Shamans as Mythmakers and Psychopomps
Stanley Krippner
Abstract: Shamanic practices provide a
channel for basic human abilities to understand the world, describe
this with language, and manage our knowledge of the limits of
our lives. One expression of this is the shaman's function as
mythmaker, a role in which he or she helps create the narratives
that his society lives and dies by. Through this function, the
shaman helps to provide stability and security to his or her fellows.
Keywords: myths, social stability, afterlife
concepts, Mythen, Soziale Stabilität, Jenseitsvorstellungen.
Shamanism can be described as a body of techniques
and processes by which practitioners access information that is
not ordinarily available to members of the social group that gave
them shamanic status, then use this information to meet the needs
of that group and its members. Shamans' access to non-ordinary
information sources depends on shifting their modes of perceiving,
thinking, and feeling, in other words, altering their state of
consciousness. The techniques and processes for making these shifts
include drumming, dancing, drug ingestion, lucid dreaming, diet,
among others.
Humanity's varied experiences with the external environment demonstrate
the wide range of specific sensorimotor images and sensations
available to constitute its ongoing understanding of "reality"
(Newton 1996). Perception, cognition, and affect make use of the
same physiological structures involved in sensorimotor activity,
structures that take the form of analog models of "reality."
These structures can be described as "neurognostic,"
i.e., neural networks that provide the biological contribution
to humankind's ways of knowing (Laughlin, McManus, & d'Aquili
1990). Neurognostic structures provide the basis for human beings
to initiate, control, and mediate everyday behavior.
The resulting images ground humankind's concepts, constructs,
and intentions; they are probably reflected in what Jungians refer
to as "archetypes" (Stevens 1982). When shamanic performance
is described as "archetypal," the designated activities
reflect biologically based states of consciousness -- the replacement
of ordinary waking states through discharge patterns that produce
interhemispheric synchronization and coherence, limbic-cortex
integration, and integral discharges that synthesize perception,
cognition, and affect (Winkelman 1992). In order to access these
"archetypal" images, shamans might be "fantasy-prone"
(Wilson & Barber 1983), endowed with capacities, probably
genetic to some degree, that facilitate their use of imaginative
processes.
MYTHMAKING
The organizing systems of primordial human beings began with sensorimotor
experience and proceeded to practical implementation. Hence, mythmaking,
a basic propensity of humankind, emerged from bodily functions
as well as with environmental encounters (Mithen 1996). Language
was highly adaptive, eventually providing early humans with the
ability to reflect on their own and other people's mental states
(Newton 1996; Mithen 1996). Language interacted with other human
capacities, and the resulting cognitive fluidity enabled the production
of symbolic artifacts and images. For the shaman, the totality
of inner and outer reality is fundamentally an immense signal
system. Shamanic states of consciousness yields information from
a database consisting of dreams, visions, intuitions, feelings,
as well as keen observations of the natural and social world.
As language moved from a social function to include a general
purpose function, human consciousness shifted from a means to
predict others' behavior to a mode of managing mental data bases
of information relating to all domains of activity. The ability
to use symbols and metaphors in story telling and mythmaking was
adaptive because this ability helped to make sense of one's body,
one's peers, and one's natural environment.
Shamans represent a specialization that involves social adaptations
to utilize unique psychobiological potentials (Winkelman 1997).
As a result, shamanism is a worldwide phenomenon in which altered
states of consciousness play a fundamental role in mythmaking,
healing, divination, and the like (Ripinsky-Naxon 1993). A natural
result of the evolution of the human brain was the development
of specialized subsystems that allowed environmental factors to
shape neurognostic functions. Shamanic procedures may represent
the first culturally institutionalized practices for the integration
of these modules, both through altered conscious states and community
bonding rituals (Winkelman 1997). These practices probably became
codifed as the myths that insured a society's identity and worldview
(Wiercinski 1989). Shamans were the primordial mythmakers, helping
their community navigate through the contingencies of daily encounters
and challenges.
Myths can be described as implicit narratives that serve as cultural
or personal paradigms; they explain natural phenomena, guide individuals
through life, assign them their place in society, and connect
them with the spiritual forces of the universe (Campbell 1986).
