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The Death and Resurrection Show: From Shaman to Superstar
Back in print after 30 years the underground classic that traces the roots of modern superstardom back to its shamanic roots.
The Death and Resurrection Show is a groundbreaking exploration of the origins and enduring power of performance. Rogan P. Taylor traces the cultural journey of the shaman, the first “superstar,” and examines how these ancient figures evolved into the artists and entertainers of today.
Blending anthropology, cultural history, and mythology, Taylor uncovers the connections between ritual, religion, and the human need for transcendence. From tribal ceremonies to modern concerts, the book offers a compelling narrative about the performer’s role in society as both healer and provocateur, exploring such themes as:
• The history of performance and ritual
• Shamanism and its cultural evolution
• The intersection of magic, spirituality, and art
• The transformative power of the performer
A truly expansive and original work covering multiple fields of thought The Death and Resurrection Show is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the ancient roots of our hyper-modern world.
The Death and Resurrection Show is a groundbreaking exploration of the origins and enduring power of performance. Rogan P. Taylor traces the cultural journey of the shaman, the first “superstar,” and examines how these ancient figures evolved into the artists and entertainers of today.
Blending anthropology, cultural history, and mythology, Taylor uncovers the connections between ritual, religion, and the human need for transcendence. From tribal ceremonies to modern concerts, the book offers a compelling narrative about the performer’s role in society as both healer and provocateur, exploring such themes as:
• The history of performance and ritual
• Shamanism and its cultural evolution
• The intersection of magic, spirituality, and art
• The transformative power of the performer
A truly expansive and original work covering multiple fields of thought The Death and Resurrection Show is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the ancient roots of our hyper-modern world.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 9, 2018
The Death and Resurrection Show's power is that it is timeless. It astonishes, and will continue to astonish, as long as there are people.
It traces us back to the beginning of man, when the most powerful thing you could do was to claim to have been to the other side. Having returned from the Underworld and from the Upperworld, shamans held sway over their merely mortal fellow tribesmen.
When institutional religions formed, they co-opted the stories. Hell in Christianity suddenly became a bad place, while until the death of Jesus (who also visited the Underworld), it was a place to escape TO, not from.
Christianity slammed the competition of minstrels, fairs, puppets and performers, because it wanted everyone's sole attention. Its magic had to be the only magic, or it felt doomed, much as Islam clearly feels today.
In the last century, with mass communication, entertainment took over and rockstars ruled. It is Taylor's analysis that rockstars employed precisely the same words, deeds and acts as the shamans did, that really gives the book its impact. The words of Jerry Lee Lewis, of Bob Dylan, of John Lennon, all match the fascinating research Taylor has taken us through from prehistoric times. And coming full circle, he posits that it is precisely their success and dominance in the secular 60s that led to the resurgence of institutional religion since then.
With the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon and James Brown, the yawning gap of religious satisfaction has caused millions to seek solace in the institutions once again. It is precisely the flower children of the 60s who have led the stampede of the Born Agains. We have no shamans comparable to these stars any more. Certainly hip hop and rap have provided none. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake inspire nothing. So we have come full circle. We have never left the tribal stage of needing spiritual reassurance that there is more to life than this Middleworld we see.
This is an extraordinarily important book. I first owned it when it was new in 1985. I had a review copy, which for the only time in my life, someone stole from my collection about five years later. I just recently found another, and paid handsomely for it. It is worth every penny. Its importance to me is its revelation of who we really are, and who we will look to for solace and salvation.
David Wineberg
It traces us back to the beginning of man, when the most powerful thing you could do was to claim to have been to the other side. Having returned from the Underworld and from the Upperworld, shamans held sway over their merely mortal fellow tribesmen.
When institutional religions formed, they co-opted the stories. Hell in Christianity suddenly became a bad place, while until the death of Jesus (who also visited the Underworld), it was a place to escape TO, not from.
Christianity slammed the competition of minstrels, fairs, puppets and performers, because it wanted everyone's sole attention. Its magic had to be the only magic, or it felt doomed, much as Islam clearly feels today.
