Religions
March 27, 2024
Christine S. Vanpool
Medio Period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes shamans used tobacco and possibly other entheogens to initiate trance states that allowed their spirits to travel across the cosmos. These trance experiences involved a sense of vertigo and soul flight that is cross-culturally common and occurs with tobacco-based nicotine intoxication. The Medio Period shamans also relied on and interacted with...
Human Nature
March 1, 2024
Ronald J Planer, Kim Sterelny
2 citations
In many traditional, small-scale societies, death and other misfortunes are commonly explained as a result of others' malign occult agency. Here, we call this family of epistemic tendencies "the agential view of misfortune." After reviewing several ethnographic case studies that illustrate this view, we argue that its origins and stability are puzzling from an evolutionary perspective. Not only...
Qeios
January 17, 2024
Ana María Rosso
1 citation
The purpose of this article is to study the 'sacred' plants, diverse from those exclusively medicinal but with an unquestionable ethnobotanical value because, added to their healing properties, they develop mystical experiences and altered states of consciousness analogous to the ecstatic trance. _Psychoactive_ plants have played an important role in medicine, religion, _ritual_ life, and...
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry
November 30, 2023
Tanya M Luhrmann, John Dulin, Vivian Dzokoto
8 citations
This paper presents evidence that some-but not all-religious experts in a particular faith may have a schizophrenia-like psychotic process which is managed or mitigated by their religious practice, in that they are able to function effectively and are not identified by their community as ill. We conducted careful phenomenological interviews, in conjunction with a novel probe, with okomfo,...
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry
June 1, 2023
Boon-Ooi Lee, Laurence J. Kirmayer
7 citations
While some early studies suggested that spirit mediums were psychiatrically ill individuals who found a culturally sanctioned role, subsequent work has found that they are generally in good physical and mental health. While the calling to be a healer often involves an initiatory illness, practitioners go on to play demanding social roles, suggesting that involvement in mediumship may be...
VIRUS - Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte der Medizin
2023
Bernd Brabec
1 citation
In this contribution, I will focus on the history and meaning construction of the term “shamanism” and its implications for the music that is attached to this concept. “Shamanism” was brought to Europe from Russian Siberia in the 17th century and then, until the 20th century was re-interpreted as an epitome of the exotic and diabolic. During the last third of the 20th century, however, the term...
International Journal for the Psychology of Religion
December 5, 2022
Arne Bohn, Michiel H. H. Kiggen, Malin V. Uthaug et al.
10 citations
San Pedro, a mescaline containing cactus, has been used for thousands of years and is currently popular as a psychedelic substance in ceremonial retreats in Europe. The current research investigates the consciousness altering effects of San Pedro. Forty-two participants who joined ceremonial psychedelic retreats in the Netherlands were investigated with questionnaires probing 11 dimensions of...
Anthropology of Consciousness
August 14, 2022
Jesús M. González Mariscal, Paulina E. Sosa‐cortés
8 citations
ABSTRACT The "people of knowledge" of traditional Mazatec medicine have preserved until today the ritual use of psilocybin mushrooms as part of their health care systems. The renewed interest in the effect of psilocybin on human consciousness for both therapeutic and recreational purposes usually obviates the historical and cultural background of indigenous peoples, as well as the legitimation...
Anthropology of Consciousness
August 9, 2022
Antonella Fagetti, Roberto E. Mercadillo
10 citations
Abstract We present the set and setting of the velada , the Mazatec ritual of divination and healing. We highlight the subjective experiences of individuals who consumed sacred mushrooms and interpret them from their cultural and community contexts, but also from findings derived from experimental and neuroscientific research. We understand that the experiences connected to sacred mushrooms can...
Scientific Reports
August 1, 2022
Julián Padró, Diego de Panis, Pierre Luisi et al.
5 citations
Cultural transformations of lifestyles and dietary practices have been key drivers of human evolution. However, while most of the evidence of genomic adaptations is related to the hunter-gatherer transition to agricultural societies, little is known on the influence of other major cultural manifestations. Shamanism is considered the oldest religion that predominated throughout most of human...