This astounding, inspiring book by American shaman Kevin Turner captures the beliefs and practices of the growing world of Mongolian shamans and will appeal to shamans and shamanic therapists, students of Mongolian culture and comparative religion, and fans of gritty travel memoirs in the vein of Paul Theroux.
Kevin B. Turner is the director for Asia and faculty member of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies founded by Michael Harner. After years of study with yogis, monks, and lamas in India, Nepal, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Japan, Kevin met Michael Harner in 1997 and trained in core shamanism, an integrative, nontraditional approach to shamanism. He teaches Core Shamanism internationally, offering several workshops a year. Turner is also a full trainer at the Monroe Institute, which offers programs and training in the out-of-body experience, clairvoyance, remote viewing, psychokinesis, and psychopomp work.
“Sky Shamans of Mongolia is a fascinating and serious work that is
an important contribution to shamanic knowledge. A must–read for
anyone wishing to learn about Mongolian shamanism and to understand
its place in the world.”—Michael Harner, PhD, author of The Way of
the Shaman and Cave and Cosmos: Shamanic Encounters with Another
Reality
“As one who has worked and taught alongside Mongolian shamans, I
find this book by Kevin Turner has illuminated much about this
stunningly powerful and mysterious form of shamanism. He shares
what he has learned firsthand, and he frames it in a rich context
of multiple dimensions of shamanism, including neuroscience, and
rolls it into a vision of shamanism as personal evolution with a
vision of the future. Read this book!”—C. Michael Smith, PhD,
clinical psychologist and author of Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue
and Psychotherapy and the Sacred
“Kevin Turner’s marvelous fieldwork describes shamanism and
shamanic knowledge as it really is in Mongolia.”—L. Chuluunbaatar,
PhD, professor of linguistics at National University of
Mongolia
“Kevin Turner’s Sky Shamans of Mongolia covers a subject few
authors have investigated in depth. In this wonderful and
well-written text, Turner explores shamanism in the kind of detail
only an initiate could communicate. Not only does Turner
speak to the cultural role of shamans, but he reveals the
experiential cosmos in which they journey for the benefit of
community. I recommend this book for anyone interested in
Asian shamanism.”—Larry Peters, PhD, author of Tibetan Shamanism:
Ecstasy and Healing
“Turner’s unique qualifications make this book an immensely
valuable resource for Westerners interested in Mongolian shamanism,
or shamanism wherever practiced. An American living in Asia,
speaking several Asian tongues, himself a shamanic practitioner,
Turner possesses not only the gift of understanding but the gift of
putting that understanding into clear, readable language. Unlike
academics attempting to describe shamanism from the outside, Turner
knows it from the inside, and the same familiarity that gained him
the confidence of the shamans enables him to be a sure-footed
interpreter for the reader.”—Frank DeMarco, author of The Sphere
and the Hologram
“A fascinating and compelling account of contemporary shamanic
practice, based on firsthand experience and simultaneously an
exercise in religious anthropology and cultural ethnography, this
work explores a sacred tradition whose deep impact on the West is
gradually being rediscovered and interpreted anew.”—Paul Bishop,
PhD, author of The Archaic: The Past in the Present
“Kevin Turner is an explorer of the inner worlds, a researcher of
the deep meaning of life. His book, in addition to being an
anthropological text, is also a travel story, full of surprises,
between blue skies and green landscapes without boundaries, the
songs and costumes of the shamans, their miraculous healings and
visions, and the sterile discussions among academic scholars
described with fine irony. [A] trip to real but extraordinary
experiences.”—Guido Ferrari, journalist and director
of Tao: The Watercourse Way at Wu Yi Mountain
“Sky Shamans of Mongolia is an invaluable guide for anyone
interested in understanding one of the world’s oldest shamanic
traditions with an abundance of detail to satisfy a curious reader
or a serious student of global shamanism.”—Robert Thé, medical
anthropologist
“Kevin Turner brings a rare combination of skills and tools to the
table, which in Mongolia opened doors and hearts normally closed to
Western researchers of shamanism. He is a linguist, a teacher, and
a practicing shaman. As a Western shaman, he had to endure much
skeptical probing before being accepted by the Mongolian shamanic
community and invited to their gatherings and healing ceremonies.
Writing Sky Shamans of Mongolia from the perspective of a shamanic
practitioner himself, Kevin Turner offers his readers a rare
in-depth overview of the history and current practices of Mongolian
shamanism, which after a period of persecution and decline is
experiencing a revival of astonishing
proportions.”—Sabine Lucas, PhD, Jungian analyst, and author
of Past Life Dreamwork
“Sky Shamans of Mongolia provides authoritative and extensive
coverage of a little-known tradition. The writer’s personal
encounters enliven the account, furthered by his position as a
practitioner of ‘universal shamanism’ which enables him to enjoy
privileged access. There are moments when the reader is so drawn in
by the firsthand descriptions that it feels as if one were actually
there.”—John Dougill, author of Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the
Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion
“The dramatic resurgence of shamanism in Mongolia, as detailed in
this beautifully written study, is testament to the indomitable
nature of the soul’s healing powers. Kevin Turner gives us both a
window into shamanism as a worldwide phenomenon and a detailed
account of ancestral Mongolian shamanic practices. Most interesting
of all, Sky Shamans is that rare glimpse into the shamanic psyche,
transmitted through these accounts.”—Jeremiah Abrams, author of
Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human
Nature
“An enjoyably written introduction to Mongolian and Inner Asian
shamanisms that is based in experience and filled with knowledge.
Recommended.”—Jeremy Narby, author of Shamans through Time and The
Cosmic Serpent
“Author Kevin Turner has brought something of great importance to
those seeking to understand and practice shamanism: a valuable
contribution to the understanding and practice of shamanism in the
West and a richly rewarding, fascinating study of Mongolian
shamanism. The author’s adventures in the land of the shamans
brings much food for thought and great insight.”—Nicholas Breeze
Wood, editor of Sacred Hoop magazine
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