In the last century, with mass communication, entertainment took over and rockstars ruled. It is Taylor's analysis that rockstars employed precisely the same words, deeds and acts as the shamans did, that really gives the book its impact. The words of Jerry Lee Lewis, of Bob Dylan, of John Lennon, all match the fascinating research Taylor has taken us through from prehistoric times. And coming full circle, he posits that it is precisely their success and dominance in the secular 60s that led to the resurgence of institutional religion since then.
With the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon and James Brown, the yawning gap of religious satisfaction has caused millions to seek solace in the institutions once again. It is precisely the flower children of the 60s who have led the stampede of the Born Agains. We have no shamans comparable to these stars any more. Certainly hip hop and rap have provided none. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake inspire nothing. So we have come full circle. We have never left the tribal stage of needing spiritual reassurance that there is more to life than this Middleworld we see.
This is an extraordinarily important book. I first owned it when it was new in 1985. I had a review copy, which for the only time in my life, someone stole from my collection about five years later. I just recently found another, and paid handsomely for it. It is worth every penny. Its importance to me is its revelation of who we really are, and who we will look to for solace and salvation.
David Wineberg
May 18, 2013
You want to know how it is done, how the wound is the unique key to the transformation scene within us all. It is a treacherousness journey at times and the price may seem paltry in exchange possibly for ones life. And yet, certain individuals with clarity accept that they are the transducer of energies that compel cultures to shift in attitude and conciseness. A must for the shelf.
June 27, 2024
“Possessed: is it the ‘normal’ human condition to be possessed? We usually think of possession as a type of madness, a psychiatrist’s problem. But the insane do not have different mental apparatus. They have acute difficulty with the same mind that we all share. We are all possessed by the spirit of humanness and none of us really knows who or what this spirit is. We hope it is ultimately benevolent, we fear that it is not. But all our speculations and hopes cannot alter our situation. Humanness rides us like a king does his horse and we cannot, it seems, unseat our rider and return to old pastures. To be human at all is to be possessed” (14).
“We cannot escape this fact: to move or change from one state into another, we must pass through a third condition, which is neither one thing nor another. We humans are this third condition. We can no longer remember what it was that we were, nor yet know what we might become. All we can truly make out is Change itself. Religion is a tool for both surviving and accomplishing transformation” (15).
“One of the most spectacular and dramatic performances among primitive people is the exorcism of demons by a shaman to cure the sick” (36).
“The shaman’s sickness is, in reality, everybody’s sickness. It is simply a matter of degree. The hard times which predispose certain individuals towards initiation can be the result of an almost endless variety of circumstances: physical or mental illness, the loss of loved ones, feelings of isolation, being different and so on. What is the common denominator of these conditions? It is the intense experience of change, of becoming separated from the normal and feeling unable to alter the fact. But change is an essential, perhaps definitive, element of human life. We all left the normal when we ceased to be natural animals, and feelings of helplessness and powerlessness are an unavoidable part of human life. Our childhood is, in a sense, one long series of rituals of separation, from leaving mother’s body, leaving her side, and eventually leaving the family circle. These crises all generate a certain anxiety, so what is so special about the potential shaman’s sickness? It is purely and simply the intensity of his experience of change. He suffers acutely what we all suffer chronically” (40).
“The revamping of the healing séance into a show solved a lot of problems. It meant that traveling people could remain on the move, manage to make a living, and hopefully avoid too rigorous a reaction from the religious establishment, although, as the history of popular entertainment amply demonstrates, itinerant show people were never entirely accepted by civilized society” (56).
“Spawned in the repressive traditions of the South, the Italian Comedy had a sharper satirical edge than the mummer’s play and a more ready tendency for wit and obscenity. The troupes were nomadic, carrying the bare bones of a stage, curtains, drops and costumes in a cart, just like their Greek predecessors had done nearly two and a half thousand years before them. The show included, ‘fantastic humor…in essence quite serious …even sad, like every satire which lays bare the spiritual poverty of mankind.’ The performers sought to expose the spiritual vacuum of the society for whom they performed” (71).
“Like the old shaman’s shows, the Italian Comedy relied almost entirely on extemporaneous performance. There were no written traditions. The success of the show depended a great deal on the spontaneous skill of the players, rather than any clever devices, lavish scenery, or complicated scenarios” (72).
