What IS a SHAMAN?

[Tiki]

Shaman.

The word means only one thing, and that is everything, if it is truly how the universe defines you.

I struggled with it as I struggled with myself for many years, until finally I let go. Then I picked it up and used it once more as a chain, to secure myself to a path that seemed to me like infinite torture when I set out.

I don't need the chain any more. Despair became Faith, Faith became Trust and now Trust is a growing Love and with it my skills and confidence have expanded and I can see further, with greater resolution.

I cannot give any other advice. There is only one path and one direction, its twists, dead endings and details are relevant only to u.

If you seek others, beware. You will KNOW when you cross paths with another, trust your intuition. I suspect that many humans are born with some or possibly all the attributes, but these gifts are a great burden that can cripple a faithless soul.

This message is a light for those who need it. I wish only to set it free from form so please read no further into my words if you are searching for texture.

"Rather than continuing to seek the truth, simply let go of your views." Gautama Buddha.

[nabraxas]

shamen appear like smoke

trying to pin them down to what IS

only leaves you with IS not.

Edited November 7, 2008 by nabraxas

[Micromegas]

I don't know, in cultures that traditionally have (or have had) shamans and medicine men it seems pretty obvious who the shaman is. Is the guy with feathers in his hair who helps people in his community when they are sick, with plants, language and magic (in various combinations). In this case the shaman is designated by the community because of skill relating to healing. And a shaman is not necessarily an enlightened being, and generally will have no interest in buddhism It's in contemporary 'western' societies where shamanism has recently entered the hearts and minds of adventurers and spirit-seekers that the definition becomes blurry due to a lack of cultural context. In this case, shamanism has been displaced and is searching for places to put down roots and encapsulate all that shamanism may mean to such people and their societies.

I like what you said however Tiki and commend you for following the path with sincerity. And i also agree with nabraxas that they are somewhat like smoke in the sense you can't really pin them down or get a firm grip. Not because you don't know they're a shaman, but because their attirubutes are beyond the scope of human reason.

Micro

Edited November 8, 2008 by Micromegas

[t st tantra]

a shabeing is one who mediates between the ordinary and nonordinary states of being of its tribe.

a neoshabeing helps others find the shabeing in themselves.

t s t .

[Garbage]

Shaman is a lifestyle that has been banned in many countries.

Notably those who borrow money out of thin air.

[Gunter]

Shaman is a word, to me that is all

[baphomet]

From what I have seen and heard..

A "shaman" is any westerner who takes drugs and wants to give himself some glorified term to add credibility to this and make him feel special and more mystical than everyone else.

A "shaman" is any white guy with a feather in his hat who has completed one of the many courses in shamanism found online, who bangs drums and sings silly songs in a pathetic attempt to look and sound like a native indian (much to the disgust of native peoples).

A "shaman" in it's traditional and perhaps proper use of the word is a man who has been glorified by psychonauts and made out to be a peace loving superhuman with an expanded state of consciousness when in fact the shamans of the amazon used to regularly fight and kill each other.

Ayahuasca was primarily used by these men to to kill each other not to heal people.

A "shaman" in many cases is a man who is payed to sing silly songs to even sillier gringos after he has drugged them out of their mind in an effort to part them from their money.

In some cases a "shaman" is a man who can heal people with plants but this word, these people and their culture have been corrupted and hijacked by western psychonauts.

Ayahuasca tourism vs tradition (MUST SEE!!): http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?q=a...emb=0&aq=f#

Edited November 9, 2008 by baphomet

[nabraxas]

There now,

so many definitions ov what a shaman IS .

How long IS a piece ov string?

[folias]

The Shaman is largely a romantic western mythological construct... and its probably best western people forget about using the term and just focus on getting real an interpersonal/interdimensional and so on... rather than to try and mimic the traditions of cultures which have their relevance within those cultures... and not the western culture.

Julian.

[The Dude]

a shaman just IS.

I like this idea of late, accepting things as just being, knowing full well that any description already reduces it to an association in your head.

[rahli]

The Role of Fear in Traditional and Contemporary Shamanism

[Inyan]

For me, Leonard Crowdog embodies what a Shaman or medicine man is. He was the spiritual leader of wounded knee. He did time for his beliefs. He fought and struggled and he is not rich off of tourism or such although he is one of the most respected if not the most respected Lakota medicine man there is. Is he perfect? No, he is just human. He struggles just as many of his people struggle. He was not acculturated at an early age by attending white schools or learning english and such. He went on his first vision quest at 13. The red road is a hard road and one that many glorify and few walk in the traditional way anymore. Many want things fast and easy. We live in the Mcdonalds culture of fast, easy and quick. The red road is not easy and many times it is painstakingly slow and hard. The sundance, visionquest, sweatlodge, etc. are not easy ceremonies the way they were done traditionally. Read up on a few of these things and do some research. The Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota in particular have been turing away from those who seek to exploit their culture and beliefs in exchange for a few dollars and with good reason. Many expect they can walk in off the street and pay large sums of money and be handed medicine. This is not how it works. Medicine is something that is free to earn. The sacred pejuta is something that is free to give. Yes, their will always be an intermingling of beliefs and ways as long as their are people who see truth in one path or another. The purists or the traditionalists and those with varying degrees of acceptance or incorporation of others beliefs and ways. Such is life and such is religion.... ever changing and ever growing like the wind and the water that carve out the rock that we think stands still and unchanged. Some changes are slower than others and so appear not to change at all, but everything changes.

[Garbage]

Trouble is the Indian tradition of Peyote is fundamentally at odds with most outside interested parties.

