lumukanda
10-05-2007, 09:35 AM
something that i have been reading up about lately is shamanic illness.
Intwaso: Shamanic initiatory illness
In many cultures, people who become healers or shamans do not do so by choice. They are struck by a serious and debilitating illness. Severe physical symptoms and unusual dreams or waking visions indicate that the person is being called to undergo initiation as a shamanic healer (Kalweit, 1988). It is therefore a shamanic initiatory illness (Lukoff, 1990-1991).
If sufferers accept the call and go through the process of training, they emerge as shamanic healers (Xhosa = amagqira; Zulu = isangoma). If they do not, the illness is unlikely to be cured. They may even die. Among the Xhosa and Zulu, this illness is called intwaso (having the illness is called ukuthwasa kwegqira: to emerge as a healer).
It is believed to have been sent by ancestors who have chosen the person to undergo initiation as a healer. The initiation involves training in work with altered states of consciousness. These abilities will help them to diagnose and treat illnesses and generally help their community. Four features of this training illustrate the transpersonal aspects of the process and the importance of altered states of consciousness:
Importance of dreams: Images which indicate contact with the spirit world, for example, of ancestors are regarded as very significant.
Performance of rituals: As a means of honouring and communicating with the ancestors. Many rituals involve going to the river and leaving offerings to the river people (Buhrmann, 1986). The river people are not literally in the river of ordinary reality, but in a river in the non-ordinary world that can be visited in dreams and other altered states. Rituals provide a way of working on the boundary between the two realities.
Entering altered states of consciousness: Assisted by a group of people who are clapping, chanting and drumming. In this state they may hear voices guiding them or giving them advice. These voices are attributed to the river people. They may also see images or feel sensations in their bodies which give them information about what is wrong in the patient’s body (Thorpe, 1982). They may also enter a possession trance and utter a stream of words, often very quickly, as if beyond conscious control, which provide information about the problem.
Extra-sensory perception is used to obtain information about what is wrong with the patient and how it can be cured. This is facilitated by the altered state.
African traditional healers do not attribute all psychotic symptoms to intwaso. Some are attributed to spirit possession illnesses such as amafufunyana and others to madness (phambana). Like shamans worldwide, however, they believe that in cases of intwaso it is possible to create a safe place where the person can experience these altered states under guidance. The person will then emerge stronger, healthier and able to offer wisdom and healing to the community.
Although intwaso is considered a culture-bound syndrome, shamanic initiatory illnesses are found all over the world, for example in Siberia and among Native Americans. They are not even confined to traditional rural and pre-industrial societies. Even though, in Europe, the shamanic tradition was suppressed centuries ago, some Westerners who develop psychotic illnesses may themselves be undergoing a shamanic initiatory illness. This is best treated in the way African traditional healers work with people with intwaso.
Grof & Grof write, ‘We have seen instances where modern Americans, Europeans, Australians and Asians have experienced episodes that bore a close resemblance to shamanic crises’. They call the process spiritual emergence. Although not writing from an African perspective, this is virtually a direct translation of intwaso. The DSM system has been criticised (Lukoff, 1985; Lukoff, Lu and Turner, 1992) because it does not provide any account of this type of process.
http://www.health24.com/mind/Culturebound_syndromes/1284-1304,13258.asp
The following describes the illness of the Shaman.
" Unlike the medicine man, the Shaman's adoption of his profession is in many cases not voluntary. The future Shaman's experience of being called seems frequently to consist in a compulsive state from which he sees no other means of escape than to 'Shamanize'. It is often clear, particularly from reports from Siberia, that the man who is to become a Shaman consciously does not wish to do so at all, but is driven and forced to it by the 'spirits', and finally, in order not to perish, takes the only path open to him and becomes a Shaman. The future Shaman, the young man suited for Shamanizing, is a sick man. He suffers from psychopathic or epileptic states and is very often also physically ill. He cannot escape the demands of the spirits, which drive him deeper and deeper into the illness, although he very often tries to resist. He gets into a situation, into a mental illness, from which he can find no way out but death or the assumption of the office of Shaman."
( p, 11. Lommel:1967.)
The above statement is illuminating in a number of ways. Firstly, note the equating of Shamanism and death. The initiate's choice establishes the relationship between Shamanism and death. The meaning of Shamanism becomes the intention of death for the initiate.
Secondly, the Shaman's sickness, from the western cultural perspective, is seen as psychotic. Psychosis has, traditionally, a preferential value connotation in that is seen only as the inability to relate to normal reality. But it is also the entering into another, albeit unacceptable, reality.
