what is a shaman definition origin and distributribution

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Walsh, R. 'fiat is a sh+ xm ? Definition, oripin md distribution. Journal of TmsoerjoortlPsv~holoev-I:]-1 1. IQ89.. . . . . . -I . ' . _ . . . ' . . - : . . ., . - < . . . . . . . . . .... . -. . . . . - . ._ _ . . . . - -. . . . . .. . .. '

W H A T IS A S H A M A N ?D E F I N IT I O N , O R I G I N A N D D I S T R IB U T I O N

Roger WalshIrvinc. Calijornia

I N T R O D U C T I O N

There is currently unprecedented interest. excite men^ a n dconfusion abou t shamanism. S ham anic li terature. r i tuals andworksh ops are proliferating and have spawned a veri tablecottage industry. Genuinely shamanically trained anthro polo -gists such as M ichael ~ i r n c rnd highly controv ersial figuressuch asLynn An drews. ' the sha ma n of Beverly Hills" (Clifton.1989). are 08ering sham anism workshops. Given th at only afew year sa go there wasconccrntha tsham anism would soon beextinct. i t is clcar that the tradit ion. o ra t least i tscontem poraryWestern version, is doing rather well.W hat is not s o clear is what exactly a sh ama n is. In fact. on this confroversialpoint there is remarkable controversy. On the one hand the viewssham an has been called 'mentally deranged" and "an outr ight ofpsych otic" (D ev erca ux . 1961). a "v erit ab le idiot-(W isslcr. 1931). rh ea charlatan. epileptic and. p erhap s most o fte n (K aka r. 1982: s h a m a nN o ll 1983) an hyster ic o r schizophrenic.On the other hand an opposite but equal ly ext reme vicwwcm st o be emerging in th e pop ular l i terature. He re shaman ic statesa r c being identified with those of Buddhism, Yoga orC hrist ianmysticism. Thus. for example. Holger Kalweit (1988. p. 236)

The author would like to thar;k ihc followingpc oplcfor thc irconlnbu tiorntothe p mparauos o f this paper. Mictucl Harna provided both thmrctical andpractical information and intrc dua d me to a number ofrhamaniclechniqucs.Markoc Dobkim dc Rior bibliographic a u lmna while F r a n mVaugha.a nd M i l s Vich provided valuable fccdbrck o n e a r l i d r a f t s of 1hLPap-. As mud Bonnic CAllicr providcd cxal lcn t rmclarhl a d dmininra-

-&"a.Copyright ? 1989 Tmn rpcno n.l Institute

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claims that the shaman -experiences existential unity-thesamadhi of the Hindus or what Western spir i tualis ts andmystics call enlightenment. illumination. unio mysrica." Like-wise G ary D oo re (1966. p. 223) claim s tha t 'shaman s, yogis an dBuddhists alike ar e accessing the sam e state of consciousness."Unfortunately there seem to be scrious deficiencies with thesecompar isons which appear t o be based on gross similaritiesrathcr tha n careful phenomenological com parisons (Walsh.1990). Spacc docs not allow presenting such analyses here.Su Rc c it to say when carcful phenomenological comparisonsarc made, then it becomes appa rent that shamanic expcricnccsdiKer significantly from thosc of traditional categories ofmental illncss or those of mystics from other trad itions (Noll.1983; Walsh 1990).

shamans So , contrary t o much popular and professional thinking weand cannot simply define (or productively discuss) shamans and

shamonism shamanism in terms of either diagnostic categories or otheras mystical traditions. Rath er we need l o consider and define

unique them a s unique phen omena. Clearly an adequ ate definit ionphenomena might do much to help reduce the enormous confusion con-cerning the na ture of shamanism.

DEFINITIONThe t c m i tse lf comes f rom the word saman of the Tunguspeople of Sibe ria, meaning 'one w ho is excited. moved.raised." It may be derived from an ancient Indian wordmeaning 'to hea t oneseU o r practice austerities" (Blacker,1986) or f ro m a Tun gus verb meaning "to know" (Hultkrantz.1973). B ut whatever i ts derivation the term sha ma n has beenwidely ado pted by anthropo logis ts to refertospecif icgroups o freligious healers in diverse cultures w ho have so m et im a beencalled medicine m en, witch doctors, sorccrers. w izards, magi-c ians or seen . However. t h a e terms do not adequate ly definethe specific subg rou p of h ealers who fit mo re stringent defini-t ions of sham an such as he one to be uwd here. T he meaningand significance of this definition, an d of sha ma nism itsc lf, willbecome clearer if we exam ine the way in which ou r definitionsand understanding of shamanism have cvolvcd ovcr time.Early anthropolo gists were particularly struck by thesha ma ns'uniqu e interactions with "spirits." M any in the tribe mightclaim to revere. see. o r even be possessed by spirits. However.only the shamans c la imed to have som edegre eof contro l overlhcm and t o be ab le tocomm and. com mu neand in tercode withthem for the benefit of the tribe. Thus Shirokogoroff(l935. p.

