The three pillars of the Foundation are teaching, researching, and preserving shamanic knowledge. These aspects of the Foundation’s work are being carried out through the workshops and advanced training programs, the Living Treasures of Shamanism and Indigenous Assistance, and the Shamanic Knowledge Conservatory, including the MONOR project.

The FSS has initiated a wide range of projects and programs for the study, preservation, teaching, and application of shamanic knowledge. Results from these strategic programs are incorporated into FSS courses worldwide.

To Preserve and Revive Indigenous Shamanism
The FSS has a network of specialists in shamanism throughout the world to help save indigenous shamanic knowledge in imminent danger of being lost. The FSS also responds to requests from native peoples to help revive and maintain their own shamanic traditions.

To date, the FSS has sent basic training teams to the Republic of Tuva, China, Siberia, Samiland, Australia, Canada, the northeastern United States and Alaska. The Foundation is actively engaged in preservation work in Nepal, Siberia, China, Central Asia, the Amazon, and elsewhere.

Scholarship rebates are available to Native Americans on federally recognized tribal rolls for all FSS workshops.

Living Treasures of Shamanism
Our Living Treasures designation provides an annual lifetime stipend to exceptionally distinguished indigenous shamans in less-developed countries where their age-old knowledge of shamanism and shamanic healing is in danger of extinction. Special care is given to providing the economic assistance necessary to allow these Living Treasures to pass on their knowledge to their people.

Examples of these Living Treasures honored by the FSS are:

• a Daur shaman, Sichingua, of Inner Mongolia, China ... read more...
• one of the last known Tibetan shamans, Pau Karma Wangchuk, recently passed ... read more...
• the two last known Tibetan shamans in a refugee camp in Nepal ... Pau Pasang Rhichoe and Pau Nyima Dhondup
• one of the last known snuff-Jaguar shamans, Mandu da Silva, of the Baniwa people, Aiary River, Northwest Amazon ... read more...
• a Yaminahua shaman in the Upper Amazon
• a Camaiura shaman in Central Brazil
• a Nanay shaman and an Ulchi shaman, both in Siberia
• a shaman in the Republic of Tuva
• and a Buriat shaman in Siberia.
• a shaman of the Kofán people of the Colombian Amazon recently passed ... read more...

Research on Shamanic Healing
The Foundation studies the effectiveness of shamanic healing methods to help deal with illness and other problems of daily life. Significant findings become incorporated in the training offered to medical doctors, psychotherapists, and others through the Foundation's educational programs. A critical part of this work is accomplished through the Shamanism and Health Program, where the Foundation engages in research in a progressing effort to find how shamanic practices complement mainstream medicine.

One of the on-going projects of the Shamanism and Health Program is to collect, study, and archive reports of healing and cures following shamanic treatment of physical, emotional, and mental disorders. If you have done shamanic healing work with positive results for another, please complete our Shamanic Healing Questionnaire. Your responses from this questionnaire can make a difference in our understanding of these phenomena.

The Shamanic Knowledge Conservatory (SKC)
This great archive, unique in the world, is preserving endangered shamanic knowledge for future generations. Steady progress continues at the SKC, under the direction of Michael Harner and with the invaluable work of research associate Gizelle Rhyon-Berry. Gizelle says: “I’ve been working on a comprehensive catalogue of detailed descriptions of items in the entire Conservatory’s Western Collection. The collection includes nonordinary reality maps, transcriptions, Three-Year student homework, general submissions, and researched data. Description of every item housed at our archive is imperative for locating them efficiently, for preservation, and for possible future interest.”

The Foundation has acquired over 65,000 indexed pages related to shamanism and shamanic practices worldwide. There are five categories culled from 396 cultures: shamanic healing, about shamans, cosmology, eschatology, and divination. To ensure the survival of this irreplaceable depository, much of it has been digitally preserved, with copies stored in various locations against a future calamity. In addition to the indexed pages, the collection contains books, manuscripts, artifacts, drums, and various audio-visual media. Though much has been accomplished, much more work remains to be done to properly catalog and preserve this invaluable collection of shamanic knowledge.

The Mapping of Nonordinary Reality (MONOR)
The Foundation is involved in a long-term project to develop the world's foremost database of cross-cultural accounts of shamanic journeys, near-death, and other nonordinary explorations. These research materials are being used to begin to construct a map of the hidden universe discovered and rediscovered by shamans and others through the ages, independent of culture. This requires a great deal of anthropological experience and knowledge in order to accurately compare these shamanic experiences cross-culturally. The results of this ambitious project are expected to challenge orthodox scientific definitions of reality.

Reviving Shamanism in the West and East
Developing courses and offering serious training is a top priority of the Foundation, and it currently offers more than 200 courses to thousands of individuals annually. The Foundation also sponsors and financially supports grassroots shamanic training in new geographic areas throughout the world. Introducing individuals to the direct and democratic spirituality of shamanism continues to be one of the most important and broad-based efforts the Foundation can make toward healing humankind and its relations with the Planet and its other inhabitants.

Discoveries made through all projects in the work of the FSS have an interactive relationship and together they contribute to pushing forward the boundaries of knowledge -- knowledge that is then passed on to people worldwide through FSS workshops and training courses. We invite you to become part of this worldwide effort.