Spirit Medicine

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TYPES OF SPIRIT

  • ANIMISM-belief in unique spirit beings which animate the world
  • SYMPATHETIC MAGIC
  • CONTAGIOUS MAGIC
  • ANIMITISM-belief in one force that animates the world
  • mantra: vital force (magic) of words
    • RITUAL in which magical and spiritual elements are invoked, relies on the POWERS OR PERSUASION, FELICITY and NORMATIVELY rather than requiring proof like in science.
MANA (Pacific Islands)
  • impersonal spiritual substance which may be present in all things (animalistic force), and which concentrates in persons of high social standing, who can share its powers and benefits with others.
  • grows with generosity and warfare
  • diminished through arrogance, anger and selfish deeds
ILLNESS AS RITES OF PASSAGE (Van Gennep)
  • sees severe illness as a transformative journey (especially for chronic, life threatening illnesses), where sufferers experience a deathlike loss of their former selves and then a transformed sense of self
  • change in spirit
ALTERED STATES
  • SHAMANS: purposely place themselves in altered states in order to bring healing and wisdom to their communities and the afflicted.
    • herbal medicines
    • magical incantations
    • readers the causes of misfortune
    • experiences
      • being pricked by needles Zambia
      • shook violently as you were undertaken by a spirit -nepal
      • visions and frightful dreams -soviet shaman
      • Hungary-postural trance with the use of drums to invoke healing
  • WITCHES & SORCERERS: dark/white magic
    • use the powers of nature
    • seek to cultivate the divine within
  • Most cultures to not embrace CARTESIAN DUALISM, the clear distinction between mind, body and soul. 
  • Understanding of the soul is diverse
    • ELIADE "techniques of ecstasy" (trance)
      • commonly interpreted as experiences of union with the divine, revelation or enlightenment
HPNOSIS, SPIRITS & HEALING
    • Hypnosis gained popularity in the 18h century because of the work of Franz Anton Mesmer in France & James Braid (hypnotism)
    • value of mental creativity, ope and trust in these endeavors
    • Example:Marginalization of African Women and Spirt possession
      • in the ritual act of embodying spirits, women can challenge  patriarchal authority and traditional norms, behaving in ways commonly forbidden in "proper" society, bending gender roles and expectations, and resisting the pressures, demand and violence they encounter in everyday life.
    • PLACEBO EFFECT: the power of belief to induce positive changes
    Variety of Hallucinogens are used indigenously

    • Mecaline
    • mushrooms
    • Psilocybin 
    • LSD
    Active Ingredients:

    • similar to neurotransmitters in the human body. 
    • therapist or shaman acts as a GUIDE to help the patient integrate the experiences within the larger life context
    • uses ritual, mythic, and symbolic elements to change the patient's awareness of self and break up habitual experiences of the world (become more suggestible)
    WINKELMAN: Therapeutic uses for hallucinogens:
    • effecting neural, sensory, emotional, and cognitive processes
    • can be effective in treating ADDICTIONS due to their ability to induce the RELAXATION RESPONSE, enhance THETA WAVE PRODUCTION, and stimulate endogenous opted and sterotogenic mechanisms and their MOOD ELEVATING effects.
      • shamanic drumming approach to treating addictions 
    FAITH HEALING
    • ritual healing and religious pilgrimage
    • COMMUNITAS: collective consciousness which emerges during religious ritual, infusing the community with power and solidarity
    • health and longevity benefits of social involvement
    • ECSTACY/ENSTACY: (Eliade) Ritual offers humans the opportunity to renew themselves and the world around them by uniting with the divine through ritual action
      • example: girls puberty rituals as healing among the Apache
    • PILGRIMAGE (Turner): pilgrimage is a breach of time and space
      • when social order is temporarily suspended or challenged-possibility for great change-personal and communal.
      • LIMINALITY: socially ambiguous states often incorporating hardships or chjallenges into transitions
        • exorcism
        • pilgrimage (extended period of liminality)-Vietnam War to the Wall, Hajj to Mecca (path of Mohammed), Kumbh Mela (Allabbad), Lourdes---
          • identity differennces suspended, communitas, modifications of perceptions & consciousness, possibility of transformation & healing
          • sickness=sin: cure is to be "touched" by sacred-object, person, place
            • healing restored or enhanced social status
            • suffering is remade into a meaningful and powerful narrative in culture
            • miracles
        • vision quest
        • sweat lodge
        • drum circle
      • ritual has the potential to rejuvenate self and society

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