Shamans, mediums and healers

Myth and religious practice

• Myths describe supernatural events..– As powerful narratives of border

crossing/making the impossible possible etc. etc.

– Healing and restoration of order from chaos are popular themes

Forms of healing

• Contrast between restoration/correction– (illness due to breach of taboos; imbalance,

mental or physical; exposure to powerful but non-malign forces)

• .. And repelling influence of malign forces– Oracles– Magic/expiation

Restorative healing

• Miracle cures• Faith healing• “Laying on of hands”

Healing in religion

• Miraculous cures in sacred stories/myth

• The “whole” body– Integrity must be

restored– Or influences

balanced In Christianity, the curing of the woman with 12 years of bleeding by her touching the “fringes” of Jesus’s garments, followed closely by the restoration to life of the 12 year old daughter of Jairus.

Traditional healing

• Ethnopharmacy– Plants– Minerals/animal

products– Preparation– May well have

therapeutic qualities

Shamans…

• Claims to power– Based on individual

ability to mediate between human and spirit world

– Means of accessing powers – flight/possession?

• Body of knowledge• Persuasive performers

Shamans and spiritual power

• Initiation – trauma/encounter

• Myths sanctify initiation– Are replayed in rituals

– Use of drugs/hallucinogenics

Ritual and shamans

• Rites of affliction–Diagnosis and cure–… more on this..–Trance

Sora shamanism

Spirit propitiation

• Rites of intensification– For specific activities– Towards specific supernatural powers

• Pantheons– Legitimate supernatural entities/powers

• Regular, patterned– Prophylactic as well as redemptive/restorative– Community identity (“our” spirits, rituals)

Practical orientation• “Continuous assessment”

– Can they ensure and provide health to individuals?

• Serve community needs– Identity and meaning– “our spirits”

How is it all done?

• Magic is two-sided– Smoke and mirrors is appropriate aid to– …. Spiritual interaction

Audience manipulation?

• Magic is used to propel performance in many religions

Reputation and performance

• Engagement/persuasion• “He didn’t become a great shaman

because he healed people but he healed people because he was a great shaman.”

Biomedicine and traditional healing?

• People DO use western medicine– How is it integrated with traditional remedies?

• Some healers work with doctors• Need to understand significance of healing

ritual