The Psychosocial Model of Shamanic Trance - Assignment Example

Q1. In the psychosocial model of shamanic trance, the shaman plays the role of mediator between spirit worlds. The Hmong, for example, recognize the propensity for everyone's spirit to migrate, but the shaman or txiv neeb has the ability to intentionally send his spirit outward during his lifetime. On one hand, shamans cross-culturally emphasize their communion with the spirit world. But on the other hand, shamans maintain social and economic relations with the other members of their communities. In the mysterious world of seen and unseen forces, the shaman acts as an interlocutor by using trances and visions in his sances to establish contact and bridge the gaps between worlds. The shamanic experience fits into the culture's mundis imaginalis, the way the members of a certain culture perceive the world. The shaman's role as healer requires communal recognition and acceptance. When a shaman is in training, there are often spirit helpers and human assistants who facilitate the process of the shamanic journey. The shaman's assistant will help to increase the vividness of the visions summoned in the shamanic trance by encouraging recollection of some things and avoiding others. In a trance state, mental imagery resulting from temporal and occipital lobe activity is perceived as real. The more perceptually real and detailed a vision is, the greater its cognitive and psychological effect will be. Just as keeping a dream diary will tend to sharpen the recall and intensify a person's dreams, the shaman's training has a similar effect. One essential aspect of training is the ability to control visions. The trainee learns to start and stop visions at will. The processes are kindled and tuned by the trainer. A shaman who is unable to control the vision process will be perceived as a bad shaman, as lack of control indicates that the spirits are in charge. In societies where oral traditions are observed as the main method of transferring information from one generation to the next, the shaman helps the community to remember the sacral world by recalling and interpreting and re-enacting it. The shaman is active in different arenas, including the role of diagnostician and healer. But the role in preserving the tradition of the culture also constitutes a vital contribution to society. Q2. The therapeutic triangle is described by Jane Atkinson in her investigations on the Wana people in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Contrary to Western medicine, where the pathological process and the healing rituals are confined to the patient suffering the symptoms, the shamanistic healing traditions extend treatment to involve the entire community. The triangle consists of patient, shaman and community and the relationship between each dyad is affected by the relationship to the third party. In show of solidarity (kasintuwu) the entire community may contribute to or participate in the healing in some way. The shamanic leader becomes the focus of attention during the sance and may fall into unconsciousness until the hungry spirit is revived with food or drink. The patient may in some cases be replaced by a surrogate and not take part in the actual ceremony at all. As the relationship between shaman and community are elaborated, the role of the patient in this therapeutic triangle is decreased. In contrast, Western understanding of healing remains myopically focused on the patient alone, or at best the patient healer dyad. Therefore Atkinson stresses the need for ethnologists to use descriptive models which reflect the complex, culturally differentiated negotiation that takes place between healer, patient and community. Many other shamanic traditions parallel the perhaps seemingly extreme Wana healer-community-patient triad. Although one particular individual may be suffering from somatic or psychological complaints, the person's family and community will also be aware of and feel the changes resulting from that person's illness. The other parties will perceive and react to the disruption that the suffering and changed behaviors of the patient may cause. Disruption of normal economic and emotional relations, of systems of interdependence and mutual support will lead to manifestations in the surroundings, including anger, guilt and frustration. The collective malaise can be relieved by the shamanic sance which has therapeutic effects which are beneficial to the community as well as the patient. Korean shamans, for example, will often heal entire households to reconcile family members to each other and to the ancestors and gods. Q3. In his 1986 article "Universal Aspects of Symbolic Healing: A Theoretical Synthesis" which appeared in the American Anthologist, James Dow describes four steps which can interrelate the narrative aspects of shamanic treatments and symbolic healing in Western medicine. According to James, the first step involves the existence of culture-specific symbols in a cultural myth explaining sickness and healing. The patients and staff at a Western facility share a common myth which involves blood chemicals and normal and pathological states in various systems of the body. The shaman, patient and community also share an understanding of the world and how the cosmos works, and what leads to sickness and disease. This may be something like angered spirits, ancestral displeasure, malicious neighbors, or certain humors that need to be kept in balance to maintain well-being. Within the context of the given cultural narrative, the patient's ailment is explained in step two. The Western physician may explain about abnormalities in X-Ray images or the value of pressure measures on a cuff on the patient's arm. The healer persuades the patient that his or her problem can be explained in the context of the myth, pointing out specific irregularities and offering theories as to how they occurred. In the third step, shamans convince the patient, and perhaps the community, of their ability to correct the situation, inspiring confidence in their healing competence. Confidence and positive expectations of the outcome are pivotal to the success of the procedure. The healer attaches the patient's emotions to transactional symbols specified in the context of the general myth to then, in step four, manipulate the transactional symbols to improve the patient's condition. This produces aspects of healing: hope, action and empowerment. However, the model does not adequately explain how healing can work when the shaman's narrative is inaudible, or barely understandable, too metaphorical or tangiential to be intelligible or even when healing occurs across spatial separation. Some shamans treat patients without being in the same room. Other models are required to supplement