There are descriptions of the 'rebirth' experiences of shamans [the genuine near death experiences, not the common interpreation now used of born again]; the practises of healing, the travels of the shaman in out of body experiences, their roles as psychopomp and their practise of healing via 'soul retrieval'. He also describes 'soul loss' and what it means to each group. The amount of carefully researched detail that is provided is astonishing, it is almost a life's work but carefully organised into this relatively compact volume. It draws on the work of anthropologists and the better and more serious researchers of religions, as such it is also reliable in its findings. Personally I found this book to be a treasure house of information - but then I bought the book knowing what it contained and what I was going to use it for. To summarise - an invaluable scholarly work on shamanic practises throughout the world over the ages. Thorough, well-written text on Shamanism. Still the classic.
"An important and quite beautiful book". -Library Journal. "[Eliade] throws a searching and humbling light on our modern fragmented existence". -[London] Times Literary Supplement. "Treatment of such subjects as the meaning of the sacred, sun and moon worship, water symbolism, sacred stones, fertility cults, the earth mother, symbols of regeneration and the myth of eternal renewal, will interest the general reader as well as the scholar". -New York Times. "It is doubtful that one could encounter a more impressive work of scholarship and insight.... All serious students of religion would derive enormous profit from the reading of this work". -Kirkus. In this era of increased knowledge the essence of religious phenomena eludes the psychologists, sociologists, linguists, and other specialists because they do not study it as religious. According to Mircea Eliade, they miss the one irreducible element in religious phenomena-the element of the sacred. Eliade abundantly demonstrates universal religious experience and shows how humanity's effort to live within a sacred sphere has manifested itself in myriad cultures from ancient to modern times; how certain beliefs, rituals, symbols, and myths have, with interesting variations, persisted.