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269). one of the ear l iest explorers of the ' Siberian Tunguspeople. stated that:In311 Tungus languaga this tcrm (mma n) rclcrs tope rson sofb othscxa who havc mancrcd spirits, who at lhcir will can introducethcsc spirits into thcmrclvaand usc thcir powrrovcr thespiriu inthc i r own in lcru tr, particularly helping othcr pcoplc, who suRcrfrom the spirits: in such a capacity they may posrcss a complcx 01special mcthods lor dcaling with thc spirils.

But whereas early explorers were most impressed by theshamans' interac~ions ith spirits, later researchers have beenimpressed by the shamans' control of their own states ofcon scio usn as in which these interactions occur (Do bkin . deRios & Winkleman, 1989: Noll. 1983; Peters, 1981; Peters & shamanisnlPrice-Williams. 1980. 1983). As Wetern cul ture has become crcmore interes ted in a ltered s ta ta of con sc iou snas (ASC), s o t o o f i rs tresearchers have become inrcrcstcd in the use of altered statcs I r a d i i i o nin religious practias (Tart, 1983a. b). and i t appears that the ro usef ir st t r adi t ionto use su ch st a t a was shamanism. Contemporary altereddefinitions of shamanism havc therefore focussed o n the use of statessuc h states ( Ha rn er, 1982; Noll. 1983; Pctcrs & Price-Williams.1980).However, there are many, many possible states of conscious-ness (Shapiro & Walsh. 1984. Wa lsh & Vau gha n. 1980; Wilber.1977. 1980). and the question thereforc naturally arises as low hich o n s a n peculiar to. and d efining of. sham anism . Thereare broad and n arrow definitions. In the broad definition the"only defining attr ibu te is that the specialist cnte r into acontrolled ASC on k h al f of his communi ty" (Pe ter s& P r i a -Williams, 1980, p. 408). Su ch specialists would include. forexample. mediums who enter a trance and then claim to speakfor spi r iu . I t should be noted a t th is point tha t the use of theterm'spirils" here is not meant to ncccssarily imply tha t thereexist separate entities that co ntrol o r comm unic ate with people.Rather the term is simply k i n g used to describe the way inwhich s ham ans and m ediums interpret their experience.S o a b road definit ion of shamanism w ould include any practi-t ioners who enter controlled altered states of consciousness nomatt er which particular states these may be. Narro wd efinitio nso n the ot her h and specify the altered statc(s) q uitc precisely asccstatic statcs. Indecd. for M ircea Eliadc(1964. p. 4). one o f thegreatest rel igious scholars of the 20th an tu ry . "A first defin i-t ion of this complex phenomenon. and perhaps the leasthazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Hcrcecstasy infers not so mu ch bliss but more a sense. as th eRan dom House dictionary defines it . "of bci ng tak eno r moved

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out of one's sclf or one's normal state and entering a state ofintensified o r heightened feeling." This def ini t ion of c at as y as"being ta ken o ut o f one's self o r one's n orm al state" is, as wewill see. p anicular ly app ropriatc fo r shamanism.Th e distinctive feature of thcsham anicecstasy is theexperienceof 'soul flight" o r "journey ing" o r *out-of-body ex perience"(Eliade. 1964: Ha rnc r. 1982). T ha t is, in their ecs tatic st at esha ma ns experience themsclves. o r their soul/sp irit. flyingthrough spacc and t r ave l ing to c i thcr o ther wor lds or d is tantpa ns of th i s wor ld . In other wordsUthe sham an specializes in atrance du ring which his soul is believed to leave his body an dascend to the sky or desccnd to the undcnvorld"(Eliadc. 1964.p. 5). Thcsc flights reflect the sh aman ic. cosmology whichco m pr ise a three-t iered universe of upper , middle, and low erworlds. the middle one corresponding t o ou r c a rt h . T h eth e sham an ranges through out thisthrecfold world systcm in order

