For thousands of years, Native American tradition has taught that we all carry within us an ancient blessing, a spirit clan that connects us to the earth. Our spirit clan may be an animal, or a plant, a stone, or some special object that has taken on spiritual power. Your clan is a reservoir of powerful energy. It helps carry you through troubled times and protects you from danger. The wisdom of their teachings shows the way to true peace and prosperity...

"Animal Power helps readers connect with 100 of the animal kingdom's sacred symbols to find courage, energy, and joy"-- Provided by publisher.

"In the pristine Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, famous for its peaceful Buddhist religion and monasteries on mountain peaks, female shamans fill an important spiritual role as mystics and healers. These women communicate with local spirits, cure diseases through prayer, and travel to the netherworld to return and communicate their encounters with the dead and the horrors of the hell realms. An award-winning American journalist and a celebrated French...

Ms. Taki Kudo says she has been able to connect with deities since she was six or seven years old. Even in modern Japan, mediums like Ms. Kudo are in demand, providing such traditional services as expelling a curse and invoking spirits for health and long life.

Once brutally persecuted under the Soviet regime, Buddhism is back in Buryatia in Southern Siberia. But with a past where lamas were killed in prisons and temples burned to ashes, there are few masters left to pass on the tradition.

Cremation rites are the most elaborate rites of passage performed by Balinese householders. Poor families may wait years before accumulating enough resources to cremate their dead, who are buried in the meantime. In 1978 many more cremations than usual were carried out because of the great purification cermony, Eka Dasa Rudra, held at Bali's main temple, Besakih, in 1979. Religious officials recommended that all Balinese cleanse the island by cremating...

For centuries Hmong people have lived in the mountains of China and Southeast Asia. They have in more recent history fled Laos as refugees and resettled in the Americas, Australia and Europe.

This film is an exceptionally vivid portrayal of shamanic activity, as well as an exploration of the close connection between politics and shamanism in Yanomamo culture.

"The small island of Igloolik lies between the Melville Peninsula and Baffin Island at the northern end of Hudson Bay north of the Arctic Circle. It has fascinated many in the Western world since 1824, when a London publisher printed the narratives by William Parry and his second-in-command, George Lyon, about their two years spent looking for the mythical Northwest Passage. Nearly a hundred and fifty years later, Bernard Saladin d'Anglure arrived...