Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_49-1
# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

Neo-Shamanism
Juan Scuroa* and Robin Roddb
a
Anthropology Graduate Program, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Montevideo, Uruguay
b
College of Arts and Social Sciences, Discipline of Anthropology, James Cook University City, Townsville, QLD,
Australia

Keywords
Shamanism; Spirituality; New Therapeutic Techniques; New Age

Definition
Neoshamanism is a set of discourses and practices involving the integration of indigenous (especially
American) shamanic and psychotherapeutic techniques by people from urban, Western contexts.
It has emerged, like other New Age modes of spirituality, in opposition to the materialism and positivism
of European modernity and presents as central the idea of reconnecting panindigenous ancestral knowl-
edge that people of the West had purportedly forgotten. It results in large measure from the circulation of
literature on shamanism, altered states of consciousness (often, but not always, involving the use of
psychoactive drugs), and the possibility of generating new psychotherapeutic modalities.

Introduction
From the second half of the twentieth century onward, shamanic knowledge and practices from diverse
regions of the world have increasingly generated interest from a nonindigenous, principally North
American and European, audience. Indigenous practices associated with healing and spirituality, which
we can generally refer to as shamanism, and a diversity of psychotherapeutic techniques are the major
sources of inspiration of neoshamanism. It derives specifically from interpretations of the knowledge and
practices of Amazonian, Mesoamerican, and North American indigenous groups.
The first English translation of Mircea Eliade’s book Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy in 1964
(first published in 1951) (Eliade 2009) corresponded with the English translation of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s
Structural anthropology, and each book is a significant event in the development of neoshamanism. (Lévi-
Strauss’s) chapter “The effectiveness of symbols” (1963) provided the first theory to explain shamanic
practice as a form of psychotherapy, proposing that the shaman uses myths and actions to heal people by
way of symbolic communication in a way comparable to psychoanalysis. Eliade, meanwhile, supported
Lévi-Strauss’s position that the shaman no longer be viewed as a charlatan or as mentally ill (e.g.,
Devereux 1970), a view that had prevailed until this time, but as having a central integrative role within
the community. For this reason, Kocku von Stuckrad defines Eliade “as the major turning point between
nineteenth-century intellectual discourse and the popular appropriation of shamanism in the second half
of the twentieth century” (Stuckrad 2002, p. 774).
Eliade’s comparative study proposed that shamanism was a universal religious practice and not
something geographically confined to Siberia, where the term “shaman” derived from the Tungus word

*Email: [email protected]

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Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions
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# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

saman. According to Eliade, one of the characteristics of this primordial religion was the making of a
connection with the spirit realm, something that the people of Western civilizations had, over time, lost.
The idea that a connection to a spirit realm had been lost, and could possibly be rediscovered, was a source
of great fascination in the context of a counterculture North America seeking new spiritual inspiration.
Later, the work of Mircea Eliade received serious criticism from a number of scholars, including Alice
Beck Kehoe, who argued that the term “shamanism” should only be used to refer to Siberian cultural
practices. Kehoe strongly emphasized the differences that existed between the diverse practices around
the world that Eliade associated with shamanism. Kehoe argued that Eliade’s romantic vision of shamanic
universality around the vague notion of “ecstasy” amounted to an expression of racism that continued a
history of European thought that marginalized non-Western knowledge, which was assumed to be
homogeneous (Kehoe 2000).
There is debate relating to the origins and principal characteristics of shamanism. Some emphasize the
importance of a few fundamental elements while others emphasize the similarities between different
practices.
Independent of debates about the nature of shamanism, neoshamanism emerged in the second half of
the twentieth century with a diffusion of interpretations of indigenous shamanic practices into urban
Western contexts. This process involved the circulation of literature concerned with spiritual and
therapeutic experiences but also a growing interest in plant-based hallucinogenic drugs and transpersonal
psychology, among other influences. Perhaps the two most significant literary sources of neoshamanism
are the 1968 publication The teachings of Don Juan by the anthropologist Carlos Castaneda and the 1980
book The way of the shaman, by Michael Harner (1982). From the 1990s on, there is a resurgence in the
multidisciplinary interest in consciousness, healing, and alternative forms of spirituality (Atkinson 1992),
and increased circulation of ideas relating to indigeneity.

