Shamanism research: what the evidence shows

Traditional and cross-cultural practices working with non-ordinary states for healing and meaning.

State of the evidence

Synthesized October 25, 2026

Synthesized from 24 studies in the library · AI-generated, grounded in the abstracts below

Found by searching the library for Shamanism, shamanic, shamanism, entheogenic ritual, curandero, then ranked by relevance.

The research on shamanism is overwhelmingly descriptive and theoretical rather than clinical: it documents the deep history of psychoactive plant use in ritual bundles, the ethnography of ayahuasca healing and tourism, and the neuroscience and rock-art interpretation of trance states. The few empirical studies point in a positive direction for participants—ceremonial ayahuasca use was associated with a large reduction in neuroticism sustained at three months, and ayahuasca tourists report self-knowledge and spiritual benefits—but these are uncontrolled observational designs with self-selected samples. The main caveats are the absence of randomized or blinded trials, reliance on self-report and single case studies, and the fact that most work concerns ayahuasca specifically rather than shamanism broadly.

Evidence by study

Direction is which way each study's own result points, not our rating of the study. All 25 matching studies were reviewed; the 24 that directly address the question are shown here.

What the directions mean

Supports:: the study found the intervention worked, or its hypothesis held.
Opposes:: it found the opposite, no benefit or a harm.
No effect:: no significant difference either way.
Mixed:: effects in both directions within the same study.
Unclear:: the abstract does not report a direction.

