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PubMed2002

Conflicting perspectives on shamans and shamanism: points and counterpoints.

Shamans' communities grant them privileged status to attend to those groups' psychological and spiritual needs. Shamans claim to modify their attentional states and engage in activities that enable them to access information not ordinarily attainable by members of the social group that has granted them shamanic status. Western perspectives on shamanism have changed and clashed over the centuries; this address presents points and counterpoints regarding what might be termed the demonic model, the charlatan model, the schizophrenia model, the soul flight model, the degenerative and crude technology model, and the deconstructionist model. Western interpretations of shamanism often reveal more about the observer than they do about the observed; in addressing this challenge, the study of shamanism could make contributions to cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, psychological therapy, and ecological psychology.

Awards and Prizes↗

PubMed1964

FURTHER REMARKS CONCERNING SHAMANS AND SHAMANISM.

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Conversion Disorder↗

PubMed2004

Shamans in a Hmong American community.

OBJECTIVE: To increase understanding of the process and meanings of shamanic care from patient complaint through diagnosis, treatment, and outcome. DESIGN: Information collected from 924 patient contact forms completed by 36 shamans over an 18-month period included basic demographic information on the patients, their complaints, treatments suggested by the shamans and the shamans' perceptions of the outcomes of treatment. These data were translated and entered into a computer database. LOCATION: A Hmong American community in California's Central Valley. METHODS: Quantitative descriptions of the sample were generated and integrated with qualitative analysis of the content of the text from the diagnostic, treatment and outcome categories was performed to systematically identify patterns in the data. RESULTS: Patients sought shamanic help for an array of physical, emotional, and psychologic complaints--problems that the shamans frequently diagnosed as being caused by soul loss or bad spirits. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest the persistence of the need for the spiritual healing provided by the shamans within this immigrant community. Shamans' rituals affirmed and strengthened connections to family, culture, and community.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Mental illness among Bhutanese shamans in Nepal.

Despite efforts to promote traditional medicine, allopathic practitioners often look with distrust at traditional practices. Shamans in particular are often regarded with ambivalence and have been considered mentally ill people. We tested the hypothesis that shamanism is an expression of psychopathology. In the Bhutanese refugee community in Nepal, a community with a high number of shamans, we surveyed a representative community sample of 810 adults and assessed ICD-10 mental disorders through structured diagnostic interviews. Approximately 7% of male refugees and 0.5% of female refugees reported being shamans. After controlling for demographic differences, the shamans did not differ from the comparison group in terms of 12-month and lifetime ICD-10 severe depressive episode, specific phobia, persistent somatoform pain, posttraumatic stress, generalized anxiety, or dissociative disorders. This first-ever, community-based, psychiatric epidemiological survey among shamans indicated no evidence that shamanism is an expression of psychopathology. The study's finding may assist in rectifying shamans' reputation, which has been tainted by past speculation of psychopathology.

Bhutan↗

PubMed2002

Hmong shamanism. Animist spiritual healing in Minnesota.

Hmong cultural attitudes, values, and behaviors influence when, where, why, and with whom a Hmong person will use Western medicine. Understanding the practices and importance of Hmong healing traditions will help majority-culture physicians provide respectful and effective health care to Hmong patients. The foremost Hmong traditional healer is the shaman (tu txiv neeb, pronounced "too tse neng"). There is no equivalent health professional in Western biomedicine, and the scope of the shaman as a healer extends beyond the capacities and expertise of physicians. Despite 25 years of Hmong acculturation in the United States and conversion to Christianity, Hmong shamanism maintains its traditional role in health and healing. Many Hmong who see physicians also rely on shamans for restoring health and balance to their body and soul. Thus, the Hmong shaman can be considered a powerful complement to Western health care professionals. This article presents the results of semistructured interviews with 11 Hmong shamans (5 males, 6 females, ranging in age from 35 to 85) and 32 nonrandomly selected Hmong patients (14 males, 18 females ranging in age from 21 to 85). The shamans described their spiritual perspectives, training and skills, and professional activities. Patients described their beliefs about spiritual healing and health care. These interviews suggest that Shamanism is considered effective care by many Hmong, irrespective of age, gender, or degree of acculturation. The article also includes summary charts of Hmong healing practices and concludes with a set of questions designed to help practicing physicians access the assumptions and beliefs of their Hmong patients so that they can provide efficient, effective, and satisfactory care.