Key Information
Shamanism is predicated on the assumption that meaningful action in the visionary terrain, often
conceptualized in terms of spirit communication or altered states of consciousness, will affect behavior
in the material domain of waking reality. Anthropology’s “post-modern turn,” involving a greater
emphasis on self-reflexivity and new relevance for interpreting the ethnographer’s experiences and not
simply their observations, allowed for new insights into shamanism. Znamenski (2007) sees Castaneda as
being postmodern in the sense of his emphasis on the social construction of reality and the impossibility of
understanding shamanic knowledge by way of a Western epistemology that denies a place for experience.
Castaneda radicalized the notion of total participation and explored the use of psychedelic drugs that
produce nonordinary states of consciousness, allowing for a problematization of the frontiers between
“reality” and “fiction.”
The other milestone commonly referred to as foundational for neoshamanism is Michael Harner’s The
way of the shaman (1980), a manual where different techniques to achieve what Harner describes as
“Shamanic States of Consciousness” are explained. These altered states can be achieved through the use
of substances that have been described as “hallucinogenic” (Harner 1973; Furst (2002); Schultes and
Hofmann 2000 [1979]), “entheogens” (Ruck et al. 1979; Ott 1996), “power plants” or “plant teachers”
(Luna 1984, 1986), or “psychointegrators” (Winkelman 1996) but also through other mechanisms such as
dance or drumming, the latter being Harner’s preferred method (Harner 1982).
If Eliade’s work was significantly criticized and seen as somewhat marginal within the academy, its
influence was of vital importance to the founding authors of neoshamanism in the West, such as Michael
Harner (1982), who developed a psychotherapeutic technique he called “core shamanism.” Eliade,

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Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions
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# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

Castaneda, and Harner each decontextualize and universalize shamanic practice so that it becomes linked
to the origin of religion and a mystical union that the West had lost. But Harner’s “core shamanism”
represented a break with previous works, such as those by Castaneda or Naranjo (1973) that emphasized
the use of psychoactive drugs and sorcery more than healing. Harner’s work positioned shamanism as a
transcultural technology for healing and spiritual development rather than one relating to sorcery and the
exploration of consciousness.
Core shamanism is based on shared characteristics and “is an experiential method by which one
uses drumming to move into Spirit Reality, contact spirits, and gain assistance from them” (Townsend
2005, p. 4).
Townsend (2005) sees Harner’s “core shamanism” as a type of “modern shamanic spirituality” which
she distinguishes from “traditional shamanism” and as a subset of what she refers to as “Individualist
Religious Movements” which also include neopaganaism and other forms of New Age spirituality. While
Atkinson sees “neo shamanism” and “urban shamanism” as synonymous (Atkinson 1992, p. 322),
Townsend recognizes that some forms of traditional shamanism (e.g., in Nepal and Siberia) are now
urban, and defines neoshamanism as
an eclectic collection of beliefs and activities drawn from literature, workshops, and the internet. It is an invented
tradition of practices and beliefs based on a constructed metaphorical, romanticized “ideal” shaman concept which often
differs considerably from traditional shamans (Townsend 2005, p.:4).

Within neoshamanism references are made to traditional shamanic practices but often as means of
legitimizing spiritual practices as ancestral, tribal, or ecological (Znamenski 2007, p. 252). The idea with
“core shamanism” is that it can be transplanted to any cultural context and allows the practitioner to
develop their own spirituality. This very transposability, however, has led to some indigenous groups
accusing neoshamans of “colonialism” (DuBois 2009, p. 277). Harner’s organization Foundation for
Shamanic Studies has trained “faculty” and “field associates” to be adepts in “core shamanism” which
have then been taught to indigenous populations around the world who have purportedly lost
their shamanic skills. The Foundation’s webpage claims that “The Foundation is actively engaged in
preservation work in Nepal, Siberia, China, Central Asia, the Amazon, and elsewhere” (https://www.
shamanism.org/fssinfo/indigenousAssistance.html).
There are a number of important differences between traditional and neoshamanism. The first relates to
how people become shamans. Whereas in indigenous contexts the shaman would either be chosen by the
community or may inherit the office (however, in both instances the neophyte would still be required to
demonstrate his knowledge and learning), in the case of neoshamanism the decision to take up shamanic
training is generally regarded as an individual decision. Or, in the words of Townsend (2005, p. 5), “Core
and Neo-shamanism differ from traditional shamanism in their democratization of shamanism. While in
most traditional societies few will be shamans, in Core and Neo-shamanism apparently all or many who
wish to can become a ‘shaman.’” Another major distinction concerns social roles and expectations.
Traditional shamanism exists in a context in which there are culturally recognized tutelary spirits and a
human community of teachers and clients. The activity of the shaman is guided by these spirits and
teachers as he or she mediates the cosmos on behalf of a defined human and spirit community. By contrast,
in neoshamanism the scale of action is personal rather than social or cosmic. The shamanic journey, in this
instance, involves cultivating oneself rather than maintaining community or cosmic balance. An emphasis
on psychotherapy gives neoshamanism a “benevolent spirit” and “happy ending” (Znamenski 2007) very
different to the various traditional versions in which the cosmos is fraught and any potential for healing is
always tempered by chaos and the potential for malevolence. As Znamenski and DuBois emphasize, in
neoshamanic spiritual journeys a discourse of “love” predominates over references to fear or aggression,
extremely common elements of mythology and narratives relating to traditional shamanism. A fourth