Study	Design	Sample size	Direction	Finding
Chemical evidence for the use of multiple psychotropic plants in a 1,000-year-old ritual bundle from South America. 2019	chemical analysis of archaeological residues	1	Supports	A 1,000-year-old ritual bundle contained bufotenine, dimethyltryptamine, harmine, and cocaine, indicating at least three psychotropic plants were part of shamanic paraphernalia and that such plants moved across distant ecological zones.
Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond 2014	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Argues that Amazonian shamanic rituals, especially ayahuasca ceremonies, have been creatively reinvented by displaced indigenous people and rubber tappers to build ethnic alliances and political strategies.
Hallucinogenic Drugs and Plants in Psychotherapy and Shamanism 1998	review		Mixed	Argues that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and shamanic healing share superficial similarities but differ profoundly in worldview, particularly in shamanic assumptions of multiple realities and real spirits.
Hallucinogenic Mushrooms in Mexico: An Overview 2008	review		Unclear	Reviews 53 hallucinogenic Psilocybe species used as sacred mushrooms in Mexico and hypothesizes that Psilocybe caerulescens is the teonanácatl cited by Sahagún, while noting Paneolus species were never traditionally used there.
Ayahuasca Tourism: Participants in Shamanic Rituals and their Personality Styles, Motivation, Benefits and Risks 2015	observational study	77	Supports	Ayahuasca tourists were motivated by curiosity, mental health treatment, self-knowledge, and spiritual development, and reported benefits including self-knowledge, spiritual growth, and improved relationships, while naming distrust of shamans and dangerous situations as risks.
Brain changes during a shamanic trance: Altered modes of consciousness, hemispheric laterality, and systemic psychobiology 2017	case study	1	Supports	Quantitative EEG and LORETA in one trained subject indicated that self-induced shamanic trance involves a shift from left analytical to right experiential mode and from anterior prefrontal to posterior somatosensory self-experience.
"Plantas con madre": plants that teach and guide in the shamanic initiation process in the East-Central Peruvian Amazon. 2011	qualitative study	36	Supports	Identified 55 plant species from 26 families used in shamanic initiation and apprenticeship, administered under strict conditions during shamanic diets central to Amazonian healing practice.
Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology 2004	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Argues that cross-culturally universal shamanic features such as animism, soul flight, and death-and-rebirth reflect innate brain processes and offer a biopsychosocial framework for neurotheology.
Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca 2019	ethnography with literature review	227	Supports	Argues that purging is integral to the therapeutic use of ayahuasca and should be reconsidered for potential therapeutic effects rather than dismissed as a side effect or irrational belief.
The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism 2016	ethnography		Opposes	Argues that romanticized notions of indigenous shamanism in ayahuasca tourism hide the complexity of indigenous peoples' situations and erase the injustices they have experienced and continue to experience.
Examining changes in personality following shamanic ceremonial use of ayahuasca. 2021	observational cohort	256	Supports	Ceremonial ayahuasca use was associated with a large reduction in Neuroticism on self-report (dz about -1.00 post and -0.85 at 3 months) and informant-report (dz -0.62), with moderation by baseline personality and acute and purgative experiences.
The globalization of traditional medicine in northern peru: from shamanism to molecules. 2013	qualitative and experimental study		Mixed	Documented 510 medicinal plant species used in over 974 preparations for 164 conditions, with antibacterial activity confirmed in most plants used for infections but toxicity in 24% of aqueous and 76% of ethanolic extracts, and most species wild-collected.
Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America 1992	ethnographic review and analysis		Supports	Argues that ethnographic data indicate late prehistoric and historical parietal art in far western North America originated from shamans and ritual-cult initiates depicting culturally conditioned visions experienced in altered states.
Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California 1998	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Argues that Native Californian rock art depicts trance-induced mental imagery and somatic hallucinations, that the shamanistic state often generated unpleasant emotions, and that biochemical changes during trance motivated making rock art to preserve memories of supernatural experiences.
The Shamanic Gaze: Creating Diverse Tomorrows By Experiencing The World Otherwise 2026	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Argues that Yanomami shamanic dreaming and Krenak's 'ancestral future' offer a cosmology attributing agency to animals, plants, and rivers, and propose a 'shamanic gaze' as a model for planetary survival against predatory capitalism.
THE FIRST DETECTION OF CANNABINOIDS IN SMOKE FROM THE INCENSE OF RHODODENDRON TOMENTOSUM (LEDUM PALUSTRE L.), USED IN THE FOLK SHAMANIC PRACTICE OF THE UDEGE PEOPLE BY HPLC-ESI-MS/MS SPECTROMETRY 2026	chemical analysis		Supports	Identified 113 biologically active components in Ledum palustre used in Udege shamanic and healing practice, including cannabinoids detected in the plant for the first time and 74 compounds from other groups identified for the first time.
Contact Cinema and Female Shamanism at Igarapé Omerê 2026	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Argues that two films on contact with the Kanoê and Akuntsu peoples, read alongside the death of Tanaru, raise complex questions about how cinema is made and conceived in dialogue with Brazil's Indigenous peoples, centering on a shamanic ritual using angico seeds.
A Pastoral Counseling Examination of Believers' Reliance on Shamanism : Focusing on the Case of King Saul 2026	case study (pastoral-counseling analysis of a biblical figure)	1	Unclear	Argues that Saul's reliance on shamanism arose through a chain in which a need for recognition became an idol of the heart, breaking his relationship with God and producing abandonment anxiety that led to psychopathological breakdown and ultimately to seeking shamanism.
Shamanism as an Analogue Model for Extraterrestrial Communication 2026	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Argues that shamanic practices offer an analogue model for extraterrestrial communication through six signalling principles—rhythm, movement, mimicry, repetition, reciprocity, and reception and cooperation—and proposes a hypothetical shamanic-inspired communication probe.
Tolkien's shamanic worldview 2026	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Proposes an analysis of Tolkien's Legendarium focused on the cognitive mechanics of visionary data reception, shamanic mode-switching, and mythic transmission outside conventional institutional interpretive frameworks, without stating specific conclusions.
The Motivation for Performing Ecstatic Rituals (A Case Study of Sufi Sama and Similar Rituals in Shamanism) 2026	comparative documentary study		Supports	Argues that shamans and Sufis share a common pattern of motivations for entering ecstatic trance classifiable into spiritual/doctrinal, psychological/physiological, and social/cultural domains, while cautioning that outward similarities do not imply identical underlying experiences.
Channeling Alterity: Toward a Theory of Shamanic Audiovisualization 2026	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Argues that the cinematic apparatus can function as a shamanic medium channeling alterity through receptivity rather than extraction, proposing 'shamanic audiovisualization' as an ethical alternative to logocentric testimony and trauma models.
Historical and Ethnocultural Transformations of Kyrgyz Shamanism in the 20th – 21st Centuries 2026	historical and ethnographic analysis		Supports	Argues that Kyrgyz shamanism has been highly adaptable and inclusive across the 20th and 21st centuries, incorporating Islamic ritual, Sufi mysticism, mazar veneration, and neo-shamanic movements, and now functions as a dynamic transcultural system.
A Study on Gobijeon of Shamanism in Seoul 2026	theoretical or philosophical paper		Unclear	Argues that the gobijeon is a paper deity form enshrined before the shrine altar in Seoul shamanism, predating altar paintings, made through folding, cutting, sweeping, unfolding, and brushing, and permanently enshrined rather than consumed in rituals.

