Why The World of Shamanism?
A new intellectual understanding of reality is an important catalyst…. Many of the transpersonal experiences that are potentially of great therapeutic value involve such a basic challenge to the individual’s world view that he or she will have serious difficulty in letting them happen unless properly intellectually prepared.
—Stan Grof 130
Most scientific studies of shamanism have been by anthropologists. This is hardly surprising, for it is the anthropologists who have braved everything from arctic winters to tropical jungles to observe native shamans at work. However, several other disciplines, and especially psychology, can complement and enrich anthropological contributions. And, of course, the study of shamanism also has much to contribute to psychology.
Psychology’s “Contributions”
Unfortunately, psychology’s past contributions have been decidedly mixed. Many studies are now outdated, while others have been flawed by superficial interpretations, insufficient anthropological data, and lack of personal experience of shamanic practices. So while psychology can offer valuable insights, it has also produced notable misunderstandings, some of which distorted our view of shamanism for decades.
One source of these misunderstandings was Freudian psychoanalysis. Long the dominant school of Western psychiatry, it fostered a distinctly negative view of shamanism and most things religious. Freud took a dim view of religions, usually regarding them as defense mechanisms at best or psychopathology at worst. Transcendent experiences—even the most profound and ecstatic—were all too often regarded as pathological regressions of near-psychotic proportions. Mystical experiences were diagnosed as “neurotic regressions to union with the breast,” while enlightenment was dismissed as a regression to intrauterine stages.399 Even saints and sages were chopped down to neurotic size.
Not surprisingly, shamanism often fared badly at the hands of psychoanalytically minded researchers. Since shamans may exhibit periods of bizarre behavior, enter altered states of consciousness, have visions, and claim to commune with spirits, they were all too often dismissed as disturbed. As we will see, schizophrenia, hysteria, and epilepsy were common diagnoses, in spite of considerable evidence to the contrary. The unfortunate result was often a tragic insensitivity to the deeper, positive aspects of this tradition.
Is there any reason to think that psychological explanations might be better now? Yes, because Western psychology has advanced significantly. The field is no longer tightly wedded to psychoanalysis, psychoanalysis has softened its stance toward religion, and schools have emerged that are sympathetic to religious experience—for example, humanistic, transpersonal, and Jungian psychologies.
New research fields have also emerged. Studies of psychosomatic healing, consciousness, dreaming, meditation, mystical experiences, and placebo effects all throw new light on shamanic practices. In addition, a small but growing number of psychologists and psychiatrists have undertaken shamanic or core shamanic training themselves. Western psychology is now better equipped to appreciate religious practices in general and shamanism in particular.
The Big Picture
The World of Shamanism has several aims. The first is to introduce shamanic practices and the second is to examine them in the light of modern research to assess how, when, and why they work.
A third goal is to evaluate extreme claims about shamans. On one hand, many early researchers diagnosed and dismissed them as merely neurotic or psychotic, charlatans or con men. On the other hand, popular writers sometimes portray them as superhuman saints or sages. Careful examination explodes both myths.
The World of Shamanism also aims to examine shamanism from a larger perspective, a perspective that is historical, cross-cultural, and inter-religious. For the first time in history we have access to virtually all the world’s religious, healing, and consciousness-altering disciplines. Consciousness-altering disciplines are practices—such as shamanism, yoga, or contemplation—that can induce beneficial states of consciousness. Examples of such states include deep concentration, calm, and equanimity; the first of these consciousness traditions was shamanism.
Now that we have information about many such traditions from around the world, we can compare them. These comparisons allow us to recognize important similarities between shamanism and other traditions, as well as equally important differences. For example, there are obvious similarities between the shaman’s life and training and “the hero’s journey”—the archetypal life pattern displayed by heroes from diverse times. Yet there are also crucial differences, such as their types of insight or states of consciousness. These differences will become clear when we map shamanic states of consciousness precisely.
Comparisons such as these also illuminate how consciousness-altering disciplines have evolved across the centuries, and how this evolution has both reflected and fostered the evolution of human consciousness and religious experiences. Then we can see where shamanism fits within this vast evolutionary panorama. We will do this by using the largest and most comprehensive intellectual framework currently available: an integral vision.
A Personal Perspective
My own professional background is primarily in medicine, psychiatry, and psychology. In addition, I have long been interested, both personally and professionally, in transformative practices ranging from psychotherapy to diverse contemplative and spiritual disciplines. Some three decades of practical and intellectual exploration have given me a deep appreciation for the power and profundity of these disciplines and their ability to foster healing, exceptional abilities, and spiritual awakening. And I say this as a person who was a confirmed skeptic of all things spiritual, until I tried the practices for myself.
Shamanism is one such discipline. However, while I have been fortunate to meet and learn from traditional shamans, I have not done systematic fieldwork. Likewise, while I have participated in core shamanism workshops and have benefited from many shamanic techniques, I am not traditionally trained. I therefore draw gratefully on the field research of others, while hopefully contributing a perspective informed by an unusual combination of professional training, research experience, and personal practice in several relevant areas.
Hopefully, one valuable aspect of this perspective is its interdisciplinary scope. My intellectual and contemplative interests have been wide-ranging, and I am forever curious about the ways in which different disciplines can inform one another. Consequently, one goal for this book is to explore the implications of recent advances in diverse fields—for example, psychosomatic medicine, psychology, meditation, and comparative religion—for understanding shamanism.
One intellectual orientation of mine is toward what might be called “assumptive minimalism.” That is, I prefer to make as few assumptions as possible when examining a topic. For example, I don’t simply presuppose that shamans have the healing or parapsychological abilities that they claim, but neither do I simply accept certain mainstream dismissals of such claims. Rather, I am much more interested in waiting to see what the actual evidence is and am therefore content to remain agnostic if necessary. This attitude tends to upset both believers and skeptics, but hopefully it yields greater clarity in the end.
The World of Shamanism began as a revision and updating of a previous book, The Spirit of Shamanism. However, so many new ideas and information were added, so much revision, reorganization, and updating performed, that it soon became apparent that a new book had been born. Consequently, The World of Shamanism draws gratefully on its predecessor but also goes far beyond it.