“A remarkable similarity is found worldwide among the spiritual healers of hunter-gather, horticultural, and pastoral societies, who use Altered States of Consciosness (ASC) to interact with the spirit world on behalf of their community. These shamans tend to come from “shaman families,” and were selected by the spirits.

Early in life, as part of their training to be shamans, they undertook deliberate activities to enter ASC and develop personal relationships with the spirits. Shamans’ development involves a death-and-rebirth experience and the acquisition of animal allies that provide powers to heal, divine, diagnose and prophesize, assist in hunting, and engage in sorcery to harm others. Charismatic social leaders, shamans hold all-night ceremonies in which the entire community dances, drums, and chants. The central aspect involves the shaman recounting the experiences of an ASC—generally called “soul journey” or “magical flight”—during which an aspect of the shaman departs the body and travels to other places. Shamans are not normally possessed by spirits; rather they control spirits and are believed to be able to fly and transform themselves into animals. Therapeutic processes involve the removal of objects or spirits sent by other shamans through sorcery, and the use of soul journeys to recover lost souls and power animals (aspects of one’s personal powers based on a special relationship with an animal species).

Shaman/Healers

Shaman/healers share many characteristics with shamans, and are found in all types of societies. But they differ from shamans in some important ways. They are subordinated to religious practitioners called priests. They also engage in agricultural rituals and often use mechanical devices such as Tarot cards as means of divination. Shaman/healers tend to have extensive role specialization, in which individual practitioners engage in some tasks, such as divination or healing or agricultural rites, but not others. They are also trained and initiated by professional associations rather than taught by the spirits and validated by the community. Their ASC seldom involve soul journey, but are more like the experiences of meditators and mystics.

Mediums

Some spiritual healers who are often called “shamans” are quite distinct from core shamans. Mediums are predominantly female and are called to their profession in early adulthood when they are possessed by spirits. Mediums engage in spirit-world interactions and healing through ASC, but rather than traveling to visit spirits, they are possessed by them. Possession is a condition interpreted as a spirit taking over the medium’s personality and will. Possession ASC generally involves tremors, convulsions, seizures, and amnesia. Mediums generally do not commit malevolent acts, but rather act against sorcerers, witches, and evil spirits. They worship and make sacrifices to their possessing spirits and superior deities. Like healers, they specialize in treating people who are possessed. Unlike shamans, mediums do not hold a high leadership role; they are often found in complex societies with political hierarchies and more powerful religious practitioners such as priests and healers.

Healers

Healers are almost exclusively male, and generally of high economic status and holding political power. Their professional organizations provide costly training and wield considerable power, enabling healers to be full-time specialists in diagnosis and healing. Healers generally lack the ASC characteristic of shamans, but may nonetheless induce ASC in clients with rituals, spells, and incantations. Exorcism is a principal activity, as are life-cycle activities—naming ceremonies, marriage rituals, and funerals. Healers generally work in collaboration with priests, and have the power to take action against those they determine are sorcerers or witches.

Biology of Shamanism

Shamans, shaman/healers, mediums, and healers—referred to in this issue as “shamanistic healers”—are found worldwide because their activities are based in biological potentials involving ASC, healing, and visual thought processes. ASC is a natural biological response, an “integrative” mode of consciousness involving the synchronization of brain wave patterns across different regions of the brain. I call these ASC conditions integrative because they enhance the merging of processes of lower brain systems (especially the limbic or paleomammalian brain, an “emotional brain”) within the frontal cortex. The synchronized brain wave patterns enhance awareness of lower brain processes—often expressed through visions—heightening awareness of intuitive information and producing a synthesis of emotion and thought.

Shamanism emerged in human evolution because it allowed humans to integrate information from innate brain modules, which allow automatic processing of knowledge of mind, self, others, and the animal world. The experiences of integration occur as out-of-body experiences and through relations with power animals and totems that represent personal and group identity. The responses evoked by shamanic ritual allow humans to integrate a fragmented mind created by the increasing psychological complexity of humans and their increasingly complex social relations.

