Shaman - among some peoples of the north, who retain faith in spirits and the possibility of ritual communication with them, a cult servant: a shaman, is able to bring himself into a state of ecstasy. . The word "shaman" is translated from Tugus as an excited trance person. Among the Turkic-speaking peoples of Siberia, this profession was called kam, hence the word "kamlat". The Nenets have tadibey, the Buryats have bo, the Yakuts have oyuun, the Yukaghirs have alma, etc.
Ritual actions of professional trance specialists - shamanism or shamanism consists in the fact that the shaman puts on a special suit, makes makeup special for this ritual and takes the necessary accessories prearranged signal gathers his compatriots. Having built a special fire, the shaman, as a rule, arranges everyone around the fire. Having uttered the speech prescribed for this ritual, after making a sacrifice, he begins to dance, sing and hit the tambourine. At the same time, his dance has a special transogenic rhythmic character. The language of dance - rhythm is carried out by special shaking of various objects on clothes. The rhythm of shaking is sustained by jumps and peculiar squats and is intensified by frantic cries and blows to the tambourine. Gradually, the rhythm of the voice, shaking and tambourine increases. The shaman begins to fumigate his tribesmen from the fire with narcotic smoke, which is formed in the fire from special herbs and dry mushrooms thrown into the fire in advance. Gradually, everyone is drawn into the shamanic rhythm, and at first the shaman, and then everyone, without exception, those present enter into a hallucinogenic ecstatic trance. Further, depending on the purpose of the ritual, an insane trance rite begins - healing, military, fishing, totemic, religious-mythological, etc.
The central moment of any kind of ritual is the moment when the shaman comes into contact with the spirits. The mystical ability of the shaman to make contact with the spirits of the earth and sky causes superstitious fear and belief in the power of the shaman among fellow tribesmen. Sometimes spirits seem to inhabit the shaman and then he speaks their language, but more often the shaman simply negotiates with them, persuades them or fights with them and drives them out of this person, rooms or places. The rite can last from several hours to several days continuously, therefore, at the end of the rite, the shaman, concentrating on one main thought, falls into the deepest semi-conscious trance with complete loss of consciousness and falling to the ground in convulsions. His mystical journey to another world begins - underground or across the sky. On this journey, the shaman must defeat the spirits and various mystical creatures of the other world, achieve the goal of the rite and return to earth with victory, that is, he opens his eyes and gains consciousness.
ANCIENT SIBERIAIt is believed that Siberian shamans have supernatural abilities - they can foresee, prophesy and predict, they can possess other people or animals (often an eagle), they can perform miraculous healings, revive the dead, etc.
The main secret of the shaman is considered to be his mysterious mystical heritage - some insane irresistible force - desire, which instills in him in his youth by inheritance from his ancestors, sometimes this force has the form of a patron spirit, but more often it has no form.
ANCIENT CHUKOTKA AND ALASKA The most common type of trance culture in Chukotka and Alaska was the use of trance in martial arts, especially in the preparation and ritual imitation of a future battle.
Shamans (angakok) were the bearers of the entire culture of "their people. They knew martial arts, fishing and fishing cult rites well. Treatment, weather control methods, methods of trance influence on humans and animals. Shamans were able to communicate directly with nature and could predict and foresee a lot .
It was believed that the whole world is inhabited by spirits, so communication with spirits is the profession of a shaman. According to the beliefs of the ancient Chukchi and Eskimos, all natural phenomena and objects have their owners - spirits, therefore, in order to achieve any goals, be it hunting or treatment, it was necessary to enter into communication with the master spirits.
The population believed that in nature everything is controlled by a certain force - hila. Those who possess this power achieve success in their work, therefore it was believed that it was shamans who possessed this mysterious natural power.
A shaman's costume with various rattles and a tambourine sometimes weighed up to 30 kg, so shamans were really strong and hardy people and could dance, work, shout in a trance for several hours in a row, and during treatment, in some cases, for several days, after such a therapeutic session, the shaman fell and could not move, being in a semi-conscious, semi-trance state.
