Ema's Odyssey

Follow the fantastic odyssey of one woman as she explores shamanic realms, encountering spirit animals and other teachers who answer her deepest questions and provide her with life-changing guidance and healing. Widowed, childless, and alone, 60-year-old Ema bravely decides to expand her self-knowledge by embarking on a spiritual adventure. She meets with author Sandra Harner, who leads her through five sessions of Harner Shamanic Counseling (HSC), a highly effective system of personal problem-solving in which counselors help clients enter a shamanic state of consciousness using a specific sonic rhythm. While in this state, clients seek out helping spirits, who offer insight, wisdom, and healing. By the end of her sessions with Harner, Ema has discovered her own innate ability to find answers to pervasive personal questions, overcome inhibitory fears, and acquire self-confidence and wisdom. She has found a sense of personal empowerment and a newfound joy in existence--and decides she wants to continue her journeys independently. From 1999 to 2011, Ema ventures on a total of 66 journeys, each one chronicled in this book, thanks to taped recordings of her simultaneous narration. In addition to serving as an invaluable resource for students and practitioners of shamanism, psychology, and alternative modalities of therapy, Ema's Odyssey enchants us with its lyrical poetry and unique wisdom, and inspires us with its demonstration of courage, curiosity, persistence, and humility. Perhaps most importantly, we come away with the added assurance that we are not alone, that there are oft-untapped resources we all can access, given the tools and trust in our own experience.