“Of the Italian Comedy characters including the Doctor, Harlequin was the most shaman-like of the lot. The primary confusion over his cosmological origins is an unmistakable clue. Is he from ‘above’ or ‘below’? In truth, he is from both the supernatural worlds” (73).
“There was nothing clever about Christ’s life. He was foolhardy to the point of death. He did not come to collect the sophisticated but to lead dumb sheep to new pastures. When Christ arrived in Jerusalem, it was astride the most traditionally stupid of beasts, the ass, and he was subsequently led dumb to the slaughter on the Cross. He must have appeared like a simpleton from the sticks to some of his listeners and dangerously mad to others. Even his own family wanted him locked up before he did any harm to himself. When Christ was announcing to the clever Jewish lawyers that the Kingdom of God was at hand, he would have delivered his message in a broad uneducated accent. Indeed, there was a saying of the time, ‘A Galilean praying sounds like a donkey braying.’ No doubt the smart Scribes and Pharisees thought he was hilarious” (78).
“Perhaps we forget that the absurd is the ground of all comedy, and that comedy is the only format yet discovered in which the tragic features of life can be truly resolved. Comedy includes the ‘last act’ of the human drama which rescue the tragedy of life from total despair. If the world and everything about it is simply the result of cosmic folly, then joy becomes our only worthy response” (78-79).
“In addition to the heavy wing of Zen, with its violence and religious ju jitsu, what is funny can be used as a tool for opening the mind of the apprentice monk. Those who engage in Zen can achieve the highest state of enlightenment through jokes and slapstick: ‘A tile falling off the roof and cracking the skull, the ping of a stone striking a stalk of bamboo, a slap in the face…’ are all events which in the past have triggered satori” (79).
“Humor possesses the indispensable power of transporting everything back home safely at the end. The last act of the spiritual play must be comic, for only comedy can achieve a final liaison between all the irreconcilable elements of human experience. Folly seems to partake of Time and of the Eternal. It is the essence of all our foolish lives, and yet points beyond them to the freedom of pure spirit” (80).
“Showbusiness is anchored in Hell. Not in the Christian abode of eternal torment, but in the shaman’s transforming Underworld” (96).
“The most spectacular result of this pathological condition is that the technology we thought would serve us now seems to dictate our future. If once we were held in thrall by gods and demons, now it is our self-made slaves—the machines—which appear omnipotent. What an irony it is to be liberated from ‘superstition’ only to be enslaved by the products of rationality” (98).
“Now we feel that there is no Hell below us anymore. But our everyday world is full of infernal powers. Just like the shamans, we fly through the air and into space. We create ‘magical’ heat in nuclear fission. We can see things invisible to the normal eye, witness the patterns of the weather and make predictions. (We can even perform that old death and resurrection rick with the help of a heart transplant.) But, unlike the old shamans, we seem to be lost. The Underworld’s tricks have taken us over. Perhaps we are not passing through our Hell but we are stuck there. Our civilization may possess science. Like a demon, it may possess us” (98).
Why tech bros are bad: “Science chose to forget about the basic premise of the magical art: first, the initiate must become ‘great’ through suffering, only then is he worthy of access to the awesome powers. The pursuit of knowledge was seen by the magicians to be a difficult and arduous spiritual quest. The alchemist must first purify himself. He cannot make ‘gold’ until he is purged of his desire for it” (99).
“Showbiz has grown out of the shaman’s healing magic. Central to this very old form of therapy is the idea that, if you suffer from the Underworld, you can only be cured in the Underworld. It is a homeopathic principle” (99).
“It is interesting, in terms of showbiz’s shamanism, to note the strong elements of quit literal ordeal in Joey Grimaldi’s early life. He was renowned as a child for his persistent melancholy—hence his nickname ‘Grim-all-day.’” (113).
“Performances which include a display of mysterious control over wild animals probably have their roots in the shaman’s magic. The accompanying feature of control of fear in the face of wild beasts holds considerable significance in some initiatory ordeals…” (122).
Blues “derives from the expression ‘blue devils,’ current in Shakespeare’s day, which indicated the presences of ‘baleful demons.’ By the early 19th century, ‘blue devils’ described the apparitions associated with delirium tremens. It seems that the origin of the blues lies in visionary experience, unasked for, unwanted, and yet undeniable” (161).
