All About Shamanism
Mar 29, 2018

Drew Wilkins
Core Spirit member since Dec 24, 2020
Reading time 7 min.

What is shamanism?

“Because it is not an organized religion as such, but rather a spiritual practice, shamanism cuts across all faiths and creeds, reaching deep levels of ancestral memory. As a primal belief system, which precedes established religion, it has its own symbolism and cosmology, inhabited by beings, gods, and totems, who display similar characteristics although they appear in various forms, depending upon their places of origin.”

~John Matthews, The Celtic Shaman

Shamanism is a spiritual practice found in cultures around the world from ancient times up to the present day. First and foremost, shamans’ practices are practical and adaptable. These practices coexist over millennia with varying cultures, systems of government, and organized religious practices.

Many formalized religions, from Buddhism to Christianity, came from ancient shamanic roots and still bear the shamanic threads of deep connection to the divine in all things. But shamanism itself is not a formalized system of beliefs or an ideology. Rather, it is a group of activities and experiences shared by shamans in cultures around the world. These practices are adaptable and coexist with different cultures, systems of government, and organized religious practices.

Individual practice

Nowadays, in non-indigenous cultures, shamanism is studied and practiced as a life path. Following a shamanistic perspective, individuals seek to be in relationship with the spirit in all things. They seek to use information and guidance from non-ordinary reality to intentionally form their own life experience.

This perspective is not inherently contradictory of any religious practice that allows a person to be in direct relationship with whatever they perceive as a higher power.

Consulting with shamans

Just as in ancient times, contemporary people consult with modern day shamanic practitioners for practical and pragmatic solutions to problems in everyday life-from personal illness, professional challenges, or family discord to ancestral issues.

Shamans work in voluntary, ecstatic trance states, which alter their consciousness to travel to the realms of the invisible worlds. Their ability to gain information and make changes in the invisible realms is dependant upon the working relationships they develop with spirits there. In this sense, shamanism is a relationship-based practice of making changes in invisible realms to impact healing, of individuals or communities, in the realm of ordinary reality.

For some peoples, such shamanic practice is part of their dominant culture, for others it is directly contradictory. Some individuals are intuitively guided to seek help from a contemporary shaman, often when other options have been exhausted, without even understanding what a shaman is or how they work.

What is a shaman?Collage of a shaman, drum and kava

According to famed American psychologist and consciousness pioneer, Stanley Krippner, shamans are “community-assigned magico-religious professionals who deliberately alter their consciousness in order to obtain information from the ‘spirit world.’ They use this knowledge and power to help and to heal members of their community, as well as the community as a whole.”

Krippner describes shamans as the first physicians, diagnosticians, psychotherapists, religious functionaries, magicians, performing artists, and storytellers.

In shamanistic cultures, all adults are responsible for their relationships with spiritual energies, including those of their home environment (geography, animals, and plant life,) their ancestors, their own personal helping spirits, and Spirit, the creator force.

However, the shaman is unique in that he or she not only has increased facility for traveling in non-ordinary realms, but also uses their spirit relationships to create changes that will manifest in the physical world, for the healing of individuals or the community. This definition differentiates shamans from other types of practitioners. For example, mediums use altered states of consciousness, but they do not take action in those altered states. And sorcerers take action in altered states, but not necessarily to heal.

Abilities of shamans

According to Christina Pratt in The Encyclopedia of Shamanism, a shaman is a practitioner who has gained mastery of:

Altered states of consciousness, possessing the ability to enter alternated states at will, and controlling themselves while moving in and out of those states.

Mediating between the needs of the spirit world and those of the physical world in a way that can be understood and used by the community.

Serving the needs of the community that cannot be met by practitioners of other disciplines, such as physicians, psychiatrists, priests, and leaders.

A shaman is therefore a specific type of healer who uses an alternate state of consciousness to enter the invisible world, which is made up of all unseen aspects of the world that affect us, including the spiritual, emotional, mental, mythical, archetypal, and dream worlds.

Categories of healers

There are three categories of contemporary shamans, including those who:

Come from an unbroken shamanic tradition and continue to practice in that tradition, usually in their native culture.

Come from a shamanic tradition, but serve to bridge between that tradition and the modern Western world, often by adding ceremonies and rituals that were not necessary in their indigenous culture.

Are called by Spirit to serve the needs of their community as shamans, though they may be long separated culturally from their original shamanic roots.

How can shamanism benefit your health and wellbeing?

Individuals may seek shamanic healing for many different maladies. If they are living within a shamanic culture, shamanic healing is typically part of a multidisciplinary approach used for any disease or imbalance, in partnership with physical healers, botanical medicines, changes in diet, and other therapies.

