Universal Practices of Spirit Journey and Healing
Shamanism represents humanity's oldest and most widespread spiritual technology - a set of practices found across cultures worldwide, from Siberia (where the term originates) to the Americas, Africa, Australia, and beyond. At its core, shamanism involves practitioners who deliberately enter altered states of consciousness to interact with spirits, retrieve information, heal illness, and serve as intermediaries between human communities and the invisible forces that animate the cosmos.
Shamanic traditions typically share a cosmology featuring multiple realms or worlds - often an Upper World of celestial beings, a Middle World reflecting ordinary reality but including its spirit dimension, and a Lower or Under World of ancestors, power animals, and earth spirits. The shaman travels between these worlds, usually through symbolic portals like the World Tree, a sacred mountain, or cosmic river. Everything possesses spirit; humans are surrounded by and interpenetrated with spiritual beings whose cooperation is essential for health and success.
The word "shaman" comes from the Tungus (Evenki) word "saman," describing practitioners in Siberian cultures. While some scholars argue the term should be restricted to its Siberian context, most now use it broadly for similar practitioners worldwide - medicine people, witch doctors, sangomas, curanderos, and countless other culturally specific terms describing those who journey to spirit worlds to serve their communities.
Cave art suggesting shamanic themes; earliest evidence of altered state practices; animal spirit imagery
Shamanic practices evident in emerging agricultural societies; megalithic sites with astronomical alignment
Documentation of shamanic traditions by travelers, missionaries, anthropologists; persecution and suppression
First European accounts of Siberian shamanism; colonial suppression of indigenous practices worldwide
Mircea Eliade's "Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy" establishes academic study
Psychedelic research and counterculture interest; Carlos Castaneda controversially popularizes shamanism
Michael Harner founds Foundation for Shamanic Studies; "Core Shamanism" develops
Indigenous traditions revive; neo-shamanic practices spread; integration with psychotherapy
The shaman serves multiple functions within traditional societies: healer of physical and psychological illness, diviner revealing hidden causes and future events, psychopomp guiding souls of the dead, mediator negotiating with spirits for community welfare, keeper of cultural knowledge and sacred songs, and defender against spiritual attack. Unlike priests who serve institutionalized religion, shamans derive authority from direct personal experience of the spirit world.
"The shaman is a master of fire and lightning, a master of magical heat. He can touch red-hot iron without being burned, can walk on fire, can make himself invisible. He is a master of cold who can remain naked on the ice without freezing. He is a master of death who can die and return to life."
- Traditional descriptions of shamanic powers
One does not simply choose to become a shaman. Traditional societies recognize that shamans are chosen by spirits, often through dramatic initiatory experiences. This calling may manifest through serious illness that conventional treatments cannot cure, psychological crisis, near-death experiences, dreams or visions of spirits who offer instruction, or hereditary succession where shamanic gifts pass through family lines.
Many shamans describe an initiatory crisis - often a severe physical or mental illness during which they experienced dismemberment, death, and reconstitution by spirits. This "shamanic illness" cannot be cured by ordinary means; recovery requires accepting the shamanic calling. Those who resist often suffer continued affliction until they acquiesce to spirit demands.
Powerful dreams in which spirits appear, offer instruction, or take the dreamer on journeys may indicate shamanic vocation. Spontaneous visions while awake, especially involving animals or ancestors who offer power and teaching, similarly mark potential shamans. These experiences often begin in childhood and intensify over time.
In many cultures, shamanic abilities run in families, with spirits passing from grandparent to grandchild or other relatives. The descendant may exhibit signs from childhood, and established shamans recognize and train them. Hereditary shamans often inherit their predecessor's helping spirits and ritual tools.
Regardless of how the call comes, extensive training follows under established shamans. This may last years and includes learning songs, rituals, plant medicines, cosmological knowledge, and techniques for controlled spirit travel. The trainee undergoes ordeals testing courage, endurance, and commitment, often including prolonged fasting, isolation, or exposure.
Shamanic initiation is genuinely dangerous. The dismemberment experiences are psychologically intense; some who receive the call cannot integrate it and suffer breakdown. Working with spirits exposes one to malevolent entities and the possibility of losing oneself in non-ordinary reality. Traditional training protects and prepares; self-initiated practitioners risk these dangers without adequate safeguards or understanding.
