SHAMAN SHAMAN: The word "shaman" originates from the Tungus people in northern Siberia, and could also be related to the Hindu word Samaa or Sramaa, which means monk. Mircea Eliades’ investigation dating from 1951 (Shamanism) proved that shamanism was a universal phenomenon. Fifty different methods of practice in China, Japan, Australia, North and South America have very much in common. The Shaman functions as a link between different levels of reality. By going into a trance, using music and rhythms or consciousness expanding substances, a shaman in able to acquire admission to other planes of reality, his soul can leave his body, go into heaven or into the underworld and come back with messages for his people. From Siberia, it has been described how shamans have risen through several layers of heaven, in order to receive messages from the highest Creator. A shaman in trance is also able to fly through the air or walk through fire. He is a combination of priest, poet, wizard and medicine man. Even though most shamans are men, some tribes have traditionally given this title to women. The Igorot people from the Luzon mountains on the Philippines, have assumed the Christian belief, but their link between this world and the spiritual world are "aniteras", the traditional female shamans. The community’s religious life is centred on the shaman as an intermediary between life and the gods, as an escort for the souls of the dead, and as a healer for the living. In a way, the Old Testament prophets could be considered shamans, even though their monotheism was not typical. As the communities changed, the shaman practices were divided into various skills and tricks, and the shaman was replaced by the blacksmith, the wizard, the astrologer, the priest, the poet and the philosopher. During the middle ages in Europe, some of these roles were for a while reunited in the alchemist, who was sponsored by a wealthy protector whilst working with The Great Work, but probably only by invoking the ability to create great material riches for the protector, by transforming base metal to gold. Back