In contemporary western society, shamanic healing is unfamiliar to most non-indigenous individuals. Despite that, people are finding their way to contemporary shamans for all types of health challenges, but especially when they are not making satisfactory improvements with conventional approaches.

Shamanistic perspective on disease

The perspective on individual disease is different in shamanism than in the conventional medical view. In a shamanistic view:

Similar symptoms or diseases do not stem from the same underlying root energetic problem.

Community disharmony often manifests in individual illness.

Any illness may have a significant underlying spiritual or energetic issue, regardless of the form in which that illness manifests - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or relational.

Certain illnesses are more likely to have a spiritual component that may respond to shamanic healing techniques. These include psychological diagnoses like depression and anxiety, ADD/ADHD, autism, and addictions.

Illnesses that manifest physically may still have significant spiritual underpinnings. This is especially true for illnesses that have atypical or premature presentations, such as a degenerative illness that normally occurs in elder years occurring in a young adult.

The sense that something is “missing” or that “I haven’t been the same since…” can often be indicative of an energetic loss of some type, including soul energy loss. Shamanic healing is often part of a multi-pronged approach to an illness, and is fully compatible with both conventional medicine and other integrative treatments, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, and others.

Shamanistic healing

Shamanic healing work requires two distinct phases:

The accurate diagnosis of the seen and unseen energies at the root of the problem.

Carrying out the specific choreography of energies needed to resolve the problem.

The shaman may serve by removing energies that are inappropriately present, or by returning energies that have been lost. This includes soul recovery to accomplish healing via the return of lost parts of the soul.

When an individual is living within a community that supports such work, there is time and support for the integration and processing that an individual must do to complete most healing processes. In contemporary society, the shaman and the client must create the resources and structure for the individual to adjust to the shift in internal energies.

Shamans direct and move energy to restore the harmony within the individual, between the individual and the community, and between the community and the spirit world.

How do I find a shamanic practitioner?

For individuals who live within an indigenous culture, shamanic practitioners are readily known and easily accessible. But for the majority of contemporary westerners, shamanic practitioners are not known. As shamans are called to their practices through direct spiritual initiation, there is not a certifying body to register practitioners. That said, the Foundation for Shamanic Studies does post a registry of Certified Shamanic Counselors who have completed a training program in Core Shamanism through the foundation.

If you find a practitioner in your local community, ask friends and colleagues about their reputation. Then meet with the practitioner and ask how they were initiated and trained, as well as how they practice. One critical question is whether the practitioner would be available after a shamanic healing (especially a soul retrieval), to help with issues of integration and processing (or if they at least refer to a colleague to assist in that work).

Is there good evidence for shamanic healing?

Because shamanic healing is individualized to each unique person and their illness, it does not lend itself readily to conventional research designs. Additionally, there has been little interest in or financial support for research in these practices.

Thousands of years of experience have been the best documentation that shamanic approaches indeed work, or they would not have survived and been perpetuated. Most understanding in this area has come from the observations of cultural anthropologists. There has been a growing body of academic studies in the field since the 1950s. Classic texts are listed in the References and Further Information section below.

by University Of Minesota


Leave your comments / questions for this practitioner

To write a comment please
or
Jonathan Tayron
May 25, 2021

Thanks for the article, it was interesting to read. I learned a lot about shamans from the article, before that I had only once seen with my own eyes how one of the shamans conducts a ritual. In this whole process, I felt something strange, experienced feelings of fear of something great. Perhaps, then I felt the aura of ancient spirits, who knows ?!

Services
Category filter
Concern filter
Type filter
Sort
 

All categories

Shamanic Healing
$70 USD
healing session
Sacral Chakra Shamanic Healing Session

I tune into your Sacral Chakra and find what needs to be healed and attuned. During the session I let you know what I find, we discuss it and see what noticings you have had and what is it that you would like to see improved in your life as well with regards to this chakra. I then do my shamanic healing practice to restore your Sacral Chakra to a healthier state and concurrently to help improve the flow of the corresponding areas of your life, as a result of better Sacral Chakra functioning.

My healing practice may show me a past life trauma that may still be the reason for blockages or anything unhealthy in your Sacral Chakra that needs to be healed, released and let go. I may be shown past fears, expectations, limiting beliefs, agreements, contracts, promises, vows, regret, self-punishment, self-preservation, guilt, shame, blame, grudges, distortions, blocks and other forms of karma that can be cleared for you to start feeling a shift in your life.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed physician or mental health provider. My services are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical/mental health advice, diagnosis and/or treatment.

