Shaman's Secret: The Lost Resurrection Teachings of the Ancient Maya

Gillette performs a great service in reviewing the original scholarship that revealed the Mayan religious belief system and in synthesizing it into a readable exposition of Mayan religious practice. Gillette explores Mayan fertility rituals, and he emphasizes that Mayan religion integrates the quest for spiritual knowledge with the divination of the cosmos. The author also discusses the importance to the Mayan religion of the ritual use of hallucinogens, sensory deprivation and states of pain to create altered states of consciousness believed to provoke direct encounters with divinities. Gillette's book is noteworthy for its effort to compare Mayan religion with Western and Asian religious systems, demonstrating the ways in which the Mayan traditions often are rooted in ideas familiar to Buddhists and Christians. For example, Gillette observes that the Mayan belief that the Soul is in essence all things has a parallel in Buddhist tradition. In addition, the Maya iconography of the First Father is virtually like that of Sakyamuni Buddha. (June)