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WONDROUS HEALING: SHAMANISM, HUMAN EVOLUTION, AND THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION by James McClenon. DeKalb, IL: University of Northern Illinois Press, 2001. Pp. x + 216. $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 0-87580-590-6.
McClenon's book provides a biological perspective on shamanism, hypnosis, faith healing, and "anomalous experiences" that illustrates their contribution to human evolution. A principal focus of the book is on shamanism. A synthesis of interdisciplinary evidence illustrates that shamanism is part of an evolved psychology that still forms part of human nature. These biological potentials are the basis for psychosomatic healing responses, hypnotic susceptibility, and placebo effects. The evolution of shamanic healing and religion is based in these potentials and their adaptations in the context of fertility, childbirth, illness, injury, and social life.
McClenon's approach also contributes to the area of "neurotheology" and the biology of religion, arguing for a model of religious ritual healing that has direct implications for theories of the origins of religion. This perspective is laid out in an introductory chapter, "Evolution and Religion," and developed in the major chapters on "The Anthropology of Wondrous Healing," "Wondrous Healing, Hypnotizability, and Folklore," "The Seeds of Religion," and "When the Seeds of Religion Sprout." These indicate that a biologically based spiritual healing practice known as shamanism provided the basis for religion and folk healing.
The cross-cultural basis for McClenon's approach to shamanism derives from studies done by Winkelman (1992) on magico-religious practitioners that establish the cross-cultural distribution of shamanism. These shamanic universals are assessed in the context of the neurobiological foundations of shamanism...