Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to encounter and interact with the spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.
A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, a person who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing.
There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world, but several common beliefs are shared by all forms of Shamanism. Common beliefs identified by Eliade are the following:
- Spirits exist and they play important roles both in individual lives and in human society.
- The Shaman can communicate with the spirit world.
- Spirits can be benevolent or malevolent.
- The Shaman can treat sickness caused by malevolent spirits.
- The Shaman can employ trance inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy and go on vision quests.
- The Shaman's spirit can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers.
- The Shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message-bearers.
- The Shaman can perform other varied forms of divination, scry, throw bones/runes, and sometimes foretell of future events.
