The Eagle's Quest: A Physicist's Search for Truth in the Heart of the Shamanic World

by Fred Alan Wolf

Book Overview

From Simon & Schuster, The Eagles Quest is a story of a physicist finding the scientific truth at the heart of the Shamanic world. The Eagle's Quest is an exploration of shamanism and its interaction... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671675346
• ISBN13: 9780671675349
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: Summit Books
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Not necessarily scientific truth...but still a tale that rings "true"

I would have preferred the title stopped with the elegance and simplicity of "The Eagle's Quest", because I don't think the book can deliver as well for finding scientific truth. So why did I rate it as a 5? Because it did something much more useful to me than delivering scientific "truth", a promise more likely conjured by the publicists than by the author. I appreciated deeply the rare opportunity to "hear" the thought processes of an accomplished scientist and physicist grappling with a group of phenomenon nowdays loosely called "shamanic". It was an intriguing and courageous endeavor to brainstorm outloud about his search for models, hypotheses and vocabulary in order to construct a hair-thin bridge between science and mystic journeys to alternative inner and outer realities, some of which were unsettlingly irrational but still transformative and healing. Far from hearing his voice as egotistical (as a few other reviewers suggested), I found it to be refreshingly candid, soul-searching and very human. Thus in my view his thoughtful discourse does contain some erroneous logic. At times he also offers some weak examples within which one feature or another of western science and/or medicine is set up as a "strawman" to be sacrificed in the comparison with his idealization of a shamanic mind-view. As he journeys deeper into his global vistations with shamans and ayahuasca -- these start to feel increasingly inflated to magical projections. Now the importance of his personal storytelling rather than pretending to offer an unbiased scientific pronouncement is the redeeming key. His enchantment with magical bias almost becomes intentional, perhaps an inevitable consequence of his immersion/merger with his field of study -- the other consequence of the observer effect in which the state of the observer is also profoundly changed but rarely admitted. As a both a PhD scientist and a physician, I cannot help but notice some of his oversimplifications of us versus "the other" as irritants. Nonetheless, by the end of his book they don't stand in my memory as major detractors. Since I like to argue -- they may even have spurred me on. Instead I found an engaging personal journey, influenced by both the highs and lows of his intellectual struggle to meet, grasp and take in a discipline radically different from his own educational orientation -- with a willingness to stretch beyond some of the prejudices of our current scientific paradigms in order to establish a path for future dialogue. While I doubt that very little has been "scientifically established" as truth, especially as truth with a capital "T" ... I think the treasure of this book is the invitation to keep modifying and testing our hypotheses, our search for evidence and our vocabulary in order to create a deeper understanding between the cultures of science and "shamanism". Nearly 30 years ago, I was trained that the purpose of scientific investigation was to cyclic

A classic combination of Shamanism and Physics

This book gives great detailed insights, usefull knowledge and very helpful personal experiences to show what is going on between the shamanic and the physical worlds. The fact that he uses the western scientific methods of inquiry with the spiritual gives a profound new view and practical tools. It is especially useful to those seeking "scientific" backdrop to shamanic experiences.

Visionary Physicist finds commonality in Shamanism

Excellent book. I am a teacher of Reiki, a hands-on energy healing form. At the Master Level we read this book, particularly the 3rd chapter which deals with the effects of Sound. I wrote to my Native American Teacher, Joseph Rael/Beautiful Painted Arrow, and told him about it, and he said that Dr. Fred was a good friend of his! who is investigating Joseph's father's language, Tiwa, because of crossover similarities with the new physics! A very interesting and colorfully readable book...

A classic book on shamanism -- a real page-turner!

This book stands out as one of the best books on shamanism I've ever seen. The Eagle's Quest is remarkable because it maps concepts from modern physics into the ancient shamanistic world... all the while following the Wolf's very personal true story of his quest for deeper understanding. Because Wolf really wishes to know what's going on in the universe, his book is thorough in its investigations of old world shamanism. This is one of the best books I've ever read combining spirituality and physics: it's full of useful information and well-written. I love all of Fred Alan Wolf's books, and this one is especially enjoyable to me, because it was truly written from his heart. This book is a classic.