Core shamanism and neo-shamanism

The Siberian source of the word

The word shaman derives from the Tungusic term saman, according to an ethnologist's survey of the Tungusic peoples. Tungusic peoples include the Evenks, the Evenes, several smaller Amur-basin groups and the Manchus, and the Evenks were the most widely dispersed across Siberia. The same chapter reports that the term spread through Russian and Western accounts and later became a general label for ritual specialists, replacing older terms such as witch doctor.

The chapter also describes Soviet-era bans on rituals and persecution of shamans, and reports that the Evenks have resisted neo-shamanism. This page treats Evenk practice as the origin of the term, not of the Western movements described below.

How the term entered Western scholarship

A 2007 book by the historian Andrei Znamenski traces how the term, introduced by eighteenth-century German explorers of Siberia, entered the humanities and social sciences. According to the publisher abstract, it follows the idea from Enlightenment and Romantic writers through Franz Boas, Mircea Eliade and Carlos Castaneda, and describes scholars first treating shamanism as a mental disorder and then, in the 1960s and 1970s, recasting it as spiritual wisdom. The abstract links the rise of neo-shamanism to anti-modernist currents and to anthropology, psychology, environmentalism and Native American material. Only the abstract page of this book was reviewed, so the detail of its argument is not reported here.

Harner and the Foundation for Shamanic Studies

The Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS) describes the origin of core shamanism in its own history article. It states that the anthropologist Michael Harner received initial shamanic training in the Upper Amazon in 1961 and 1964, began giving training workshops in the early 1970s, and set up a Center for Shamanic Studies in Norwalk, Connecticut, which the 1991 text dates to 1979. The organization's account gives different dates for founding the Foundation itself, 1987 in the 1991 text and 1985 in a 2005 update.

The FSS describes core shamanism as the basic, universal or near-universal methods of shamanism drawn from cross-cultural research rather than from one culture or one person's revelations. It says participants are encouraged to practice independently, often in local drumming groups. This is the organization's own account, and critics quoted later on this page dispute the premise that such methods can be separated from their cultural settings.

Spread across Europe

A sociological study of the Valencian region of Spain reports that shamanic currents spread there from about 2000 and entered a second phase from around 2005, marked by growth, institutionalization and a reshaping of traditions. The study, based on interviews and observation in 2015 to 2017, identifies followers of Michael Harner as one of two cases that operate as training centers awarding certificates after a set period of instruction. It also describes a reconfiguration of ayahuasca use as a third case.

Core shamanism, neo-shamanism and urban shamanism

Core shamanism is the FSS name for the methods taught in its workshops, and the organization describes them as cross-cultural rather than tied to one people. Neo-shamanism is the scholarly umbrella term used in sociology and religious studies for newer shamanic currents that sit outside the traditional contexts of Indigenous practice. Urban shamanism is a descriptive label that practitioners and writers use for similar activity in cities. The sources reviewed do not define urban shamanism formally, so its boundaries are not stated here.

A study of Spanish neo-shamanic currents treats them as distinct from earlier shamanic traditions adopted in Spain, and lists Shamanism and Neo Shamanism as separate keywords. A study of researcher positions notes that both researchers and practitioners tend to treat animism as the foundation of shamanism, and that shamanism has been a reference point since the 1960s for a more respectful relationship with nature.

Keeping the strands apart

Several distinct things share the word. The Siberian Evenk and other Tungusic practices gave rise to the term. Many Indigenous peoples in the Americas, Asia, Africa and elsewhere have their own healing and ceremonial traditions, which have their own names, communities and authorities, and this page does not describe them. The Machipedia page named Shamanic Healing covers shamanic healing practices as a practice, and this page covers the modern Western movements and the debate around them.

Contested use of the word

Indigenous speakers quoted in an Indian Country Today article object to non-Native people calling themselves medicine men or shamans, and they use their own names for ceremonial leaders. The Foundation, by contrast, uses the word shamanism for a worldwide set of methods. Because the word began as an Evenk term and was extended by outsiders to many peoples, scholars and communities do not agree on who may use it or what it covers.

How core shamanism is organized

According to the FSS, core shamanism is taught through training courses and workshops, funded mainly by those courses, and it extends through trained teachers and a network of branches including a European one. The organization states that its charitable and educational purpose is the preservation, study and teaching of shamanic knowledge. The sources reviewed do not describe a registry, licensing scheme or independent accreditation of core shamanism teachers, and no such scheme was identified.

A research paper that used Harner's drumming recording describes the core shamanism journey as a session in which a person lies down and listens to repetitive drumming, here about 4.2 Hz, while following shamanic journeying instructions. This page does not give instructions for the practice.

Neo-shamanic currents

The Valencian study describes training centers, certificates, and reworked uses of ayahuasca among the currents it studied, and it notes that these operate in cities and online as well as in groups. A methodological paper describes practitioners and researchers in Finland and elsewhere who explore experience through autoethnography, in which the researcher takes part in the practice being studied.

Practices linked to this field with their own Machipedia pages are named there, including Shamanic Healing. Neo-shamanic groups vary widely, and the sources reviewed do not provide a count of groups or practitioners.

What practitioners and organizations say it is for

The FSS describes its purpose as the preservation, study and teaching of shamanic knowledge for the welfare of the planet. Harner is quoted in its history as saying that he intended to offer a gateway to the spirits so that peoples could revive their own traditions, not to change Indigenous spiritual cultures. These are the organization's own statements, and they describe aims rather than tested results. The FSS also says it encourages participants to continue on their own, often in local drumming groups.

