# Shamanism

Source: https://spiritfold.com/Shamanism  
Published by the Australian Spiritual Alliance on Spiritfold, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

> **A note on this page.** This page is mainly about contemporary shamanic practice as it is taught and practised today, including in Australia. It draws on published descriptions of shamans in Indigenous societies for background, but it does not describe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing traditions, such as those of the ngangkari of the Central Desert, which are living practices with their own names and authority.[1]

**Shamanism** is a name for practices in which a practitioner deliberately changes their state of consciousness in order, as they understand it, to interact with an unseen world and help solve the problems of people in their community.[2] In traditional Indigenous societies, a shaman is a religious or spiritual expert who acts as healer, prophet and keeper of cultural tradition.[3] The word therefore covers two quite different things: the roles held by shamans within their own Indigenous societies, and the contemporary practices that grew up when, by the 1980s, shamanistic rituals and healing ceremonies had become popular outside as well as within Indigenous communities.[3] Contemporary forms include "core shamanism", developed by Michael Harner, and the wider movement known as neo-shamanism.[4][5]

## Description

### Shamans in Indigenous societies

This section gives background only, drawn from one published account of Indigenous societies in Canada. *The Canadian Encyclopedia* describes shamans in Indigenous societies of Canada as healers, prophets, diviners and keepers of religious lore, who often also lead religious and cultural ceremonies. In some societies one person did all of these things; in others they were specialists. Shamans were usually seen as having powers that benefited the community, although in some cases they were believed to use them for sorcery. When healing, a shaman might be guided by a guardian spirit to draw a cause of illness out of the body, or to recover a patient's lost spirit.[3]

### Core shamanism

The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, which teaches Harner's approach, describes core shamanism as the universal, near-universal and common features of shamanism, together with journeys to other worlds, which it regards as shamanism's distinguishing feature. The Foundation says core shamanism is not tied to any particular culture. It teaches students to alter their consciousness without drugs, especially through repetitive drumming, so that they can find their own spiritual resources and learn to help others. The Foundation says core shamanism does not centre on ceremonies such as those of Native American medicine men and women.[4]

### Core shamanism and neo-shamanism

The two terms are often confused. The Foundation quotes the anthropologist Joan Townsend as describing core shamanism as a conservative, purist approach, and neo-shamanism as drawing on metaphorical and idealised images of shamanism, often combined with beliefs and rituals that have little to do with traditional shamanism.[4]

### Contemporary shamanic healing

According to *The Canadian Encyclopedia*, many modern shamans see themselves as facilitators of healing rather than as healers. Their techniques often include connecting with spirit guides, removing what they describe as negative energy, working with nature and spiritual cleansing, and they also conduct ceremonies for births, marriages and deaths.[3]

## Scope

### What it includes

- Deliberately entering an altered state of consciousness, often through repetitive drumming, in order to "journey" to other worlds as practitioners understand them[4][2]
- Healing work that practitioners describe in spiritual terms, such as working with spirit guides or spiritual cleansing[3]

### What it is not

- Its effects have had little rigorous testing. A 2024 scoping review of 27 studies of shamanic trance found that the trances appear to be non-pathological and different from ordinary states of consciousness, but said any therapeutic potential should be approached cautiously and needs rigorous research.[2] A 2025 scoping review of shamanic healing as a clinical intervention found 16 publications, mostly case reports, with one clinical trial, and called for further research.[6]
- Contemporary shamanism is not the same as the traditions it draws on, and the difference matters for how it is described and taught. Scholars have criticised some neo-shamans for taking shamanism out of its cultural context, presenting it as universal and making it an individual practice.[5]

## Traditions and lineage

### Indigenous traditions under pressure

According to *The Canadian Encyclopedia*, an 1880 amendment to Canada's *Indian Act* prohibited taking part in certain traditional healing ceremonies, and some communities continued them in secret. The government lifted these bans in the early 1950s, and by the 1980s shamanistic rituals and healing ceremonies had grown popular both within and outside Indigenous communities.[3]