Acculturation↗

PubMed2005

[Shamanic healing in the age of modern medicine].

This study on the therapeutic aspects of shamanic medicine differentiates the anthropologic approaches used in the 19th and early 20th century from contemporary approaches developed since the n Central to Eastern Asia. In addition to reviewing the major works on shamanic practice, this study takes into account lesser-known data on contemporary shamanic practices in Nepal. Shamanism embraces special cosmogenic beliefs. From a biological standpoint the shamanic trance like various healing techniques raises interesting questions about the involvement of certain brain regions in the development of mental factors that may generate somatic symptoms. From the therapeutic standpoint it shows the importance of managing social and psychoaffective factors. The current resurgence of shamanism could signal the revival of the disrupted ethnic identities. The shaman and medical doctor occupy symmetric, inversed positions. The shaman is a master in the management of social and psychoaffective health determinants. Until now the physician may have tended to overlook the human side of disease.

Complementary Therapies↗

PubMed1988

Healing thyself: a Korean shaman's afflictions.

Accounts of shamans' lives have typically emphasized the shaman's experience of a divine 'calling' and subsequent initiation as the key incidents around which other biographical, psychological, and cultural information may be organized and appreciated. Scholars have thus emphasized those aspects of the shaman's experience which set the shaman apart from other members of her or his society and at the same time, render the shaman comparable to other shamans in other places far removed in time and space. This paper takes a different approach, describing a series of ordinary misfortunes that befell a Korean mansin several years after her initiation, the interpretations she and her colleagues placed upon these events, the advice she received, and the healing strategies she subsequently followed. This discussion reveals those aspects of the shaman's experience that render her more, rather than less, like those she treats and suggests a process whereby the shared reality of shaman and client is realized in lived experiences, rituals, and conversations.

Humans↗

PubMed1992

A shamanic etiology of affliction from western Nepal.

As a central feature of every ceremony, Nepali shamans (jhãkris) publicly recite lengthy oral texts, whose meticulous memorization constitutes the core of shamanic training. These texts include passages that explain the origins of diseases and afflictions, and provide elaborate instructions for their alleviation. Through a discursive analysis of key passages, I demonstrate that shamans possess a coherent etiology of affliction. These concepts are articulated as integrated parts of the treatments that shamans perform. Rather than attributing all afflictions to ambiguous other worldly causes, these shamanic etiologies identify precise sources and effects that cover a spectrum ranging from the purely physical to the purely metaphysical, intersecting the natural and supernatural worlds. Patients and the public are repeatedly instructed in this unambiguous system of affliction in every diagnostic and healing session, since these ceremonies always incorporate recitations of the relevant texts. Accessible to non-specialists, the system conveyed by these recitations acts to validate shamanic intervention as a significant and intelligible activity. Using their oral texts, shamans effectively reproduce worlds that require shamanic interventions.

Culture↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Hallucinogenic drugs and plants in psychotherapy and shamanism.

Western psychotherapy and indigenous shamanic healing systems have both used psychoactive drugs or plants for healing and obtaining knowledge (called "diagnosis" or "divination" respectively). While there are superficial similarities between psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and shamanic healing with hallucinogenic plants, there are profound differences in the underlying worldview and conceptions of reality. Four paradigms are reviewed: (1) psychedelic psychotherapy within the standard Western paradigm--here the drug is used to amplify and intensify the processes of internal self-analysis and self-understanding; (2) shamanic rituals of healing and divination, which involve primarily the shaman or healer taking the medicine in order to be able to "see" the causes of illness and know what kind of remedy to apply; (3) syncretic folk religious ceremonies, in which the focus seems to be a kind of community bonding and celebratory worship; and (4) the "hybrid shamanic therapeutic rituals," which incorporate some features of the first two traditions. There are two points in which the worldview of the shamanic and hybrid shamanic ceremonies differs radically from the accepted Western worldview: (1) the belief and assumption (really, perception) that there are multiple realities ("worlds") that can be explored in expanded states of consciousness; and (2) the belief that "spirits," the beings one encounters in dreams and visions, are just as real as the physical organism.

Culture↗

PubMed2001

Shamanism as a healing paradigm for complementary therapy.

