The Shaman (or chamane, Shaman) is presented in the form of an intercessor between the man and the spirits of nature. It has a perception of the world which one describes today as Holistique in his common direction or Animiste (see also the Théories Gaïa). The Shaman is at the same time: wise, therapeutist, healer and indicator. He is the initiate and the agent of the Culture, the beliefs and the practices of the Chamanisme, of the people from which he is resulting. One finds it mainly in the traditional companies.

Etymology

This term comes from the Tungus Shaman ( nobody who has Knowledge ). A confusion with Shramana Sanskrit or samana (which indicated Ascète S) let think that the two terms had a common source, but it of it is nothing.

Function within the traditional companies

to see detailed article Shamanism

The role is mainly assumed by men with functions very varied in the traditional companies, including the direction of the tribe, the development and the direction of the Rituel S, the cure by its knowledge of the plants or a direct psychic action, teaching, the council; these roles are often combined.

The supposed aptitudes of the Shamans are, inter alia, a perception extra sensory; variable psychic capacities according to the traditions and the individuality of the Shaman (Telepathy, Prescience, vision at long distances, Divination…); as a Psychopompe, it connects the world of deaths, the Au-delà, with that of alive by a series of personal transformations, sometimes by the use of substances Psychotrope S, guided by a older Shaman , according to a relation Maître - Disciple.

The chamane acquired a certain popularity for a public of the modern societies in research of mystical experiments or after the reading of the books of Carlos Castaneda. Thus, the offers of chamanic initiations containing psychotropic substance like the Ayahuasca and the Iboga, for example, did the one of the newspapers, causing debates and a polemic on their possible harmfulness and the possible difficulties which could meet of the European townsmen who would engage blindly in such practices.

Internal bonds

• Shamanism