The Eagle's Quest: A Physicist Finds the Scientific Truth at the Heart of the Shamanic World Book

	Cast of Principal Characters	13
	Preface	17
	What Does the Word Shaman Mean?	19
1.	An Intuitive Physicist's Quest	22
	Shamanic Physics: Nine Hypotheses	23
	Shamanic Physics and Mythic Reality	24
	Altered Consciousness	25
	The Sham of the Shaman	26
	The Physics of Meaningfulness	26
	Parallel Shamanic Worlds Are Real	27
	A Sense of a Higher Power	28
	Sexuality, Love, and Healing	29
	The Test of Death	29
	A Recap: Shamanic Physics Hypotheses	30
2.	The Winds of Ayahuasca	32
	Science Hints	37
3.	The Power of Words and Sounds	38
	In the Beginning Was the Word and the Word Was: "Satan"	41
	The "Shaman" in the Gray Flannel Suit	45
	The Sound of Wyrd	51
	Shamanic Poetry	52
	Words and Wyrd	53
4.	Rituals and Initiations	57
	A Journey into the Unconscious	60
	A Family Firewalk	71
	A Physicist's Shamanic Initiation	77
	The Eagle's Initiation	78
	The Sweat of the Questing Eagle	79
	The Trickster-Shaman from Rosebud	84
	The Shaman with the Flashing Lights	87
5.	Sacred Places and Plants	98
	Where Does Shamanism Work Best?	99
	Norse Runes Don't Work in Mexico	101
	Places of Power	103
	Curious Anomalies at Sacred Sites	106
	Drugs and Evolution	108
	Ayahuasca History	110
	Functions of Ayahuasca	111
	Ayahuasca Rules	113
	The Shamanic Planet	114
6.	Sexuality, Magic, and Potency	117
	Male and Female Medicine	122
	Wave and Particle Action	123
	A Sexual Flight on the Winds of Ayahuasca	124
	Wilfredo and the Sexual Potion	127
	No No, Nonoy	130
	The Singing Jungle	132
	Raw Fish in the Morning	133
	Night Winds of Ayahuasca	134
	A Sexual Dream Under Ayahuasca	138
	Dusk in a Different World	138
7.	Shamanic Healing	143
	Least-Action Paths and the Unconscious Mind	150
	Nothing But Vibrations	158
	Nothing But a Dream	161
	Chumash X-Ray	162
	The Ten Senses	163
	A New Principle of Life	164
	The Vibration of the Ayahuasca Master	165
	Sacrificial Action	166
	The Spirits of the Ayahuasca	168
	I Was Mistaken	168
	A Growing Rage Inside of Me	169
	Lessons from the Jungle Mother	170
	Lying in the Jungle Mother's Womb	172
8.	Other World Experiences	177
	My Dream Journey to a Shamanic World	179
	Out-of-Body Experience	183
	Drifting in Illness	186
	Dream Flights of the Indian Medicine People	187
	Chumash Telekineses	188
	Shape-Shifting and Animism	189
	The Berserkers and the Shapeshifters	190
	Caught as a Raven	190
	The Birds of Death	191
	The Animal Guardians	191
	Sending Spirits to Guard the Land	192
	Recovering Out Lost Senses	193
	How to Enter a Parallel World	195
9.	Time Traveling and Visions of Past and Future	198
	Journeys of an Ayahuasquero	200
	Time-Slips and Sacred Places	206
	The Rails of Time	208
	Time Traveling to the Past	208
	Setting Your Mind Spinning	209
	How to Be an Angel in the Past	210
	A Universal Principle of Support	211
	Eagle-Man-Oglala-Sioux	216
	The Past and the Present Are the Parents of the Future	218
	Intent and a Beam of Light	220
	Seeing into Mythic Time	221
	Subjective Antedating	222
	Description of an Ayahuasquero	224
	The Two Levels of Time	226
	Visions, Time Travel, and the Unconscious	227
10.	Death	230
	Absalom	236
	The Vision of Michael and the Holographic Universe	237
	The Pendragon and the Movie Reel of Death	238
	The Moment of Death	240
	Conductors of the Dead	244
	Death and Birth Are One	245
	The Shamans from Thunderhouse	246
	A Map of the Middle World	247
	The Edge of Heaven	251
	The Death Dream	252
	Shamans, Death, and the Jell-O Mind	252
	The Middle Realm	253
11.	Shamanic Consciousness	257
	The Sleeper Awakens	257
	The "Real" Reality	258
	The Drop of Consciousness	260
	Shamanic Sensitivity	262
	The Materialization of Consciousness	265
	Act Cleaning	267
	Cancelado	271
	The Whole-Mind Illumination	272
	What Does the Body-Mind Do When Death Approaches?	273
	Pulling Off the Scab of the Unconscious	274
	The Dogs of Sacrifice	275
	Dancing with an Open Heart	275
	Escape from Iquitos	276
	The Cabinet of Dr. Cabieses	276
	The Model of Dr. Cabieses	278
	What Is Your Consciousness, and Where Is God?	279
	Finale: It's Just a Movie, Fred	282
	Bibliography	301
	Index	305