The first mind-body medicine: bringing shamanism into the 21st century.

R emnants of ancient healing, shamanic traditions still linger in the Peruvian Amazon and in the high Andes of the Incas. The role of the shaman is to create order from disorder, to invite healing, cleansing, purification, and a realignment of the soul in a world where there is disorder, toxicity, and misalignment of living , thinking, feeling, and being. These traditions are universal, transcultural, and pre-religious. They exist because we always have known suffering, loss, and illness. Confronted with spiritual, psychological, and biological suffering , we, as a species, have sought to create meaning for our suffering. These ancient traditions are easily dismissed as magical, imaginary, delusional, or meaningless collections of superstitious beliefs and behaviors. While conventional science has accepted plant medicine and even now seeks cures from the 80,000 plant species of the rain forest jungles, it sees no relevance or context for sha-manic practices for the suffering masses of the 21st century. How can the singing of songs, waving of feathers, or shaking of rattles solve any of our modern ills? Shamanism is an integrated system of mind-body medicine. It was the fi rst mind-body medicine, yet it contains more than methods to calm the mind or to shake off stress in a mechanical way. It provides a cosmology and architecture for healing not only the mind but also the soul, for navigating the confusion, injury, pain, or trauma we encounter as human beings walking the earth. Most modern attempts to adopt mind-body medicine such as biofeedback, breathing techniques, muscle relaxation, and massage may briefl y relieve the symptoms of stress, but they do not address the root causes of suffering and stress. In a sense, the practices are out of context. But how does a shamanic epistemology differ from mind-body medicine? What are the essential qualities or understandings that can be relevant today and can be separated from the cultural context from which they arose? Dusting off the arcane language and mythology and placing aside for a moment the amulets, rattles, and drums or other ceremonial objects, can we look directly into the shamanic worldview and the role of the shaman in society? Is there a jewel or nugget from that " other " world that can offer insight into why we are sick now and how we can heal? The altered states of consciousness evoked in both the healer and the sick through drumming, chanting, …