Transforming the Shaman: Changing Western Views of Shamanism and Altered States of Consciousness

This article documents the changes in the Western notions of shamanism, the shamanic healer, and the role of altered states of consciousness (ASC). Before the Age of Enlightenment, the shaman was condemned as daemoniac charlatan. From the mid-19th until the mid-20th century, the shaman was generally considered as afflicted with a psychiatric or epileptic condition; a notion based on the misinterpretation of altered states of consciousness in shamanic rituals as psychopathological. The pathology labeling of shamanic healers and their rituals constitutes a eurocentric and positivistic fallacy. The therapeutic ability of shamanic practitioners and the psychotherapeutic efficacy of shamanic healing rituals have now been recognized. Today we witness the revival of shamanic ceremonials in many indigenous populations. We can also observe a popularization of shamanism in post-modern Western society. The apparent transformation of the shaman and shamanism has been determined by significant changes in the Western zeitgeist.