The third aspect has often been ignored. This refers to the observation that the Shaman cannot choose his illness and has no alternative but to Shamanise in order to "heal" himself. This points towards the facticity of the non-egocentric and non-self-centred mode of existence which is the very prefiguring of the Shamanic experience. The cogent point is that the Shaman does not function within a world which exists according to the rules of normal reality. The Shaman and Shamanic illness are a radical move away from the rule of self and subject orientated existence which forms the foundations of the modern western perception of reality. For the anthropologist this fact appears as evidence of a loss of will and a negative form of possession viewed with a sort of horror by the Western analyst.
Furthermore, the mundane perspective of reality is flawed in that it is a perspective, an illusion, a projection from a dualistic mode of perception. Therefore, the Shamanic world and the discussion of illness must be entered into with a careful eye for the western presuppositions that relate the Shamanic world always to the rules and norms of the contemporary and " modern" perspectives.
It is this loss of centrality, seen in popular theory as uncertainty, that is in fact that mirrors the crisis in the western world. The crisis is not so much the loss of centre but rather a clinging to the need for centrality and a stability aligned with the self. What is seen to be an illness is revealed as a fear, a fear of discovery of a world not in control of the self. A further aspect which compounds the complexity of Shamanic illness and death is the primary nature of Shamanic trance as suggested by Eliade. In other words, Shamanism cannot be seen in its totality as a phenomenon conditioned by societal and cultural parameters. Rather, according to Eliade, it is a "primary phenomenon." An analysis and comparison of this phenomenon leads to an understanding of "`meaning" rather than to "a typology or morphology of religious data." (Jones.R.: 1968 )
It is something that occurs without a necessary relatedness to society, history or culture. This area situates Shamanism as a purely experiential event.
http://www.futureshock.co.za/page3.htm
the thing that interests me the most is the fact that very often the shaman to be has no interest in becoming a shaman, it is in fact something that chooses him or her. the illness makes them aware of the fact that they are to be chosen, there are only 2 choices, shaman or death.
i often wonder how many 'psychotics' out there are truly shamans without giudance, destined to be locked up for life, guys like those crazy hobo's down the road, speaking to people that are not there.
of course they could just be crazy, but no one truly is, they are simply living in a different reality.
Intwaso: Shamanic initiatory illness
In many cultures, people who become healers or shamans do not do so by choice. They are struck by a serious and debilitating illness. Severe physical symptoms and unusual dreams or waking visions indicate that the person is being called to undergo initiation as a shamanic healer (Kalweit, 1988). It is therefore a shamanic initiatory illness (Lukoff, 1990-1991).
If sufferers accept the call and go through the process of training, they emerge as shamanic healers (Xhosa = amagqira; Zulu = isangoma). If they do not, the illness is unlikely to be cured. They may even die. Among the Xhosa and Zulu, this illness is called intwaso (having the illness is called ukuthwasa kwegqira: to emerge as a healer).
It is believed to have been sent by ancestors who have chosen the person to undergo initiation as a healer. The initiation involves training in work with altered states of consciousness. These abilities will help them to diagnose and treat illnesses and generally help their community. Four features of this training illustrate the transpersonal aspects of the process and the importance of altered states of consciousness:
Importance of dreams: Images which indicate contact with the spirit world, for example, of ancestors are regarded as very significant.
Performance of rituals: As a means of honouring and communicating with the ancestors. Many rituals involve going to the river and leaving offerings to the river people (Buhrmann, 1986). The river people are not literally in the river of ordinary reality, but in a river in the non-ordinary world that can be visited in dreams and other altered states. Rituals provide a way of working on the boundary between the two realities.
Entering altered states of consciousness: Assisted by a group of people who are clapping, chanting and drumming. In this state they may hear voices guiding them or giving them advice. These voices are attributed to the river people. They may also see images or feel sensations in their bodies which give them information about what is wrong in the patient’s body (Thorpe, 1982). They may also enter a possession trance and utter a stream of words, often very quickly, as if beyond conscious control, which provide information about the problem.
Extra-sensory perception is used to obtain information about what is wrong with the patient and how it can be cured. This is facilitated by the altered state.
African traditional healers do not attribute all psychotic symptoms to intwaso. Some are attributed to spirit possession illnesses such as amafufunyana and others to madness (phambana). Like shamans worldwide, however, they believe that in cases of intwaso it is possible to create a safe place where the person can experience these altered states under guidance. The person will then emerge stronger, healthier and able to offer wisdom and healing to the community.