The central shamanic technique: deliberately entering altered consciousness to travel to spirit worlds and interact with beings there. Typically accompanied by rhythmic drumming, rattling, or singing that shifts brainwave patterns, the practitioner's consciousness separates from ordinary awareness, traveling along established cosmological pathways to specific destinations. The shaman maintains awareness throughout, returning with information, healing power, or lost soul parts.
Shamans establish relationships with animal spirits who serve as guides, protectors, and sources of power. The "power animal" accompanies the shaman on journeys, provides specific abilities, and defends against spiritual dangers. Different animals offer different powers: eagle provides far-seeing vision, bear offers healing strength, snake knows underground mysteries. Losing one's power animal causes illness and vulnerability.
A fundamental shamanic healing technique addressing "soul loss" - the belief that trauma, shock, or illness can cause parts of a person's soul to flee or be stolen. The shaman journeys to locate the missing soul part, negotiates with any entities holding it, and returns it to the patient. Symptoms of soul loss include depression, feeling incomplete, chronic illness, and disconnection from life.
Complementing soul retrieval, extraction removes spiritual intrusions - negative energies or entities that have entered a person's energy body, causing illness. The shaman perceives these intrusions (often as insects, darts, dark masses) and extracts them through sucking, brushing, or other techniques. The intrusion must then be properly disposed of to prevent reattachment.
Shamans journey to ask spirits for information - finding lost objects, identifying illness causes, learning whether proposed actions will succeed, or understanding mysterious events. The spirits, having broader perception than humans, provide knowledge otherwise unavailable. Shamans may also prophesy, receiving visions of future events that affect the community.
Guiding the souls of the dead to their proper destination. When someone dies, their spirit may become confused, attached to the living world, or unable to find its way. The shaman journeys to locate the deceased, explains their situation, and accompanies them to the afterlife realm appropriate to that culture's cosmology. This benefits both the dead (who find peace) and the living (freed from haunting).
Mircea Eliade defined shamanism as "archaic techniques of ecstasy" - methods for achieving controlled out-of-body experiences. Unlike spirit possession (where spirits enter the practitioner), shamanic ecstasy involves the practitioner's soul leaving their body to travel elsewhere. This distinction, while not absolute, helps differentiate shamanism from mediumship and other spirit practices. The shaman remains in control, directing their journey rather than being passively taken over.
Often called the "shaman's horse" or "canoe," the frame drum is the most universal shamanic tool. Its rhythmic beating (typically 4-7 beats per second) induces theta brainwave states conducive to journeying. Drums are often consecrated, believed to contain spirits, and decorated with cosmological symbols. The drum carries the shaman between worlds.
A secondary rhythm instrument, rattles invoke and direct spirits, clear negative energies, and support healing work. Different materials produce different effects - gourd rattles, pod rattles, bone rattles. Like drums, rattles may house helping spirits and serve as tools for spiritual work beyond just rhythm production.
Traditional shamanic regalia often includes elaborate costumes representing the spiritual body achieved through initiation. These may feature animal parts (feathers, fur, bones), metal objects (bells, mirrors), symbolic decorations, and tools attached to the garment. Donning the costume helps shift consciousness and invoke spirit allies.
A walking staff or shorter wand often accompanies shamans, serving as axis mundi symbol, weapon against spirits, and support during trance states. The staff may be carved with spirit images, decorated with sacred materials, or otherwise consecrated for shamanic use.
A collection of sacred objects accumulated through the shaman's life - power objects given by spirits, natural items with special significance, inherited items from teachers, and more. The bundle concentrates spiritual power and provides access to multiple helping spirits and their abilities.
Many shamanic traditions work with psychoactive plants - ayahuasca in the Amazon, peyote in Mexico, iboga in Africa, fly agaric in Siberia. These "teacher plants" induce visionary states, reveal spirits, and transmit knowledge. Their use is highly ritualized and guided by experienced practitioners.
In many Siberian and Mongolian traditions, metal mirrors are essential shamanic tools - used for scrying, deflecting harmful spirits, containing power, and representing the cosmos. The shaman may wear multiple mirrors on their costume, each serving specific protective or divinatory functions.
