Chapter 5, The Journey to Restore Power Summary and Analysis

Harner writes that power helps one resist or dispel disease and even makes it difficult for one to be untruthful. Health depends upon power and power on having a power animal. Therefore, restoring power depends upon restoring or acquiring a power animal. It is important to be able to see into a person to know if that individual is missing a guardian animal spirit. For the Jivaro, guardian spirits reside primarily in the chest. Jivaro see inverted rainbows in the chest of one possessing a guardian, so individuals without an inverted rainbow require that a shaman retrieve their animal or get them a new one in order to restore their power. Most cultures believe that a shaman can have two guardian animals at any one time. A shaman can descend into...