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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the purpose of rapid drumming during the guided journey that Harner takes new students through?

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

3. What does Harner recommend that the aspiring shaman listen to?

4. What are guardian spirits known as in Australia?

5. According to the author, who has a guardian spirit, whether recognized or not?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the practice of rock-seeing?

2. Who is Akachu, and how does he help Harner?

3. What does the author say shamans feel about what they see in the non-ordinary reality or shamanic state of consciousness (SSC)?

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

5. What are some of the similarities Harner notes in first-hand shamanic experiences reported by middle-class Americans?

6. What is the participant of the exercise in Chapter 2 instructed regarding the end of the journey?

7. What are other names the author mentions for guardian spirits, and what cultures call them by these alternate names?

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

9. 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?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe similarities middle-class Americans who try shamanism report regarding the portal to Lowerworld and their firsthand experiences in non-ordinary reality. Why does the author emphasize these similarities? What do they convey regarding the nature of shamanism?

Essay Topic 2

An important job the shaman does is restore power to a sick individual by retrieving his or her power animal.

1. Define power in the context of shamanism. What is its importance or value?

2. How does the presence or absence of power affect the health and welfare of a person?

3. How does a power animal help an individual? What happens when the person "loses" his or her power animal?

4. How does a shaman's act of retrieving a power animal help a patient?

Essay Topic 3

Harner states that whether the shaman is working in ordinary or non-ordinary reality, the experience is real and healing takes place in both realms. Explain what makes the non-ordinary experience real. Then, answer the following: how does healing occur when the shaman is working in non-ordinary reality?

(see the answer keys)

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