Helping Professional or Shaman: Is there a Difference?

This article compares the healing practices of shamans with those of contemporary helping professionals. In order to clarify the shamans’ role, a number of observations are made about their Weltanschauung. It is pointed out that shamanism has remained a universal spiritual practice among indigenous cultures around the world, cutting across all faiths and creeds, and reaching deeply into peoples’ ancestral memories. For shamans the world over, illness has always been addressed as a spiritual predicament—a loss of soul or a diminishment of essential spiritual energy. In accord with this, it is shamans that are believed to be capable of retrieving these lost parts of the soul that are the root of a person’s physical or psychological problem; they endeavor to restore people’s harmony, equilibrium and well-being. They believe that, by channeling ancestral spirits, they are able to lift curses and spells, exorcise evil spirits and cure some of life’s greatest maladies. Their methods include various ecstatic techniques such as dream interpretation and the use of trance-like visions. The article notes how, over time, mainstream religions have branded shamanism as a pagan practice, and vilified, outlawed and accused of worshipping false gods those interested in its healing potential. In contemporary society, however, these exotic high priests of the isolated wilderness have become increasingly popular, sought out by people on New Age spiritual quests. It is conjectured that this renewed interest coincides with the progressive decline of organized religion. These socio-cultural developments have transformed the perception of shamanism from a more aboriginal practice into what this article terms a more neo-shamanistic alternative. The article suggests that advocates of this neo-shamanism are looking for a non-ordinary, more mystical means of dealing with the vicissitudes of life. They argue that the longevity of shamanic practices attests that its orientation contains value. As a result, they approach contemporary shamans with the expectation that they will help them manage any number of life and health challenges, especially when more conventional approaches have proven ineffective. They imagine that these neo-shamans will serve as some kind of “bridge” between the ordinary physical realms and the higher, spiritual ones.