Shamans and Scientists

When I mention the word “shaman” to physicians some call me a “goat skin wearing voodoo doctor dancing around a fire.” That’s all right though because I usually ask them why they can’t practice medicine when there is no electricity. Take away their diagnostic equipment and laboratory and they are at a loss.

 Shamans were the first to have an integrated system of mind-body medicine. Modern scientists have only recently come out with a new field called psychoneuroimmunology, which is the latest buzzword for how the body and mind interact. The reason I’m studying the original system is not only because the name is easier to pronounce, but also because there is more experience behind it.

 What is our problem and why is modern medicine failing, in spite of more advances and money being thrown at it? It’s because we are not connected with nature and we have no sense of purpose, meaning or place in the world. We look to food or affairs or cable TV, surfing from channel to channel looking for some connection.

 Shamanism provides a framework for healing that is unmatched for body, mind and soul. On the other hand, modern medicine doesn’t even recognize the existence of the soul, and attempts such as biofeedback, breathing techniques, muscle relaxation, etc. do not address the root causes of distress.

 Ancient ones did not spend their lives on concrete. Nature was their world and they had to adapt and be in harmony or they would not last very long. The shamans recognized that everything was connected and that healing occurred as a result of harmony and balance with the world in which they lived.

 Why do many physicians and scientists have a problem with shamanism? It’s because most insist on a double-blind study or else they won’t believe it works. But can most of what a shaman do be put under the microscope? No, and there is a reason why.

 The experimental psychologist Dr. Oakley Gordon was involved in creating a ‘psychological model’ to discover the shamans healing relationship with a patient. He finally discovered it was impossible because the way the shaman understood reality was different than the way modern psychology understood reality.

 Western science with its theories and formulas defines knowledge and understanding in terms of the intellect. The shaman has an additional non-intellectual way of understanding, that of the heart.

Here’s an example of how the shaman experiences reality. When I visited the ancient sacred site of Tara in Ireland, I set my intellect aside and “interacted” with my heart. At the time, a highway was being planned through part of the sacred site. With my heart I could hear and feel the earth crying and it was a powerful and real experience, one that made my tears flow.

 A scientist would have been completely lost in my situation, looking through intellectual lens. Only through the experiential path can one gain the reality of the shaman and the way of the heart understanding. This is why the scientist will never understand the shaman until he walks in his reality.

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