“On the shaman’s map, the blues are located at the very heart of the underworld journey: ‘The blue smoking darkness, Pluto’s dark blue daze,’ of the poet’s vision” (161).
“We cannot escape this fact: to move or change from one state into another, we must pass through a third condition, which is neither one thing nor another. We humans are this third condition. We can no longer remember what it was that we were, nor yet know what we might become. All we can truly make out is Change itself. Religion is a tool for both surviving and accomplishing transformation” (15).
“One of the most spectacular and dramatic performances among primitive people is the exorcism of demons by a shaman to cure the sick” (36).
“The shaman’s sickness is, in reality, everybody’s sickness. It is simply a matter of degree. The hard times which predispose certain individuals towards initiation can be the result of an almost endless variety of circumstances: physical or mental illness, the loss of loved ones, feelings of isolation, being different and so on. What is the common denominator of these conditions? It is the intense experience of change, of becoming separated from the normal and feeling unable to alter the fact. But change is an essential, perhaps definitive, element of human life. We all left the normal when we ceased to be natural animals, and feelings of helplessness and powerlessness are an unavoidable part of human life. Our childhood is, in a sense, one long series of rituals of separation, from leaving mother’s body, leaving her side, and eventually leaving the family circle. These crises all generate a certain anxiety, so what is so special about the potential shaman’s sickness? It is purely and simply the intensity of his experience of change. He suffers acutely what we all suffer chronically” (40).
“The revamping of the healing séance into a show solved a lot of problems. It meant that traveling people could remain on the move, manage to make a living, and hopefully avoid too rigorous a reaction from the religious establishment, although, as the history of popular entertainment amply demonstrates, itinerant show people were never entirely accepted by civilized society” (56).
“Spawned in the repressive traditions of the South, the Italian Comedy had a sharper satirical edge than the mummer’s play and a more ready tendency for wit and obscenity. The troupes were nomadic, carrying the bare bones of a stage, curtains, drops and costumes in a cart, just like their Greek predecessors had done nearly two and a half thousand years before them. The show included, ‘fantastic humor…in essence quite serious …even sad, like every satire which lays bare the spiritual poverty of mankind.’ The performers sought to expose the spiritual vacuum of the society for whom they performed” (71).
“Like the old shaman’s shows, the Italian Comedy relied almost entirely on extemporaneous performance. There were no written traditions. The success of the show depended a great deal on the spontaneous skill of the players, rather than any clever devices, lavish scenery, or complicated scenarios” (72).
“Of the Italian Comedy characters including the Doctor, Harlequin was the most shaman-like of the lot. The primary confusion over his cosmological origins is an unmistakable clue. Is he from ‘above’ or ‘below’? In truth, he is from both the supernatural worlds” (73).
“There was nothing clever about Christ’s life. He was foolhardy to the point of death. He did not come to collect the sophisticated but to lead dumb sheep to new pastures. When Christ arrived in Jerusalem, it was astride the most traditionally stupid of beasts, the ass, and he was subsequently led dumb to the slaughter on the Cross. He must have appeared like a simpleton from the sticks to some of his listeners and dangerously mad to others. Even his own family wanted him locked up before he did any harm to himself. When Christ was announcing to the clever Jewish lawyers that the Kingdom of God was at hand, he would have delivered his message in a broad uneducated accent. Indeed, there was a saying of the time, ‘A Galilean praying sounds like a donkey braying.’ No doubt the smart Scribes and Pharisees thought he was hilarious” (78).
“Perhaps we forget that the absurd is the ground of all comedy, and that comedy is the only format yet discovered in which the tragic features of life can be truly resolved. Comedy includes the ‘last act’ of the human drama which rescue the tragedy of life from total despair. If the world and everything about it is simply the result of cosmic folly, then joy becomes our only worthy response” (78-79).
“In addition to the heavy wing of Zen, with its violence and religious ju jitsu, what is funny can be used as a tool for opening the mind of the apprentice monk. Those who engage in Zen can achieve the highest state of enlightenment through jokes and slapstick: ‘A tile falling off the roof and cracking the skull, the ping of a stone striking a stalk of bamboo, a slap in the face…’ are all events which in the past have triggered satori” (79).
