Here is the reference:
Can a snake charmer, Shaman or witch doctor, be a better source of data about health care than a scientific researcher trained at the Harvard Medical School? That is the question I answer, in this Article.
Shaman: A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world and who practices magic or sorcery for purposes of healing, divination, and control over natural events.
[Russian, from Tungus šaman, Buddhist monk, shaman, from Tocharian samâne, from Prakrit samaNa, from Sanskrit sramaNah, from srámah, religious exercise.] Source: MS Bookshelf Reference
Here's an article I found on the NET about shamans:
Shamanism and Atavistic Resurgence
by Eden 230
Shamanism is thought to be the earliest form of
religion, possibly dating
back 100,000 years or more. The term 'shaman' comes to us through Russian,
from the Siberian Tungustic term 'saman', meaning "one who is excited,
moved, raised." In most cultures, the shaman, like other types of
religious specialists, is concerned with the ultimate problems of life
and their solutions. Shamans are distinguised from priests in that their
authority rests on their own personal experiences with nature and
supernature, whereas priests are liturgical officiants presiding at
rituals and over congregations without the neccesity of a personal direct
experience with the deity.
Like the Yogi or meditator, the shaman experiences
altered states of
consciousness as part of a definite discipline. There is also a guru-
disciple relationship, and a system of techniques and prescribed types of
altered states of consciousness the goal of which is the transformation
of the individual. The shaman's trance is outwardly-orientated. It is not
autonomous but directed toward the community so that the trance serves as
a medium of communication between the supernatural or non-ordinary
reality, and the everyday mortal world.
Unobtrusive inner observation requires some training.
This training
amounts to developing an attitude of mindfulness. The meditator is
instructed to notice affects and thoughts as soon as they arise in
consciousness, and to observe them in a contemplative way, until they
disappear. The essential objective of the shaman's training is to allow
them to control their own trances.
Trance can be induced using a number of techniques
which have the effect
of transforming consciousness from the outer, sensory world to the inner,
contemplative one. It can be thought about, for example, by sensory
deprivation in which a lack of external stimuli results in an inner
compensatory release of energy in the form of images. This state can be
achieved by combining sleeplessness, fatigue, fasting and suspended
breathing techniques, and through the use of hallucinogenics.
In modern magick the meditative techniques and the
ritual repetition of
sacred mantra-like god names have essentially the same effect as the
sensory deprivation methods of the shaman. The magician within the
circle enters a sacred space and perceptually encounters the mythic
images being invoked. Such chanting of divine names and concentration on
the images and symbols of the gods have a profound emphasis on the
creative imagination, stimulating the archetypes of the unconscious
mind.
Essentially the trance meditation technique involves
a transfer of
consciousness to the visionary world of symbols through an act of willed
imagination. The shaman may conjure specific images to mind, but at the
same time, allows the body to relax, restricting the outer vision. In
the course of being initiated, the future shaman has to learn the secret
language that will be used to communicate with spirits. This language is
either learnt through a teacher, or by a personal method. All over the
world, learning the language of animals, especially that of birds, is
equivalent to knowing the secrets of Nature, and hence to be able to
prophesy. Bird language is usually learned by eating snake skin, or some
other reputedly magical animal. The animals can learn the secrets of the
future because they are thought to be the receptacles for the souls of
the dead or epiphanies of the gods. Learning their language, imitating
their voice is equivalent to being able to communicate with the beyond.
The shaman's instruction often takes place in dreams. It is in dreams
that the pure sacred life is entered. It is always in dreams that
historical time is abolished and mythical time regained - which allows
the shaman to witness the beginnings of the world.
Austin Osman Spare produced a cosmology which was
totally shamanic in
its structure and techniques. He postulated a primal and universal
source of being, "Kia", arguing that the human body, "Zos" was an
appropriate vehicle through which to manifest the spiritual and occult
energies of the unconscious. Spare considered this level of mind to be
the "epitome of all experience and wisdom, past incarnations as men,
animals, birds, vegetable life....everything that exists, has ever and
will exist." His technique of arousing these primal images is called
'Atavistic resurgence', and involved focusing the will on sigils which
he developed to instruct the unconscious. Spare believed that the sigil
representing an act of conscious will could be planted like a seed in
the unconscious during a state of ecstasy, when the personal ego and
the universal spirit blend together.
Ecstasy, inspiration, intuition and dream .... each
state taps the
latent memories and presents them in the imagery of their respective
languages. By means of monotony, isolation, and intuition, the shaman
destroys the fixed patterns of personality, thus opening the way for
the visions and the voices.
