shamanism

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shamanism

/sha·man·ism/ (shah´-) (sha´mah-nizm″) a traditional system, occurring in tribal societies, in which certain individuals (shamans) are believed to be gifted with access to an invisible spiritual world and are able to mediate between it and the physical world to heal, divine, and affect events in the latter.

shamanism

a form of healing that incorporates personal healing, transformation, and regeneration through access to a "higher power." Sickness, disease, and illness are indicators that the individual is out of balance and in disharmony within the essential nature. Success can be achieved if people are, first, willing to take responsibility for the creation of the disease and, second, open to nonphysical realities of life and willing to engage with their inner spirit and their higher selves. This type of healing has been effective for sexual dysfunction, chronic fatigue syndrome, mental health concerns, and obesity and other eating disorders.

shamanism

Ethnomedicine/Paranormal
An ancient spiritual and medical tradition still practised in many tribal cultures, which is based on the belief that healing has a spiritual (i.e., “other world”) dimension. To effect healing, shamans enter altered states of consciousness in order to communicate with other planes of existence, taking a journey to help the patient rediscover his or her connection to nature and the other plane. Shamanism is steeped in ritual (such as divination, dream interpretation and prophecy) and tribal psychology (through drumming, story-telling and chanting).

shamanism (shôˑ·mn·izm),

n a diverse set of ritual healing practices that use trance and spiritual practices for therapy.

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References in periodicals archive ?

They exist as an unintended consequence of the legitimization of shamanism as a traditional confession in Tyva Republic.

Resorting to shamanic agencies: Filling in for the failure of the official institutions in a Siberian periphery (Tyva Republic, Russia)

First, the religious subject of spirit possession can speak specifically to both Christianity and shamanism in South Korea.

Uncomfortable proximity: perception of Christianity as a cultural villain in South Korea

If Gandalf, then, can be seen to have shamanic associations, are there other elements of shamanism in the world of Middle-earth?

Totemic reflexes in Tolkien's Middle-earth

Shamanism, both the practice of it in terms of individual experience and access to consciousness, as well as its history in human cultures has long been an area of focus.

Bauu Press Celebrates the Publication of a Comprehensive Bibliography on Shamanism

Daniel Noel, a scholar of myth and religion, in his book The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities, voices the opinion that the work of Carlos Castaneda and many of today's popular teachers of shamanism are suspect on the grounds of the ignorance and sense of entitlement of whites to the artifacts of Native cultures: "This work of imaginative construction - never admitted as such - has promoted unconscious Western fantasies of immediate access to indigenous healing wisdom.

Should Non-Natives Practice Indigenous Religions?

There is a plethora of anecdotal literature describing journeys but an absence of experimental studies specific to the effects of shamanism (Harner, 1995).

The shamanic journey: tapping the spiritual wisdom within

Shamanism appears to be a worldwide religious phenomenon that has existed from the earliest human times to the present day.

The priests were women

She has taught shamanism and dreamwork throughout the U.

Dreaming the soul's path: interview with Robert Moss for New Life Journal (Part 2)

Her studies in Hawaii contribute to the SACRED POWER OF HUNA: SPIRITUALITY AND SHAMANISM IN HAWAII, which provides not just spiritual insights, but plenty of insights into Hawaiian culture as well.

The Sacred Power of Huna

The artist, whose videos appear on monitors placed on a dirt floor among "roads" made of paper, calls the work "punk shamanism.

Debt collectors

The quest invoked in this book's title is the authors' search for proof of shamanism in the period between the early Stone Age and the early post-Roman era.

The Quest for the Shaman: Shape-Shifters, Sorcerers and Spirit-Healers of Ancient Europe

For example, when he considers the relationship of cunning-folk to shamanism, by adopting a narrow definition of shamanism as the practices of Central Asian shamans, he not surprisingly arrives at the conclusion that there was very little relationship between English cunning-folk and shamanism.