shornon's to lea rn . o bta in powcr. or to diagnose and t r ea t those whothree- w m e for he lp an d heal ing. Dur ingthese journeys sham ans mayJoid experience themselves explor ing othcr worlds. m e t in g other-world worldly people, an imals o r spir its . sw ing the cause and cure of

system a patient's illness. or interceding with f r iendly o r dem onicforces.S o fa r. then. wc have t h r e key fca tures of sham anism toinclude in an y def init ion. The f irst is that sha ma ns can volun-ta ri ly ente r a l te red s ta tu ofconx iousness . Thesecon d is tha t inthesestatcs they experience thcmsclvcsleavingthcir b odic sandjourneying to other r ea lms in a manner ana logous to cnntcm-porary repor ts of so me out -of -body ex pcr ien ca (Monroe . 1971;Irwin. 1985) or lucid dreams (LaBerge. 1985). Third, they usethcsc journeys as a m eam for acqui r ing knowlcdgc or po w erand he lping p wp le in the i r communi ty .lntcraction with spirits is also frequently mentioned in dcfini-l ions of sham anism. In addit ion, Michacl Harncr . an ant hro -pologist w ho may have more personal experience of shamanicpractices than an y oth er Westerner. suggests that a key clemen tof shamanic practices m a y be "contact with an ordinar i lyhidden reality" (Harn cr, 1 98 2 p. 25). T h u s h e d e f in e s a s h a m a nas "a m an or w om an w ho enters an altered slate of conscious-ness at will to con tacl an d utiliz ean ordinarily hidden reality inorde r to acquire knowledge, powcr, and to helpother persons"(Harncr, 1982. p.25).Shou ld t h e w o a dd it iona l e le men ts , "con ta c ti ng a h iddenreality." and *communication with spirits," be included ascsscntial e lements of adcf ini t ion ofshamanism? H ere wc ar eo nt ricky philosophical ground. G n ai n ly th is is what sham ans

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experience and believe they are doing. However it is anenormous philosophical leap to assume that this is what theyare actually doing. The precise nature (or in philosophicalterms the ontological s tatus) of bo th the realms whic hsham ansexperience themsclvcs traversing and the entities they meet isan open quest ion . T o the shama n they are in terpre ted asindependently and fully 'real"; t o a W esterner with no beliefinoth er realms o r entities they would likely be interpreted assubjective mind creations.It may, in fact even be impossible to decide this question.Technically speaking we may have here an ex amp le of ontolo-gical indeterminacy due to the under-determination of theoryby observation. Spe aking m ore simply. this is the inability todetermine a phenomenon's ontological s tatus because theobservations allow multiple theoretical interpretations. Theresult is that one's inter pretatio n of such indete nnjna te phenc-mena (in this case of the nat ur e of 'a hidden reality" and"spirits") depe nds largely on one's own philosophical leaningsor worldview. We arc therefore on safer grounds definingshamanism if we ski n these questiom of philosophical inter-pretation as much as possible.In summ ary, sham anism m ight be defined a s a family of atraditions whose practit ioners focus o n voluntarily entering summariz ingaltered states of consciousness in which they experience dejinil ionthemselves, o r their spirit(s), traveling t o othe r realms a t will ofand in teract ing wi th o ther e n t i t i s in order to serve thei r shamnnirmcommunity.This definition wms to cover the major fea tures ofsh am an-ism. The reference t o a "family of traditions" acknow ledgesthat there is some heterogeneity amongs ham anic practit ioners(Siikala, 1985). However. at the same time the definition isprecise enough to differentiate i t from other traditions andpractices ac well as f rom k r io u s psychopathologies wi th whichit has becn confused. F or exam ple. priests may lead rituals andrnediane men may heal. but they rarely enter altered states;mediums m ay enter altered s tates but d o not journey; Taois tsand T ibetan B uddhists may sometimes ourney but this is not amajor focus of their practice; while those suffering mentalillness ma y enter altered s l a l a an d meet 'spirits." but involun-tarily as helpless victims.Of w u n c this definit ion will not satisfy everyone nor includeevery conceivable sh am an Judging f rom the enorm ous num-bcr an d range of definitions. n o single definition can. It is,nev cnh ela s , reasonably narrow and pr&. Th is will allow usto foc us our investigation o n a clearly distinguished gr oup of