What participants and researchers report

Researchers report that practitioners and participants in neo-shamanic settings use shamanism as a way of relating to nature and animism. Participants in a phenomenological study who wrote about a 20-minute drumming session described visual imagery, sounds, encounters with animals and insights, and its authors suggested the drumming might be a useful supplement to psychotherapeutic techniques.

Scholarship on the movements

Scholarly work on neo-shamanism comes mainly from history, sociology and religious studies, and it describes the movements as modern, Western-led currents that grew from the 1960s onward. The sources reviewed place them in the context of anti-modernist currents, interest in nature and Native American material. They report institutionalization, with training centers and certificates, as a feature of a later phase.

Experimental studies of drumming and journeying

A 2014 experiment tested 39 people with no journeying experience, mostly biology students, in a two-by-two design that crossed Harner's core shamanism drumming or an instrumental meditation piece with shamanic journeying or relaxation instructions. Cortisol fell in every group and did not differ by condition. People given shamanic instructions with drumming reported heaviness, a slower heart rate and dreamlike experiences more often than people given relaxation instructions. The authors noted that the instructions may have suggested those reports, that the questionnaire was not validated, and that there was no no-music control group.

A small 2006 study of six participants randomly assigned to combinations of induction and instructions found that Harner's journeying instructions combined with religious instructions were associated with the most religious imagery, and that most images came from autobiographical memory. A 2010 phenomenological study of 22 participants reported that few negative effects were noted after a 20-minute session. Both are exploratory and cannot show health outcomes.

Studies of practitioners

A 2021 EEG study compared 18 shamanic practitioners with 19 matched controls (after exclusions from 24 recruited per group) during drumming. Practitioners scored higher on 8 of 11 altered-state questionnaire domains during drumming, with no group differences during classical music, and the authors concluded that the shamanic state and psychedelic states share some traits but involve distinct neural changes. The study was small, uncorrected for some multiple comparisons, and not blinded, practitioners came from varied traditions, and practitioners were actively entering trance while controls passively listened.

What the sources reviewed do not cover

Searches of the open web and PubMed-indexed literature for core shamanism and neo-shamanism with terms such as outcomes, randomized, wellbeing, survey and practitioners found small experiments and exploratory studies, but no randomized trials of core shamanism for any health condition and no systematic review. A registry listing for a survey of shamanic healers in Australia was found, but no published results were located. No claim about treatment effectiveness can be drawn from the sources reviewed.

The 1993 Lakota declaration

On June 10, 1993, about 500 representatives from some 40 Lakota tribes and bands, meeting at Lakota Summit V, passed a Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality. An Indian Country Today article describes it as aimed at businesses that charge for sweat lodges and vision quests, at non-Native people running Sun Dances, and at cult leaders and New Age figures who mix Lakota ceremonies with other practices. It urged other Native nations to join in ending the exploitation.

A Lakota editor writing in 2011 cited the declaration to argue that Lakota people should also prevent their own members from enabling outsiders to abuse ceremonies, and she argued that participation in Lakota ceremonies should be limited to tribal members. This is one named Lakota voice, and views within communities differ, so it should not be read as speaking for all Native nations.

Other Native voices and scholarly critique

The Indian Country Today article also reports that the number of non-Native people working as medicine men and shamans, often for fees, has grown despite opposition from traditional elders. It quotes an Oglala Lakota man who says ceremonies should not be sold and that such practitioners can take advantage of people, and a Pima, Osage and Seneca-Cayuga man who says understanding Native ways requires Native heritage and guidance from qualified elders.

Scholarship has also traced how the word was extended from a Tungusic term to a general label. The historical and sociological studies reviewed describe the movements as Western currents with their own training structures, and they do not themselves rule on whether the practice amounts to appropriation. Scholarly critiques that make that argument directly were not opened for this page.

Responses from the movement

The FSS says it responds to requests for help rather than initiating assistance, because it does not want to be another outsider imposing something on an Indigenous culture, and describes core shamanism as drawn from cross-cultural research. It does not claim to speak for any Indigenous nation. Whether that framing answers the critique is disputed, and the sources reviewed do not include a direct exchange between the Foundation and the critics quoted above.

Reported harms and what is not known

The sources reviewed contain no systematic report of physical or psychological harm from core shamanism drumming sessions. In the experimental and phenomenological studies, participants lay still and listened to recorded or live drumming for 15 to 20 minutes, and one study noted that few negative effects were reported. These studies were small, short and not designed to detect harms, so the absence of reports is not evidence of safety.

The sources do not cover practices that combine neo-shamanic settings with ayahuasca or other psychoactive substances, which carry separate medical and legal considerations not reviewed here. Anyone with a mental health condition, or who is considering stopping treatment, is generally advised to speak with a qualified health professional first, and shamanic practice should not delay or replace necessary medical or mental health care.

Cost, teachers and cultural care

Native speakers quoted in Indian Country Today warn that fee-charging non-Native practitioners can take advantage of participants, and a Lakota editor describes imitation ceremonies led by outsiders as inauthentic. These are statements by community members and not measured rates of harm. The Foundation describes charging for training courses as its main source of funding. The sources reviewed describe no registry of core shamanism or neo-shamanic teachers, so participants have no independent register to check.

For Indigenous ceremonies, the sources reviewed place authority with the nations and their recognized ceremonial leaders. Readers interested in a specific Indigenous tradition are better served by pages and publications from that community than by this overview of Western movements.