Description
Book SynopsisA study which argues that the spiritual quest is rooted in our biological, psychological, linguistic and social nature. Drawing on tribal religions and practices and from theorists and thinkers, the author seeks to expand our awareness of this complex human activity.
Table of ContentsPREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PART ONE· ANIMAL QUAERENS: THE QUEST AS A DIMENSION OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE
1. Religion and the Spiritual Quest: From Closure to Openness
2. Biological and Psychological Foundations of the Quest
3. Linguistic Foundations of the Quest
4. The Questing Animal
PART TWO · THE SPIRITUAL QUEST IN RITUAL AND MYTH
5. Ritual as Affirmation and Transformation
6. Myth and the Journey beyond the Self
7. Mobility and Its Limits in Communal Ritual and Myth
PART THREE· SPIRIT POSSESSION AS A FORM OF THE SPIRITUAL QUEST
8. The Varieties of Spirit Possession
9. Possession and Transformation
PART FOUR· FORMS OF THE SHAMANIC QUEST
10. Shamanism, Possession, and Ecstasy: Australia and the Tropics
11. Shamanic Heartland: Central and Northern Eurasia
PART FIVE · FORMS OF THE QUEST IN NATIVE AMERICA
12. The Arctic and Western North America
13. Mesoamerica and South America
14. Eastern North America and the Great Plains
PART SIX · THE THEORY OF THE QUEST:SOME CLOSING CONSIDERATIONS
15. A Ternary Process
16. The Reality of Transcendence
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