Myths are products of human imagination whose meaning lies not
so much in their literal descriptions and explanations but in
their metaphoric and metaphysical connotations (Ibid.).
TERROR MANAGEMENT
As cognitive complexity enhanced the self-awareness of humans,
they became explicitly aware of their own existence. This phenomenon
engendered a vast capacity for both awe and terror: awe, because
knowing that one is alive, one recognizes the consequent possibilities
of one's relationships to others; and terror, because the knowledge
that one is alive necessitates the horrifying recognition of one's
vulnerability and inevitable death (Greenberg, Solomon & Pyszczybski
1997).
This potential for incapacitating terror needed to be resolved
if the species was to remain a viable contender for survival on
a planet fraught with danger. The species used the same cognitive
complexity that gave rise to the potential for terror to bring
that terror under control by creating cultural myths. These conceptions
of "reality" led to sophisticated ways for effectively
assuaging these concerns. Myths provided narratives, concepts,
and schema to organize human perceptions and to answer basic existential
questions: How did the world begin? What is the purpose of life?
What happens to people after they have died? The answers to these
questions suggested that the universe is a stable, orderly, and
meaningful place (Ibid.). A cultural mythology is a collection
of interacting myths; in mythologically oriented societies, even
the most insignificant happening can take on cosmic dimensions
(Descola 1993/1996:68).
Cultural mythologies made it possible for people to feel significant
and to manifest "self-esteem" through the adoption of
social roles and the consequent satisfaction of associated standards
of value. Meeting the standards of value in a society conferred
literal or symbolic immortality, and countered the terror of certain
death. Adherence to cultural myths serves to keep potential terror
from becoming manifest, and reminders of one's mortality signal
a need for securing that defensive posture (Greenberg, Solomon
& Pyszynski 1997). Faith in cultural myths was maintained
through spiritual teachings and the associated rituals and ceremonies,
which can be conceptualized as mythic performances. The ability
to perform well enhanced one's "self-esteem," whether
one was a shaman, a chief, a midwife, a warrior, or played some
other role in the tribe. According to TMT, the same can be said
for persons in non-tribal societies.
Myths about death and dying vary from society to society, but
their power to manage terror and to control, socialize, and harmonize
human behavior is evident when one explores the attendant narratives.
Community bonding rituals and ceremonies not only enacted mythic
narratives but also provided opportunities for individual performances
that reinforced social roles and provided for social support.
LIVING AND DYING
Western images of life and death infer that there is a straight
line extending through time. The longer the line, the more successful
one is thought to become in attaining longevity. If the line is
short, there are myths that contain elaborate rationalizations,
e.g., the dead youth was "called by God," "needed
in heaven," or "paid a debt incurred by the parents'
sins." Most American Indian traditions, on the other hand,
did not view life in terms of a straight line but as a circle.
One cycle was completed when a young person reached puberty; another
cycle was completed when he or she had children. In another cycle,
sometimes concurrent, the individual was expected to move outward,
serving the community, the earth, and the Great Spirit. When death
arrived, one hoped to die in wholeness. As the Ogala Sioux leader
Crazy Horse commented, "Today is a good day to die, for all
the things of my life are present" (Levine 1982:5).
Rites of passage during puberty often included a solitary journey
into the wilderness for several days of fasting and prayer. In
several tribes, both young men and young women participated in
the journeys. These and other activities were geared to enable
young warriors to receive a vision-inspired death chant that they
could use throughout their lives to maintain contact with the
Great Spirit during times of stress and danger. Upon falling from
a horse, on being attacked by an enemy, or while burning with
a fever, the death chant was a constant companion. It was available
in times of need, creating a familiarity with the unfamiliar.
As a result, it prepared a person for death. Hence, many Native
Americans died with great clarity, already conversant with a mythology
that integrated living and dying (Levine 1982:25-26).
