Introduction. Zul (a butter lamp) is one of the most widespread ritual objects in the Buddhist culture of Mongolic peoples. Despite its extensive use in both everyday and festive religious practices, it has rarely been examined as an independent subject of ethnological and anthropological inquiry, being more often treated merely as an element of Buddhist ritual. Yet zul represents a complex...
Arguing that altered states of consciousness are not spontaneous ruptures of grace but intentional, embodied methods, this book explores the question, ‘what if ecstasy is not a loss of control, but instead a form of knowledge?’ Moving between Eleusinian mystery rites, Afro-Brazilian possession ceremonies and Amazonian shamanism, to Mediterranean tarantism, Anastenaria firewalking and Santo...
AbstractThis chapter delves into the meandrous trajectory of DMT extracted from Mimosa tenuifora (black jurema) along traditional, scientific, and neo-shamanic uses. Chemist Jonathan Ott popularized a recipe of anahuasca (sometimes called juremahuasca or pharmahuasca) mixing the root bark powder from the tree that grows in semi-arid regions of tropical America with Syrian rue as a source of...
Abstract The notion that spirits can attach themselves to people, causing them physical and mental distress, and that specialists are needed to heal both the spirits and their victims, is not generally part of Western cosmology. This study of spirit release therapists and their clients in the UK reveals practices for dealing with unwanted spirits and energy attachments in Western contexts....
This study uses the concept of ontological shocks and the emerging phenomenon of psychedelic tourism to link sustainability to tourism and individual behavior through the deep, paradigmatic shifts proposed by Meadows’12 system-dynamics leverage points. Ontology concerns itself with the nature of reality – it addresses the question of “what exists?” or “what is?” and precedes epistemology, that...
Abstract In Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan, Bitans (shamans) continue to treat illnesses that biomedicine may diagnose yet appealingly leaves experientially unresolved: recurrent miscarriage, spirit possession, infant mortality, and mental condition often attributed to nazar (evil eye), jinn (supernatural beings), or pari (fairies). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Karimabad and surrounding...
As a universal music form in the world, shamanic music not only retains its religious (divine) nature in the historical construction but also shows different national characteristics with the embedding of specific cultural scene patterns. Citing the perspective of ethnomusicology, the source of religious consciousness of the current shamanic music object form is explained with “music in...
Este artículo analiza la representación y reconfiguración de la ayahuasca en relatos polacos difundidos a través de YouTube. Mediante un análisis cualitativo de testi-monios publicados entre enero y abril de 2022, se contrastan las experiencias de ciudada-nos polacos participantes en ceremonias en América Latina y Europa con las descripciones etnográficas del uso indígena amazónico. El estudio...
Introducción y objetivos: La ayahuasca es una bebida tradicionalmente empleada con fines curativos, tanto físicos como espirituales. Su uso se ha popularizado globalmente, generando interés turístico y una creciente demanda. Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo documentar y analizar los conocimientos locales, las prácticas asociadas a la toma y los usos contemporáneos de la ayahuasca en el...
La aparición del «turismo chamánico» en algunas comunidades y zonas urbanas shipibo-konibo ha provocado un incremento de las prácticas brujeras vernáculas, ahora integradas en el nuevo contexto sociológico de la comercialización del chamanismo vegetalista local. Este clima provoca ataques de brujería tanto a los chamanes rivales como a los turistas que buscan una experiencia chamánica y...