Week 4 - Summer Vang
The article titled “We Are Not Alone” The Shamans of the
World Tell Us, introduces the idea that spirits, life, wisdom, and even
ancestry is deeply rooted in the Earth and its nature. Meaning that, earth’s
creatures, plants, wind, and all that seems like inanimate objects to many
humans bears a soul which is woven into the web of life. One of the most
interesting pieces of evidence for this theory is seen in the infamous oil
spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. As environmentalists struggled to find a
quick solution to such a massive spill, micro-organisms already native to the
waters of the Gulf of Mexico “formed a natural clean-up crew capable of
reducing the amount of oil in the undersea plume by half every three
days.”(pg.4) The article also argues that such higher power of the web of life
has become ignorant to many human beings, especially those who rely solely on
scientific explanations
However, this article is not focused on the ignorance of
society but rather on why it is important to embrace the idea of spirits living
in the earth and its inhabitants such as plants, animals, the wind, etc. This
idea of spirits is one of the main components to Shamanism and the role of
Shamans. Many Shamans call upon the power, which resides in nature in order to
heal someone else and without this power or wisdom, pieces of one’s soul would
be lost. Now although there is no scientific evidence that the Shamanism is
truly beneficial to human life, one of the most interesting points that stuck
out to me as I read this article is that spiritual healing, as done by a Shaman
and the power of nature, is an option. Therefore there is no argument that
spiritual healing will overrule scientific discovery, or that everyone should
call a Shaman instead of a doctor, but simply that the work of a Shaman can
also be effective. Such a claim ties into the theme for the week that animism
exists and that spirits truly are everywhere, in the wind, in the trees, in the
horns of an animal, etc. It also ties into the idea that instead of shunning
Shamanism for its distance from scientific explanation but to have a more
modern interpretation of its practice. Such an attitude makes me wonder what other modern interpretations could be made about the practice of Shamanism and how did the idea of animism first find its roots in Shamanism?
(One of the biggest examples of animism personally)
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