The biological basis of shamanism makes it a natural paradigm for explaining the mental and behavioral characteristics of the religious experiences and healing resources among traditional and modern peoples.

Contemporary Shamanisms

The contributors to this issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly offer diverse representations of shamanistic practices. They discuss topics ranging from the core shamanism still found among groups such as the Ju/’hoan San, to efforts to recover shamanistic traditions among the Buryat people of the former Soviet Union and contemporary Chinese peasants. For most cultures, core shamanic traditions are at best a memory of the past, a practice of ancestors which no longer has the same power. Or, worse, as Roger Lohmann tells us about the Asabano of New Guinea, shamanic traditions are fading memories of practices that have been replaced by new religions.

But all of the articles attest to shamanistic practices’ continuing role in today’s world. Perhaps the most poignant testimony is the article about the Ju/’hoan San. These Kung-speaking people of the Kalahari Desert are one of the few hunter-gatherer peoples who survived until the end of the second millennium, and anthropological studies of their cultures have provided a wealth of knowledge about aspects of hunter-gatherer lifestyles such as shamanism. But they are also being forced to extinction by more powerful neighbors who encroach upon their traditional territories. Richard Katz, and Megan Biesele ask insightful questions, pointing to the potential for the Ju/’hoan healing dance to provide a crucible for cultural survival and adaptation. May their optimistic message be heard by others around the planet.

Many cultures have maintained vibrant and vital shamanistic traditions, not merely as remainders the past, but as adaptations of the potentials of ASC and spirit-world relations to address contemporary conditions. Susan Rasmussen conveys the vibrant practices of the Tuareg “friends of the Kel Essuf” who rely on spirit relations for divination, diagnosis, and healing. Luis Eduardo Luna tells us how the shamanic ayahuasca traditions of the Amazon basin have developed into worldwide religious traditions and neo-shamanic practices.

But where shamanistic practices disappeared under the onslaught of colonization, capitalization, religious oppression, communization and demonization, the emerging reinventions of shamanism are often of a different pattern of practice than that associated with the core shamans of hunter-gatherer societies. We see in Armenia, Tibet, China, Japan, and other parts of the world the persistence of practices that depend upon ASC. Yet many of the other aspects of shamanism are gone. Soul journeys are replaced by possession, animal allies by rituals for the spirits, soul loss and recovery by depossession and burnt offerings. Often what remains are the sacred places that have been adopted by modern pilgrims.1 But the shamanic traditions are not lost forever. Their resuscitation is possible because they are based in biological human potentials.

Human nature alone is not sufficient for the assurance that shamanism will survive for current and future generations. As Hong Zhang and Constantine Hriskos point out in their article about China, the resurgence and use of these potentials depend on the social and political climate. The deliberate resuscitation of shamanic traditions on a global scale has a champion in organizations such as the Foundation for Shamanic Studies2, founded by anthropologist Michael Harner. The foundation’s programs have appealed to a wide range of people in healing professions who find shamanic practices applicable to their personal lives and work with clients.

Past, Present, and Future

Shamanism is emerging from a long neglect in religious, psychological, and evolutionary studies and increasingly taking its place as an important pinnacle of human achievement. The ancient roots of shamanic practices have been recognized by a new generation of scholars. Studies of the ancient cave art of Europe3 attest to the origination of shamanism some 40,000 years ago in the midst of the emergence of a cultural capacity for symbolism.4

But this ancient basis should not distract us from recognizing the present relevance of shamanistic potentials. Shamanism has been applied in psychology, counseling, nursing, public health, medicine, and substance-abuse rehabilitation.

Our understanding of the functions of shamanism in the past should alert us to its applications in the future. Shamanism has been used for prophecy, to plan how to deal with the future. And shamanism may still serve as a conduit for information about the futures we will have to manage, as illustrated in Hank Wesselman’s engaging books about his shamanic connections with his descendants in the future and their warnings for humanity.

Shamanism emerged long ago in human pre-history because it provided vital social and psychological functions and integrated human psyche, identity, and social groups. Shamanism’s resurgence today appears to reflect a response to similar needs.”

