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Title: Visionseeker: Shared Wisdom from the Place of Refuge by Henry Barnard Wesselman, Hank, Ph.D. Wesselman ISBN: 1-56170-753-8 Publisher: Hay House Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: sharing transcendent experiences
Comment: All other considerations aside, Visionseeker--like Spiritwalker and Medicinemaker--is a good story. By the way, if you haven't read any yet--READ THEM IN ORDER! It's interesting to consider what a possible future might look like. I like to hear about Wesselman's shamanic/visionary encounters and lessons with Nainoa. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't read this with a particular agenda and specific questions I needed to have answered. If a pressing question came up, I think I'd just write to Dr. Wesselman and ask. I read on to book three because I enjoyed the other two and find the "characters" to be multi-dimensional, aware and very human. Their consciousness is expanding with each visit. Some of their epiphanies help to clarify my own thinking--things I've been turning over in my own mind. The author has a gift for articulating hard-to-define concepts, particularly regarding the nature of the soul. I have a stake now in knowing what happens to these characters, and how they continue to learn and make sense of their uncommon relationship.
Wesselman is not painting of picture of 21st century life, culture and morality when he visits Nainoa. It's a foreign point of view in most respects. Nor do I think the author is omniscient when it comes to life in that time and place. He is learning as he goes and gathering information and understanding. Readers have to be aware of these things. Personally, I read the books with a curiosity about the possibility of a spiritual connection across time. If you believe in the possibility of reincarnation, his narrative is intriguing. What if he and Nainoa share a portion of an enduring soul? I don't think he is asking us to believe what he is saying beyond a shadow of a doubt; we didn't experience what he did, so how can we? But I respect his experience/his beliefs about them--and I think they contain something of value for us.
One of the things I liked best about this particular text was that he goes into specifics about his shamanic practices. As he begins to develop some control over his visionary states, he is also able to share the knowledge he's gained more clearly. He discusses the energy/levels of soul and seems to be honing in on what connects him and his ancestor in these visionary states. I haven't had a conscious experience quite like his, but I've had enough powerful visions in dreaming and other moments to give me an open mind about it.
With regard to the sexuality that a few have taken issue with...if it's part of the overall experience and story, why should it be filtered out? Some might think it's overdone--I hear similar complaints about Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series--but sexuality and intimate partnerships are part of life. I found them to be tastefully and lovingly captured, though a few could make you blush.... For some who follow a more mystical path, I have heard that you CAN launch some journeying via sexual buildup and release. I can't confirm or deny it myself, though I have spoken to people who claim it happens and I've read about it more than once. You might think it's new age mumbo jumbo--that's your prerogative, but as far as I'm concerned Mr. Wesselman is the author and he gets to choose what goes in and what he feels is important or worthwhile to share. Seems rather courageous to me to lay bare the details of one's life so openly. It's also inspiring to read about couples who love and respect each other with passion and tenderness, though it might not always be comfortable to read coming from our cultural framework.
At any rate, author/mythologist Joseph Campbell cautions that when the hero comes back after his transformational journey with gifts for his/her community, a lot of times those gifts turn to ashes in his hands, because the the community is often not ready/able to understand and receive those gifts--yet.
Keep the stories coming, Dr. Wesselman! We'll embrace whatever gifts we are ready for.
Rating: 1
Summary: Very disappointed
Comment: Title: Very disappointed
...
I hoped the books would shed light, from Dr. Hank's perspective as well as from his descendant Nainoa's perspective(supposedly 5000 years in the future), on how human society got to where it is in Nainoa's time. Specifically, I wanted to know:
(1) How is Dr. Hank sure it's the year 7000 AD (or so)? Does Nainoa have some kind of written history? If so, why wasn't it shared with the reader?
(2) What happened to Earth (and when) that turned California into an equatorial tropical jungle, complete with tropical animals? Obviously some kind of pole shift/planetary displacement.
(3) What is happening in the rest of the world at 7000 AD? The California coastline is now an Hawaiian chiefdom (apparently deserted before they arrived in canoes) and the Nevada area is now sparsely populated by hunter-gatherer type tribes (the Ennu) of unknown descent, possibly Eskimo and/or French-Canadian. What about the rest of the world? And what happened to wipe out most of the population (assuming the rest of the Earth is as sparsely populated as these areas)?
Dr. Hank rants and raves about global warming and overpopulation leading to civilization's downfall ... but then he turns around and says that humans are reaching a critical mass of spiritual enlightenment (just look at all the shaman training centers, like his, after all), hinting that everything will be all right if we all just become enlightened like him. So, what happened then? It can't be both ways, can it? Or maybe there was something else that took the earth down (when?) ... a nuclear war, an asteroid hit, a near-miss by Planet X/Niburu?
I was also hoping that Dr. Hank, being the anthropologist he is and working where he is (African Rift Valley, the apparent "birthplace of intelligent humans"), with or without Nainoa, might shed some light on prehistoric human life. No such luck. All we get are brief glimpses into the far past ... a hairy arm at one point and some pre-human-type primates sleeping in a tree at another.
Then there were the parts of the books that just plain annoyed me:
Nainoa had married a woman in the Ennu tribe, then he travels back to his Hawaiian-culture land and marries another woman (and even thinks about someday marrying a third) ... I guess there isn't any commitments, faithfulness, or jealousy in the future. Polygamy and promiscuous sex is the natural deal ... after all, we are in "repopulate-the-earth-mode."
Dr. Hank, in all three books, includes many, many (many) sexual encounters, between him and wife Jill, as well as between Nainoa and his wives, in extensive, too-intimate, minute descriptive detail. What's the point? Titillate the reader some? Sell books? This isn't a steamy romance novel, is it? So what if you have a hot, randy sex life ... so what if the glories of your orgasms often lead to trance experiences ... it felt like exhibitionism and bragging. It disturbed me and I didn't think it was necessary to the subject matter of the books.
In summary, if Dr. Hank indeed has the powers he has, I wish he would tackle some of the important questions I have (above) for the benefit of all mankind, instead of just using his shamanic visions to eavesdrop on a man in the future, to create his own private paradise (secret garden), and to fly into the Source and poke the eye of God, living to tell about it. It felt like an advertisement: Look at all the cool stuff I can do and you can do it too ... just sign up for my next "Be a Shaman" class.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Vision
Comment: Required reading for the hungry soul, consious mind, or curious being.Visionseeker is chalked full of mystic experiences, healing practices and advice of extraordinary importance. Hank's insight of our wordly concerns [political, economical, religious, and environmental]offers options and hope for the future of humanity.
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Title: Medicinemaker by HANK WESSELMAN ISBN: 0553379321 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Spiritwalker: Messages from the Future by Henry Barnard Wesselman, Hank Wesselman ISBN: 0553378376 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Spirit Medicine: Healing in The Sacred Realms by Hank, PhD. Wesselman, Jill Kuykendall ISBN: 140190291X Publisher: Hay House Pub. Date: 01 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Way of the Shaman : Tenth Anniversary Edition by Michael Harner ISBN: 0062503731 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 12 October, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self Through Shamanic Practice by Sandra Ingerman ISBN: 0062504061 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 27 September, 1991 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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