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Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions
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# Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

difference between traditional and neoshamanism emphasized by DuBois relates to the relation between
the spirit and material or waking realms. While traditional shamans may conceptualize the “other world”
in a variety of ways, there is something of a consensus about the primacy of spirit realm. In the
case of neoshamanism, however, materialist explanations coexist with other theories of the cosmos
(DuBois 2009, pp. 272–273).
Among the shared characteristics of the heterogeneous field of neoshamanism participants recognize
the existence of an accessible nonordinary reality, every bit as real as the ordinary, everyday reality. In this
sense, the spirits that inhabit the nonordinary reality are real beings. This results, according to Znamenski,
in a teleological situation. The fact that this spirituality has “this worldly focus” explains the key place that
environmentalist discourses occupy in neoshamanism, where everything in the world is holistically
connected. Related to the environmentalist ethos is the prevalence of a negative feeling toward Western
civilization and a reverence for non-Western traditions (Znamenski 2007, p. 255). Practitioners of modern
western shamanism tend to possess, according to Znamenski, liberal individualist frames of thought with
consciousness of global social problems, especially relating to the environment. These social and
ecological crises are often attributed to a spiritual rupture and the solution seen as a “transformation of
consciousness.” However, the primacy of the individual in neoshamanism is reflected in the
dominant idea that social transformation is only possible after individual transformation of consciousness.
Accordingly, it is no longer a matter of trying to change the world but of changing oneself as the precursor
to any subsequent social change. Within neoshamanism, God isn’t just with us; he is inside of us
(Znamenski 2007).
According to Thomas Dubois (2009), neoshamanism is not an exclusively Western phenomenon but is
also present in the postcolonial and post-Soviet worlds. Indeed, like other variations of New Age
spirituality, neoshamanism has evolved and grown with the interconnectivity of people, ideas, and capital
associated with globalization. Latin America is both a major consumer and producer of neoshamanic
ideas and practices. In Latin America, the clearest example of the transnationalization of neoshamanism is
the so-called Camino Rojo (Red Path), strongly inspired by North American indigenous traditions
(especially Lakota) where the “vision quest,” “sweat lodge,” and “sun dance” rituals have been adapted
and integrated into a new cosmology. There are, however, numerous neoshamanic trajectories throughout
Latin America that draw on eclectic interpretations of local and North American indigenous practices,
such as the Eagle and Condor meetings that interpreted Andean prophecies in terms of the spiritual union
of Northern and Southern peoples and ideas. Neoshamanic networks are part of larger New Age circuits,
where official national histories are often reinterpreted, as is the Mexican case (De La Torre and Gutiérrez
Zúñiga 2011, 2012). In a context of extensive reappropriation and transnationalization of traditional
practices, new forms of spiritual therapies are developed. The book Roots in movement. Traditional
religious practices in translocal contexts (Argyriadis et al. 2008) explores some of these movements.
Other examples of the movements and tensions within neoshamanism have been examined in relation to
Colombia (Uribe 2002, 2008; Losonczy and Rubiano 2013).
Shamans and neoshamans from throughout Latin America participate regularly in tours and festivals in
North America, Europe, and Australia while people from these latter places seek out shamans for their
own healing and spiritual experiences in the cities and forests of Columbia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil,
Mexico, Ecuador, and Bolivia. In countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay neoshamanic groups
are also present (for the Uruguayan case see Apud et al. 2013, for Brazil Labate 2004).
The Amazon has been a major source of neoshamanic inspiration, generating a large amount of spiritual
and entheogenic tourism in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. In the case of Brazil, neoshamanic
trajectories have become institutionalized in new religions drawing on elements of Christian liturgy,
nineteenth-century spiritism, and the shamanic use of the psychedelic decoction ayahuasca (e.g., Abreu
1990; Soares 1990; Groisman 1991; MacRae 1992; Labate and Araujo 2009). In the Northwest Amazon,

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Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions
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neoshamanism has not been institutionalized in any formal church setting, but a long history of syncretism
between indigenous and mestizo peoples has facilitated its spread from remote to urban settings. The work
of Marlene Dobkin de Rios in Iquitos Peru from the late 1960s through to the twenty-first century (1984,
2008; Dobkin de Rios and Rumrrill 2008) documents the rising popularity of shamanic tourism. Iquitos
and Pucallpa have become home to regular shamanic conferences, workshops, and retreats, where
shamanism has become the major tourist attraction and a major employer in the region (Labate 2011;
Winkelman 2005). Razam’s (2013) “gonzo journalism” book Aya awakenings: A shamanic odyssey charts
the “gringo trail” of tourists from Australia, Europe, and North America seeking shamanic experiences in
the Amazon. Dobkin de Rios’s short paper entitled “Mea culpa” (2008) implied that anthropologists were
at least partly responsible for the rising global popularity of neoshamanism, driving a soaring demand for
the unregulated and sometimes unethical practices of “charlatans” in global nodes of shamanic tourism.
While claims of authenticity, ethics, and power relations between tourists and shamans are contested, it is
clear that neoshamanism has arrived as a global spiritual practice and business.

Cross-References
▶ Camino Rojo
▶ Nature
▶ New Age and Native Spirituality
▶ Pachamama
▶ Psychoactive Substances
▶ Urban Shamanism

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