Any healing process--whether recovery from infection, physical trauma, or psychological distress--must entail the stimulation and direction of the body's own restorative functions. In former times these functions were called the vis mediatrix naturae. Arguably best articulated within traditional Chinese medicine (e.g. Reid 1993), many complementary therapies have identified this principle. The immune system is implicated in the operation of these healing processes, and immune system functions are modulated by both internal and external variables. External variables include the nature of the infection or trauma. Internal variables include the meaning of the illness to the patient or the patient's imagery surrounding the illness. It follows that any modulation of internal variables that increases immune function will therefore be highly beneficial in the healing process. Sometimes such modulation happens spontaneously, when it may be referred to as the placebo effect, or a good bedside manner, or spontaneous remission. Sometimes such modulation may be brought about intentionally either by the patient or by a therapist or healer. One body of technique for such modulation is shamanism, which pays particular attention to bridging the internal world of the patient to the external world where the problem originates. Shamanic practice is specifically focused on this healing task, and has its own toolkit of techniques for the modification of consciousness, the manipulation of imagery and meaning, and the generation of a healing milieu and therapeutic images from its mythic content. Early concerns about the mental health of shamanic practitioners are now thoroughly resolved (e.g. Stephen & Suryani 2000). Indeed, the relevance of shamanism to positive mental health is currently being explored (e.g. Money 1994, Singh 1999). Its relevance to social work (Voss et al. 1999) and to the near death experience (Green 1998) are also subjects of academic inquiry. The shamanic corpus exemplifies a healing paradigm that may also be used to understand the essential elements of healing, which underpin some established complementary therapies and some other healing modalities such as spiritual healing,'psychic' healing, spontaneous remission, and the placebo effect. The comparatively recent psychoneuroimmunological perspective appears to be congruent with and also to validate ancient shamanic healing technique. Both may share essential principles with complementary therapies and illuminate their essential healing processes.

Female↗

PubMed1987

Behind shamanism: changing voices of Siberian Khanty cosmology and politics.

Siberian shamanism has roots in hunting traditions, kinship organization and soul beliefs which have changed under Soviet rule. Aspects of shamanic epistemology and curing survive, although native medical logic sometimes clashes with modern positivist medicine. Assumptions behind Siberian, particularly Khanty, shamanism are examined through analysis of training, seances and cosmology. The changing social context of shamanism is explored in a framework of Soviet pressure to reject shamanic 'superstitution' and 'exploration.' Shamans themselves have adapted their politics, diagnoses and symbolic actions to an increasingly cold social climate. Data results from ethno-historical and field research, including a summer 1975 trip to the Ob-Ugrian Khanty (Ostiak).

Ethnicity↗

PubMed1985

[The shaman: witness of an old culture--is it revivable?].

The shaman concentrates a multitude of functions in the presecularized culture. In it disease is, as any experience of reality, hierophania, manifestation of transcendence. The shaman is a specialist in producing and managing altered states of consciousness. The constitutive criteria of shamanism are discussed. In the social network the shaman is a central and marginal "gestalt" at the same time, ambivalent for his community. In the postshamanic culture derivatives of shamanism and non-inspirational healers (naturalists) are active. Corresponding to the mystic concept of illness the various healing techniques of the shaman are intended to reestablish a harmonized cooperation with transintelligible powers. The therapeutic efficacy appears unsatisfactory inasfar severe somatic or psychic disorders are concerned. Empirical medicine still lacks a culturadequate holistic concept of illness offering a basis for sufficient treatment of psychosocially determined disorders.

Consciousness↗

PubMed2006

Genetics and congenital malformations: interpretations, attitudes and practices in suburban communities and the shamans of ecuador.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present article was to evaluate how shamans and the suburban communities of Quito interpret the terminology used in genetics. METHODS: One hundred people living in 5 suburban districts of Quito were surveyed as well as 19 shamans of the Salasaca community. RESULTS: The results show that members of both groups are little informed about genetics. As knowledge about genetics is correlated to educational level, which is very poor in both groups, knowledge and understanding of genetics are either very basic or nonexistent. As for the medical practices in treating genetic alterations, the surveys show that while in very severe cases scientific medicine is sought, in most cases explanations and a cure are given by shamanic medicine. CONCLUSION: There is limited knowledge of genetics and its terminology in the study population. Shamanic and marginal health practices seem to remain prevalent in these communities due to their low costs, the personal attention the individuals receive, and the holistic point of view employed. It is important that the community councils, the medical doctors and the shamans work together to set up community programs on medical education, particularly on genetics.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1995

The interconnectivity of mind, brain, and behavior in altered states of consciousness: focus on shamanism.

