What is Shamanism? An Interview by Jane Thurnell-Read

When I wanted to do an interview on shamanism it was natural for me to turn to Simon Buxton who is the founder/director of The Sacred Trust. Simon has worked and trained extensively within shamanic traditions for over twenty years. His work as a shamanic healer has been recognised and endorsed by both contemporary shamans and members of the medical community. He is also author of The Shamanic Way Of The Bee.

What Is Shamanism?

“It is without dispute the most time-tested system of purposeful integration of everything that we are (emotional, physical, spiritual, ecological). It’s at least 40,000 years old – wherever you are from your ancestors would have practised it, and it underlies all other spiritual traditions on the planet. The word ‘shaman’ comes from the Tungusic speaking peoples who live in Siberia and northern China. Its most common translation is ‘he/she who knows or sees’. So what do shamans ‘see’? They see what is invisible to others – that is, the spirits, and the emphasis within shamanism -is that it is not a belief system, but rather is based on first-hand experience.. Shamanism is animistic – that is, everything is understood as being alive and having a spirit, and that includes – as strange as it might sound - things like computers, as well as people, animals and trees. And by the way, it’s very useful to be able to communicate with the spirit of one’s computer when it’s playing up!

“Shamans learn to commune with their tutelary spirits for help and assistance on any and all matters. They move from this reality (commonly known as ‘ordinary reality’) into a parallel universe (known as ‘non-ordinary reality’) where they can communicate and seek advice from these remarkable, compassionate spirits. Within shamanism both these realities are seen as being as ‘real’ as each other – in fact in some cultures non-ordinary reality is seen as holding greater validity than this one. Non-ordinary reality is understood to be outside of time and space: Everything that has ever has happened and everything that ever will happen is occurring simultaneously in this separate reality, and this phenomena allows the shaman to travel into both the past and the future for problem solving, healing and gaining answers to pressing and urgent questions.

“ As regards the all-important healing work undertaken, well - cross-culturally it is considered from a shamanic perspective that every illness had a spiritual component, even a broken leg! People get ill because either they’ve ‘lost’ something they should have (often part of their ‘soul’) or they have ‘got’ something they shouldn’t have (usually what is referred to as ‘object’ or spiritual ‘intrusion’). Soul loss and object intrusion are the oldest disease theories in the world and in every shamanic culture that has been studied in detail, one or both of these theories are very well understood and actively engaged with to bring about health well-being. This is a key part of the work.”

What happens in a shamanic session?

“One of the distinguishing features of shamanism is that the initial diagnostic work that will take place with a new client is not done by the practitioner – rather the problem is handed over to the shamanic practitioner’s tutelary spirit or spirits. These spirits are considered to be all-knowing, however, they are not considered to be all-powerful, and this brings about the need for partnership with a human being in order to be able to undertake the work. The client doesn’t need to be there, but typically will be.

“The shamanic practitioner would typically utilise certain tools to move into what in the modern world is often referred to as the shamanic state of consciousness, a state where communication with the spirit world can occur. – The most common tool to induce this particular sate of consciousness is the drum. A drum is played at a monotonous tempo – 4 to 7 beats a second and in doing that the brain becomes entrained and moves into an altered state of consciousness where the practitioner can meet their spirit teachers and tutors. It’s interesting that modern scientific research has shown that there are 5 primary brain wave patterns. Theta, which is associated with artistry, creativity and ecstatic states, is 4.5 to 7.5 Hz per second, so science is now giving the rationale for the application of that tempo. Theta is the state of consciousness that exists between being awake and being asleep – shamans are always looking for places that are between – like ‘cracks’ they can go through to another reality.

Anyway, the shaman will be instructed as to what healing work the client may be in need of and this might, for example, be soul retrieval medicine. This would involve the shaman bringing back to the person’s body parts of their soul – that is, the person’s essence, their animating vitality, their spirit. Why might they be missing part of their soul? Well, in our modern culture the very idea of soul loss sounds absurd to many people, but within shamanic cultures it is known that trauma can cause soul loss; that is – at a moment of trauma the person may seek to leave the traumatic situation; they will – to use a modern term, ‘dissociate’. What is of interest here is that within the psychological traditions the word ‘dissociation’ is used a great deal, but there is little or no idea as to exactly what dissociates and where whatever dissociates actually goes.Within shamanism this is well understood: it is part of the soul that fragments or dissociates, and these fragments move into a parallel reality. The shaman learns to track these soul-parts and bring them back to a person’s body.

