Why is shamanism important

The science shows that humans will pay a lot to minimise these risks, even if the associated consequences are more lethal over the long run. In this case, some anthropologists claim, the shamanic trance represents a kind of folk proof that shamans can protect people against dread risks. The shaman can interact with invisible forces and effectively neutralise them. A third argument holds that shamans organise social groups around common beliefs. These, in turn, lead to better outcomes for the group as a whole.

For example, using the threat of magical retribution, the shaman can keep everybody from killing the last gazelle. Shamans can also unite the tribe around arbitrary decisions by making them sacred and putting everyone on the same page, thereby eliminating potential conflicts over where to hunt, what crops to plant, or whether to fight or flee a neighbouring tribe.

This extends to organising groups around social-commitment ceremonies that enhance cooperation and create the soothing in-group vibrations common to traditions such as Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.

The shamanic ability to organise social groups around common beliefs is certainly an advantage. It might seem at first to be a somewhat weak evolutionary explanation, but in fact the opposite is true.

Consider the following example. Up until the arrival of the Europeans, much of North America was home to peoples whose ancestors had crossed over the Bering Straits roughly 20, years before. But by the mids, Europeans were arriving in a steady drove, and the Native Americans were under serious threat.

They needed to repel the invaders. But what was to be done? The Buryat shamans blossomed like wildflowers as people sought new ways to control the uncertainty. In , a Nevadan Paiute elder named Jack Wilson had a dream-vision of a sacred dance that would enlist the spirit armies of the dead.

This dance would lead to the inevitable swallowing of White people by the Earth. It became known as the Ghost Dance.

The Ghost Dance was immensely attractive, and it united previously warring tribes from Oklahoma to California. With a common enemy and a belief in divine providence, the Native Americans organised themselves and their beliefs in a way that had never been seen before. They became a far more formidable force by working together rather than singly. This terrified the US government, and contributed to rising conflict, which eventually culminated in the Massacre of Wounded Knee in Though the Lakota were savagely killed by US soldiers, the Ghost Dance offers a powerful example of the potential strength of shamanism as a social organiser.

But while this explanation for shamanism is heavily supported, it cannot be the entire explanation since there are many things that organise people: shared hunts, competitive sports, simple fireside songs.

So what exactly is the evolutionary added-value of shamanic trance and how in the world does it work? Here is a crucial clue: shamanism often arises among people exposed to uncertainty. A case in point is the recent rise of shamanism among the Buryat in Upper Mongolia.

Following the collapse of socialism in , the economic rug was pulled out from under the Buryat. This led to terrible poverty and starvation among a people whose cultural identity had largely been rubbed out over a series of generations. In this existential vacuum, the Buryat shamans blossomed like wildflowers as people sought new ways to control the uncertainty in which they had found themselves.

Shamanic peoples, just like the majority of Western Christians, prefer Western doctors when they can find them. Shamanism does not make one blind to the power of penicillin. The use of meditation, drums, music, costumes, the intake of psychedelics and even botanical plants are some of the important tools that the shamans use in their ceremonies.

These methods will be analyzed and compared with scientific data to prove that their medicine is effective and of great value.

Hopefully, this paper will set forth the importance of balancing a mind-body-spirit connection when trying to improve ones health. The shamans provide sacred insight about the importance of belief, faith and reflection as a way to self-heal.

Their practices give people the courage to question themselves and their true meaning of life. Grow and Nourish Your Sensitivity Stimulation. Avoid constant work, television, media exposure, or activities that can numb you.

Learn to slow down or stop. Cherish time in quietude. Select one evening per week or per every two weeks when you will not work, turn on the media, or do other things to avoid quiet. Instead of fasting from food, practice fasting from noise.

Give yourself quiet for at least 20 minutes. When you've become accustomed to the absence of stimulation, take a question into your quiet. Invite intuition to be at work. Intuition requires energy and alertness. Exercise elevates your circulation and reduces tension. Find a physical activity that you enjoy and do it three times a week.

Meditative walking is centuries old. Select a place you like to walk in nature or in the city. Clear your mind as much as possible. Begin to walk by watching your feet out of the corner of your eye. Pay attention to one foot and then pay attention to the other. Alternate your attention from one foot to the next as you walk. If thoughts enter your mind, return your attention to your feet. Walk for 20 minutes using this technique. When you finish your walk, sit still for a few minutes and note any creative thoughts that you have.

