Shamanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. Its practitioners claim the ability to diagnose and cure human suffering and, in some societies, the ability to cause suffering. This is believed to be accomplished by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits. 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. Shamanistic traditions have existed throughout the world since prehistoric times.

Some anthropologists and religion scholars define a shaman as an intermediary between the natural and spiritual world, who travels between worlds in a state of trance. Once in the spirit world, the shaman would commune with the spirits for assistance in healing, hunting or weather management. Ripinsky-Naxon describes shamans as, “People who have a strong interest in their surrounding environment and the society of which they are a part.”

Other anthropologists critique the term "shamanism", arguing that it is a culturally specific word and institution and that by expanding it to fit any healer from any traditional society it produces a false unity between these cultures and creates a false idea of an initial human religion predating all others. However, others say that these anthropologists simply fail to recognize the commonalities between otherwise diverse traditional societies.

Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits that affect the lives of the living. In contrast to animism and animatism, which any and usually all members of a society practice, shamanism requires specialized knowledge or abilities. It could be said that shamans are the experts employed by animists or animist communities. Shamans are not, however, often organized into full-time ritual or spiritual associations, as are priests.

-- Into taken from www.wikipedia.org

That's what I understand a Shaman is, so in MY point of view a Shaman is something like a channel (sp) but a shaman is also like an exorcist, it helps You get rid of um evil spirits and stuff, what do you all think?

Well, if a Shaman is an intermediary between this world and the next, I would say that is a fair and true statement... if this individual can commune with spirits for weather management, healing etc, why not be able to use that same 'gift' to stop the bad guys, so to speak...

well here is a pic of a shaman, perhaps gigan, shamans aren't like full psychics but just people who have had plenty of encounters with ghosts and.. can guess on what measures to take to prevent them from attacking etc? Sort of like what namasavian (in the other threads) wants to show us from the "priests" or shamans in india? perhaps shamans are different... well here's the pic you tell me what you think they can or can't do

Actually, you are correct. It is believed that the Shaman enters a trance and then attempts to sever the connection between the entity and the person by drawing out the entity by using herbs, drums, rattles and dance. Don't have a clue where you find a Shaman now days.....

good point, I didnt know that, and yes shamans can be rather hard to find but I've heard they're still around and they're like part of human history, like prostitutes. lol

I guess Saminism is what I have been doing for more than 20 years.

I have tried to relay some of the things I have been doing as far as Healings and all sorts of things.

I do weather control in my area all the time.

Like today when a Storm was blowing up and i went outside and put my Palms towards the Sky as I do quite often and said ok God lets have some sunshine down here please and within a very short time the Sun was shining brightly.

I can go outside when its cold and overcast and get into my car to go somewhere and I will hold my palms up to the sky and or put my face up and almost immediately a blinding sun will shine upon my face and I will smile.

Healings are done the same way.
You point your hands towards the person and say a Prayer and recite some words and ask that they be healed and then quite often if its someone you don't know you will hear news reports that say their survival can be considered a Miracle.

Once I watched a television show where a man lay in a Coma for seven yers after being shot and I wrote the information down and touched the pages and pointed my palms towards the patient and not long after that he awakened and knew everyone and it was as though he had been asleep all those years and just awakened.

I of course can't prove these things anymore than anyone else can but I do them all the time anyway because I also have no proof that they don't work but something sure works.

that's real nice rosemary, lol, perhaps you can cure me from my allergies. =)

I know that people with brown hair or blondes whose hair color is influenced by the need for more Niacin which makes brown hair and some blondes if they decend from Brown Haired people have more allergies of all kinds.

Niacin is the dominant B-Vitamin in Brown Hair and some types of blondes.

Red Hair is influenced by Folic Acid and Thiamine.

Black Hair is influenced by Thiamine and Folic as the Secondary.

Having said that we all need good balance of the B-Complex Vitamins to be Healthy but depending on our hair color and body type and inherited genetic traits from our parents and grandparents we begin to understand which of the B-Complex Vitamins our own particular body needs more of to ward off not only allergies but diseases of all kinds.

This is some of the Knowledge I have been trying to pass on to Planet Earth from my Communicaters from Beyond the Veil of Death.

