Towards an experiential analysis of shamanism

Abstract

A comprehensive delineation of the ecstatic states of shamans is developed along the lines of cross‐cultural psychiatry. Psychiatric concepts, such as dissociation, role playing and hypnosis, are integrated with the ethnographic literature on spirit possession, soul journey and other forms of shamanic ecstasy in order to shed light upon some old anthropological controversies regarding the psychopathology and authenticity of the shaman's trance. Forty‐two cultures, from four different cultural areas, are compared in order to determine a set of experiential and psychological factors that collectively identify what is meant by shamanic ecstasy. Shamanic ecstasy is identified as a specific class of ASC involving: (a) voluntary control of entrance and duration of trance, (b) posttrance memory, and (c) transic communicative interplay with spectators. [shamanism, altered states of consciousness, spirit possession, ethnopsychiatry]

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