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.
The irony of using shamanism as medicine is magnified when we consider what is involved in “healing” according to shamanism. It is not just the shaman who becomes demon-possessed. Why? Because shamanism assumes that most or all people already have a guardian spirit within them. That spirit has come and gone as it wished throughout the person’s life.[1] Illness and psychological or emotional problems are merely indications that, for various reasons, one’s spirit guide has left one’s body, and the illness or other condition is the final result. Mircea Eliade observes that “it is often the case that the illness is due to a neglect or an omission in respect to the infernal powers....”[2]
As noted previously, to retain one’s spirit guide or power animal one must keep it “happy.” This illustrates another form of bondage to the spirits:
“If one wishes to maintain shamanic practice, one has to change into one’s animal regularly to keep the animal contented enough to stay. This involves exercising the animal through dance, singing songs of the animal, and recognizing ‘big’ dreams as messages from the guardian, the power animal. Dancing your animal is an important method for keeping it content and thus making it reluctant to leave you. The guardian animal spirit resident in the mind-body of the person wants to have the enjoyment of once again existing in material form.... [A]s I learned from the Jivaro years ago, guardian spirits usually stay with you only a few years and then depart. So, in the course of a long, powerful life [as a shaman], you will have a number of them one after another, whether you know it or not.”[3]
According to shamanism, when a spirit leaves a person, physical, psychological, or spiritual illness results:
“Thus possession of guardian spirit power [i.e., retaining the spirit within you] is fundamental to health. Serious illness is usually only possible when a person is dis-spirited, and has lost this energizing force, the guardian spirit. When a person becomes depressed, weak, prone to illness, it is a symptom that he has lost his power animal and thus can no longer resist, or ward off the unwanted power ‘infections’ or intrusions.”[4]
In other words, shamans wish us to alter our perception to harmonize it with their spiritistic philosophy, to believe that the mere presence of illness, physical or psychological, or being in a serious accident, or even certain mundane problems, mean that one has automatically been “dis-spirited” and therefore, by definition, a spirit must be reintroduced into the body. Harner states, “The specific treatment, if the victim is not in a coma, is to recover or obtain his guardian spirit to reenergize him.”[5] And, “if your power animal’s messages are ignored, or if it is not exercised through dancing, it may become discomforted, discouraged, and want to leave your body. Its discomfort may unintentionally flow into your own consciousness causing tension and anxiety. If you do nothing to remedy the situation, it will shortly leave you and you will again be dis-spirited.”[6]
Again, any illness is evidence a person has been “dis-spirited.” So the only possible way to recover “health” is for the spirit to be “reintroduced” into the mind/body. Of course, if the diagnosis is wrong, and illness is not related to a loss of one’s pre-existing spirit guide, then shamanistic methods serve as a cover for the demonization of persons previously not demonized. This vital importance of the spirit guide to the health of the patient is why modern books about using shamanism for health purposes instruct people to meet or to be reintroduced to their spirit guides.[7]
Because hundreds or thousands of practitioners are now adopting shamanism to varying degrees in their health and therapy work, it is hardly inconceivable that patients may become demon-influenced or demonized in the process:
“The urgent healing work of the shaman... is to restore one of the person’s lost guardian spirits as soon as possible. Since ours is not a shamanic society, it is usually not possible to do the necessary work in the same room as a hospitalized person. Exceptions are sometimes tolerated in this country if both shaman and the patients are American Indians.... In some hospitals, such as on the Navajo reservation, visits by native healers are being increasingly encouraged as the Western medical staff becomes more aware of the benefits produced.... Meanwhile, you can use the following long distance technique to restore guardian power.”[8]
Harner discusses how a spirit may be “restored” to a person at great distance through shaman ritual. The shaman merely calls upon his power animal, transfers its power to the patient’s guardian spirit, and then visually and mentally sends the spirit “to the patient as visualized in the hospital room.”[9]
As our American society increasingly turns to the occult, we can expect many more such “health” procedures in the future. An important point to remember is that even shamans (like other mediums and spiritists), are not always aware of the presence of their spirit guides. Their spirit guides may be right next to them, or even inside of them, and yet they may have no conscious awareness of that. And this means that people can become demonized unaware.
In summary, the essence of shamanic “health” is possession by one or more spirits: “A power animal or guardian spirit... not only increases one’s physical energy and ability to resist contagious disease, but also increases one’s mental alertness and self-confidence.... Being power-full [spirit possessed] is like having a force field in and around you.... Thus, possession of guardian spirit power is fundamental to health.”[10]
Once a person adopts shamanism, then by definition any illness, mental or physical, requires the following diagnosis: The person has lost his power animal (or spirit guide) and the only solution is to “restore” that person’s spirit guide into his mind and body.
Even children can become novice shamans and spirit possessed.[11] Some of the modern practices in “transpersonal education” are useful for shamanistic instruction here.[12] Shamans themselves may help introduce power animals and other spirits to their children.[13] As shamanism increases within our culture, the children of American shamans will become as demonized as their parents. As Harner explains of his own experience among the Jivaro, “Parents of a newly born infant, in fact, typically gave it a mild hallucinogen so that it could ‘see’ and hopefully thus acquire an arutam wakanl or guardian spirit. The parents, of course, wanted the baby to have as much protection as possible in order to survive into adult life.”[14]
And shamanistic practice in America has many other fruits.
The result of all this keeps the shamanistic practitioner in a primitive state spiritually and often morally, with little hope of escape. The ritual and practices of shamanism reinforce its belief system and vice versa through powerful supernatural manifestations that are difficult if not impossible to counter.
Only the power of Jesus Christ can break into the dark world of shamanism and deliver those held in its bondage. Shamans and shaman apprentices who desire deliverance must turn to the living Jesus Christ, for He and He alone can save them.
Endnotes