### Harner and the contemporary movement

Core shamanism was originated and developed by Michael Harner.[4] A 2017 review by the scholar Robert Wallis describes a study of the main texts of neo-shamanism that focuses on the influence of Mircea Eliade and Harner, and another chapter showing how many core shamanism teachers in Scandinavia have, since the 1990s, added other beliefs back into Harner's "bare bones" approach.[5] The same review describes debate over the appropriation of American Indian culture by "New Age shamans".[5]

## Context

### Within Spiritualism

Spiritfold has found no source that treats shamanism as a Spiritualist practice, but the two have long been compared. According to Robert and Gracia Fay Ellwood, nineteenth-century advocates sometimes called Spiritualism "the oldest religion in the world", aware of its likeness to the shamanism of Native American and other societies.[7] J. Gordon Melton describes the shaman of earlier cultures as combining the roles of medium, psychic and magician, but stresses that [Spiritualism](https://spiritfold.com/Spiritualism) itself is relatively new, with roots in Western religion since the late 1600s.[8] John Buescher writes that Spiritualism in parts of the United States took up Native American methods of divination and trance, and that white mediums often reported Native American spirit guides.[9] In a Spiritualist congregation in Montreal, Canada, the anthropologist Deirdre Meintel found some members exploring neo-shamanism alongside Spiritualism.[10]

### In Australian Spiritualism

Paul Gillen's 1981 thesis, based on fieldwork at a Sydney Spiritualist church, describes Spiritualism as borrowing widely, including ideas "reminiscent of and possibly derived from shamanism and animism".[11]

In his study of the Canberra Spiritualist Association, the anthropologist Matt Tomlinson contrasts the two: in shamanism as classically described, gaining spirit contact usually involves a painful apprenticeship, whereas Spiritualists hold that anyone can communicate with the dead, although becoming a good medium takes practice.[12] Tomlinson notes that many Spiritualists see their faith as the original human religion; at a service in 2017, one Canberra medium described spirit communication as reaching back through shamans and tribal seers to humanity's beginnings.[13]

### A Spiritualist perspective

Spiritualists have long sensed a kinship with shamans, as the history above shows. A wise teacher would hold that feeling with humility. Spiritualism is a relatively recent religion with its own roots, and the ceremonies of Indigenous peoples belong to those peoples. They are living traditions with their own authority, not a store of practices for others to borrow.

From that standpoint, a Spiritualist should not call themselves a shaman, conduct Indigenous ceremonies, or present such ceremonies as part of Spiritualism. Here in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing traditions, such as those of the ngangkari, are their own and are not ours to describe or imitate. A member who studies contemporary shamanic practice does so as a separate, personal path, and should say so honestly. Whatever the path, the same care applies: no promises of cure, and anyone unwell keeps seeing their doctor.

## Shamanism in Australia

Contemporary shamanic practice is offered in Australia: the practitioner insurance quote form of the broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co (AUS) lists modalities including "Shamanic Studies/Healing/Bodywork" and "Shamanic Womancraft".[14]

Australia's First Nations have their own healing traditions. The Royal Australasian College of Physicians describes the Aṉangu Ngangkaṟi Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation (ANTAC) as the first organisation of Aboriginal traditional healers in Australia. Its ngangkari healers, of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, combine hands-on and breath-based healing with traditional plants and balms within an Indigenous belief system, and work with SA Health sites, which refer patients to them.[1] This page does not describe their practice.

## Safety and good practice

Good practice includes care for the people taking part and respect for the cultures shamanism draws on (see the note at the top of this page and the Spiritualist perspective above). On the research so far:

- A 2025 review of shamanic healing in the medical literature reported a relatively low risk of harm, but the evidence it found was mostly case reports.[6]
- The 2024 review of shamanic trance said claims about therapeutic benefit should be treated cautiously until rigorous studies have been done.[2]

## Related modalities

- [Drumming](https://spiritfold.com/Drumming)
- [Sweat lodge](https://spiritfold.com/Sweat_lodge)
- [Smudging](https://spiritfold.com/Smudging)
- [Trance mediumship](https://spiritfold.com/Trance_mediumship)

