View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Included in the reports from participants of Harner's first guided shamanic exercise are:
(a) Accounts of disappearing momentarily and not being seen by others in the room.
(b) Detailed conversations with star people and other extraterrestrials.
(c) Suggestions on what to do when encountering an impenetrable obstacle.
(d) Numerous cases of people experiencing nausea and vertigo.

2. What does Harner speculate about the mandala?
(a) It could hold the keys to astral time travel.
(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 may represent openings to the sky or the Lowerworld.

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

4. What does the author encounter when he drinks maikua?
(a) Dangerous creatures.
(b) Beloved pets he knew as a child.
(c) Winged benevolent beings.
(d) A frightening emptiness.

5. In "The Way of the Shaman," the author shows similarities between:
(a) Various shamanic spiritual belief systems.
(b) Once dominant spiritual belief systems.
(c) Younger and older shamans.
(d) Real and fake shamans.

Short Answer Questions

1. In his guided, step-by-step instructions for a first journey, Harner instructs the aspiring shaman to eat:

2. What does the Jivaro shaman help Harner acquire?

3. During the Lakota practice of rock-seeing, a shaman considers a problem while walking through what?

4. When the shaman is in an altered state, how does healing take place?

5. Which of the following do reputable shamans NOT do?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the main functions and activities of a shaman, as described in Chapter 3?

2. How does a shaman take care of his or her tsentak?

3. Describe the roles of drumming and rattling in a shaman's work.

4. Harner compares rock-seeing to what Western practices?

5. Describe an environment that's conducive to the shaman being most effective while in a shamanic state of consciousness (SSC).

6. In the step-by-step instructions for going on a first shamanic journey that the author supplies for the reader in Chapter 2, how does he ask the participant to prepare?

7. Prompted by similarities he found in books and accounts about shamanic experiences, what did Harner decide to do in order to learn more about shamanism?

8. Explain the connection between an individual and his or her guardian spirit.

9. Describe Harner's experience of spiritually going to a cave beneath a waterfall with a Jivaro shaman.

10. Summarize the first shamanic journey exercise presented to the reader in Chapter 2.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 866 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample