What is Shamanism

The word ‘shaman’ derives from the Siberian (Tungus) word: saman, which translates as ‘one who knows’. 

Initially the term referred solely to certain ‘religious’ specialists from this region. However, around the start of the 20th Century, the term became popular amongst cultural anthropologists in describing individuals from many different cultures who shared fundamental aspects in common.

Shamanism is the most ancient form of spiritual practice on earth.  It is not a religion - it has no doctrine or dogma that must be adhered to for membership.  The shaman is completely self-referencing. This means that their relationship to the Spirit world is based upon their own personal experiences, not upon anyone else’s experiences.

Although found primarily in animistic cultures it is also found interspersed amidst the world’s main religions. So that one can be Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or Christian and still practice some form of shamanism.

A shaman is an intermediary between the material and the Spirit worlds.  The shaman knows that it is the Spirit world that informs the material world, and that what happens in the latter is merely a result of what has happened in the former.

The shaman is able to travel between these two worlds in order to reap change in the life of their client or for the benefit of their community.  They make the journey between the worlds by means of entering into ecstatic trances.

The shaman fulfils several roles in the community such as those of healer, priest, magician and psychopomp (guide of souls).

Shamanic Otherworlds

The shaman is connected to the Earth, to the natural world that surrounds us. The shaman perceives that all things, not just humans, have a spirit: the animals, the elements, the stars, the trees and the rocks.   Because all things are connected in Oneness, if anything is out of balance, then everything is out of balance. 

The shaman understands that there is no such thing as evil, that there is only heavy energy and light energy.  Just like there is much in the food we eat that is not digestible by the body and must be eliminated, so there are energies that our Luminous Energy Field cannot metabolise and therefore must be released. 

Shamans use smoke and water to cleanse and purify the energy field. They use sound through chant, drums, rattles, bells or flutes to break up heavy energies and bring their client into a deep restful place where healing can begin.

A shaman understands that everyone is a brother or a sister, that all things are one.  Everything outside of us is simply a mirror to what is within.  If anything external is perceived as a problem, it is useless to try to change it on the outside.  If you see a mark on your face in the mirror, trying to clean it in the mirror is clearly futile.  So the shaman shifts his or her perception and through this shift heals both themselves and the world.

Sometimes shamans come across as mysterious, melodramatic and eccentric. Their tools can appear strange, archaic or ritualistic. Yet these people are visionaries who see into and commune with the Spirit world, their tools, techniques and appearance are meant to literally ‘rattle’ the client until they too can experience a shift in perception and the deep healing that that brings.

Shamanic Healing

As mentioned, the visible world – the readily observable material world – is informed by an invisible – yet fundamental – world of energy:  the Spirit world that informs the world we perceive with our five senses.

Around each human being there is an unseen field of energy known as the Luminous Energy Field that exists in the Spiritual dimension. This field completely surrounds our physical body and is connected to it via 7 energy centres (aka: chakras).

This Luminous Energy Field is the fundamental part of us that survives the transition that we refer to as death.

Woundings from childhood – as well as from past lives – are stored as imprints in our Luminous Energy Field. These imprints create an affinity – or a predisposition – towards certain illnesses or accidents as well as towards certain relationships.  Given time these imprints will begin to emerge in the mental, emotional and eventually in the physical world.

In Western medicine we attempt to ‘cure’ the body at the physical level only, with mixed results because the underlying imprint’s existence is not even recognized, let alone addressed.

In psychiatry the therapist attempts to fix the patient’s mental or emotional ‘illness’ at the level of the mind (by instigating awakening and insight though dialogue) and at the level of body chemistry (through drugs).

Again, the imprints in the Luminous Energy Field are completely missed and therapy takes years to deliver any positive outcomes (if it succeeds at all).

Medical anthropologist and modern day shaman, Alberto Villoldo tells an amusing but instructive story that illustrates this difference in approach:

A world class brain surgeon, who was just embarking on and discovering the Spiritual Path, was present at a gathering of shamans in the Andes.  Here one of the shamans asked him what he did.  He replied that he cured people who were sick; that he cut their heads with a knife, opened up their skulls and removed tumours from their brain that sometimes were the size of tangerines. That he stitched them up and closed their wounds and that often this allowed his clients to live longer.

In turn the surgeon asked the shaman what he did. The shaman replied that he tended his flock of goats, grew some vegetables and did a little healing. When pressed to elaborate on his healing work, the shaman replied:

“When a man dies before his time has come, I follow him into the Otherworld and chase his soul before it reaches home. I then catch it as you would a butterfly and bring it back and blow the man’s soul back into his body, and the man lives.”

Whether clearing imprints in the Luminous Energy Field, doing fluid or crystallized extractions, whether doing Soul Retrieval for a client or calling rain for a drought stricken village, the shaman’s task is to restore balance to the world.  Problems arise when the balance between the material and the Spirit worlds becomes disrupted. 

Ayni

This Quechua word means ‘right relationship’.  In order to restore health, sanity and peace the shaman journeys to the Spirit world to discover the root cause of imbalance and to assist in re-establishing ayni. When ayni is restored all things return to harmony.
Shamanism’s ancient roots do not make it in any way outmoded or obsolete. It is easy for anyone to recognize how seriously the world has fallen out of balance.  The resurgence of Shamanism may well be the one thing that will pull humanity back from the brink of self-destruction.