Stoopid video re: self-promotion to sell more books.
AMERICAN SHAMAN, Book One
A story of the spirits, of murder, of finding your way in a hostile and dangerous world -- the story of a modern shaman king and world's most ancient religions: animism and shamanism
"The spirits desire communion with us but evil prevents
it. Evil is the web of distractions we believe keep us
sane in an insane world -- the various pornographies that
emanate from the screens and loudspeakers we upholster
our world with, the amusements that reinforce our cheap
and pervasive sense of irony. But these things are
merely clever, and quite intentionally meaningless.
Distracting. We think they keep us sane because we have
a measure of control over them -- we can change the
channel, turn up the volume, increase the dosage -- but
this is a lie. We have no real control."
-- Chapter One,
AMERICAN SHAMAN Book
One
Geser has undergone the first two trials -- the mental
trial cost Geser's father his life. The physical trial
found Geser begging the heavens to kill him, but they
were silent. He has undergone the initiation ritual of
hallucinatory fever and dismemberment. He has found his
way to present day Texas, where he is a car thief,
employed by some very dangerous men who protect their
invisibility in America in any way they can. But Geser
must now undergo the Third Trial, the spiritual or moral
trial, and even Geser's spirit guide is convinced Geser
will not survive this time.
Thus begins
AMERICAN SHAMAN Book
One, the story of Geser, the modern shaman king, named for
the first Siberian shaman. Shamanism, or animism, was
the world's first religion, originating on the frozen
plains of Siberia before migrating ten thousand years
ago with the people who crossed the Bering Sea land
bridge to people North and South America. "Shaman" means
"excited man," because the shaman could enter an
ecstatic trance to venture to Spirit Ground and commune
with the spirits. Shaman are both revered and feared
because of this gift, because of their knowledge of both
Spirit Ground and Human Ground sets them apart from the
rest of us.
