The religion of the ancient peoples of northern Europe and Asia, and more generally of nature-based cultures around the world. Key features include animism, possession, soul travel, oracular revelations and shape changing.

(n) a religion characterized by a belief in an unseen spirit world of gods, demons, and ancestral spirits responsive only to a shaman or priest

This is a " system of religious and medical beliefs and practices that centers on the shaman, a specific type of magico-religious practitioner...who specializes in contacting and controlling the supernatural." Usually male, his main task is healing. Shamanism was originally centered in central Asia and Siberia.

this therapy is defined as a way of healing and providing spiritual guidance through a trance like state. The shaman may use hallucinogenic drugs or continuous sounds to enter the trance that is then used to determine the causes of your illness and find a cure.

A system of healing based on spiritual practices present in most indigenous cultures. The shaman acquires knowledge, wisdom and spiritual power from personal helping spirits encountered on journeys into other realities. They return with vital information about healing. Shamans are considered “walkers between the worlds” and retrievers of souls.

Shamans say they treat problems of the soul that are negatively impacting the body and mind. They offer spiritual guidance that often involves putting clients in traces or working through visualization techniques.

any animistic religion similar to Asian shamanism (especially as practiced by certain Native American tribes)

an animistic religion of northern Asia having the belief that the mediation between the visible and the spirit worlds is effected by shamans

Shamanism is one of the oldest tribal healing traditions found in many cultures around the world. The shaman, in an altered state of consciousness, uses forms of journeying to spirit worlds, along with prayer and ceremony to connect with the spirit animals or totems of the client. It is through this guidance the practitioner helps their client find a state of balance and well-being.

An intermediate stage between polytheism and monotheism, which assumes a "Great Spirit", with lesser deities subordinated. With the beginnings of shamanism there was the advent of the medicine man or witch doctor, who assumed a supervisory relation to disease and its cure. Formally, shamanism is a religion of Ural-Altaic peoples of Northern Asia and Europe, characterized by the belief that the unseen world of gods, demons, ancestral spirits is responsive only to shamans. The Indians of North and South America entertain religious practices similar to the Ural-Altaic shamanism. The word shaman comes from the Tungusic (Manchuria and Siberia) saman, meaning Buddhist monk. The shaman handles disease almost entirely by psychotherapeutic means; he frightens away the demons of disease by assuming a terrifying mien. (From Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, 4th ed, p22; from Webster, 3d ed) Shamanism

An ancient tribal healing practice involving dream work, visualization, chanting, movement, and drumming to achieve an altered state of consciousness. Cultures that practice shamanism believe that the deepest dimension of life is spiritual. Healing takes place through the shaman, acting as an intermediary, making a journey to the spirit world to reconnect the participant to the source of life.

an ancient spiritual and medical tradition practiced in native cultures around the world. Using ritual, shamans often enter altered states of consciousness to promote the healing of their clients. Shamans regard themselves as conductors of healing energy or sources from the spiritual realm.

shah-man; shah-man-izm]- the word "shaman" originated in Siberia, from the Evenk language, meaning an 'excited, frenzied person'. Shamans were both men and women who presided over spiritual life. Shamans often shared close relationships with nature, and their duties as religious practitioners included such tasks as curing the sick, protecting the community and influencing the weather.

Many people associate shamanic healing with the use of Native American rituals to help correct a spiritual or physical imbalance within a person. However, every culture has its shamanic healing rituals in its spiritual traditions, and today shamanic healers in North America may draw from Tibetan rituals or African teachings as easily as from Native American thought.

The shaman was a key figure in ancient American societies. In many indigenous communities today, the shaman is still a key and often relied upon person. The shaman is usually a very charismatic and spiritual leader, who is looked to by their community to provide guidance. They advise on courses of action based on consultations with otherworldly beings or forces. The shaman's role is based on their ability to communicate with the otherworld of deceased ancestors and revered deities. Shamans often possessed expert knowledge of the potent plants of the region, which might be used for medicines or as vehicles for achieving transcendent states of consciousness (where otherworldly communication occurs). Shamans were healers, diviners and leaders.

This ancient method of healing was practiced by healers (shamans). Combining ancient and modern healing/wisdom practices, to develop inter-dimensional consciousness ("walking between the worlds"), spirit helpers, power animals, and ritual, "journeying" for soulful wholeness.

Employs ritual, dream work, sacred art, drumming and movement to attain non-ordinary states of consciousness and to awaken spiritual abilities connections with nature. The intention of Shamanism is to creatively invite and empower each person's relationship to their essence, to nature and to Spirit.

Traditional Asian and Native American practice and belief that a skilled Shaman (or medium) can communicate with the spirit world and bring back information such as healing remedies and powers, messages for individuals, etc. Shamans are traditionally healers as well.

The practice of shamans, usually ritualistic or magical in nature, sometimes religious.

A general catch-all term for the beliefs of indigenous peoples that often deal with using an altered state of consciousness as a main aspect of religious ritual

A body of practices in which the practitioner’s consciousness travels between ordinary and non-ordinary reality to access information and healing for self and / or others.

Spiritualistic practice in which priests, known as Shaman, contact spirits and the forces of nature. An ancient tribalistic belief system that is still practised in certain countries today.

A pan-cultural wisdom tradition that offers direct spiritual insight and experience. It is personal and a-religious in the sense of providing a technology for insight and healing through the exploration of altered states of consciousness.

(Siberia, UralAltaic, Irish/Scottish, Central Asia, Orient, Native American) A very highly respected profession wherein one serves his or her community as a spiritual leader. Providing guidance through psychic skills, healing abilities and communications with Divine spirit. Believed to be learned from a past incarnation and initiations, along with study and practice in the current embodiment.

An animistic religious structure practiced throughout the world. In these traditions a member of the society acts as a medium between the visible world and the spirit world using magic or sorcery practices for the purpose of healing, divination, or control over natural events.

The psychic abilities, rites, rituals, healing methods, and respect for nature and its forces typical of the practices of shamans.