## References

1. Royal Australasian College of Physicians. ["ANTAC and the Ngangkaṟi Healers of Central Australia"](https://www.racp.edu.au/policy-and-advocacy/policy-and-advocacy-priorities/first-nations-health-and-equity/medical-specialist-access-framework/case-studies/antac-and-the-ngangkari-healers-of-central-australia). Medical Specialist Access Framework case study (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
2. Marie, N., Y. Lafon, A. Bicego, C. Grégoire, F. Rousseaux, A. Bioy, A. Vanhaudenhuyse and O. Gosseries. "Scoping review on shamanistic trances practices". *BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies* 24, no. 1 (2024): 381. [doi:10.1186/s12906-024-04678-w](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-024-04678-w). Abstract read via [Europe PMC](https://europepmc.org/article/MED/39497104) (accessed 12 October 2026).
3. Smith, Derek G. (updated by Michelle Filice). ["Shaman"](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/shaman). *The Canadian Encyclopedia*. Historica Canada. Published 7 February 2006; last edited 2 November 2015 (accessed 12 October 2026).
4. Foundation for Shamanic Studies. ["Core Shamanism"](https://www.shamanism.org/workshops/coreshamanism.html) (no date shown; accessed 12 October 2026).
5. Wallis, Robert J. Review of Siv Ellen Kraft, Trude Fonneland and James Lewis (eds), *Nordic Neoshamanisms*. *Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies* 19, no. 1 (2017): 126–130. [doi:10.1558/pome.33825](https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.33825) (accessed 12 October 2026).
6. Hicks, M. R. and R. E. Harris. "Shamanism as a Clinical Intervention: A Scoping Review". *Journal of Restorative Medicine* 15, no. 1 (2025): 54–62. [doi:10.14200/jrm.2025.0005](https://doi.org/10.14200/jrm.2025.0005). Abstract read via [Europe PMC](https://europepmc.org/article/MED/41281382) (accessed 12 October 2026).
7. Ellwood, Robert S. and Gracia Fay Ellwood. ["Spiritualism"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/legal-and-political-magazines/spiritualism). *Contemporary American Religion*. Macmillan Reference/Gale, via Encyclopedia.com, updated 23 May 2018 (accessed 12 October 2026).
8. Melton, J. Gordon. ["Western Esoteric Family II: Spiritualism & New Age"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/western-esoteric-family-ii-spiritualism-new-age). *Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions*. Gale, via Encyclopedia.com (accessed 12 October 2026).
9. Buescher, John B. ["Spiritualism"](https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms/miscellaneous-religion/spiritualism). *Encyclopedia of Religion*, 2nd ed. Gale, 2005, via Encyclopedia.com, updated 14 May 2018 (accessed 12 October 2026).
10. Meintel, Deirdre. "When There Is No Conversion: Spiritualists and Personal Religious Change". *Anthropologica* 49 (2007): 149–162, p. 155. [PDF](https://cas-sca.journals.uvic.ca/index.php/anthropologica/article/download/2436/2224) (accessed 12 October 2026).
11. Gillen, Paul. *The Spiritualists: Gnosis and Ideology*. PhD thesis, School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, 1981, PDF p. 109. [doi:10.25949/19431146](https://doi.org/10.25949/19431146) (accessed 12 October 2026).
12. Tomlinson, Matt. *Speaking with the Dead: An Ethnography of Extrahuman Experience*. Earth: punctum books, 2024, p. 23 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). [Project MUSE](https://muse.jhu.edu/book/141442) (accessed 12 October 2026).
13. Tomlinson, Matt. *Speaking with the Dead: An Ethnography of Extrahuman Experience*. Earth: punctum books, 2024, pp. 171–172 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). [Project MUSE](https://muse.jhu.edu/book/141442) (accessed 12 October 2026).
14. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co (AUS) Limited, practitioner insurance quote form, list of modalities (October 2026). See [Gallagher Australia](https://www.ajg.com/au/). See also [Insurance](https://spiritfold.com/Insurance).

## Further reading

- Smith, Derek G. ["Shaman"](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/shaman). *The Canadian Encyclopedia*, Historica Canada.
- Marie, N. and others. ["Scoping review on shamanistic trances practices"](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-024-04678-w). *BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies*, 2024 (open access).