Ed. Note: This article is part of our "Various Views of Jesus"
[Extracted from the authors’ book, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1995)]
Reader advisory: Some themes and descriptions in this article may be difficult to read. Approach with caution.
Any individual who decides to practice shamanism soon realizes he has contacted genuine spirit beings who exist entirely apart from his own personality, at least initially. [1]
Of course, modern Western scientists who employ shamanistic techniques may scoff at the idea of personal, independent spirits or demons. Many psychologists and shaman initiates may redefine spirit manifestations in more “neutral” categories, such as “archetypal consciousness,” “higher self,” and “cosmic consciousness.” But such interpretations only underscore an anti-supernatural bias, which does nothing to protect one from the spirits themselves, who easily hide behind such “naturalistic” designations.
As is true for much Eastern religion in general,[2] the end result of the shamanistic path, whether it is used for spiritual or health purposes, is almost always the spirit possession of the seeker (or patient). As Michael Harner explains,
“When a power animal is restored to a person, he usually feels better immediately, and then gradually experiences a power flowing into his body over the next few days.... You should begin a weekly routine to retain the power by keeping your power animal content, for the spirit has entered your body, not only to help you, but also to help itself. You gain its power; it gains the joy of again experiencing life in a material form.”[3]
For almost all shamans, the entrance point to spirit possession is altered states of consciousness! Indeed, this is precisely how many professional anthropologists and other social scientists become shamans. By personally engaging in the rituals and practices they are seeking to study academically, they use drugs or other means to “test drive” altered states of consciousness, trance, and spirit contact. Then they become shamans. This was true for Carlos Castaneda,[4] Michael Harner,[5] and others.[6] Harner admits, “What is definite is that some degree of alteration of consciousness is necessary to shamanic practice.”[7]
Shamans find that even a light trance is effective for their spiritistic work. Harner refers to “the light trance in which most shamanic work is done.”[8] This would seem to have implications for a good deal of modern experimentation, popular and scientific, with hypnosis and related methods of altering consciousness.[9] In fact, as Drs. Villoldo and Krippner note, “Spirit-incorporation according to Peters and Price-Williams[10] resembles ‘deep hypnosis’....”[11] In addition, use of sweat lodges, sacred pipes, and even ritual alone may lead to spirit contact and possession.[12] Because the intent of the ritual is to deliberately contact the spirits, it is hardly surprising that the spirits who desire such contact will respond.
Sadly, advocates do not recognize that the supposedly “good” spirits contacted in shamanism are really demons imitating good spirits for purposes of influence and control.[13] This indicates a gross contradiction within a shamanistic worldview, for shamanism freely admits that it employs “demon helpers” in its work.[14] American shamans may prefer to term their spiritual possession as the more polite “divine companionship,”[15] but this hardly changes the facts. Indeed, some of the perceptual problems inherent in contemporary America’s fascination with shamanism are illustrated by Harner’s work The Way of the Shaman. Harner makes shamanism sound like the best thing since modern electricity. He calls it “a great mental and emotional adventure,”[16] and emphasizes its physical and spiritual benefits. Displaying an inexcusable ignorance of his own field, not to mention the history of spiritism itself, he claims that spirit guides never harm those they possess.[17] “Remember, guardian spirits are always beneficial. They never harm their possessors. And you possess the guardian spirit; it never possesses you. In other words, the power animal is a purely beneficial spirit no matter how fierce it may appear. It is a spirit to be exercised, not exorcised.”[18]
Why, then, does Harner devote an entire chapter to the shamanistic practice of exorcising demons from patients![19] As Mircea Eliade correctly observes, “In order to extract the evil spirits from the patient, the shaman is often obliged to take them into his own body; in doing so, he struggles and suffers more than the patient himself.”[20]
Clearly, the spiritual naiveté of our culture is aptly demonstrated in the subject of shamanism. As a result, what is so demonic and dangerous is frequently accepted, uncritically and without question, as a method for securing physical health and healing, psychological adjustment, and spiritual advancement.
Harner points out the depth at which Americans want to get into shamanism: “I have been continually surprised to discover how many Westerners who are ill or injured immediately accept the possibility of their power animal [spirit guide] and happily enter into contact with it.”[21] Not surprisingly, therefore, many of the spirits who work through shamans want their hosts to establish training centers so that more and more people can be instructed in the ways of spirit possession through shamanism. Don Edwardo Calderon was told by his spirits in a vision that “it was important to reveal this knowledge of healing and shamanism to outsiders.”[22] The same was true for shamaness Skyhawk, founder of the Church of Loving Hands.[23] Sun Bear, the founder and medicine chief of the Bear Tribe Medicine Society, recalls, “I have established an apprenticeship training because the spirits told me to do it.”[24] He also notes, “If the spirits accept you, then you become a medicine man. They are the ones who determine whether you actually have the power to practice.”[25]
(to be continued)