Points of agreement

Shamanic traditions across cultures and periods center on altered states of consciousness, often induced by psychoactive plants or self-induced trance.
Psychoactive plant use is deeply embedded in shamanic ritual, documented archaeologically, ethnographically, and chemically.
Shamanism is described as adaptable and syncretic, absorbing new cultural, religious, and commercial influences over time.
Ayahuasca ceremony participants report benefits including self-knowledge, spiritual development, and improved relationships.
Shamanic and Western therapeutic frameworks are widely described as differing in worldview, particularly regarding spirits and multiple realities.

Conflicts

Some work frames ayahuasca tourism as a source of reported healing and personal benefit, while other ethnography argues it romanticizes and erases indigenous peoples and their injustices.
One review stresses profound worldview differences between shamanic healing and psychedelic psychotherapy, whereas other work proposes hybrid shamanic-therapeutic rituals and shared motivational patterns.
Purging is framed as therapeutically integral by one ethnography but is treated elsewhere as a side effect or risk.

Gaps

No randomized or blinded trials of shamanic healing; the strongest empirical personality finding is an uncontrolled observational cohort.
Durability beyond three months is largely unexamined.
Single-subject case studies (trance EEG, archaeological bundle) limit generalization.
Little quantitative data on adverse events, safety, or the role of shaman trust and competence.
Most clinical-adjacent evidence concerns ayahuasca specifically rather than shamanism broadly.
Populations studied are largely self-selected Western tourists and specific indigenous groups; other regions and demographics are underrepresented.

Browse these studies in the library

Common questions

What does the research agree on about shamanism?

Shamanic traditions across cultures and periods center on altered states of consciousness, often induced by psychoactive plants or self-induced trance.
Psychoactive plant use is deeply embedded in shamanic ritual, documented archaeologically, ethnographically, and chemically.
Shamanism is described as adaptable and syncretic, absorbing new cultural, religious, and commercial influences over time.
Ayahuasca ceremony participants report benefits including self-knowledge, spiritual development, and improved relationships.
Shamanic and Western therapeutic frameworks are widely described as differing in worldview, particularly regarding spirits and multiple realities.

Where do studies on shamanism conflict?

Some work frames ayahuasca tourism as a source of reported healing and personal benefit, while other ethnography argues it romanticizes and erases indigenous peoples and their injustices.
One review stresses profound worldview differences between shamanic healing and psychedelic psychotherapy, whereas other work proposes hybrid shamanic-therapeutic rituals and shared motivational patterns.
Purging is framed as therapeutically integral by one ethnography but is treated elsewhere as a side effect or risk.

What is still unknown about shamanism?

