the hallucinogen ayahuasca, Harner began experimenting with monotonous drumming. In the early 1970s he started giving training workshops to small groups in Connecticut. In 1979 he founded the Center for Shamanic Studies in Norwalk, Connecticut. In 1980, Harner published The Way of the Shaman: a Guide to Power and Healing, on HarperCollins (a mainstream publisher). In the book he presents his own system of acultural shamanism, called "Core shamanism", which he created, reportedly based on his experiences consuming hallucinogens with Conibo and Jívaro shamans in South America. Harner broadly applied the term "shaman" to diverse spiritual and ceremonial leaders in cultures that do not use this term, claiming that he also studied with "shamans" in North America; he wrote that these were Wintu, Pomo, Coast Salish, and Lakota people, but he did not name any individuals or specific communities. Harner claimed he was describing common elements of "shamanic practice" found among Indigenous people world-wide, in cultures he never encountered, having stripped those elements of specific cultural content so as to render them accessible to contemporary Western spiritual seekers. Influences cited by Harner also included Siberian shamanism, Mexican and Guatemalan culture, and Australian traditions, as well as the familiar spirits of European occultism, which are said to aid the occultist in their metaphysical work. However, his practices do not resemble the religious practices or beliefs of any of these cultures. "Core shamanism" has been met with backlash and criticism from the cultures Harner cited as sources. Students in the United States and Europe began to take his classes in what he was now calling "core shamanism" (as differenced from traditional, Evenk shamanism, or other Indigenous, ethnic and historical practices that have been referred to as "shamanism" in anthropological texts). Most authors in the field, especially Harner's critics, consider Harner's core shamanism to be the primary influence on, and foundation of, the Neoshamanic movement. Harner later integrated his Center for Shamanic Studies into the nonprofit Foundation for Shamanic Studies. The Foundation received financial support primarily from the Core Shamanism courses and workshops he taught, supplemented by private donations. From the early 1980s onward, he invited a few of his students to join an international faculty to reach an ever-wider market. In 1987, Harner resigned his professorship to devote himself full-time to the work of the foundation. He largely ceased publishing, except for occasional articles in the publication "Shamanism." See also Hank Wesselman