is someone knows anything about SHAMAN?

Question

i heard about them the first time last year on t.v., it was kind of funny cause i felt my heart palpiting and got very interested towards them suddenly and since then, it just keep coming back in my mind, to explore about them.

Answer 1

ask the indians I am sure they got some answers to that question.

Answer 2

Shamanism is a HUGE category. While there are some techniques that many shamans have in common, it is NOT a universal system as some people would have you believe.

The Wikipedia article on shamanism, located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/shamanism , is a good place to start. Make sure you check out all the "See Also" topics near the end of the page, particularly "neoshamanism" and "plastic shaman". Most of what is called "shamanism" in books is one of those two things.

A good introductory book on traditional shamanism is Piers Vitebsky's "The Shaman" (it has also been reprinted with the simple title "Shamanism"--a search for the author's name on Amazon will bring up both, if you want to see which version is cheaper used). It covers a lot of aspects of shamanism in indigenous cultures, and only briefly touches on modern neoshamanism.

Michael Harner's "The Way of the Shaman" is *neoshamanism*--specifically, a system Harner developed called core shamanism. While it has some good techniques, it is a rather flawed text--you can see a full review I did of it at http://lupabitch.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/the-way-of-the-shaman-michael-harner/

I would recommend picking up "Exploring Shamanism" by Hillary S. Webb--it's neoshamanism, but it's a really solid text. As for websites, here are a couple of good ones:

http://www.wildspeak.com
http://www.kondor.de/
http://therioshamanism.com

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

Sure, if you are actually speaking of shamanism. That means that either a person or someone could speak to the spirit world. It is a common belief

Its practitioners claim the ability to diagnose and cure human suffering and, in some societies, the ability to cause suffering. This is believed to be accomplished by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits. Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds. Shamanistic traditions have existed throughout the world since prehistoric times.

Some anthropologists and religious scholars define a shaman as an intermediary between the natural and spiritual world, who travels between worlds in a state of trance. Once in the spirit world, the shaman would commune with the spirits for assistance in healing, hunting or weather management. Ripinsky-Naxon describes shamans as, “People who have a strong interest in their surrounding environment and the society of which they are a part.”

Other anthropologists critique the term "shamanism", arguing that it is a culturally specific word and institution and that by expanding it to fit any healer from any traditional society it produces a false unity between these cultures and creates a false idea of an initial human religion predating all others. However, others say that these anthropologists simply fail to recognize the commonalities between otherwise diverse traditional societies.

Answer 4

SHAMAN is a person who claims can cure certain illnesses by performing a ritual "to clean your body". Some of them are descendants of the Incas in South America, and they use natural products and teas with certain herbs for their cures. I have known people who said they have felt well after a few visits. Physicians, of course, are skeptical and do not recommend their methods.

Answer 5

What type?

If you're thinking Native American, well, you're out of luck, since most of them tend to only teach within the tribe.

Otherwise... http://deoxy.org/shaover.htm

http://www.shamansociety.org/
http://www.shamanism.org/