Description

A guide to authentic North Asian Shamanism past and present

The word shamanism is frequently bandied about but rarely used accurately Shamanologist Nicholas Breeze Wood coined the following definition A shaman is someone chose by the spirits typically at/before birth and who can go into a controlled and repeatable deliberate trance state during which they A experience spirit flight where they go to meet the spirit worlds and meet spirits who they either fight with negotiate with or trick in order to create change in this physical world or B are often taken over/possessed by the spirits normally ancestral shaman spirits or local land spirits while in this physical worldthe spirits using the shamans voice and body to heal or give advice to members of the shamans community Without the spirits and their blessing a shaman can not exist or function Without the trance state it is not shamanism

Author David Shi for whom these are family traditions explores the history and practice of shamanism What is it Where is it from How does one become a shaman Shi guides listeners through unfamiliar territorythe landscape of North Asiaand through what are largely hidden and unfamiliar traditions Spirit Voices takes and indepth look at three main cultural shamanic traditions Turkic Mongolic and Tungus