
(c) Mystical and symbolic similarities.
(d) A mistrust of shamans and mysticism.

6. One person who tried Harner's step-by-step guided journey exercise reported bringing back what by accident?
(a) A beneficial being.
(b) A monkey spirit guide.
(c) A healing code.
(d) A message for a friend.

7. Apprentice shamans sometimes report to Harner that they:
(a) See loved ones who have passed on.
(b) Morph into other forms.
(c) Panic during the experience.
(d) Feel a sense of endless falling.

8. Harner writes that in non-ordinary reality, spirit helpers appear as what?
(a) Familiar plants and flowers.
(b) Religious deities.
(c) Animals, including jaguars, monkeys, and butterflies.
(d) People once known who have passed on.

9. What is a shaman able to do to restore health in a person with the assistance of appropriate spirit helpers?
(a) Remove pockets of dark energy stuck inside the patient's blood vessels.
(b) Channel energy from healing realms.
(c) Suck negative magical darts from a patient's body.
(d) Increase positive messages entering the mind through the whispers of spirit helpers.

10. Shamans from Venezuela, North America, Australia, and other regions all report having similar what?
(a) Dietary needs.
(b) Experiences.
(c) Spirit guides.
(d) Concerns.

11. When the shaman is in an altered state, how does healing take place?
(a) By enabling the shaman to spiritually enter the patient's body and physically fix the problem.
(b) By merging the collective thoughts of everyone present.
(c) By allowing ghost healers to work through the shaman.
(d) By restoring beneficial power or removing harmful power from the patient.

12. In the cultures Harner studies, shamans are primarily:
(a) Women.
(b) Children.
(c) Grandmothers.
(d) Men.

13. Shamans pass through what kind of planes?
(a) Ethereal.
(b) Earthly.
(c) Cosmological.
(d) Parallel.

14. What does Harner recommend that the aspiring shaman listen to?
(a) Birds singing.
(b) Drumming.
(c) Chanting.
(d) Flowing water.

15. Harner asserts that shamanism has advanced in areas without technological innovations because:
(a) Technology hasn't erased these people's ability to tap into their intuition.
(b) These people are neither distracted nor electromagnetically impaired by electronic interference.
(c) The plant world communicates better with people when there is no technological interference.
(d) Of the need by these people to find ways to deal with survival and health issues.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Harner include the examples of the Lakota Sioux and Coast Salish tribes for Westerners in particular?

2. What does the author encounter when he drinks maikua?

3. Why might a shaman work in darkness?

4. What is the purpose of rattles used during a shaman's work?

5. What do various cultures report noticing the shaman give off when in a shamanic state of consciousness?

(see the answer keys)

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