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widely dispersed a reas o f thc world raise thc question of howthese similarities dcvcloped. One possibility is that theycmergcd spontaneously in direre nt locations perhaps becauseof a com mon innate human tendency or recurrent social n n d .The othcr is that they resulted from migration and diffusionfrom common ancestors.If m igration is the answer then th at m igration must have begunlong ago. Shamanism occurs among tr ibes with so manydiffcrcnl languages that diffusio n from a com mo n anccst ormust have begun at least 20.M)O years ago (Winkleman, 1984).This long time period makes it difficult to explai n whyshaman ic practices would remain so stable for so long in somany cultures while language and social practices changed sodrastically. Thcx difficulties make it seem unlikely thatmigration alonc c an accoun t for th e long history and far f lungdistribution of shamanism.It follows that if the worldwide, history-long distribution ofshamanism cannot be attr ibuted to diffusion from a singleinvention in prehistoric times, then it must have beendiscovered a nd rediscovcrcd in diverse t imcsa ndcu lturcs. Thissuggests that som e recurring combina tion of social forces andinnate abilities must have repeatedly elicited and maintainedshamanic roles, rituals and states of consciousness.Cer ta in ly there xems to be ev idcna o f somc inna te humantendcncy to enter specific altered states. Studics of differentmeditativc traditions suggest that a n inna te tcndency to accessaltered states ca n be very precise. F or exam ple. fo'r tw o and ahalf thousand y o r s Buddhists have described accessingprcciwly eight highly specific and dist inct s t a t e of extremecon ant ratio n. These conc entrated states. the so called jhanas.arc extremely subtle. stable. a n d blissful and have been veryprecisely described for millennia (B uddhaghos a. 1923; Golc-man. 1988). To day a few W cstcrn med itators are beginning toa c c o s th e m a n d I have b a n fo r tuna te to in tc rv icw th ree o fthcsc people. In each case their experiences tallicd rem arkab lywcll with ancient amounts . Clearly then theresecms to besomeinnate tcndency in the hum an m ind to settlc into certain specificstata if it is given thc right conditions or practices.The same principlcmay hold forshama nicslat cs. Observationsof Wcsterncrs insham anic wo~k shop ssugg cst hat most peopleare readily able to enter sham anic states t o some dcgrcc. T h c xstates can also be induced by a wide variety of conditio ns whichsuggest that there may be som e inherent tendency for the mindto adopt thcm. T he condit ions which induce thcm can includesuch natural occurrences as isolation. fatigue, hunger. rhyth-

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mic sou nd, o r ingestion of hallucinogens (W inkle man . 1984;Walsh. 1989. 1990). Th us they wou ld like ly be rediscovered bydifferent generat ions and cultures. Since the states may bepleasurable. meaningful an d healing they would likely then beactively sought af ter and the methods for inducing themremembered an d transmitted acros s generat ions.Th us sham anism and i ts widespread distr ibution may ref lect aninnate h um an. tendency l o enter cer tain pleasurable a ndvaluable states ofcon scio usn as. Once discovered, then r i tualsand beliefs which su ppo rt the induction an d expression of th estates would l ikely also ar ise and sham anism would em ergeonce again. This natural tendency might be supported andamplified by comm unication between culturcs. F or example.sham anism in Northern Asia appe ars to havc been modif ied bythe importat ion of yogic practica f rom India (Eliade. 1964) .disrriburion Thus he global distr ibution of shaman ism may be du e t o bo thduc ro innatc tendency an d diffusion o f information. The end result isinnarc that this ancient t radit ion has spread across the e ar th an d hasn n d e n c y survived fo r perhaps tens of tho usan dsofy cars , a per iod whicha n d represents a significant proportion of this time that fully

di/Ju~ioion deve loped hum an bc ings(modcrn Ho m o s3picns) havc becn o nthe planet.

Givcn tha t shamanism has endured so long and spread sowidely the natu ral lyar iK s as to why i t occu rs in so mecultures an d n ot in others. Answers arc beginning to emergefrom cross-zultural research. On e noiablc study examined 47societ ies sp ann ing almost 4000 years f rom 1750 B . c . . i.c., theBabylonians . to the prc xn tan tury (W ink 1cm sn. 1984.1989). I tis interest ing to note that , pr ior to Wcstcrn inf luence, al l ofth c x 47 culturcs used al tered slates ofconsciousn ess a s a basisfo r religious and heal ing pra c t i m . How ever a l though sha tnan-ic practices wcre fou nd in m ost rcgions of the wo rld. theyoccurred only in particular types of societies. Thcsc wereprimari ly simple nomadic hunting and ga ther ing soc ie t ia .Thcsc peoples rel ied vcry l i t tle on agriculture and had alm ostno soc ia l c lasses or pol it ica l organiza t ion. W i thin t h m t r ibesthe shaman played many roles. both sacred and mundane:medicine man, healer. ritualist. keeper of the cultural myths.medium, and m aste r of spir i ts . Wi th thc ir many roles and thepower vacuum o f f e d by a c lassless soc ie ty shamans exerted amajor influencc on their t ribe and people.Howcver. as soc ie t ia evolve and become m ore complex. itappears that this si tuation changes dramatical ly. In fact . as