Tobacco and other smoking herbs serve to make offerings, purify space, carry prayers, and invoke spirits. The smoke itself is alive with spirit, creating atmosphere conducive to spiritual work. Pipe ceremonies in North American traditions exemplify sacred smoking's importance.
While not universal, many shamanic traditions incorporate psychoactive plants as tools for accessing spirit realms. These "entheogens" (generating the divine within) are treated as sacred beings requiring proper relationship, not mere drugs to be consumed casually:
The "classic" shamanic traditions from which the term derives. Featuring elaborate costumes, frame drums, complex cosmologies with multiple heavens and hells, dramatic possession and trance states, and often hereditary transmission. Traditions include Evenki, Buryat, Mongolian, and Turkic peoples. Severely suppressed under Soviet rule but now reviving.
Diverse traditions including vision quest practices, medicine societies, Sun Dance, sweat lodge, and pipe ceremonies. Regional variations include Arctic shamanism (similar to Siberian), Plains medicine people, Southwestern healing traditions, and Eastern Woodland practices. Many continue despite historical suppression.
Rich traditions featuring ayahuasca and other plant teachers, extensive botanical knowledge, icaros (healing songs), and complex spirit cosmologies. Curanderos and vegetalistas work with plant spirits for healing and knowledge. These traditions have become internationally known through ayahuasca tourism (controversial).
Sangomas (South Africa), nganga (Central Africa), and countless other practitioners work with ancestors, nature spirits, and divinities. African traditions often emphasize ancestor communication, divination systems, and community healing. Many diaspora traditions (Vodou, Santeria) preserve African shamanic elements.
Korean shamans (mostly women) perform elaborate ceremonies (gut) involving colorful costumes, music, dance, and possession by multiple spirits. Mudang address family problems, illness, and transitions through communication with ancestors and gods. A living tradition despite historical marginalization.
The world's oldest continuous spiritual tradition features "clever men" and "clever women" who work with Dreamtime beings, totemic ancestors, and the spiritual landscape. Aboriginal spirituality is inseparable from connection to Country - the land itself is alive with Dreaming power.
Michael Harner and others developed "Core Shamanism" - a distillation of shamanic techniques stripped of specific cultural content, intended to be accessible to Westerners. While valuable for introducing shamanic practices, this approach has been criticized for decontextualizing sacred traditions and enabling cultural appropriation. Neo-shamanic practitioners must navigate the tension between learning from indigenous traditions and respecting their integrity.
The foundational academic study establishing shamanism as a distinct religious phenomenon. Eliade surveys traditions worldwide, identifying common elements while respecting diversity. Despite some dated interpretations, remains essential reading for serious students.
The book that launched modern neo-shamanism, written by an anthropologist who became a practitioner. Introduces core shamanic techniques (journeying, power animals, extraction) in accessible terms. Influential but controversial for its decontextualized approach.
Detailed ethnographic study of Ojibway shamanism, examining specific practices within their cultural context. Grim's work exemplifies careful scholarship respecting indigenous traditions while making them accessible to outsiders.
Comprehensive study of Amazonian shamanism based on extensive fieldwork and personal apprenticeship. Covers plant teachers, healing songs (icaros), cosmology, and practice. Balances scholarly rigor with experiential understanding.
Philosopher's exploration of indigenous perception and animistic worldview. Abram draws on shamanic traditions to argue for a participatory relationship with the more-than-human world. Influential in environmental philosophy and eco-spirituality.
Beautifully illustrated exploration of shamanic initiation, focusing on the "wounded healer" archetype. Halifax draws on extensive anthropological research and personal experience with indigenous traditions. Accessible introduction emphasizing the healing dimension.
Harner's final work, representing decades of practice and reflection. More nuanced than his earlier work, addressing cosmology, soul flight, and relationships with spirits from both anthropological and experiential perspectives.
Academic anthology presenting diverse scholarly perspectives on shamanism. Includes historical analyses, ethnographic accounts, and theoretical debates. Useful for understanding the range of academic approaches to shamanic traditions.
Spirit practices across cultures: