CLIFTON, CHAS S.

(1951– )

A lecturer in English at Colorado State University, Pueblo, with particular interests innaturewriting, Clifton is the editor of a series of books about contemporaryPaganism. One of these is entitledWitchcraft and Shamanism(1994), in which he has a chapter exploring possible sources for reconstructing historical European shamanic practices and ideas. Clifton’s more recent research has been about “flying ointments” that were alleged to enable early modernwitches(i.e., those accused of malevolentsorcery) to fly and have been proposed as European analogues ofAmazonianayahuascaand similar substances that inducevisionsoraltered states of consciousness. His conclusion is that such ointments are merely a literary motif, a plot device in narratives about the unnaturalness of alleged witches. His self-syndicated column (and blog site), “Letters from Hardscrabble Creek,” includes a number of astute and entertaining observations on debates and claims about contemporary shamanisms, such as his humorous essay entitled “Training Your Soul Retriever.”