"The Shaman is the world's oldest professional and is both a performer and a priest: 'The Shaman was the original artists, dancer, musician, singer, dramatist, intellectual, poet, bard, ambassador, advisor to chiefs and king, entertainer, actor, clown, curer, stage magician, juggler, jongleur, folk-singer, weatherman, culture hero and trickster-transformer.'
The Doctors of bodies, souls and situations.
The Shaman, has learned to be a personal mediator between the everyday world and the 'other world.'"
-Weston La Barre
I think the new age perception of shamanism is awfully skewed and the point as to which they exist and what they do/purpose is far past the regular pre-conceived paradigm painted in the new age philosophy craze - but what do I know, I'm merely a fool