Richard Payne, professor of Anthropology at CUNY Queens College, speaks about how a chance encounter led him to spend two years living in a small village in Indonesia called Engkuni Pasek, which is on the island of Borneo. In part one of this conversation, Richard shares his journey to and initial observations in this village, and how he learned to speak the local language, which is called Benuaq. He describes how Engkuni Pasek is a center of shamanistic knowledge and practice, and how he found himself observing and participating in rituals known as Belian ceremonies.

Part I of this two-part conversation closes with his decision to study to become a shaman himself, a process that he will recount in detail in Part II, to be released on May 12, 2022.