"beyond the veil of death" would make a great song title...
shamans are still around, mostly in indiginous cultures, but there are a few who practice "modern shamanism, like what this fella is into -Dr Micheal Harner. try googling for more...

lol, that WOULD be a good name for a song, no, for an album, by the way rosemary, What is a B-Complex Vitamin ? what type of carbohydrates it's got and membranes, etc ? Never heard of Complex Proteins.

Actually someone in the Spirit World has for years sang a song like that to me.
Usually when he is giving me information on a Murder he will sing this song to me.
Beyond The Veil Of Death...
I point My Finger at the one on Earth who did this to me.
And he sings it over and over again.

dear christ rosemary your songs just go so far!!

Interesting rosemary

=D

" Don't have a clue where you find a Shaman now days"
Oh there are more than you might think ! ( they just don't advertise )

How do you know that? Did you Google them, research them, know some?

I know people, who know people

is a wiccan um, body healer and whatnot with leaves and drugs considered a shaman ?

I don't think I am the right person to answer that question,
I think this should be answered by a wiccan. Any wiccans
out there?

woah k la! I've never seen a wiccan in my life! wait.. I think the user darkdante (look him up in my friends list) is a wiccan, he doesn't get on much though, as far as I've read there's only 100000 wiccans in U.S. Newest religion of them all

I'm not Wiccan, I'm Pagan (Yes there is a difference). But I grew up in a place rich with both a Wiccan and Shamanistic culture. Hopefully my personal experiences can help clear this up for you.

Shamanistic ways seem to be more nature based. Yes, they call on spirits to aide them, but it's not 'demanding' or 'casting' it's more like... asking for guidance. Shaman rely on signals from nature to tell them if they can do something. It's more working with nature to get what you need.

Where in Wicca (Mind you the covens I used to be around some of them did things the 'wrong way' and others were more like the Shaman) spells are more like 'demands' to the spirits. Yes they make an offering like the Shaman, but the way the ceremony feels is different. Each group does things differently. To me Wiccan ceremonies felt like it was more of forcing nature to do what you wanted.

Gah, hope that makes sense because currently I'm on pain meds and only partially awake.

Thanks a lot Tejina for the info, it was clear and to the point, the difference is quite big, shamans seem to be nicer to the ghosts haha

Zeus, you might like to read up on Voodoo as practised in Haiti.
This branch of the religion has, i believe, some lore regarding the forcing of spirits to do the will of the practitioner. This method is said to lead to the creation of zombies. Cool!

Voodoo leads to the creation of Zombies? I wonder how.. No wonder all these games with zombies and witches include voodoo dolls

Even stranger: apparently "Voodoo" dolls come from European tradition - not African or Haitian.

That makes sense since Europe is a place full of history (most of the inquisition, lots of roman fights.. the spanish armies..) But I personally don't know if VooDoo dolls are real, Although my unlucky cousin ( and I say unlucky cause he gets injured BIG time each year (sent to hospital and stuff)) said that this girl onces made a voodoo doll of him and whenever she hurt a part of it's body , that part of his body would suffer an injury...

Voodoo dolls are quite the sensation you should start a thread on it or something.

yes, i also came across this fact a few months ago, when reading about the subject, and i found out about "poppets", which have been (and still are) commonly used implements in European magick...moreover, the whole "doll" thing seems to originate from ancient Greek and Egyptian cultures:

...in 1100 BCE, the many enemies of Pharaoh Ramses III of Egypt (which included the women of his harem and a treasury official) used wax images of him to bring about his death..

The ancient Greeks often used sympathetic magick in love or defensive spells. Christopher Faraone, Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago, is one of the foremost authorities on Greek magick today. Faraone states that Greek poppets, called Kolossoi, were sometimes used to restrain a ghost or even a dangerous deity. They could also be used to bind two lovers together.

The Greek tragedian Theocritus refers to melting and burning wax dolls in Idyll 2, The Witch (Pharmakeutria), which was written around 270 b.c. He describes the ways in which Simaetha, who has been dumped by her lover, Delphis, attempts to lure him back to her with magic. At the same time, she tries to make him forget any woman who might be a potential rival.

SOURCE

bind two lovers together? That's freaking amazing I gotta try that see if I can get to see my girl again soon, Now I want to believe in voodooism lol