Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy

Mircea Eliade (1951)

First attested

1951Published in French in 1951 and translated into English in the Bollingen Series in 1964.

The seminal comparative study defining shamanism through ecstatic trance and cosmic flight.

Published in French in 1951 (Le Chamanisme et les techniques archaïques de l'extase) and translated into English in 1964 in the Bollingen Series, Mircea Eliade's monumental work established the modern academic definition of shamanism. Eliade surveyed Arctic, Siberian, Central Asian, Native American, and Oceanian traditions, arguing that shamanism is fundamentally a technique of ecstasy wherein the specialist leaves the body, ascends the World Tree (axis mundi), encounters spirits, and guides souls to the underworld.