Death and rebirth has been a common theme in the selection and
training of shamans. The famed Polar explorer Knud Rasmussen described
a Caribou Eskimo shaman named Kinalik who was "called"
as a result of a dream and whose initiation involved death and
rebirth. Kinalik had dreamed that a member of her tribe would
become seriously ill. This dream was predictive, and was taken
as a sign of her shamanic talent. As part of her initiation, Kinalik
spent five days in the open air, tied to tent poles so that she
would be noticed by Hila, a powerful mystical force. During those
five days, it was believed that benevolent spirits protected Kinalik
against the bitter cold and icy snowstorms. At the end of the
time, her tutor, Igjugarjuk, threw a small pebble at her while
other members of the tribe watched. Kinalik collapsed and lied
unconscious through the night. It was believed that Igjugarjuk
had "shot" her, and she was now "dead." When
Igjugarjuk went to revive her the next morning, he discovered
that she had regained consciousness of her own accord. Kinalik
mentioned that the polar bear, one of her guiding spirits, had
protected her during the night (Kalweit 1988:9). This ordeal raised
Kinalik's self-esteem, guaranteed her shamanic status, and prepared
her for shamanic duties -- many of which would deal with death
and dying.
Igjugarjuk had another pupil named Aggiartoq. In his case, another
form of "death" was chosen, namely death by drowning.
Aggiartoq was tied tightly to a long tent pole and carried to
a lake. A hole was hewn through the ice and Aggiartoq was lowered,
fully dressed, into the lake and left for five days. When community
members retrieved him, they claimed that he was as dry as if he
had never been touched by water (Ibid.). Both of these cases reflect
the ways in which shamanic initiation confront and manage the
terror of death, in these instances in ways that other members
of the tribe could not endure. The primary and most universal
factor of human existence is the idea of a life-giving energy
that is independent of the physical body and guides each individual.
The shaman is the primary investigator of the domain of death;
he or she explores the routes of travel to non-ordinary "reality"
and often accompanies souls of the dead to an after-life domain.
As such, he is considered a "psychopomp" who bridges
ordinary and non-ordinary realms of existence.
When the shaman "dies," he or she has an opportunity
to explore the realm of death. This is an extremely dangerous
undertaking, and there are tales of apprentices and initiates
who do not return. Malidomo Some' (1994), in describing his own
month-long initiation in the wilderness of Burkina Faso, his home
country, observes that a few initiates died during the ordeal.
However, the concept of an immortal soul (or souls) sustains shamanic
societies. The Cuna Indians of Panama describe the purpa, or soul,
as an invisible "double" that is the essence of life.
Canadian Tlingit Eskimos refer to the soul as Quatuwu, "that
which feels"; when that "feeling" disappears, that
person is dead (Kalweit 1988:23). Many cultural myths describe
reincarnation; the Batak people of Indonesia believe that the
Tondi, or soul, determines the good or bad deeds a person will
carry out during a lifetime, and that the goddess Mula Djadi informs
it of that destiny before it enters the new body. The Siberian
Tungus use one word (chanjan) for a living person's soul and a
different word (omi) for the soul after death. After death, the
omi spends some time in the Abode of the Omi-Souls until it is
escorted to the new incarnation (Ibid.).
In some shamanic societies, the soul (or souls) of the dead try
to reenter the world of the living by "possessing" a
human being. In the Jivaro tribes of the Amazon, a child sometimes
incorporates the wakan, or soul, of the deceased because their
capacities for observation are undeveloped, and thus unable to
understand the danger involved. If this happens, the deceased
gain temporary access to the world of the living, at least until
such time as this coexistence brings about the child's death,
whereupon the ghost is once again expelled into the twilight world
(Descola 1993/1996:373). However, a shaman may temporarily be
"possessed" if it serves a useful purpose. In some cultures,
the souls of deceased relatives or tribal elders call the candidate
to begin the training for shamanhood. The Yakut shaman Tusput
recalls, "One day when I was wandering in the mountains up
there in the north, I stopped by a pile of wood to cook my food.
I set fire to it. Now a Tungus shaman was buried under the pyre.
His spirit took possession of me." This spirit helped Tusput
so intimately that during his work he claimed to speak Tungusic
words (Eliade 1951/1974:82).