No randomized or blinded trials of shamanic healing; the strongest empirical personality finding is an uncontrolled observational cohort.
Durability beyond three months is largely unexamined.
Single-subject case studies (trance EEG, archaeological bundle) limit generalization.
Little quantitative data on adverse events, safety, or the role of shaman trust and competence.
Most clinical-adjacent evidence concerns ayahuasca specifically rather than shamanism broadly.
Populations studied are largely self-selected Western tourists and specific indigenous groups; other regions and demographics are underrepresented.

How we analyze this

This synthesis reads the 15 most-cited and 10 most recent studies whose primary subject is Shamanism, up to 25 in all. The most-cited set anchors the established evidence, and the recent set surfaces work that is too new to have gathered citations yet.

A study qualifies only when Shamanism or a known alias appears in its title or keywords, so broad reviews that mention it only in passing are left out. Each study is read from its abstract, strongest evidence first, and the summary reports the direction of the results along with any conflicts and gaps.

The full method, including what a person does and does not review, is on the methods page.

Ask your own question in the Research Synthesis Tool

Latest monthly recap: July 2026 →

1,635 articles · 352 from the last two years · 30,617 participants across 139 studies reporting sample size

Common study designs

review 110 ethnography 133 qualitative study 121 historical analysis 172 theoretical or philosophical paper 724

Research volume by year

Compare topics →

630 studies whose primary subject is shamanism since 2002

2026 is partial

Show the numbers

Studies about shamanism per year, 2002 to 2026, peaking at 79 in 2026
Year	Studies
2002	5
2003	9
2004	6
2005	3
2006	8
2007	8
2008	9
2009	8
2010	20
2011	18
2012	16
2013	11
2014	10
2015	17
2016	23
2017	19
2018	62
2019	22
2020	30
2021	35
2022	42
2023	47
2024	57
2025	66
2026	79

Research

Synthesize the evidence → Search all →

Mastery of Natural Self-Evidence: A Phenomenological Psychopathology Study of Shamanic Illness in Modern China

Religions October 27, 2026 Da Fang, Kan Feng

Medical anthropology has played a major role in destigmatizing shamanic illness. It has liberated shamanic illness from psychiatric labels such as hysteria, superstition, and mental disorder, and has relocated it within cultural, social, and historical contexts. However, shamanic illness in contemporary China now faces new challenges of stigmatization. This paper adopts phenomenological...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17111251

The Shamanic Gaze: Creating Diverse Tomorrows By Experiencing The World Otherwise

Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies October 13, 2026 Francisco Quinteiro Pires

By drawing on shamanic dreaming, this article approaches the conceptualisations of Indigenous thinkers, such as Davi Kopenawa Yanomami and Ailton Krenak, who envision a future of interdependence and care between human beings and all matter on Earth, increasingly harmed by predatory capitalism. It specifically explores the visuality of the Yanomami cosmology and Ailton Krenak’s concept of...

DOI: 10.1080/13569325.2026.2680084

THE FIRST DETECTION OF CANNABINOIDS IN SMOKE FROM THE INCENSE OF RHODODENDRON TOMENTOSUM (LEDUM PALUSTRE L.), USED IN THE FOLK SHAMANIC PRACTICE OF THE UDEGE PEOPLE BY HPLC-ESI-MS/MS SPECTROMETRY

Chemistry of plant raw material October 10, 2026 Vasily Ivanovich Dunkay, Mayya Petrovna Razgonova, Alexander Mikhailovich Zakharenko et al.

Ledum palustre L. has been actively used in ethnomedicine in Mongolia, China and Russian Far East (indigenous peoples: Udege and Evenki) for centuries, as an antioxidant, immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, vitality-restoring agent. L. palustre contain various phenolic compounds and fatty acids with valuable biological activity. This plant is especially actively used in shamanic and healing...

DOI: 10.14258/jcprm.20260316678

Contact Cinema and Female Shamanism at Igarapé Omerê

The Oxford Handbook of Brazilian Cinema October 6, 2026 Clarisse Alvarenga

Abstract: This chapter revisits the films Corumbiara (2009) and Isolados de Corumbiara (The Isolated of Corumbiara, 2021), both directed by filmmaker Vincent Carelli, set in the Igarapé Omerê in the Brazilian Amazon and involving the Kanoê and Akuntsu peoples. The first film stages national society’s establishing contact with the Kanoê and Akuntsu, peoples who have survived previous...

