Home new-mindmachines.com  Change Your Brain, Change Your Mind, Change Your Life    

 

Shamanism from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Russian postcard based on a photo taken in 1908
by S. I. Borisov, showing a woman shaman

Shamanism comprises a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the world. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman, pronounced /sha mən/, /shemən/, (|shämən; shā-|) noun (pl. -man(s)).  Shamans are intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds. According to believers, they can treat illness and are capable of entering supernatural realms to obtain answers to the problems of their community.

Beliefs

There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world; and several common beliefs are shared by all forms of shamanism. Common beliefs identified by Eliade (1964) are the following:

  • Spirits exist and they play important roles both in individual lives and in human society.
  • The shaman can communicate with the spirit world.
  • Spirits can be good or evil.
  • The shaman can treat sickness caused by evil spirits.
  • The shaman can employ trance inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy and go on "vision quests."
  • The shaman's spirit can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers.
  • The shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message-bearers.
  • The shaman can tell the future, scry, throw bones/runes, and perform other varied forms of divination

Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living. Shamanism requires individualized knowledge and special abilities and operate outside established religions. Many shamans operate alone, although some take on an apprentice. Shamans can gather into associations, as Indian tantric practitioners have done.

Shamans perform a variety of functions depending upon their respective cultures: healing; leading a sacrifice; preserving the tradition by storytelling and songs; fortune-telling; acting as a psychopomp (literal meaning, “guide of souls”).  In some cultures, a shaman may fulfill several functions in one person.

Tools, techniques and instruction for Shamanic Journeying