When the Aztecs sacrificed a prisoner, a rope representing the
umbilical cord often was tied around the victim's abdomen symbolizing
that the hour of death marked a rebirth into another world (Huxley
1974). The Tupinamba of Brazil could obtain immortality by dying
in the lands of their enemies as cannibalized sacrificial victims
(Ibid., p. 108). These are examples of cultural practices that
manage the terror of death by making it a triumphant event. One
of the links between shamanism and ancient Greek cosmology was
the god Hermes, who as herald and messenger of the gods performed
a shamanic function by conducting the souls of the dead to their
final dwelling place. Hermes (who was renamed Mercury by the Romans)
had a reputation for being as mischievous as he was clever. Centuries
later, the so-called Hermetic sciences taught adepts occult practices
to demonstrate and ensure their own immortality.
SOULS AND THE AFTERLIFE
Contemporary approaches to thanatology, the study of death, take
several forms. An example is the contrasting positions of Ernest
Becker (1975) and Ken Wilber (1981). For both scholars, evil is
the result of human beings' attempts to deny their own insignificance.
Becker thinks such fears are well-founded while Wilber understands
them as the confusion of "ego" with essence. Wilber
states that humans intuit Spirit as their true and prior nature.
By attempting to achieve on earth a perfection that can only be
found in the transpersonal "beyond," humankind has confused
the finite and the infinite, producing a plethora of problems.
For Becker, religion is based on the wishful longing for a realm
beyond death; for Wilber, religion is based on the longing for
an intuited realm that is, indeed, encountered after death.
This fundamental disagreement is important to understand when
various cultural and personal myths about life after death are
surveyed. Some religions do not rely on accounts of a literal
afterlife or belief in an immortal soul. Others, however, glowingly
describe entrance into the infinite as, variously, emerging from
darkness into light, the slaying of dragons or the destruction
of demons, the glorious opening of the heavenly gates, or the
revelation of divine entities. The theme of Divine Judgment occurs
in Judaic, Christian, Moslem, Zoroastrian, and some Mesoamerican
traditions. Heaven may consist of celestial cities, paradisical
gardens, radiant beings, erotic encounters, angelic music, sensual
delights, and/or galactic visitations. Hells may be marked by
terrifying monsters, inexorable suffering, instruments of torture,
and/or fiery conflagrations.
Reincarnation is a tenet that is central to Hinduism, Jainism,
certain Mesoamerican traditions, and many forms of Buddhism. Some
cultural mythologies perceive passageways from one world into
the next, vehicles to facilitate the journey, purgatories and
other indeterminate states, and unitive bliss where self-identity
is lost, and even schools of esoteric wisdom where a soul can
continue to evolve spiritually under the guidance of a master
instructor.
ASSISTING THE TRANSITION
In conclusion, this essay argues that language makes use of the
same neurognostic structures involved in sensorimotor activities;
these structures take the form of analog models of reality, and
the resulting images ground humankind's concepts, constructs,
and intentions, i.e., its mythologies. These images serve as schemas
that reflect the brain's mapping systems, and eventually provide
for a freedom beyond what was possible through natural selection.
However, humanity paid a price for this freedom; individuals became
aware of their own eventual demise. To manage the terror evoked
by this awareness, myths were created that described reincarnation,
survival of the soul, and transitions to the realms of the dead.
Shamans were key players in the creation of these myths, as well
as their implementation. The rituals, ceremonies, and rites of
passage that enacted cultural myths bolstered individual "self-esteem"
and community solidarity in ways that assured the survival of
human beings in a world that would otherwise be fraught with danger,
unpredictability, and terror. Finally, it was the shaman as psychopomp
who assisted the transition between life and death, assuring the
soul of its survival once the physical body had served its purpose.
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Author:
Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology
at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, San Francisco,
California. He has observed and worked with shamans in North and
South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, presenting his findings
in dozens of articles and in the book Spiritual Dimensions of
Healing: From Tribal Shamanism to Contemporary Health Care.
e-mail: skrippner@saybrook.edu
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