BATES, BRIAN

Professor of psychology at the University of Brighton and director of the Shaman Research Program at the University of Sussex. Bates is best known as the author ofThe Way ofWyrd(1983), a novel inspired by historic documents fromNorthernEurope, particularly Anglo-Saxon England, as well asCarlosCastaneda’sDon Juanmythos, and describing the relationship between an Anglo-Saxon shaman and a youngChristianmonk.The Wisdomof the Wyrd(1996) andThe Real Middle Earth(2002) are follow-up scholarly works that approach the ancientpaganreligions of Northern Europe as shamanistic. Of particular note is Bates’s interpretation of the “Night Mare” charm, or charm “against a Dwarf” in the AngloSaxonLacnungaspell book (British Library manuscript Harley 585, c. 1000 CE), according to which a shamaninitiateis ridden into theother worldby awight(spirit). Bates’s work has been influential on contemporaryHeathendiscourse on shamanistic aspects of Northern religion. Bates is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, research director of the Christensen Foundation (Palo Alto) project on recovering thenature-based knowledge of ancient England, and senior adviser to the Council of Elders, a project on worldwide indigenous wisdom funded by the Ford Foundation.