Some cultures retain shamanism longer than others. And some cultures retain some aspects of shamanism even as they transistion through gardening to farming.

Reviving and Preserving Shamanism

The Foundation for Shamanic Studies works to help revive shamanism in cultures where it was stamped out by European occupiers, In some countries, such as Tuva and Mongolia, after being brutally persecuted by the Soviet Union for decades, shamans have come out of hiding, and shamanism has begun to flourish again.

However, it is hard to preserve animism and shamanism in modern life. The agricultural, dualistic worldview on which most world religions are based is incompatible with the animistic-shamanic reality.

Oneness vs Duality

The oneness, or nonduality, is very hard for modern people, whether religious or materialistic, to understand. Modern people, especially in Europe and North America, literally live in a different reality from traditional animists.

Duality is the belief that everything has an opposite: good/bad, black/white, up/down, yes/no. Nonduality, or oneness, is the reality that all things fit into a spectrum, a range from harmonious to less harmonious, like the continuous scale of grays from white to black. Nonduality also means that the same event can be harmonious or inharmonious, depending on the context.

Without an intuitive grasp of the oneness of animism, the reality of the spirit world, the world of the shaman, is unimaginable.

Yet the effort to break through, to be able to enter into the animist reality, is worthwhile. Shamanic practice is a road to health for individuals, for modern society, and for the survival of life on Earth.

We Need the Spirit World

Humans seem to have a deep inner need to sense and interact with the spirit world. Our mental and physical health seem to require it.

Without that interaction, people lose touch with themselves and become unhealthy. We see the results of that in horrendous wars and in the rape of the Earth.

Pitfalls to Beware of

Indigenous shamans almost never refer to themselves as shamans. That's not only because the word shaman is used only by a single tribe in Siberia. Indigenous shamans tend to speak humbly about themselves because they don't want to offend their people (or cause envy). Shaman is a title for others to confer.

Real shamans are careful also because the spirits do not like bragging. In the book, Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power, Lakota ceremonial chief Frank Fools Crow cautioned that if you brag about your powers, the spirits will take them away, and if you misuse your powers, the spirits will kill you. He said he had seen it happen several times over the years, and that while the death might look like a sudden illness or freak accident, it was, in those cases, the punishment of the spirits.

Shamanism is serious business. The spirits are real. We must be careful to remember that, because, generally speaking, in our culture only what is physical and provable is considered to be real.

Among people who have studied classic or core shamanism it's also considered very uncool to call yourself a shaman. Those who understand what shamanism is and what real shamans are do not claim the title. Without a community that we serve, a specific group who recognize us as shamans, we can't really be shamans. We call ourselves students of shamanism, or shamanic practitioners.

So beware that if you go around calling yourself a shaman, people who have really studied shamanism will assume that you are not one. And never, never brag about "your" powers.

Can We Understand Shamanism?

If we make the effort to understand the oneness of all that is and the equality (not superiority) of humans with all other life, if we become humble, perhaps we can restore respect for all beings, including the Earth herself.

Perhaps we can save the elephants, the tigers, the wild orchids, the orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees, redwoods, native peoples, plant medicines, and all our relations.

If we try.

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