Download or read book Descenders to the Chariot written by James R. Davila and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on anthropological models and epigraphic and archaeologicale evidence, this book aims to show that the Hekhalot literature preserves the teachings and rituals of real religious functionaries who flourished in late antiquity, functionaries quite like those called shamans by antrhopologists.