Argues that a deeper understanding of shamanic rites requires examining their content from the shaman's point of view and honoring their descriptions as valid.
Abstract
Most of the previously practiced methods of investigating the shamanic rite have only shown half the picture. For a deeper understanding, it is also necessary to examine the rite's content. Taking the shaman's point of view into consideration, listening to how the shaman describes his experiences, and honoring that description as valid, is the first step.The work of the shaman has always been a matter of experience, experience which outside observers could not accept as being "real" because of their own limited understanding of reality, and so they labeled it as religious faith, imagination, beliefs, superstitions, insanity, or even play-acting.