This paper examines possible interconnections between mind, brain, and behavior in the area of shamanism and altered states of consciousness. It offers a neurophysiological theory of shamanic altered states of consciousness that integrates theories by Mandell, Persinger, Prince, Winkelman, and Wright. Topics include the shamanic call and temporal lobe phenomena, possible neurological correlates of shamanic ecstasy, and the neurophysiological roles of endorphins, plant substances, and genetic factors in shamanic altered states of consciousness. The difficulty of developing such a theory because of the complexity of human physiology and psychological experience and because of the paucity of neurophysiological data from the field is acknowledged.

Behavior↗

PubMed1985

The shaman and the medicine-man.

The present article discusses the terms medicine-man and shaman as used by scholars and scientists, and tries to arrive at a possible distinction between them. It is obvious that the two terms not only overlap but also cause confusion, even among shamanologists. They have consequently been used interchangeably by many scholars. By recourse to the North American ethnographic material in particular (which once was the source of this confusion) the author reaches the conclusion that the only way of separating the terms from each other is to approach the whole problem structurally as a two-levelled issue. It is then possible to differentiate between the shaman as primarily the mediator between the supernatural powers and man, and the medicine-man as primarily the curer of diseases through traditional techniques. The shaman may also be medically active when his expert knowledge of the supernatural disease agents is called for. This means that some shamans are medicine-men. Conversely, some medicine-men are shamans.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗

PubMed1989

C. G. Jung and the shaman's vision.

Implications for Modern Analysis and Psychotherapy. After this rather wide-ranging journey reviewing the shamanic archetype with Jung as its centre, we come back to the question of what all this means for the present age. We are now into the second generation as followers of Jung in terms of the movement that has developed bearing his name. It is clear that the original founder, himself, performed the functions of a primitive shaman by the influence he has exerted on a culture and its power to deal with the elements of healing and curing. He has fused science and religion, or the rational and the irrational or mystical, in a remarkable synthesis. However, there is now much questioning in Jungian circles, as the initial light and power emanating from his personality are on the wane and as those who knew him are beginning to pass on, as to what is the meaning of the movement he represented. What we see emerging are the development of different approaches to treatment and to the healing process. At present, it could be said that there are eclectic or modern Jungians who function basically through dreams, treat relationship in a symbolic way and practise the paradigm of teacher and pupil. There are the priestly Jungians who might be considered 'classical' Jungians who have almost ritualistically tried to recreate what he represented, even bringing in the Swiss cultural background. They evoke the numinous and archetypal in the healing process much as priests do. There are the medical Jungians who have fused psychoanalysis with other traditions, such as Klein, Winnicott, Bion, Langs, Kohut and others, who express Jung and the healing process in technical, scientific terms. There are, finally, those few who might be called the 'true Jungians', who differ from other Jungians inasmuch as they, like Jung, function as shamans in the therapeutic process dealing directly with the patient's illness in order to produce a transformational healing experience. The great difficulty is that there are few analysts who can be shamans and work as Jung did. Shamanism, as the literature reveals, is a dangerous occupation and few can survive it for a long period of time, hence the natural tendency is to function in one of the other three larger categories and cross integrations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Dissociative Disorders↗

PubMed1997

Shamanism and complementary therapy.

Shamanism is an ancient tradition which may offer profound insights into the healing process and to our whole understanding of health. It has an extensive historical and geographical distribution, and may contain elements essential to our understanding of humanity. This paper outlines the origin and nature of shamanic practice, and considers its implications for a number of current healing issues. Several areas of potential relevance to complementary practitioners are explored. These include the shamanic concepts of illness, change and growth; illness and healing as rites of passage; death and dying; and the use of imagery in healing. This paper suggests that complementary practitioners may find some shamanic principles highly congruent with their own practice.

Attitude to Death↗

PubMed2000

Shamanism and complementary therapy.

Attitude to Death↗