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Michael Harner (born April 27, 1929) is the founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, the formulator of "core shamanism," and one of the primary proponents of neoshamanism. He was trained as an anthropologist, having taught at Yale, Berkeley and at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he chaired the department. Harner's reputation as an academic was essentially destroyed when he "went native" and began to represent himself as a shaman.

According to Daniel Noel, at Berkley, Harner sat on Carlos Castenada's dissertation committee; Castenada's dissertation was "Sorcery: A Description of the World," which he later published with few changes as Journey to Ixtlan. Susan Grimaldi wrote an article for Shaman's Drum magazine, published by Harner's Foundation for Shamanic Studies, in response to Noel's book, wherein she claims this was not true.[1] Indeed, according to Harner's own educational affiliations, he never taught at UCLA which is where Castenada was a graduate student. Harner's own departure from academic anthropology to become what Daniel Noel termed a "shamanthropologist" came with the publication of The Way of the Shaman as a "how-to" guide for people outside of shamanistic cultures to become "shamans." The Foundation of Shamanic Studies, founded in 1985, published more books along these lines, and offers weekend seminars and for-fee classes to the same end.

The Way of the Shaman became an important text in the early history of neoshamanism, and like Castenada's novels, provided a mythic context for shamanic practices. Part of the popularity of Harner's book is explained by the fact that, in contrast to so-called hallucinogenic shamanism that was popular with spiritual seekers in the 1960s and the 1970s, "The Way of the Shaman" began to popularize "safe" spiritual techniques based on drumming, rattling and guided meditation. This resonated with the changing spiritual tastes of Western "New Agers."

In the late 70s Harner suggested that the Aztecs had resorted to organized cannibalism on a vast scale to make up for an assumed protein deficiency in the diet, mostly due to lack of any large domesticated animals, a scarcity of game and the lack of plant-based protein. Human sacrifices had indeed been a central aspect of Aztec religion and the theory initially gained some scholarly support. However, since then it has been shown to be based on unfounded or highly speculative assumptions about eating habits, agriculture, nutrition and demographics, making it an entirely unlikely scenario.^[1]

Within academia, he conducted extensive fieldwork in the Upper Amazon, western North America, the Canadian Arctic, and Samiland (Lapland). He did pioneering studies of the Jívaro Indians of the Amazon (now known as the Shuar), and wide ranging studies of shamanism.

He also played a major part in alerting academics to the central role of psychedelics in shamanic practices and many tribal cultures. Harner’s description of his own initiatory ayahuasca experience in the Amazon jungle, which is described in his book The Way of the Shaman, has become a classic example of the power of these substances. It provides a superb account of their importance to some shamanic traditions, their ability to introduce new world-views and effect personal transformation, and their capacity to render researchers more sensitive to, and comprehending of, the cultures and practices in which they are used.

After this experience, Harner went on to undertake extensive shamanic training, first with Shuar teachers, and then throughout many areas of the world. His combination of anthropological training, academic expertise, studies of shamanism in multiple cultures, and personal shamanic training, has produced a rare, perhaps unique, breadth and depth of expertise and influence.

In 1987, he left academia to devote himself to full-time work with shamanism, and created the Foundation for Shamanic Studies: http://www.shamanism.org. The foundation funds research and publications, offers worldwide trainings in shamanic practices, has an international membership, and – in an intriguing cultural reversal – has reintroduced shamanic practices to parts of the world where the tradition was lost or suppressed.

His many publications include the books: The Way of the Shaman, Hallucinogens and Shamanism, The Jívaro, and a coauthored novel, Cannibal.

From an interview with Michael Harner in Higher Wisdom, Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob, eds. 2005. Albany: State University of New York Press. Copyright 2005.

Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob in Higher Wisdom opine that

"What Yogananda did for Hinduism and D. T. Suzuki did for Zen, Michael Harner has done for shamanism, namely bring the tradition and its richness to Western awareness."

• Hank Wesselman

• Harner, Michael, The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing, Harper & Row Publishers, NY 1980
• Harner, Michael, Hallucinogens and Shamanism (Oxford University Press 1973)
• Harner, Michael, The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls (University of California Press 1972)
• Noel, Daniel, The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999
• Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. (1990) Aztec medicine, health, and nutrition ISBN 0-8135-1562-9
• Roger Walsh and Charles S. Grob, eds. 2005. Higher Wisdom. Albany: State University of New York Press.

• Michael Harner's Foundation for Shamanic Studies
• "My Path in Shamanism," Michael Harner's personal account
• Michael Harner current biography
• Interview with Michael Harner