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There are numerous approaches to the study of shamanism.' Anthropologists, psychologists and religious historians have attributed to it a wide spectrum of cultural and psychological perspectives. In this paper, we concentrate upon the altered states of consciousness (ASC)' experienced by the shaman during ceremonial performances. In studying this phenomenon, certain experiential characteristics of the shaman's trance as they occur in 42 cultures (see Appendix) will be identified.' The experiential characteristics delineated are often referred to in the literature: magical flight, possession, and the control, memory and cultural orientation of trance.The anthropological and psychological study of shamanism is multifaceted. The anthropologists Metzger and Williams (1963) approached it by studying the "ethnosemantics," using indigenous cultural categories to determine the social role of Tenejapa shamans. Landy (1974) investigated the shaman's innovative social role as a "cultural broker" in situations of acculturation. Shweder (1972 [1958]) pointed up the unique cognitive capacities of Zinacanteco shamans as opposed to nonshamans, especially their abilities to "avoid bafflement and impose form on unstructured stimuli" (1972:412). Numerous other investigators have focused on the shaman's vision quest and its psychological meaning, often coming to antithetical conclusions. The initial crisis experience of the shaman has been likened to almost every psychopathology, including schizophrenia (Silverman 1967); and its final outcome, personality formation, has been called "a controlled hysterical dissociation" sup-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: la) voluntary control of entrance and duration of trance, (6) posttrance memory, and fcl transic communicative interplay with spectators. analyrlr of ahamrnlrm 3Q7 ported by the community which saves the individual from a "wildly disturbed schizophrenic state" (Wallace 1966:lSO). Devereux (1956:28-29; 1961 :63-64) says "the shaman is mentally deranged," and that shamanism is a neurotic defense which never attains sublimation so that, sooner or later, the shaman will decompensate into a permanent pathological state. Conversely, some writers emphasize the therapeutic aspects of the shaman's initiatory process. Ackerknecht (194346) states that "shamanism is not a disease but being healed from disease." Simil...

The “calling” that inflicts the neophyte Tamang shaman is a “creative illness” reflecting an endogenous process that has the structure and function of a rite of passage. Shamanic apprenticeship includes the deliberate induction and mastery of trance states that originally afflicted the shaman. Mastery is equivalent to a psychotherapy, and Tamang initiation involves techniques that are also found in its Western and Eastern (yoga) counterparts. However, it is distinct from both in its social and psychological goals. [shamanism, altered states of consciousness, psychotherapy, religious experience, symbolism]

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