Shamanism –  spirit healing

The dictionary describes a shaman, as someone who has direct access and influence in the spirit world, usually through a trance which empowers him or her to guide souls and cure illnesses. Shamans have been around for a long time and found in many cultures from Siberia to Central America and South Africa.  And from earliest times, people have had experiences of trances where their levels of consciousness have changed. Even in every day life people shift between inward-looking and outward-looking states. Both normal dreaming and day-dreaming are states of altered consciousness.

In hunting societies, shamans were people who entered these altered states of consciousness for a set purpose: to heal the sick, foretell the future, meet spirit animals, change the weather and control real animals by supernatural means.

   Some shamans make use of complex and elaborate costume, like head-dresses and horns, and facial markings and often use drumming and long sessions of rhythmic dancing to bring on a trance, while others use potent substances that bring on hallucination.  Some dance and concentrate with such intensity, they fall down exhausted with blood streaming from their nose

A person who wants to be a shaman, has to go through an initiation process of spending time at an isolated place such as, a high cliff, or cave, or sacred lake or burial site.  Isolation, hardship, and the cold you find in caves, are all important factors in bringing on a trancelike state. In the trance, it is believed a particular spirit animal will show itself and enter the person like a life-force.  They will then have powers to do things they wouldn’t normally be able to do – such as bringing rain or healing

The healing dance is one of the San or Bushmen’s most important religious rituals.  As women clap the rhythm and sing, the men dance in a circle around them. During the dance shamans lay their hands on everyone present to draw out the ‘arrows of sickness’.  It’s a healing act that is at the core of their society.         

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