Heusch, Luc de
Heusch, Luc de (1927â ) – Professor of anthropology at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium. Following Mircea Eliadeâs categorical distinction between shamanism as âmastery of spiritsâ and possession as âbeing controlled by spirits,â Heusch presented them as opposing moves: the âascent of man to the godsâ versus the âdescent of the gods on (and into) man.â From this, he elaborated a âgeometry of the soulâ that deserves consideration as a religious text, but not as an appraisal of ethnographic data about the real life and work of shamans.
SOURCE:
Historical Dictionary of Shamanism by Graham Harvey and Robert J. Wallis 2007