Olga Aydınoğlu
Shamanic Healing
$70 USD
healing session
Root Chakra Shamanic Healing Session

I tune into your Root Chakra and find what needs to be healed and attuned. During the session I let you know what I find, we discuss it and see what noticings you have had and what is it that you would like to see improved in your life as well with regards to this chakra. I then do my shamanic healing practice to restore your Root Chakra to a healthier state and concurrently to help improve the flow of the corresponding areas of your life, as a result of better Root Chakra functioning.

My healing practice may show me a past life trauma that may still be the reason for blockages or anything unhealthy in your Root Chakra that needs to be healed, released and let go. I may be shown past fears, expectations, limiting beliefs, agreements, contracts, promises, vows, regret, self-punishment, self-preservation, guilt, shame, blame, grudges, distortions, blocks and other forms of karma that can be cleared for you to start feeling a shift in your life.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed physician or mental health provider. My services are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical/mental health advice, diagnosis and/or treatment.

Olga Aydınoğlu
Shamanic Healing
$70 USD
healing session
Crown Chakra Shamanic Healing Session

I tune into your Crown Chakra and find what needs to be healed and attuned. During the session I let you know what I find, we discuss it and see what noticings you have had and what is it that you would like to see improved in your life as well with regards to this chakra. I then do my shamanic healing practice to restore your Crown chakra to a healthier state and concurrently to help improve the flow of the corresponding areas of your life, as a result of better Crown chakra functioning.

My healing practice may show me a past life trauma that may still be the reason for blockages or anything unhealthy in your Crown chakra that needs to be healed, released and let go. I may be shown past fears, expectations, limiting beliefs, agreements, contracts, promises, vows, regret, self-punishment, self-preservation, habits, guilt, shame, blame, grudges, distortions, blocks and other forms of karma that can be cleared for you to start feeling a shift in your life.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed physician or mental health provider. My services are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical/mental health advice, diagnosis and/or treatment.

Olga Aydınoğlu
Shamanic Healing
$70 USD
healing session
Solar Plexus Chakra Shamanic Healing Session

I tune into your Solar Plexus Chakra and find what needs to be healed and attuned. During the session I let you know what I find, we discuss it and see what noticings you have had and what is it that you would like to see improved in your life as well with regards to this chakra. I then do my shamanic healing practice to restore your Solar Plexus Chakra to a healthier state and concurrently to help improve the flow of the corresponding areas of your life, as a result of better Solar Plexus Chakra functioning.

My healing practice may show me a past life trauma that may still be the reason for blockages or anything unhealthy in your Solar Plexus Chakra that needs to be healed, released and let go. I may be shown past fears, expectations, limiting beliefs, agreements, contracts, promises, vows, regret, self-punishment, self-preservation, guilt, shame, blame, grudges, distortions, blocks and other forms of karma that can be cleared for you to start feeling a shift in your life.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed physician or mental health provider. My services are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical/mental health advice, diagnosis and/or treatment.

Olga Aydınoğlu

Related Articles

View All
Shamanic Healing
Mar 18 2021
Cactus of Mystery – Learning Shamanism

Originally published in 2013 ‘Cactus of Mystery: The Shamanic Power of the Peruvian San Pedro Cactus’ is written by Ross Heaven, with additional contributions from David Luke, Eve Bruce, Morgan Maher and others. Heaven is a psychologist, healer and worksh…

Demi Powell
Shamanic Healing
Feb 17 2021
Healing tradition from the past

Only six people in the world know how to do what Sergio Pacheco is about to do.

A middle-aged man who rarely smiles, Pacheco stands in the middle of a crowd on the National Mall, wearing a feathered headdress, beaded necklace and wrinkled dress that’s be…

Demi Powell
Shamanic Healing
Mar 29 2018
Shamanic Drug Ayahuasca Cures Severe Depression, New Study Finds

Since ancient times, shamans in Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest have been concocting a psychedelic brew called ayahuasca or yagé. Made out of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and other plants native to the rainforest, the psychedelic tea contains dimethyltrypt…

Molly Carr
Shamanic Healing
Jan 27 2021
Shamanic Healing Art: Visual Healing Medicine from Your Own Spirit, Higher-Self or the Deep Subconscious

What if looking at a drawing could activate spiritual healing? I don’t mean just to relax you or lift your spirits up, though that can often be transformative enough.

I mean quite specific healing, such as helping you with your specific shadow work of yo…

Olga Aydınoğlu
Registered individuals enjoy all the possibilities of Core Spirit.