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Shamanism
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.
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 and
who, along with her husband, Dr. Michael Ruff,
discovered Peptide T, 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?
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