Regular restoration of the body through relaxation and sleep keeps you alert to your body's signals. Make a conscious decision to sleep, nap, or relax when your body indicates a need. Practice the Stillness Exercise above until you can obtain inner stillness within a minute or two of beginning the circle-dot breathing. Or, choose a time of day for a 10 - 20 minute nap, such as before or after dinner; or immediately when you come home.

Invite your intuition to visit you during your rest periods. While you wouldn't buy gasoline that revs your car engine to unsafe speeds, makes your car sputter along, or stalls your engine out, many people eat food that does just that to their bodies.

Nourish your body's sensitivity to intuition with good food. Choose a food type you think is not good for you sugar, fat, excessive starches, etc. Notice any change of thoughts, behaviors, or sense of wellbeing. Re-introduce the food slowly, asking your body to clearly signal you if it isn't contributing to your health. Ask your intuition to guide you to food that is better for you. Medical research on stress shows that thoughts and emotions can directly impact your physical body.

Guard your mind; invest in thoughts that make a positive contribution to your life. Sit still and imagine that you are holding a magic mirror that reflects the quality of your thoughts. Focus on a thought that makes you feel serene; look in the mirror. What does the serene thought look like? Then invite thoughts that you enjoy, such as happy, creative, insightful, or uplifting thoughts. Each time a thought arises, look in your magic mirror and notice what is reflected back to you.

Imagine that these images are reflecting sunshine back to you. Holding the magic mirror in your hands and looking into it, allow a challenging thought to arisesomething which worries, depresses, saddens, or angers you. How does the image in the mirror change?

How does your body feel while you are holding these thoughts? Bring thoughts that reflect sunshine back into your mind. Allow these thoughts to gently evaporate your challenging thoughts much like fog disappears from a mirror when the sun hits it.

Experience the magic mirror as a guardian of your inner being setting you free to be clear and reflective rather than preoccupied with challenging thoughts. Release your inner reflective sun. String Theory Intuition When trying to enhance your sensitivity to intuition, it may help you to apply some of the ideas of modern physics. Sit or stand somewhere. Inhale deeply and exhale slowly until you are relaxed. Experience your body as an exquisitely designed instrument composed of millions of sensitive strings that vibrate in response to deep, silent communication without words.

Focus on what you are looking at, hearing, or sensing at that moment. It might be a flower, book, stone, bottle, fence, etc. It could be anything. When you are focused on whatever attracted your attention, imagine that information is being exchanged via sensitive string 'waves' inside each of you.

You can't hear or see anything being exchanged, but you recognize that you are in active communication. Using your imagination, thank whatever you communicated with and look around your surroundings. Find another attraction and allow yourself to experience the vibratory information exchange between you and it.

After a few minutes exchange, thank what you focused on. Repeat by finding another attraction and doing the same thing. After you have completed the information exchange and expressed gratitude 3 or 4 times, ask yourself: What links these attractions together? How are they alike? How are they different? What attracts me profoundly at the level of my strings? What have I learned from this experience? What do I know about life that I didn't know? What questions do I still have?

Dream journal exercise Dreams are a way for the unconscious to work on issues that may not yet be in the conscious mind. Dream Journal Dreams are a way for the unconscious to work on issues that may not yet be in the conscious mind.

By appealing to supernatural forces, these rituals were intended to safeguard and induce large crop yields and production each year. Given that geography and human history separated these individuals, I was most surprised to hear this perspective, especially from the Haitian mambo. I chalk up this translatability to the similar perspectives the shamans gained in their social and spiritual roles. DeLanda, M. A new philosophy of society: Assemblage theory and social complexity.

Eliade, M. Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy. New York: Pantheon Books. Francfort, H. Hamayon, and P. Bahn, eds. The concept of shamanism: uses and abuses.

Harner, M. The way of the shaman. New York: Bantam Books. Janhunen, J. Shils, E. Max Weber on the methodology of the social sciences. Glencoe, Ill. Siikala, A. The rite technique of Siberian shaman. In Folklore fellows communication, Helsinki: Soumalainen Tiedeskaremia Academia. Singh, M. Summary of the cultural evolutionary and cognitive foundations of shamanism; published with commentaries by 25 scholars including anthropologists, philosophers, and psychologists.

Winkelman, M. A cross-cultural study of magico-religious practitioners. University of California, Irvine. Ann Arbor, Mich.