About The Foundation for Shamanic Studies Europe
The Foundation for Shamanic Studies Europe, founded in 1987, is the only multinational, multicultural and multilingual faculty in the area of Shamanism worldwide.
Our aim is to shape a modern Core shamanism, and to build cross cultural bridges between shamanism and science, as well as between spirits and humans for the benefit of living and future generations.
History of The Foundation
Following his initial shamanic training in the Upper Amazon in 1961 and 1964, Professor Michael Harner developed his personal practice of shamanism and shamanic healing in the United States. He also began to teach about the practical importance of the ancient shamanic knowledge and wisdom of the tribal peoples of this world. As he wrote and lectured on shamanism, students began to ask him to introduce them into the shamanic methods. In response he started giving training workshops in the early 1970s to small groups of people. Interest in this training rapidly grew and in 1979 he founded the Center for Shamanic Studies (CSS).
For eight more years Dr. Harner continued his duties as an university professor of anthropology, but at the same time he was aware that shamanic practice and training in tribal cultures was disappearing fast. It became clear to him that firm worldwide action had to be taken to help preserve the ancient knowledge and to transmit it to future generations. So he left the university. In 1987 CSS was integrated into a new non-profit organization, the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS). The Foundation grew rapidly with financial support primarily coming from the shamanic training courses and workshops Michael Harner taught. His teachings were augmented by others he trained, such as Sandra Ingerman, Sandra Harner, Alicia Luengas Gates, Paul Uccusic, Michael Hasslinger and others.
What the Foundation Does
UIT
When asked the Foundation helps tribal peoples to revive their own threatened or destroyed traditional practices of shamanism within the Urgent Indigenous Assistance program. The program is made up of several distinct parts that accomplish program goals, and importantly, Field Associates, a group of anthropologists and cultural experts, who work with indigenous groups around the world. The Foundation has dispatched training teams and individuals to various tribal groups. They visit for as short a time as possible to provide basic shamanic tools, so that the native volunteers can subsequently get most of their shamanic knowledge directly from the spirits as it is typical in shamanism. Among the groups to which such assistance has been lent are the Inuit (Eskimo), the Sami (Lapp) and several Native American tribes in the northeastern United States.
Living Treasures of Shamanism Program
This started in 1991 in conjunction with the Field Associates Program. Part of the responsibility of the Field Associates has been to locate potential Living Treasures for the Foundation. So the Foundation has searched for outstanding indigenous shamans in jeopardized conditions to help them preserve their knowledge and practice through FSS recognition and lifetime wages.
Cross-Cultural research and Experimentation
Quality research is necessary for quality teaching. Basis of FSS teachings is crosscultural research on shamanic knowledge and practices in hundreds of the world’s cultures to provide authentic and time-tested information. Michael Harner’s research work, aided by graduate students and the Foundation’s staff has made it possible to rediscover or recreate practices long thought to be lost. One typical example is the MONOR project – Mapping of Nonordinary Reality.
Developing Practical Health Applications and Measuring Health Impact
The Foundation has investigated and refined a variety of shamanic healing methods to help deal with illness and other problems of Western life. Significant findings became incorporated in the training offered to medical doctors, psychotherapists and others through the Foundation’s educational programs. A critical part of this work has been accomplished through the Shamanism and Health Program (SHP) where the Foundation has engaged in scientific research in a progressing effort to communicate the value of shamanic methods to the mainstream medical community. Another example has been Harner Method Shamanic Counseling (HMSC), which combines classic shamanic divination methods with systemic and technological innovations to help persons deal with the stress of daily life.
Training Westerners in Shamanism and Shamanic Healing
The Foundation is working to develop a broad range of educational and training opportunities founded on fundamental and near-universal shamanic principles and practices that will help revive shamanism and shamanic healing around the planet. FSS currently offers 203 courses to approximately 5000 individuals annually.