Meditation has flourished in different parts of the world ever since the foundations of the great civilizations were laid. It played a vital role in the formation of Asian cultures that trace much of their heritage to ancient India and China. This volume brings together for the first time studies of the major traditions of Asian meditation as well as material on scientific approaches to...
The ability to speak the words of the spirits (kongsu) is central to shamanic practice, and the opening of a prospective shaman's “gates of speech” (malmun) is the central task of an initiation ritual. This chapter tells the story of a bashful, reticent initiate, Chini, and the initiating shamans' struggles to open her gates of speech. The analysis of hours of video, and the opportunity to...