DOI: 10.1093/9780197612446.003.0031

A Pastoral Counseling Examination of Believers' Reliance on Shamanism : Focusing on the Case of King Saul

Theology and praxis September 30, 2026 총신대학교 교수 / 실천신학 / 목회상담, Jun Kim

본 연구의 목적은 현대 기독교인들의 무속 의존 현상 이면에 작동하는 복합적인 신앙적·심리적 기제를 구약성경 사울 왕의 사례를 통해 심층 규명하고, 목회 현장에서 적용 가능한 실천적 목회상담 방안을 제시하는 데 있다. 최근 한국 사회에서 무속은 뉴미디어와 대중문화를 매개로 급속히 확산하며, 청년층을 비롯한 기독교인들에게 문화 콘텐츠이자 일상적 심리상담의 대체 기제로 수용되고 있다. 선행연구들은 신자들의 무속 의존 원인을 분석했으나, 무속을 단순한 교리적 우상숭배로 비판하거나 심리·정신적 문제를 분리하여 다룸으로써 신앙적 붕괴와 심리·정신적 문제가 상호작용하여 무속 의존으로 귀결되는 기제에 대한 통합적 분석에는 한계를 보였다. 이에 본 연구는 신학과 현대 심리학·정신의학을 통합한 다학제적 사례연구 방법으로...

DOI: 10.14387/jkspth.2026.101.421

Shamanism as an Analogue Model for Extraterrestrial Communication

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) September 26, 2026 Arthur Saniotis preprint

This paper proposes shamanic practices as an analogue model for communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence. Drawing on examples of cross-species communication and shamanic embodied signalling, it identifies six signalling principles: rhythm, movement, mimicry, repetition, reciprocity, and reception and cooperation. These principles may provide a basis for communication where a shared...

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22978557

Tolkien's shamanic worldview

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) September 19, 2026 David Woosley preprint

An analysis of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium evaluating the cognitive mechanics of visionary data reception, shamanic mode-switching, and mythic transmission outside conventional institutional interpretive frameworks.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22845410

The Motivation for Performing Ecstatic Rituals (A Case Study of Sufi Sama and Similar Rituals in Shamanism)

ادبیات عرفانی September 17, 2026 Haniye Pakravan, Ehsan Reisi

Ecstatic rituals are regarded as among the oldest religious concepts across diverse cultures. These rituals occupy a central and foundational position within certain spiritual traditions and belief systems, while in other religious or cultural contexts, they are rejected or marginalized. In several intellectual and faith-based traditions, trance is understood as a form of altered consciousness...

DOI: 10.22051/jml.2026.55099.2796 Full text Ecstasy Shamanism Sufism Sama +2

Madness is the gift: the familiarisation of mental otherness through shamanism

Religion September 14, 2026 Piotr Sobkowiak

The article addresses the sociopolitical history of mental otherness within the Western discourse on shamanism. It explores how the inability of various discourses to reveal the ‘truth’ concerning the nature of shamanism has been continuously underpinned by a parallel inability to definitively describe the nature of the mental disorder commonly referred to as schizophrenia. The analysis focuses...

DOI: 10.1080/0048721x.2026.2731821

Channeling Alterity: Toward a Theory of Shamanic Audiovisualization

Theory, Culture & Society September 10, 2026 Tian Li

This article theorizes the concept of ‘shamanic audiovisualization’ – a process whereby the cinematic apparatus itself functions as a ritualistic medium channeling alterity – to challenge logocentric models of testimony and trauma that dominate the archive. Moving beyond the imperative to ‘give voice’, which risks re-performing the violence of the event, I examine how Korean screen media offers...

DOI: 10.1177/02632764261479605