Shamanism and Healing: A Personal Perspective
Katherine MacDowell, D.Th, MA, M.Ed.

While the term shamanism may be problematic in its risk of obscuring and conflating cultural differences and traditions and their relationship to human psychobiology (Ogembo: 2005; Price: 2001; Vitebsky: 2001), the term serves a general descriptive purpose that allows for a relatively accurate broad outline as to what shamanism is. Mircea Eliade (1964) remains the primary source for universalizing this mode of engaging in religious (meaning community or shared tradition) and spiritual (meaning private or personal) experience with core components being: (a) the emergence of a shamanic tradition through the formation of a spontaneous intimate relationship between a first shaman and his or her nonphysical teachers; (b) a belief in the linkage between self and an expanded multiverse that is peopled not simply with sentient material beings (both human and nonhuman alike) but also metaphysical beings; (c) a belief that one can relate to and communicate with this multiverse through set ritualistic behaviors that expand everyday consciousness; and (d) that such engagement may bring about benefits for the community or the individual by rebalancing the relationships between all beings in all worlds. Shamanic practices are most typically described as ecstatic experiences with varying degrees of volitional control being ceded to non-material beings (see Campbell: 2003; Keller: 2002; Lewis: 2003) through a rich array of ritualistic behavior from chants, drums, dance, psychoactive plants, guided visualization, passive meditation and so forth (see Eliade; Furst, 2000; Lewis; Ogembo; Vitebsky). In the contemporary Western cultural context, shamanism has been re-imagined as a viable spiritual path that emphasizes social and ecological responsibility while empowering personal healing and psychological wholeness (see Webb [2004] for a comprehensive overview of Western neo-shamanic traditions). It is within this rich and textured global spiritual instinct that my own shamanic tradition is based (known as the Path of the 9 Sacred Pillars) and which informs its subsequent healing interventions.

While an in-depth exploration of my own shamanic narrative is beyond the scope of this piece, a brief introduction to this tradition is necessary to understand its healing modalities. The 9 Sacred Pillar Tradition holds that the multiverse is founded upon nine principle energies that guide the unfolding process of creation. Because these energies flow through the whole of existence, the care and balance of these energies becomes critical to maintaining healthy functioning of oneself as well as larger components of existence. Briefly these energies are:
  • Connection: a recognition of an inseparable self in-relation-to all other beings and all other worlds;
  • Immersion and Focus: a capacity to recognize one is a self-in-becoming;
  • Discovery: a capacity to recognize wonder and awe in the diversity of existence and to maintain an openness toward a continuous process of awareness;
  • Understanding: a capacity to hold multiple perspectives and to continuously seek personal insight and to act in mindfulness;
  • Nurturing: a capacity to engage in positive other- and self-care activities that allow all individuals to thrive in their unique potentialities;
  • Generating: a capacity to act with generosity to foster the energy of self and others;
  • Openness and Play: a capacity to be receptive and engage in mutually beneficial behavior and to seek opportunities to promote joy in the lives of others and oneself;
  • Communication and Vision: to honor one’s own uniqueness and vision, while remembering to communicate honestly and with compassionate speech; and
  • Adventure and New Experiences: to be open to change as opportunity for self-transformation and the unfolding of creation.
Within this tradition healing typically emerges in four ritual modalities: balancing, protection, banishing, and blessing. Like other shamanic traditions, healing in this tradition is typically representational in nature. In other words, it involves a rich array of specific rituals that represent the desired outcome or the perceived energies involved. These rituals are often physically robust, always repetitive in nature, and always geared toward promoting an altered state of consciousness (ASC). McClenon (2002) has suggested the widespread universality of this kind of ritualistic approach to healing seen within all shamanistic traditions is an innate human behavior that has been genetically selected due to its psychosomatic benefits on human health. He suggests that the combination of repetition (or the psychoactive substances [this is not utilized in my tradition]) all serve to introduce a state of hypnosis that ultimately facilitates a placebo effect—thus healing occurs at the psychological level. Similarly, Winkelman (2004) has proposed an innate evolutionary capacity toward shamanism arguing that human beings are wired for these experiences and that such experiences have dramatic beneficial impacts on the body and the community, writing:
Shamanic processes intensify connections between the limbic system and lower brain structures and project these synchronous integrative slow wave (theta) discharges into the frontal brain. These integrative dynamics enhance attention, self-awareness, learning, and memory and elicit mechanisms that mediate self, attachment, motives, and feelings of conviction. Shamanic ritual provides therapeutic effects through mechanisms derived from psychobiological dynamics of ASC, the relaxation response, effects upon serotonergic action and endogenous opioid release, and activation of the paleomammalian brain. (p. 194) continues page 3

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Volume 2, Issue 2, 2010