~ excerpt taken from: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/shamanisms-and-survival

“A remarkable similarity is found worldwide among the spiritual healers of hunter-gather, horticultural, and pastoral societies, who use Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) to interact with the spirit world on behalf of their community. These shamans tend to come from “shaman families,” and were selected by the spirits.

Early in life, as part of their training to be shamans, they undertook deliberate activities to enter ASC and develop personal relationships with the spirits. Shamans’ development involves a death-and-rebirth experience and the acquisition of animal allies that provide powers to heal, divine, diagnose and prophesize, assist in hunting, and engage in sorcery to harm others. Charismatic social leaders, shamans hold all-night ceremonies in which the entire community dances, drums, and chants. The central aspect involves the shaman recounting the experiences of an ASC—generally called “soul journey” or “magical flight”—during which an aspect of the shaman departs the body and travels to other places. Shamans are not normally possessed by spirits; rather they control spirits and are believed to be able to fly and transform themselves into animals. Therapeutic processes involve the removal of objects or spirits sent by other shamans through sorcery, and the use of soul journeys to recover lost souls and power animals (aspects of one’s personal powers based on a special relationship with an animal species).

Shaman/Healers

Shaman/healers share many characteristics with shamans, and are found in all types of societies. But they differ from shamans in some important ways. They are subordinated to religious practitioners called priests. They also engage in agricultural rituals and often use mechanical devices such as Tarot cards as means of divination. Shaman/healers tend to have extensive role specialization, in which individual practitioners engage in some tasks, such as divination or healing or agricultural rites, but not others. They are also trained and initiated by professional associations rather than taught by the spirits and validated by the community. Their ASC seldom involve soul journey, but are more like the experiences of meditators and mystics.

Mediums

Some spiritual healers who are often called “shamans” are quite distinct from core shamans. Mediums are predominantly female and are called to their profession in early adulthood when they are possessed by spirits. Mediums engage in spirit-world interactions and healing through ASC, but rather than traveling to visit spirits, they are possessed by them. Possession is a condition interpreted as a spirit taking over the medium’s personality and will. Possession ASC generally involves tremors, convulsions, seizures, and amnesia. Mediums generally do not commit malevolent acts, but rather act against sorcerers, witches, and evil spirits. They worship and make sacrifices to their possessing spirits and superior deities. Like healers, they specialize in treating people who are possessed. Unlike shamans, mediums do not hold a high leadership role; they are often found in complex societies with political hierarchies and more powerful religious practitioners such as priests and healers.

Healers

Healers are almost exclusively male, and generally of high economic status and holding political power. Their professional organizations provide costly training and wield considerable power, enabling healers to be full-time specialists in diagnosis and healing. Healers generally lack the ASC characteristic of shamans, but may nonetheless induce ASC in clients with rituals, spells, and incantations. Exorcism is a principal activity, as are life-cycle activities—naming ceremonies, marriage rituals, and funerals. Healers generally work in collaboration with priests, and have the power to take action against those they determine are sorcerers or witches.

Biology of Shamanism

Shamans, shaman/healers, mediums, and healers—referred to in this issue as “shamanistic healers”—are found worldwide because their activities are based in biological potentials involving ASC, healing, and visual thought processes. ASC is a natural biological response, an “integrative” mode of consciousness involving the synchronization of brain wave patterns across different regions of the brain. I call these ASC conditions integrative because they enhance the merging of processes of lower brain systems (especially the limbic or paleomammalian brain, an “emotional brain”) within the frontal cortex. The synchronized brain wave patterns enhance awareness of lower brain processes—often expressed through visions—heightening awareness of intuitive information and producing a synthesis of emotion and thought.

Shamanism emerged in human evolution because it allowed humans to integrate information from innate brain modules, which allow automatic processing of knowledge of mind, self, others, and the animal world. The experiences of integration occur as out-of-body experiences and through relations with power animals and totems that represent personal and group identity. The responses evoked by shamanic ritual allow humans to integrate a fragmented mind created by the increasing psychological complexity of humans and their increasingly complex social relations.