James' findings in such cases. Q4. Ritual music plays a key role in some shamanic ceremonies. In the first instance it can have a drum roll effect, calling attention to the fact that something important is about to happen and holding the attention of the spectators or participants in the ritual. More importantly perhaps, music can also serve as a pathway to ecstasy, a means by which a trance is induced that opens the connection to the powerful supernatural world. Sometimes singing spirits may emerge, sharing their message with mortals through song. Musical performances can also serve as an acoustic record of the intangible supernatural encounters. A shaman may also put a healing experience to song after the fact, using music to encapsulate the knowledge and message of a particular spirit. Intense rhythmic musical performances which accompany sances often have a mesmerizing effect, drawing the audiences subtly, or also inducing anxiety, terror or awe. In some Korean and Inuit rituals music serves to facilitate the shaman's spiritual journey to the other world while the audience supports and encourages the traveler by joining in the refrain with appropriate texts. For the blind itako shamans of Japan, acoustic stimuli have an even greater significance. Prayer beads, bos, bells and a fan-shaped drum are used as accompaniment for the sutras performed in addition to the massage, Patting and song. Musical performances may also reveal the subtle changes of characters in the spirit travels of the shaman, somewhat like sacred charades. The Temiar people of Malaysia and the Beaver people of British Colombia share the concept of dreamers who can receive messages in song from the spirits. From a physiological point of view, the effect of music can be traced to increased activity in the frontal lobe and limbic system to produce ecstasy, but also relief from symptoms of disease as severe as advanced stages of Parkinson's. When we listen to music brain cells synchronize with the pitches, harmonies and rhythms and the release of endogenous opioids produces a pleasurable state that might even go as far as the induced parasympathetic dominance known in trances. The supraindividual effects go beyond the shaman's own internal state to the level of shared supernatural encounters . Q5. Entheogens are psychotropic substances used in shamanic traditions to facilitate spiritual enlightenment. Derived from the Greek for "in", "God" and "do, or make" these substances often form an integral part of shamanic traditions. The shamanic use of entheogens is often associated with shamanic lore, tales that explain how the substance was first found, involving Gods giving sacred gifts of strength to humans or inseminating them with wisdom, or similar themes. The use of such substances has been deplored and criticized by Western scholars as being decadent and delusional. Even researchers like Carlos Castaneda and Micheal Harner who originally embraced the use of entheogens later distanced themselves from the practice, succumbing to peer pressure perhaps, of those who failed to recognize that it is the context of the use of the substance that defines its meaning rather than the mere chemical composition and the nature of the effects. Besides, many of the religious rites involving the use of entheogens have strict rules. For example the use of peyote among the Huichol involves a sacred hunt by peyoteros with special baskets. And the peyote is distributed by the shaman to all members of the community, including children. The spiritual experience lasts an entire night and the visions are then interpreted by the shaman acting as spiritual guide. However, when the context of the substance use is no longer regulated in the framework of spirituality and sacral rites, the danger of abuse and addiction is high. Thus is the case with alcohol, tobacco and opium, once themselves used commonly as entheogens in shamanic traditions in Sweden, North America and Central and South Asia respectively. These hallucinogens show similar neurophysiologic effects, affecting the neurotransmitters in the brain like serotonin and the endorphins which regulate mood, perception and level of activity. Casual recreational use can lead to compulsive use, ergo addiction. And the very same substance that was once sacred can become a scourge-much like anything in life that is taken out of its context. Legislation devised to regulate the use of hallucinogenic substances sometimes takes into account the validity of religious application, but not always. Q6. Far from being merely theatrical artifice, shamanic costumes are vehicles for spirits' presence. The costume is a whole system or assembly of the spirits of many animals. As with other material implements, the costume is a form of concretization of the relation between spirit and physical world. Mongolian shamanic costumes, for example were often made of deerskin and topped by elaborate headdresses of owl and eagle feathers, powerful raptors which the shaman could mimic in spirit flight, or to who one could appeal for guidance. The colors and appliqus were one distinguishing feature of the costumes and the feathers of the headdress were often arranged in cosmically significant numbers. Human faces or skeletons might also be embroidered on the costume to represent family connections, deities and physical characteristics of the shaman. Snakes also feature prominently on some shamanic costumes. At times the attachments to the costumes produced acoustic effects such as metal or bone pendants, tassels and bells. Manchu attached percussion implements at the waist to signal spirit journeys. Costumes were often amalgamations of different elements. Pendants could be used to attract spirits, or protect the shaman during ritual activities. Veils and masks are also common. As an extension of the costume over the shaman's face, the mask creates a lens through which the shaman views the world as well as determining how the audience view the shaman. Some masks have no eye holes so that the shaman must depend on spirit guides to lead the dance. Some shamans had different costumes and different masks to represent a variety of deities or aid in the impersonation of a range of spirits. The shaman might change costumes during the course of a sance to give access to other spirits. Hunter-gatherer societies that generally had few personal possessions imbued garb reserved for supernatural activities with great significance. Procuring the accoutrements of the costume can entail painstaking efforts. Furthermore, the costume and other implements often need to be activated by the shaman before they attain their spiritual power. Activation might involve smearing the implement with blood, or enlivening it with the spirits of the animals from whom it was made. Read More