One could try and emulate every aspect of Indian ritual but it would decend into farce as after considering grandfather peyote on his sage couch the outsiders would simply say ho hum and devour it.

The Indian nations will not re-emerge through the whiteman into the happy hunting grounds,they are as doomed as the peyote north of the Rio Bravo.

Mass immigration of the traditional enemy,the Mexicans,will only create more pressure on Indian lands.

It remains to be seen if the Lakota can prevent their own gradual irradication in the name of diversity.

As a fellow indigenous person i wish them well.

I'm guessing Mr Obama wont be looking into the problem.

[Inyan]

You do not emulate the NAC or any other aspect of traditional Lakota culture and call it Lakota or NAC. This would be a farce and a supreme insult. I have went up on traditional Lakota vision quests, sundanced, sung yuwipi, etc. For me, there is the traditional way or there is your way or another's way. The problem occurs when we claim that we are practicing another's traditions when in fact we have never done anything more than read a book and incorporate a piece of something into our own beliefs. Its not that it shouldn't be done, its in how it is done. You don't claim to be a Lakota medicine man, Dineh medicine man, etc. if you are not. There is much that is wrong with our egocentric views in my mind, but this is how my mind works. Perhaps another's mind is different and thinks it is okay. To each his or her own. Own what is yours. Don't steal what is someone else's. Acknowledge where and how. Change....

[Garbage]

The more it stay the same,the less it changes!

[Inyan]

The more it stays the same the less it changes....

Not sure where your going with that comment.

For what its worth, your right. Everything changes though. If I stare at the hour hand of a clock does it appear to move? If I stare at the month hand on a clock, does it appear to move? Is it moving? Change is something that happens and you will always find people who fear change. Fear of the unknown that change may bring. Good or bad.... its not always as it appears.

[Gunter]

A shaman is a ninja on drugs.

[husk]

from Wiki

Mihály Hoppál also discusses whether the term “shamanism” is appropriate. He recommends using the term “shamanhood”[158] or “shamanship”[159] for stressing the diversity and the specific features of the discussed cultures. This is a term used in old Russian and German ethnographic reports at the beginning of the 20th century. He believes that this term is less general and places more stress on the local variations,[60] and it emphasizes also that shamanism is not a religion of sacred dogmas, but linked to the everyday life in a practical way.[160] Following similar thoughts, he also conjectures a contemporary paradigm shift.[158] Also Piers Vitebsky mentions, that despite really astonishing similarities, there is no unity in shamanism. The various, fragmented shamanistic practices and beliefs coexist with other beliefs everywhere. There is no record of pure shamanistic societies (although, as for the past, their existence is not impossible).[161]

so shamanism can mean whatever you want it to mean. but it has more association to the Mongol practioners:

The term "shaman" is a loan from Tungus šamán, the term for such a practitioner, which also gained currency in wider Turco-Mongol culture. The word's etymology is uncertain. It is sometimes connected to a Tungus root ša- "to know".[4][5] Other scholars assert that the word comes directly from the Manchu language, and indeed is "the only commonly used English word that is a loan from this language".[6]

Baph, there are/were plenty of "white" shamans, as so in any and every ethinicty and culture. Yr 'western' ones prolly for the most part got absorbed/obliterated by the Catholic church or graduated to other more organised belief systems.

i would consider a lot of ppl here shamans simply because i would understand them to feel themselves as such. i would prolly have to practice more healing techniques for others to consider myself what i would define a shaman.

peace x

[Teotzlcoatl]

A Shaman is one who heals or gains information through altered states of reality.

We are all Shamans!

[devance]

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,299865,00.html

Well a shaman is not, David Carradine; although he is a mescaline user.

Read the autobiographic book, a overachiever/actor that mistakes counterculture behavior for a spiritual journey and ends with a nervious breakdown and life meltdown.

But very honest.

Which gets my respect.

[devance]

http://www.diycalculator.com/sp-cvision.shtml

I think theres alot of spititual/art pathways.

My is visual which gives me objectivity as to my way.

Sound would be equally so.

If sound was primary such would be a primary objective sensory organ like whales.

Motion or action as a spear is the third but not artistic or objective as yet.

Maybe where it all went wrong.

[mac]

Traditionally the quote from wiki explains it best for me

Shamans are intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds. They can treat illness and are capable of entering supernatural realms to provide answers for humans

My interpretation someone who has studied & holds the knowledge to heal medicinally, mentally, physically & spiritually,

Id like to ask opinions are modern day doctors, pharmacist's, hypnotists, psychologists, herbalists etc considered to be a form of shaman in today's society ?

As most are limited to the one profession & don't combine all aspects of a shaman in the traditional form.

Edited March 10, 2009 by mac

[t st tantra]

imo

they are limited to logic and the rational ,a shaman must come to terms with the intuitive or irrational as well.........this is often the guidance that is the advantage of the shaman [or equivalent].

t s t .

[momomoto]

I suppose a historically current version of shaman is just your average person who 'imbibes' (no explaination needed here), finds they can 'see' right into the details, figure out some complex connections or patterns in the world. They might then hang on to a feeling that they have experienced something quite extraordinary, which probably has occured to the shaman. Whether they can do anything about it with what they may know or learn comes to be a constant battleground of legality (constantly shrinking environs (a narrowing path of nicotine, alcohol, caffeine), disbelief (enforecably mediated through popularist channels), misinformation (for better or for worse), or the simple spite some have for those that step into the 'void' (a perspective only).

Then again, there are

[compost]

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20070509...over-truth.html

Rudd as shaman?

Well, it seems to fit except the whole 'imbibing' thing..