The biological basis of shamanism makes it a natural paradigm for explaining the mental and behavioral characteristics of the religious experiences and healing resources among traditional and modern peoples.

Contemporary Shamanisms

The contributors to this issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly offer diverse representations of shamanistic practices. They discuss topics ranging from the core shamanism still found among groups such as the Ju/’hoan San, to efforts to recover shamanistic traditions among the Buryat people of the former Soviet Union and contemporary Chinese peasants. For most cultures, core shamanic traditions are at best a memory of the past, a practice of ancestors which no longer has the same power. Or, worse, as Roger Lohmann tells us about the Asabano of New Guinea, shamanic traditions are fading memories of practices that have been replaced by new religions.

But all of the articles attest to shamanistic practices’ continuing role in today’s world. Perhaps the most poignant testimony is the article about the Ju/’hoan San. These Kung-speaking people of the Kalahari Desert are one of the few hunter-gatherer peoples who survived until the end of the second millennium, and anthropological studies of their cultures have provided a wealth of knowledge about aspects of hunter-gatherer lifestyles such as shamanism. But they are also being forced to extinction by more powerful neighbors who encroach upon their traditional territories. Richard Katz, and Megan Biesele ask insightful questions, pointing to the potential for the Ju/’hoan healing dance to provide a crucible for cultural survival and adaptation. May their optimistic message be heard by others around the planet.

Many cultures have maintained vibrant and vital shamanistic traditions, not merely as remainders the past, but as adaptations of the potentials of ASC and spirit-world relations to address contemporary conditions. Susan Rasmussen conveys the vibrant practices of the Tuareg “friends of the Kel Essuf” who rely on spirit relations for divination, diagnosis, and healing. Luis Eduardo Luna tells us how the shamanic ayahuasca traditions of the Amazon basin have developed into worldwide religious traditions and neo-shamanic practices.

But where shamanistic practices disappeared under the onslaught of colonization, capitalization,  communization, demonization, and religious oppression, the emerging reinventions of shamanism are often of a different pattern of practice than that associated with the core shamans of hunter-gatherer societies. We see in Armenia, Tibet, China, Japan, and other parts of the world the persistence of practices that depend upon ASC. Yet many of the other aspects of shamanism are gone. Soul journeys are replaced by possession, animal allies by rituals for the spirits, soul loss and recovery by depossession and burnt offerings. Often what remains are the sacred places that have been adopted by modern pilgrims.1 But the shamanic traditions are not lost forever. Their resuscitation is possible because they are based in biological human potentials.

Human nature alone is not sufficient for the assurance that shamanism will survive for current and future generations. As Hong Zhang and Constantine Hriskos point out in their article about China, the resurgence and use of these potentials depend on the social and political climate. The deliberate resuscitation of shamanic traditions on a global scale has a champion in organizations such as the Foundation for Shamanic Studies2, founded by anthropologist Michael Harner. The foundation’s programs have appealed to a wide range of people in healing professions who find shamanic practices applicable to their personal lives and work with clients.

Past, Present, and Future

Shamanism is emerging from a long neglect in religious, psychological, and evolutionary studies and increasingly taking its place as an important pinnacle of human achievement. The ancient roots of shamanic practices have been recognized by a new generation of scholars. Studies of the ancient cave art of Europe3 attest to the origination of shamanism some 40,000 years ago in the midst of the emergence of a cultural capacity for symbolism.4

But this ancient basis should not distract us from recognizing the present relevance of shamanistic potentials. Shamanism has been applied in psychology, counseling, nursing, public health, medicine, and substance-abuse rehabilitation.

Our understanding of the functions of shamanism in the past should alert us to its applications in the future. Shamanism has been used for prophecy, to plan how to deal with the future. And shamanism may still serve as a conduit for information about the futures we will have to manage, as illustrated in Hank Wesselman’s engaging books about his shamanic connections with his descendants in the future and their warnings for humanity.

Shamanism emerged long ago in human pre-history because it provided vital social and psychological functions and integrated human psyche, identity, and social groups. Shamanism’s resurgence today appears to reflect a response to similar needs.”