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societies become sedentary rather than nomadic. agriculturalrather than foraging, and socially-.and politically stratifiedrather than classless, then sham anism a s such seems todisappear (Winkleman, 1984. 1989). In its place appear avariety of specialisls who focus on one of the sh aman's m anyroles. Thus instead of shamans we find healers. priests.mediums and sorccrcrslwitches. Thm sp ci ali ze respectivelyin medical. ritual. spirit possession, and malevolent magicp n n i w . A n o b vi ou s c o nt em p o ra ry W a t e r n p ar al le l is th edisappearance of the old medical general pran il ion cr o r G.P.and the appearance of diverse specialists.I t is interesting to c omp are s om e of these ancient specialis&with the shamanic "G.P." who p rc ad ed them. Pr ies ts emergeas reprewntativcs of organized religion and are often religious.moral , and even poli tical leaders. They a re the lead en ofsocialrites and rituals and on behalf of thcir society they pray to an dpropitiate th e spiritua l forces. However. unlike their shaman ican as to rs they usually have l i tt le training o r experience inaltered states (Hoppal. 1984).Whereas t he priests inherit t he socially beneficial religious andmagical roles of the shama n. the sorcerers an d witches inherit shamansthe malevolent ones. Shamans were often ambivalent figures asfor their pcoplc, revered fo r their healing and h elping powers. ambivalrnrfeared fo r their malevolent m agic (Ro gen , 1982). Sorcerers and f i r e switches, a t least as hey a re defined in Winklem an's (1984) an dother anthropological studies, are the specialins in malevolentmagic and as such they tend to be feared, hated. andpenec&.Medium s are the specialists in spirit possession. While they d onot journey, they may enter altered states i n which theyexperiena themselves as communicating messages from thespirit world (Klimo. 1987; Hasrings, 1990). It wiU be rcmem-bered that s ome researchers (e.g.. Peters & Price-Williams,1980) have wa nted to use a broad definit ion of sham anism thatincludes anyon e using altered states to serve the com munity.However. such a definition fails to distinguish s ham ans andmediums. both of whom use altered states. thoug h of differenttypes . Other r ac ar ch cn have a rgued fo r a nar row defin it ion .Like the one used hcrc. that clearly separates these twopractit ioners. C ross-cultural s tu di a suggest hat though thereis some over lap mediums an d shama ns tend to be found indifferent typn of societies (Bourguignon. 1973; Winkleman,1989). This provides iu nh er ev id en a for dist inguishing them.This i s no t t o deny tha t some sh amans a r c capab le o f sp i ri tpossession. but it is to say that they arc a lso capab le o f morethan this.

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I t sccms, thcrcforc. tha t as cultures cvolve so do the forms oftheir rcligious practitioners. T hou gh shamans as such largelydisappcar, most of t hci r roles and skills are rclained by variousspecialists. Thcrc i s howcvcr. one cxccption. and that is thcpra aicc which is one o f the defining characteristics ofshamanism, namely ournc ying. No nc o f thc shaman's succes-sors seem to journcy.

rhe , Why this pracdcc should largcly di sa pp ur is a mystcry.m.vsrer.v Mich acl H arncr (1982) attributes it t o supprcssion of shamanic

rrrounding practiccs b y organized religion and indeed, dur ing the lastjourneying century it was a crimina l off cnx in parts o f Europc to o wn a

drum. Another factor may have been the discovery o f otheraltcrcd states such as thc powerful states associated withvarious yogic and mcditalive pra ni us . However, i t s unclearwhcthcr lhcsc factors alone could account for the disappcar-an= of a pranicc. journcying. that was pow crfu l cnough tospread around m uch o f he world. survive for perhaps tcns ofthousands of years. and fo rm the basis for humankind's mostancicnt and durable religious tradition: shamanism.

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