week 3- Natalie Velasquez

The reading of “What a Shaman Sees in A Mental Hospital” ties into the theme of the week of medicine and Shamanism. According to the article, the shamanic view mental illness as signals of a “birth of a healer”. Thus, they view mental disorders as spiritual emergencies and regard them as such to aid the “healer” in being born.

What our society views as mental illness, the shamans regard as “good news from the other world.” They believe people going through the illness have been chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needs to be communicated from the spirit realm. They also view these disorders as incompatible energies that have merged into the same field. Therefore, when the person doesn’t get assistance in dealing with this other being from the spirit realm it causes terrifying results. An example of this noted in the article is medication and when a spirit is in a patient’s body and receiving medication it will attempt to get the effects out of the patient’s body causing pain for the patient. However, one can’t necessarily frownd on our society because we aren’t trained to deal with these spirits and the existence of other realms and psychic phenomenons are often disregarded. A question I have about this topic and the reading is in the case of a patient with autism or anorexia, how would a shaman view this case? Is it a spirit trying to signal the birth of a future healer? In the case of Anorexia why would it utilize such a form in order to signal a birth or give a message?