~ excerpt taken from: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/shamanisms-and-survival

“Who are the Q’ero Inca Shamans (Paqos)?

At the highest altitudes in the Andes Mountains in Peru, live a group of indigenous Indians called the Q’eros. They are the direct descendants of the ancient Incan people who were invaded by the Spanish Conquistadores in the 1500’s. During that time, many of the Incan people were forced into labor in the gold and silver mines by the Spanish, but a few others escaped to the “villages in the clouds” in the refuge of the holy mountains (apus). These people survived and safeguarded much of their sacred knowledge, keeping it intact over the centuries.

Other Incan tribes, who stayed behind, were strongly encouraged to forget their traditions and convert to Western ideologies of the church and other cultural views. The Q’eros have miraculously been able to preserve and orally pass on their sacred Inca healing traditions and ceremonies from one generation to the next. They have successfully been able to keep drawing on the wisdom of the advanced Incan societies that had previously flourished for 1000’s of years. They have also been able to continue developing these advanced techniques in healing, divination, ceremony and kept a strong connection with the spirits of their homeland.

Inca prophecy, to bring back balance in nature and Mother Earth

In recent years, the paqos, or Inca shamans (holy men and women, healers, priests, and specialists in medicine,) have seen their sacred mountain glaciers begin to melt. This was a sign from an ancient prophecy that they should come down from the mountains to share their wisdom with Western civilization. Mother Earth (Pachamama) was in dire need for people to know what to do to bring back the balance in nature and society that has rapidly deteriorated in the past century. This they have willingly done and are now sharing around the world in special schools and workshops where they travel to teach about their rich heritage with open hearts and open arms. Despite the way their ancestors were treated, they do not hold a grudge nor do they hold onto any anger. The reaction of some other indigenous peoples has understandably been to keep their traditions away from those who wish to know about them. But the Q’ero people believe they should share their knowledge and energy because it is crucial for the preservation of life on this planet and our health. Many Westerners have lost touch with nature, in general and lost all meaning in life, along with their peace of mind, wellness, and true purpose as souls. The Q’ero Inca shamans help to teach us how to live in balance and give back to Mother Nature in reciprocity (Ayni) and with each other. The Q’ero do not see themselves as separate from each other as we do in the West. They realize deeply that we are one with nature, with spirit (God), and other people. Nature has so much to teach us, if we only know how to listen, respect. and take time to love. The Q’eros see the divine in all nature and speak to each mountain, rock, plant, river, animal and human with attentiveness and care.

Pampamesayoq and Altomesayoq, the main Inca shamanic paths

Two main paths that the Q’ero Inca shamans follow are called Pampamesayok and Altomesayok. Each one is important and one does not rank over the other. The path of the Pampamesayok is as an Earth healer and one may also specialize in a variety of functions, such as cocoa leaf reader, pulse reader, healer, or one who works with other specific energies. The path of the Altomesayok differs because one must be chosen by the mountains in the form of being hit by lightning three times and surviving. The Altomesayok then works specifically with the mountain energies and stars in his or her own way. But both Pampamesayoks and Altomesayoks work with mountains, earth, and the stars.

In fact, the Q’ero Inca shamans believe that they are descendants of the star nations, particularly from the Pleiades, but also connected to other stars and planets. They teach several healing techniques, give initiations, and explain about this ongoing connection with the Pleiades. They teach a healing technique called the Koto Kanchay(healing with the light of the Pleiades) and also the Koto Kuna Kanchay Karpay (initiation with each Pleiadian star energy).”

– International Spiritual Experience

For 500 years the elders of the Q’ero, indigenous Andean people of south-central Peru, preserved a sacred prophecy of a great change, or “pachacuti,” in which the world would be turned right side up, harmony and order would be restored, and chaos and disorder ended. 

The Q’ero are a Quechua speaking tribe whose lands cover some of the highest, most rugged and most isolated terrain in the Andes and their Pacos, or Shamans, are considered the best, most knowledgeable and most powerful of the region. There are currently about three thousand Q’ero living in 6 villages isolated throughout their territory.

