14 Facts About Michael Harner

Michael James Harner was an American anthropologist, educator and author.

Michael Harner initially worked in the field of archaeology, including studying the Lower Colorado River area.

In 1966, having taught at UC-Berkeley and served as associate director of the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, Michael Harner became a visiting professor at Yale and Columbia University and in 1970 joined the graduate faculty of The New School for Social Research in New York City.

Michael Harner co-chaired the Anthropology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences.

In 1983, Michael Harner founded the Center for Shamanic Studies, which is today known as the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

In 1987 Michael Harner left academia to devote himself full-time to the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

Suzuki did for Zen, Michael Harner has done for shamanism, namely bring the tradition and its richness to Western awareness.

Michael Harner died on February 3,2018, at the age of 88.

In 1980, Michael Harner published The Way of the Shaman: a Guide to Power and Healing, on HarperCollins.

Michael Harner broadly applied the term "shaman" to diverse spiritual and ceremonial leaders in cultures that do not use this term, claiming that he studied with "shamans" in North America; he wrote that these were Wintu, Pomo, Coast Salish, and Lakota people, but he did not name any individuals or specific communities.

Michael Harner claimed he was describing common elements of "shamanic practice" found among Indigenous people world-wide, in cultures he never encountered, having stripped those elements of specific cultural content so as to render them accessible to contemporary Western spiritual seekers.

Influences cited by Michael Harner included Siberian shamanism, Mexican and Guatemalan culture, and Australian traditions, as well as the familiar spirits of European occultism, which are said to aid the occultist in their metaphysical work.

Michael Harner later integrated his Center for Shamanic Studies into the nonprofit Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

In 1987, Michael Harner resigned his professorship to devote himself full-time to the work of the foundation.