Shamanism Is A Practice That Involves A Practitioner Reaching

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Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in

order to perceive and interact with what they believe to be a spirit world and channel these
transcendental energies into this world

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a shaman (/ˈʃɑːmən/ SHAH-


men, /ˈʃæmən/ or /ˈʃeɪmən/)[25] is someone who is regarded as having access to, and influence in,
the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during
a ritual, and practices divination and healing.

Mircea Eliade writes, "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least
hazardous, will be: shamanism = 'technique of religious ecstasy'."[29] Shamanism encompasses
the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the
spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments and illnesses by mending the soul. Alleviating
traumas affecting the soul or spirit are believed to restore the physical body of the individual to
balance and wholeness. Shamans also claim to enter supernatural realms or dimensions to
obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans claim to visit other worlds or
dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul
caused by foreign elements. Shamans operate primarily within the spiritual world, which, they
believe, in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance is said to result in the
elimination of the ailment.

Shamanism is a system of religious practice.[30] Historically, it is often associated


with Indigenous and tribal societies, and involves belief that shamans, with a connection to
the otherworld, have the power to heal the sick, communicate with spirits, and escort souls of the
dead to the afterlife. Shamanism is especially associated with the Native Peoples of Siberia in
northern Asia, where shamanic practice has been noted for centuries by Asian and Western
visitors.[31] It is an ideology that used to be widely practiced in Europe, Asia, Tibet, North and
South America, and Africa. It centered on the belief in supernatural phenomenon such as the
world of gods, demons, and ancestral spirits.[32]
Despite structural implications of colonialism and imperialism that have limited the ability of
Indigenous Peoples to practice traditional spiritualities, many communities are undergoing
resurgence through self-determination[33] and the reclamation of dynamic traditions.[34] Other
groups have been able to avoid some of these structural impediments by virtue of their isolation,
such as the nomadic Tuvan (with an estimated population of 3000 people surviving from this
tribe).[35] Tuva is one of the most isolated tribes in Russia where the art of shamanism has been
preserved until today due to its isolated existence, allowing it to be free from the influences of
other major religions.

Initiation and learning


Shamans often claim to have been called through dreams or signs. However, some say their
powers are inherited. In traditional societies shamanic training varies in length, but generally
takes years.
Turner and colleagues[37] mention a phenomenon called "shamanistic initiatory crisis", a rite of
passage for shamans-to-be, commonly involving physical illness or psychological crisis. The
significant role of initiatory illnesses in the calling of a shaman can be found in the detailed case
history of Chuonnasuan, who was the last master shaman among the Tungus peoples
in Northeast China.[38]
The wounded healer is an archetype for a shamanic trial and journey. This process is important
to young shamans. They undergo a type of sickness that pushes them to the brink of death. This
is said to happen for two reasons:

 The shaman crosses over to the underworld. This happens so the shaman can venture to
its depths to bring back vital information for the sick and the tribe.
 The shaman must become sick to understand sickness. When the shaman overcomes
their own sickness, they believe that they will hold the cure to heal all that suffer.

Shamans may claim to have or have acquired many spirit guides, who they believe guide and
direct them in their travels in the spirit world. These spirit guides are always thought to be present
within the shaman, although others are said to encounter them only when the shaman is in
a trance. The spirit guide energizes the shamans, enabling them to enter the spiritual dimension.

The functions of a shaman may include either guiding to their proper abode the souls of the dead
(which may be guided either one-at-a-time or in a group, depending on the culture), and the
curing of ailments. The ailments may be either purely physical afflictions—such as disease,
which are claimed to be cured by gifting, flattering, threatening, or wrestling the disease-spirit
(sometimes trying all these, sequentially), and which may be completed by displaying a
supposedly extracted token of the disease-spirit (displaying this, even if "fraudulent", is supposed
to impress the disease-spirit that it has been, or is in the process of being, defeated so that it will
retreat and stay out of the patient's body), or else mental (including psychosomatic) afflictions—
such as persistent terror, which is likewise believed to be cured by similar methods. In most
languages a different term other than the one translated "shaman" is usually applied to a
religious official leading sacrificial rites ("priest"), or to a raconteur ("sage") of traditional lore;
there may be more of an overlap in functions (with that of a shaman), however, in the case of an
interpreter of omens or of dreams.
There are distinct types of shamans who perform more specialized functions. For example,
among the Nani people, a distinct kind of shaman acts as a psychopomp.[55] Other specialized
shamans may be distinguished according to the type of spirits, or realms of the spirit world, with
which the shaman most commonly interacts.

Beliefs

 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 benevolent or malevolent
 The shaman can treat sickness caused by malevolent spirits
 The shaman can employ trances 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 perform other varied forms of divination, scry, throw bones or runes,
and sometimes foretell of future events

In the Peruvian Amazon Basin, shamans and curanderos use medicine songs called icaros to


evoke spirits. Before a spirit can be summoned it must teach the shaman its song.[71] The use
of totemic items such as rocks with special powers and an animating spirit is common.

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