“Who are the Q’ero Inca Shamans(Paqos)?

At the highest altitudes in the Andes Mountains in Peru, live a group of indigenous Indians called the Q’eros. They are the direct descendants of the ancient Incan people who were invaded by the Spanish Conquistadores in the 1500’s. During that time, many of the Incan people were forced into labor in the gold and silver mines by the Spanish, but a few others escaped to the “villages in the clouds” in the refuge of the holy mountains (apus). These people survived and safeguarded much of their sacred knowledge, keeping it intact over the centuries.

Other Incan tribes, who stayed behind, were strongly encouraged to forget their traditions and convert to Western ideologies of the church and other cultural views. The Q’eros have miraculously been able to preserve and orally pass on their sacred Inca healing traditions and ceremonies from one generation to the next. They have successfully been able to keep drawing on the wisdom of the advanced Incan societies that had previously flourished for 1000’s of years. They have also been able to continue developing these advanced techniques in healing, divination, ceremony and kept a strong connection with the spirits of their homeland.

Inca prophecy, to bring back balance in nature and Mother Earth

In recent years, the paqos, or Inca shamans (holy men and women, healers, priests, and specialists in medicine,) have seen their sacred mountain glaciers begin to melt. This was a sign from an ancient prophecy that they should come down from the mountains to share their wisdom with Western civilization. Mother Earth (Pachamama) was in dire need for people to know what to do to bring back the balance in nature and society that has rapidly deteriorated in the past century. This they have willingly done and are now sharing around the world in special schools and workshops where they travel to teach about their rich heritage with open hearts and open arms. Despite the way their ancestors were treated, they do not hold a grudge nor do they hold onto any anger. The reaction of some other indigenous peoples has understandably been to keep their traditions away from those who wish to know about them. But the Q’ero people believe they should share their knowledge and energy because it is crucial for the preservation of life on this planet and our health. Many Westerners have lost touch with nature, in general and lost all meaning in life, along with their peace of mind, wellness, and true purpose as souls. The Q’ero Inca shamans help to teach us how to live in balance and give back to Mother Nature in reciprocity (Ayni) and with each other. The Q’ero do not see themselves as separate from each other as we do in the West. They realize deeply that we are one with nature, with spirit (God), and other people. Nature has so much to teach us, if we only know how to listen, respect. and take time to love. The Q’eros see the divine in all nature and speak to each mountain, rock, plant, river, animal and human with attentiveness and care.

Pampamesayoq and Altomesayoq, the main Inca shamanic paths

Two main paths that the Q’ero Inca shamans follow are called Pampamesayok and Altomesayok. Each one is important and one does not rank over the other. The path of the Pampamesayok is as an Earth healer and one may also specialize in a variety of functions, such as cocoa leaf reader, pulse reader, healer, or one who works with other specific energies. The path of the Altomesayok differs because one must be chosen by the mountains in the form of being hit by lightning three times and surviving. The Altomesayok then works specifically with the mountain energies and stars in his or her own way. But both Pampamesayoks and Altomesayoks work with mountains, earth, and the stars.

In fact, the Q’ero Inca shamans believe that they are descendants of the star nations, particularly from the Pleiades, but also connected to other stars and planets. They teach several healing techniques, give initiations, and explain about this ongoing connection with the Pleiades. They teach a healing technique called the Koto Kanchay(healing with the light of the Pleiades) and also the Koto Kuna Kanchay Karpay (initiation with each Pleiadian star energy).”

– International Spiritual Experience

For 500 years the elders of the Q’ero, indigenous Andrean people of south-central Peru, preserved a sacred prophecy of a great change, or “Pachacuti”, in which the world would be turned right side up, harmony and order would be restored, and chaos disorder ended.

The Q’ero are a Quechua speaking tribe whose lands cover some of the highest, most rugged and most isolated terrain in the Andes and their Pacos, or Shamans, are considered the best, most knowledgeable and most powerful of the region. There are currently about three thousand Q’ero living in 6 villages isolated throughout their territory.