Treatment: Types of Spiritual Emergency
SHAMANISTIC CRISIS
The word shaman is properly a healer of the Tungus people of Siberia but it has come to refer to healers in many traditional cultures around the globe who use consciousness altering techniques in their healing work. Shamanism is a broad term which loosely covers many ancient healing traditions among tribal peoples, but the many similarities of form and function which justify the general label.
Shamanic Crisis
"The future shaman sometimes takes the risk of being mistaken for a "madman"...but his "madness" fulfills a mystic function; it reveals certain aspects of reality to him that are inaccessible to other mortals, and it is only after having experienced and entered into these hidden dimensions of reality that the "madman" becomes a shaman."
Mircea Eliade
Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries. New York: Harper and Row, 1960. Page 80-81.
Shamanism has historically been confused with schizophrenia by anthropologists because shamans often speak of experiences in the spiritual world as if they were "real" experiences. The attribution of a connection between mental illness and shamanism has contributed to the marginalization of shamanism. While the shaman and the person in a psychotic episode both have unusual access to spiritual and altered state experiences, shamans are trained to work in the spirit world, while the psychotic person is simply lost in it.
Shamans are often called to the profession by a crisis, called a shamanic illness, but as one accepts the calling and becomes a shaman, the illness usually disappears. Traditional cultures distinguish between serious mental illness and the spiritual problems experienced by some shamans-to-be. Anthropological accounts show that babbling confused words, displaying curious eating habits, singing continuously, dancing wildly, and being "tormented by spirits" are common elements in shamanic initiatory crises. In shamanic cultures, spiritual crises are interpreted as an indication of an individual's destiny to become a shaman, rather than than a sign of mental illness.
For example, the Siberian shaman Kyzalov entered a state of "madness" lasting for seven years which resulted in his initiation as a shaman. He reported that during those years he had been beaten up several times, taken to many strange places including the top of a sacred mountain, chopped into pieces and boiled in a kettle, met the spirits of sickness, and acquired the drum and garment of a dead shaman. Being "tormented" by spirits, babbling confused words, displaying curious eating habits, singing continuously, and dancing wildly are other common elements in initiatory crises; in our society today these experiences would be considered evidence of a psychotic disorder and could possibly result in hospitalization. Yet when Kyzalov recuperated, he reported that, "the shamans declared, 'You are the sort of man who may become a shaman; you should become a shaman. You must begin to shamanize.' "2 If the illness occurs in an appropriate cultural context, the shaman returns from the crisis not only healed, but able to heal others.
Individuals in Western cultures occasionally experience similar problems. The Grofs note that shamanic crises can mimic it hysteria, schizophrenia or epilepsy. The Grofs point out that, "People experiencing such crises can also show spontaneous tendencies to create rituals that are identical to those practiced by shamans of various cultures" (p. 14-15). But as with shamans in traditional cultures, when persons in this type of spiritual emergency receive proper guidance, they also can return with gifts for healing others.
Online Resources on Shamanism
The Way of the Shaman
with Michael Harner, PhD
Foundation for Shamanic Studies
Michael Harner's organization which disseminates information and offers training programs
FAQ soc.religion.shamanism
Links on Shamanism
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