Although intwaso is considered a culture-bound syndrome, shamanic initiatory illnesses are found all over the world, for example in Siberia and among Native Americans. They are not even confined to traditional rural and pre-industrial societies. Even though, in Europe, the shamanic tradition was suppressed centuries ago, some Westerners who develop psychotic illnesses may themselves be undergoing a shamanic initiatory illness. This is best treated in the way African traditional healers work with people with intwaso.
Grof & Grof write, ‘We have seen instances where modern Americans, Europeans, Australians and Asians have experienced episodes that bore a close resemblance to shamanic crises’. They call the process spiritual emergence. Although not writing from an African perspective, this is virtually a direct translation of intwaso. The DSM system has been criticised (Lukoff, 1985; Lukoff, Lu and Turner, 1992) because it does not provide any account of this type of process.
http://www.health24.com/mind/Culturebound_syndromes/1284-1304,13258.asp
The following describes the illness of the Shaman.
" Unlike the medicine man, the Shaman's adoption of his profession is in many cases not voluntary. The future Shaman's experience of being called seems frequently to consist in a compulsive state from which he sees no other means of escape than to 'Shamanize'. It is often clear, particularly from reports from Siberia, that the man who is to become a Shaman consciously does not wish to do so at all, but is driven and forced to it by the 'spirits', and finally, in order not to perish, takes the only path open to him and becomes a Shaman. The future Shaman, the young man suited for Shamanizing, is a sick man. He suffers from psychopathic or epileptic states and is very often also physically ill. He cannot escape the demands of the spirits, which drive him deeper and deeper into the illness, although he very often tries to resist. He gets into a situation, into a mental illness, from which he can find no way out but death or the assumption of the office of Shaman."
( p, 11. Lommel:1967.)
The above statement is illuminating in a number of ways. Firstly, note the equating of Shamanism and death. The initiate's choice establishes the relationship between Shamanism and death. The meaning of Shamanism becomes the intention of death for the initiate.
Secondly, the Shaman's sickness, from the western cultural perspective, is seen as psychotic. Psychosis has, traditionally, a preferential value connotation in that is seen only as the inability to relate to normal reality. But it is also the entering into another, albeit unacceptable, reality.
The third aspect has often been ignored. This refers to the observation that the Shaman cannot choose his illness and has no alternative but to Shamanise in order to "heal" himself. This points towards the facticity of the non-egocentric and non-self-centred mode of existence which is the very prefiguring of the Shamanic experience. The cogent point is that the Shaman does not function within a world which exists according to the rules of normal reality. The Shaman and Shamanic illness are a radical move away from the rule of self and subject orientated existence which forms the foundations of the modern western perception of reality. For the anthropologist this fact appears as evidence of a loss of will and a negative form of possession viewed with a sort of horror by the Western analyst.
Furthermore, the mundane perspective of reality is flawed in that it is a perspective, an illusion, a projection from a dualistic mode of perception. Therefore, the Shamanic world and the discussion of illness must be entered into with a careful eye for the western presuppositions that relate the Shamanic world always to the rules and norms of the contemporary and " modern" perspectives.
It is this loss of centrality, seen in popular theory as uncertainty, that is in fact that mirrors the crisis in the western world. The crisis is not so much the loss of centre but rather a clinging to the need for centrality and a stability aligned with the self. What is seen to be an illness is revealed as a fear, a fear of discovery of a world not in control of the self. A further aspect which compounds the complexity of Shamanic illness and death is the primary nature of Shamanic trance as suggested by Eliade. In other words, Shamanism cannot be seen in its totality as a phenomenon conditioned by societal and cultural parameters. Rather, according to Eliade, it is a "primary phenomenon." An analysis and comparison of this phenomenon leads to an understanding of "`meaning" rather than to "a typology or morphology of religious data." (Jones.R.: 1968 )
It is something that occurs without a necessary relatedness to society, history or culture. This area situates Shamanism as a purely experiential event.
http://www.futureshock.co.za/page3.htm
the thing that interests me the most is the fact that very often the shaman to be has no interest in becoming a shaman, it is in fact something that chooses him or her. the illness makes them aware of the fact that they are to be chosen, there are only 2 choices, shaman or death.
i often wonder how many 'psychotics' out there are truly shamans without giudance, destined to be locked up for life, guys like those crazy hobo's down the road, speaking to people that are not there.
of course they could just be crazy, but no one truly is, they are simply living in a different reality.