What is a shaman and what do they do?

Question

What is a shaman and what do they do?

Answer 1

A shaman is a medicine man or woman.

Shamen are spiritual beings with the ability to heal, work with energies and 'see' visions. The essential characteristics of the shaman are mastery of energy and fire as a medium of transformation.

Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices that involve the ability to diagnose and cure, among other things. Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds.

Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits that affect the lives of the living. Oftentimes the shaman has one or more familiar helping entities in the spirit world; these are often spirits in animal form, spirits of healing plants, or even those of departed shamans.

Shamanistic traditions have existed throughout the world since prehistoric times and are thought to predate all organized religions.

Answer 2

The shaman in tribal cultures is the person who sees into the sacred world. The shaman brings their sacred visions of ancient spirits and power animals out as ritual. By this ritual process, most similar to prayer, imagery, and art, the shaman heals themselves, others, and the earth. By having visions of healing, and doing sacred ritual, the shaman makes the visions come true. The shaman manifests reality in the outer world, from the visionary world. That is the same way the world was created from Her vision. We are all Her vision on earth, we are.

Answer 3

Shamans have been described as Medicine People, Healers, Magicians, Herbalists, to name just a few. The word Shaman originated in Eastern Siberia. It means to “heat or burn up” to work with heat and fire. They are masters of energy, especially using fire as a medium of transformation. They are “walkers between the worlds” easily able to travel to other planes of existence, meeting spirits, gods, or supreme beings. Bringing information back for the benefit of their families and communities. They can transform themselves from the physical to the spiritual at will, reaching the realm of the soul because they become pure soul. At these times they are they are in complete control of themselves, no spirit can control them, they in fact are in control of spirit .

Answer 4

A Shaman is a very wise and spiritual, he  will help you to resolve any problems you may have.  Usually he is a very good person and a believer, some have the gift of healing and some have the gift of second sight.

Answer 5

They are people (men or women) who are supposed to be able to see the future and heal the sick. I would like to know one personally just to see if they really can do what they are supposed to be able to do. If they can heal the sick, I'd be a real challenge.

Answer 6

Shamanism is classified by anthropologists as an archaic magico-religious phenomenon in which the shaman is the great master of ecstasy. Shamanism was defined by the late Mircea Eliade as a technique of ecstasy.  The distinguishing characteristic of shamanism is its focus on an ecstatic trance state in which the soul of the shaman is believed to leave the body and ascend to the sky (the heavens) or descend into the earth (the underworld). The shaman makes use of spirit helpers, with whom he or she communicates, all the while retaining control over his or her own consciousness.  Traditional shamans developed techniques for lucid dreaming and what is today called the out-of-the-body experience.   Along with these techniques, the near-death-experience have played a significant role in shamanic practice and initiation for millenia.   Survival of a brush with death provides the shaman with personal experiences which strengthen his or her ability to work effectively with others. Having experienced something, a shaman is more likely to understand what must be done to correct a condition or situation.  The ability to consciously move beyond the physical body is the particular specialty of the traditional shaman. These journeys of Soul may take the shaman into the nether realms, higher levels of existence or to parallel physical worlds or other regions of this world. Shamanic Flight is the shamans flight beyond the limitations of the physical body.  

Shamanism as a spiritual practice focuses on the personal experience of the shaman.  Everything that a shaman does depends upon this experience. Without it, there is no shaman.   Personal experience with and knowledge of other realms of being and consciousness and the cosmology of those regions are prime determinants of shamanism. With this knowledge, the shaman is able to serve as a bridge between the mundane and the higher and lower states.

In contemporary, historical or traditional and nontraditional shamanic practice the shaman may fill the role of priest, magician, metaphysician or healer.

For more information, see:

http://deoxy.org/shaover.htm#2

Answer 7

witch doctor I am sorry if I offended anyone -It was a bad attempt at humor.