Walsh, Roger N.

   Professor of psychiatry and behavior at the University of California at Irvine, whose research interests in transpersonal psychology involve the psychology of religion, Asian religion, and shamanism. In his volume The Spirit of Shamanism (1990), Walsh examines the role of healing in shamanism, arguing that some shamanic practices foreshadow contemporary medical and psychological techniques. This research is in the vein of other psychological approaches to shamanism as a therapeutic technique valid for modern Westerners. Historically, this trend of psychologizing shamanism influenced the development of Michael Harner’s core shamanism.

   See also Achterberg, Jeanne; Extra Pay; Goodman, Felicitas; Grof, Stanislav; Ingerman, Sandra; Krippner, Stanley; Neurotheology; Peters, Larry G.; Tart, Charles T.