“Humor possesses the indispensable power of transporting everything back home safely at the end. The last act of the spiritual play must be comic, for only comedy can achieve a final liaison between all the irreconcilable elements of human experience. Folly seems to partake of Time and of the Eternal. It is the essence of all our foolish lives, and yet points beyond them to the freedom of pure spirit” (80).
“Showbusiness is anchored in Hell. Not in the Christian abode of eternal torment, but in the shaman’s transforming Underworld” (96).
“The most spectacular result of this pathological condition is that the technology we thought would serve us now seems to dictate our future. If once we were held in thrall by gods and demons, now it is our self-made slaves—the machines—which appear omnipotent. What an irony it is to be liberated from ‘superstition’ only to be enslaved by the products of rationality” (98).
“Now we feel that there is no Hell below us anymore. But our everyday world is full of infernal powers. Just like the shamans, we fly through the air and into space. We create ‘magical’ heat in nuclear fission. We can see things invisible to the normal eye, witness the patterns of the weather and make predictions. (We can even perform that old death and resurrection rick with the help of a heart transplant.) But, unlike the old shamans, we seem to be lost. The Underworld’s tricks have taken us over. Perhaps we are not passing through our Hell but we are stuck there. Our civilization may possess science. Like a demon, it may possess us” (98).
Why tech bros are bad: “Science chose to forget about the basic premise of the magical art: first, the initiate must become ‘great’ through suffering, only then is he worthy of access to the awesome powers. The pursuit of knowledge was seen by the magicians to be a difficult and arduous spiritual quest. The alchemist must first purify himself. He cannot make ‘gold’ until he is purged of his desire for it” (99).
“Showbiz has grown out of the shaman’s healing magic. Central to this very old form of therapy is the idea that, if you suffer from the Underworld, you can only be cured in the Underworld. It is a homeopathic principle” (99).
“It is interesting, in terms of showbiz’s shamanism, to note the strong elements of quit literal ordeal in Joey Grimaldi’s early life. He was renowned as a child for his persistent melancholy—hence his nickname ‘Grim-all-day.’” (113).
“Performances which include a display of mysterious control over wild animals probably have their roots in the shaman’s magic. The accompanying feature of control of fear in the face of wild beasts holds considerable significance in some initiatory ordeals…” (122).
Blues “derives from the expression ‘blue devils,’ current in Shakespeare’s day, which indicated the presences of ‘baleful demons.’ By the early 19th century, ‘blue devils’ described the apparitions associated with delirium tremens. It seems that the origin of the blues lies in visionary experience, unasked for, unwanted, and yet undeniable” (161).
“On the shaman’s map, the blues are located at the very heart of the underworld journey: ‘The blue smoking darkness, Pluto’s dark blue daze,’ of the poet’s vision” (161).
June 25, 2023
Unlike anything I’ve ever read.
Is it speculative? Sure. Prone to expansive rhetoric fueled by Taylor’s worldview? Absolutely.
But there’s something here. Something Jungian, archetypal, primal. It’s a rollicking adventure of a book. An Upper/Middle/Underworld journey in-and-of itself.
And I loved it. Every page of it.
It’s rare for me to read a book and know within the first dozen pages that I want to own a copy of it for my own bookshelf.
This is one of those books.
Which sucks because it’s out of print and basically impossible to find. I read my copy as a bootleg PDF actually physically scanned from a hard copy.
This one is worth your time.
Is it speculative? Sure. Prone to expansive rhetoric fueled by Taylor’s worldview? Absolutely.
But there’s something here. Something Jungian, archetypal, primal. It’s a rollicking adventure of a book. An Upper/Middle/Underworld journey in-and-of itself.
And I loved it. Every page of it.
It’s rare for me to read a book and know within the first dozen pages that I want to own a copy of it for my own bookshelf.
This is one of those books.
Which sucks because it’s out of print and basically impossible to find. I read my copy as a bootleg PDF actually physically scanned from a hard copy.
This one is worth your time.
August 7, 2024
Somewhat interesting book but halfway through I could't care enough to continue.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews