Ema's Odyssey

Follow the fantastic odyssey of one woman as she explores shamanic realms, encountering spirit animals and other teachers who answer her deepest questions and provide her with life-changing guidance and healing. Widowed, childless, and alone, 60-year-old Ema bravely decides to expand her self-knowledge by embarking on a spiritual adventure. She meets with author Sandra Harner, who leads her through five sessions of Harner Shamanic Counseling (HSC), a highly effective system of personal problem-solving in which counselors help clients enter a shamanic state of consciousness using a specific sonic rhythm. While in this state, clients seek out helping spirits, who offer insight, wisdom, and healing.

By the end of her sessions with Harner, Ema has discovered her own innate ability to find answers to pervasive personal questions, overcome inhibitory fears, and acquire self-confidence and wisdom. She has found a sense of personal empowerment and a newfound joy in existence--and decides she wants to continue her journeys independently. From 1999 to 2011, Ema ventures on a total of 64 journeys, each one chronicled in this book, thanks to taped recordings of her simultaneous narration.

In addition to serving as an invaluable resource for students and practitioners of shamanism, psychology, and alternative modalities of therapy, Ema's Odyssey enchants us with its lyrical poetry and unique wisdom, and inspires us with its demonstration of courage, curiosity, persistence, and humility. Perhaps most importantly, we come away with the added assurance that we are not alone, that there are oft-untapped resources we all can access, given the tools and trust in our own experience.“Ema’s Odyssey is an invaluable source of information about non-ordinary realities that should not be missing in the library of any spiritual seeker.”
—Stanislav Grof, MD, author of Psychology of the Future, When the Impossible Happens, and Healing Our Deepest Wounds
 
“A beautiful and remarkable account. It reminds us that wisdom and mystery are so close, and like shamans of old, we can journey there too.”
—Jack Kornfield, PhD, author of A Path with Heart
 
“This fascinating account of contemporary shamanic practice in the service of healing is a wise and illuminating introduction to this ancient tradition. Dr. Harner’s book is a unique and important contribution to our understanding of shamanism and spiritual freedom.”
—Frances Vaughan, PhD, psychologist and author of Shadows of the Sacred

“No where else will you find a more compelling and illuminating account of the inherent wisdom, spiritual democracy, and transformative power found within the experience of shamanic journeying—the most ancient of spiritual practices! Not only a must read for students and practitioners of shamanism, but for anyone, personally or professionally, who is interested in spiritual liberation, personal growth, self-discovery, and self-healing.”
—Angeles Arrien, cultural anthropologist and president of the Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education & Research
 
“Ema’s Odyssey captivates and delivers us into the sparkling mystery of our very existence.”
—Barbara Berger, LAc, acupuncturist and specialist in the healing benefits of microcurrent therapy
 
“A powerful and inspiring collaboration filled with wisdom and sure to touch the heart.”
—Randy Cherner, founder of the Cherner Institute, a center for the practice of somatic education
 
“This book is an important map of the far reaches of inner territories, as well as an expression of the intricate and rich poetry of the soul.”
—Christina Grof, PhD, author of The Thirst for Wholeness, The Eggshell Landing, and coauthor of Spiritual Emergency and Holotropic Breathwork
 
“Ema’s Odyssey beautifully demonstrates the visionary, healing, and transformative power of the images and experiences that can emerge during shamanic journeys and shows, for the first time, how these experiences can evolve and can resolve multiple issues over multiple journeys.”
—Roger Walsh, MD, PhD, University of California, Irvine, author of The World of ShamanismSANDRA HARNER, PhD, cofounded the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS) in the late 1970s with her husband, Michael Harner, and has taught at U.C. Berkeley, California College of Arts and Crafts, and the State University of New York at Purchase. She has been actively involved in the FSS since its inception and is director of the Shamanism and Health Project and codirector of the Shamanic Knowledge Conservatory. Harner is a licensed psychologist and maintains a clinical practice specializing in health psychology and existential-humanistic psychotherapy. Her current focus of research is the intersection of shamanism and psychology.