Foundation for Shamanic Studies

(FSS)

   A nonprofit educational organization located in Mill Valley, California (formerly the Center for Shamanic Studies in New York, established in 1983), founded and directed by Michael Harner. The FSS aims to “preserve and revive indigenous shamanism,” offers “urgent indigenous assistance,” conducts research on shamanic healing and the “mapping of nonordinary reality” (MONOR), and seeks to “revive shamanism in the East and the West” (www.shamanism.org). The foundation teaches “Harner Method” core shamanism in a worldwide workshop program, ranging from the beginner course “The Way of the Shaman: The Shamanic Journey, Power and Healing” to yearlong shamanic practitioner training programs. The FSS is also known for its monetary contributions to those they designate “living treasures of shamanism,” such as Wangchuk, an elderly Tibetan shaman living in exile in Nepal. Scholars have commented on the problematic nature of defining a “core” shamanism when shamanic practices are so diverse worldwide and on the neocolonial role of the foundation as “arbiter and authority over who is and who is not a ‘true shaman’” (Johnson 1995, 172).