"Incidentally, it may be of interest to learn of some of the more common symptoms of soul loss: the most obvious symptom, as I’ve mentioned, is disassociation; people feel fragmented; they feel that are merely the observers of life rather than participants; like watching a film. People talk about “I simply don’t feel here’, or ‘I don’t know where I fit in’. Post traumatic stress disorder is a further example of soul loss. Any form of addiction may be indicative of soul loss, in that we are looking for outside, external sources to fill up the empty spaces inside: drugs, alcohol, food, work, sex, relationships, sleep, material objects, money, shoes and so on. When we try to fill up from external sources, we are really looking for our souls. Anyone who says ‘I have never been the same since...’ - not in a positive way; - well, this is a symptom of soul loss. People who cannot get over the death of a loved one, or a divorce. There is a very normal period of grief, but when years pass and they cannot get on with their lives, this may well be soul loss. However, as I have said, it is the shamanic practitioner’s spirits - not the shamanic practitioner - who will determine what healing work needs to be undertaken for the client, whether that is soul retrieval or something quite else.

“Another observation is that within shamanic healing in the modern Western world we make a division between what we call the ‘cure’ and the ‘healing’ . We see the bringing of the ‘cure’ as the work done by the shamanic practitioner together with his or her spirits, with the ‘healing’ being the ultimate responsibility of the client. The client has to do the integrative work – which is typically guided by the shamanic practitioner’s spirits. Thus, it’s the client’s job to make sure the fix sticks! Perhaps it will make it clearer if I give you a real-life example. A heavy smoker with lung cancer visited a shaman who successfully ‘extracted’ the cancer, and the the person who received this miraculous cure was ready to return to their old life and habits. But the person was told that – rather obviously - if she went back to her old life she might step back into the illness. She had to make changes – give up smoking for a start!

“As part of the integration work that may be given to clients, shamanic practitioners often encourage people to interact with nature and allow nature to reveal her wisdom. We are children of the earth, not just in an abstract way, but in a real and direct way. We need to ask her to share her wisdom with us. This might sound like the worst tree-hugging new-age nonsense, but it’s not new age nonsense, its stone-age wisdom! Shamans have always known that nature is the’ visible face of spirit’ and thus sitting, for example, with a tree and asking the tree for advice on how to root the soul parts back into this life makes perfect sense from this perspective – the tree is the visible face of spirit, spirit which is all knowing, compassionate and wise..”

Who can benefit?

“On the one extreme, shamanism is used every day across the world for extremely chronic and challenging problems – assisting people with extreme depression, cancers and so on. Beyond that, as well being used to bring people back to life as it were, it is also used in assisting people who are dying and who have died. This is the role of shaman as ‘psychopomp’ – the conductor of souls. But it is also used as a means of bringing answers to important questions – that is, the ancient art of divination. When people embrace the basic methods of cross-cultural shamanism themselves, and learn to commune directly with their own wise and compassionate healing spirits, they are reclaiming their spiritual authority, which is something that for most people was taken from them with the introduction of state religions many hundreds of years ago. This reclaiming of our spiritual authority is, to me, the great gift that shamanism has to offer.”

How do you find a good shamanic practitioner?

“Shamanism is not regulated in the same way as most other complementary and alternative therapies are. How could it be? The most any certificate could suggest is that the person has been instructed in certain techniques and methods, but there is no way that any certification could guarantee that the practitioner would maintain their relationship with their tutelary spirit – no one can guarantee that, even the most experienced shamans - and if that factor is not in place, authentic shamanic work cannot take place. So, put simply - recommendation is the best way to find a good shamanic practitioner.”

You can email Simon or visit the Sacred Trust web site. Check out our therapy listing to find a shamanic healer .