View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Harner indicates that becoming a shaman involves pain, facing fears, and a willingness to:
(a) Confront the unknown.
(b) Cross dangerous jungles.
(c) Consume exotic foods.
(d) Leave behind all that one holds near and dear.

2. What is the purpose of rattles used during a shaman's work?
(a) To purify the air surrounding the patient.
(b) To reinforce drumming for a greater sonic effect.
(c) To ward off evil spirits.
(d) To open up tightly closed portals.

3. What does Harner point out about the Lakota Sioux and the Coast Salish tribes?
(a) Were the first tribes known to practice shamanism.
(b) Are the best natural healers in the world.
(c) Shun the practice of shamanism and instead pass down stories from one generation to the next.
(d) They achieve altered states of consciousness without using hallucinogenic substances.

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

5. On his or her first guided journey, the shaman student is asked by Harner to visualize what?
(a) A favorite animal or element of nature.
(b) A quiet, tranquil scene that includes the element of water.
(c) A starry sky and the patterns the stars form.
(d) An opening in the earth that feels acceptable.

6. After a journey that lasts several days in the jungle with his companions, Harner is taken where?
(a) Beneath a waterfall for a mystical experience.
(b) On another journey to experience higher levels of reality.
(c) To a ledge overlooking an enchanted valley.
(d) To the source of the Amazon to meet the highest shaman.

7. Why is the Jivaro shaman who helps Harner worried that the author may not be able to find tsentak?
(a) The tsentak are extremely elusive.
(b) Harner is not an Indian.
(c) Finding tsentak is an advanced shamanic practice.
(d) Harner has not gone through the necessary rituals.

8. 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) Vomiting out the intruder.
(d) Smoking out the intruder.

9. Harner's reports of the rituals, symbols, and visions of the different tribes he observes are what?
(a) Disturbing.
(b) Simplistic.
(c) Foreign.
(d) Similar.

10. What are the tsentak?
(a) Helpers who cause or cure illness.
(b) Mischievous tree sprites.
(c) Guides who intervene in emergencies.
(d) Spirits who bridge the seen and the unseen.

11. 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 message for a friend.
(d) A healing code.

12. Why does Harner include the examples of the Lakota Sioux and Coast Salish tribes for Westerners in particular?
(a) To give them examples of shamanism that might be more familiar to them.
(b) To illustrate the universal nature of shamanism.
(c) So that they can see that shamanism can be accessed without the use of drugs.
(d) Because more than anyone else, Westerners need to understand the nuances of shamanism.

13. When drugs are involved in Shaman practices, who takes them?
(a) The shaman and the patient.
(b) The patient.
(c) The shaman and the patient's family members.
(d) The shaman.

14. Why do individuals need the protection of a guardian spirit?
(a) They are weak.
(b) To reach adulthood.
(c) To counter chaotic spirits.
(d) To maintain a strong, steady heartbeat.

15. What does Harner speculate about the mandala?
(a) It may represent openings to the sky or the Lowerworld.
(b) It may guard coded instructions reserved for the most advanced shamans.
(c) It could represent the doorway to stars and entrance to spaceships.
(d) It could hold the keys to astral time travel.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the cultures Harner studies, shamans are primarily:

2. Harner writes that in non-ordinary reality, spirit helpers appear as what?

3. Through numerous examples, the author shows the commonality of experiences by shamans regardless of what?

4. What similarity does Harner point out between shamanism and science?

5. Harner claims that when he shared his vision of dragon-like creatures that appeared from outer space with another shaman, that person:

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 741 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample