The word shaman, "one who knows," comes from the Tungusic language of Siberia and is now generally used to describe shamans on all continents. Shamanistic practice goes back to the Stone Age and is part of all our roots. It predates all known forms of religion, psychologies, and philosophies and is the oldest mind-body healing practice worldwide.

Shamans form a bridge between people and the spirit world. Their role is to heal the sick, find lost ones, observe the cycles of nature, perform ceremonies to ensure good hunting and harvest, perform rituals from birth to death, and record time. According to John Perkins, a man who spent many years learning from shamans, a shaman is a person who creates change. It could be a change in a person's health, or the shaman's health, or the weather, crops, or the way societies work together for the good of all. John Perkins even uses his knowledge to help corporations be more responsive and efficient.

(Wife Karen with shaman in Borneo)

Some say that all spiritual traditions emerged from shamanism. It is the "religion" of those who took mother nature as their spiritual teacher. I remember reading once about a missionary who told a tribesman that his God was in the bible. The native took the bible, held it to his ear, then dropped it to the forest floor. "I hear nothing in this book," he said. "but I see and hear my God around me all the time!"

Our western world, with it's emphasis on science and technology, would do well to explore the teachings of Shamanism. The new science of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) studies how our moods, thoughts, and emotions affect our health. PNI scientists have now discovered what shamans knew from ancient times, that the mind and body are one!

Shamans see into the invisible world of energy and spirit and recognize that everything is made of light and that it forms matter. Some things are bound very tightly such as trees and rocks, and others are more fluid such as water or sunlight. This has been known for thousands of years. Modern quantum physics confirm that if you look deeply into matter, all you find is vibration and light.

Many cultures throughout the world also talk about energy centers, or chakras. Candace Pert, Ph.D., the well known scientist who discovered the opiate receptor, says that her work is "beginning to reveal the scientific underpinnings of the chakra system. From this point of view, the chakras are 'minibrains:' nodal points of electrical and chemical activity that receive, process, and distribute information to and from the rest of the bodymind. Physiologically, each chakra is the site of a neuronal plexus-a network of cells dense with neuropeptide transmitters. All are interdependently connected to each other, such that nourishing any one plexus enhances the effectiveness of the entire system. By the same token, trauma or neglect can manifest as a block at one or more nodal points, degrading the performance of all."

According to Mark Hyman, M.D., "The shamans provide a doorway back to meaning, to a sense of place and control and order in our world." Don Warne, a Lakota physician and medicine man, describes what happened to the American Indians in the Southwest United States. Prior to 1930 there was almost no diabetes. By 1970 they had some of the highest rates of diabetes in the world.

For thousands of years the Indians were very healthy and active and grew foods such as corn, beans, and squash. They hunted wild game and fished the rivers.

Then, in the 1920s and 1930s, the Gila and Salt Rivers were dammed and no tribe downstream could hunt and farm. Their healthy diets were replaced by government commodity foods such as refined sugar, bleached flour, white bread, canned meat, peanut butter and vegetable shortening. Their health problems skyrocketed.

The medicine men, looking with a cultural and spiritual eye, saw the problem as being related to damming the rivers. There used to be many rituals and ceremonies based on the river. There were harvest ceremonies, ceremonies for seasonal changes, planting ceremonies, and ceremonies for changing the weather. Now that the river was gone, much of the culture was gone, resulting in loss or identity, self-esteem, depression and self-medication with drugs and alcohol.

Our current world is in turmoil and people feel lost. Michael Winkelman, Ph.D. says that shamanism is becoming popular in modern society because, "Rather than a delusion or superstition, shamanism involves a range of practices that are empirically effective in healing body, mind, and spirit." Is there any better way to address our disconnection with nature than to look at the ancient ways and peoples who knew what living in harmony meant?

Note: I use the term "Medicine Man" to describe myself as it is more familiar to most people and it more accurately describes what I do - provide indigenous as well as Western medicine. No disrespect is intended to anyone who appreciates the need for both forms of medicine.

"I believe that being a medicine man, more than anything else, is a state of mind, a way of looking at and understanding this earth, a sense of what it is all about."

-- Lame Deer, LAKOTA

This site best viewed with a Human Brain and an Open Mind