People believed that there was an "upper sky" where the shaman could enter and see and know everything from there. Shamans were divided according to their qualifications, some could do one thing, others could do another, but there were universal shamans, they could do everything.
When treating, shamans necessarily used trance, medicinal herbs, drinks and spells.
AFRICA Using the art of trance, ancient African shamans and priests could predict and control the weather, and if necessary, make it rain. The art of trance was used in military affairs, magic, hunting, court case, diagnostics, treatment of the sick, divination, divination, shamanic rites, festive and ritual rituals, totemism, religion, trade cult, agriculture and cattle breeding, cult of ancestors, cult of animals (zoolatry), cult of local tribal spirits, gods, fetishism, cult leaders, the cult of blacksmiths, etc. Much in the art of African trance has not yet been unraveled, for example, a shaman or priest could at any moment know where the person they were interested in was and even if he was thousands of kilometers away, they could accurately go straight to him.
Well-known shamans and sorcerers who preach Voodoo, in addition to treating and speaking, prophesying, explaining to ordinary people the will of a celestial being or sending damage, prepare a terrible poison - "zombie powder" With its help, they are able to bring the victim to a coma state, and then bring them back to life, literally pulling the human body out of the grave. Deprived of memory, emotions and speech of the "living dead" they then use for their own purposes.
ANCIENT KOREAShamans in Ancient Korea were both men ("pan-su") and women ("mu-dan"). Pan-su were considered the most powerful shamans. Education was conducted not only by inheritance. A young shaman could learn from the old art to conjure, conjure, heal, communicate with spirits, conduct various mystical ceremonies, etc. Female shamans were more often engaged in rituals, divination, making amulets, and healing.
The population of Korea believed that a person has three souls: one dies with the body, the other goes to heaven, and the third remains on a special tablet that was kept in the family ancestral temple. Therefore, the cult of ancestors in Korea is very developed.
The Koreans believed in various spirits and mystical features of various mountains, which, in their opinion, have a strong influence on the surrounding area, so shamans with the help of trance found special favorable hills for living or burial.
Until our time, the culture of trance in Korea has been preserved in martial arts, sports and medicine.
Alex Gromov
It is no coincidence that Latin America remains the most magical continent on the planet. Ancient magical practices still exist here, with thousands of years of experience.
They are similar in many ways, but also have their local differences. Usually Europeans call them by one general term - shamanism. And for example, in Peru, they still use the local term curanderismo to refer to them. It is expressed not only in the performance of any magical rites, healing and herbal medicine. From Mexico and the books of Carlos Castañeda, the term “nagual”, “a man of ancient times, endowed with extraordinary powers”, penetrated into the world and became popular, which should be guided by the principle that “under no circumstances can neither man nor the world be considered something proven and definite. Actually it's a whole life philosophy a huge continent that grew out of shamanism and is based on living in harmony with nature. It is now popular in many other countries - under various local names.
In addition to miracles, shamanism is permeated with internal logic - this is how wrong actions create disharmony in a person and the world, breaking the connection that connects all three worlds. And the goal of the shaman's life is to restore this broken connection, bringing all the worlds into balance and fulfilling even in the lower of the worlds the will of the higher gods. Therefore, the duty of the shaman is not to provide "one-time help", but to take care of maintaining the "divine balance" and to help people who are out of this balance and suffer from various psychophysical illnesses, which explains the cause of many diseases and other human misfortunes - a violation of the principles of life, certain ancient gods during the creation of the world.
The shaman is essentially nothing more than a stalker, a guide between the worlds, and therefore he will have to be ready to complete any task that the gods set him - to heal, predict the weather, read love spells, etc. There is nothing special about this - it is simply one of the constituent parts of the great repeating cosmological cycle that ancient civilizations believed in. He must maintain contact with the guardian spirits, being, as it were, a "specialist in spirits", communicating with the spirits of the dead (especially previous shamans), various spirits of Nature and the spirits of animals, which were often presented to ancient people as conductors of the shaman's spirit or his "second self". ". Therefore, during his magical journeys, the shaman sang incantation songs in an "incomprehensible language", which was the personification of the language of animals and birds. That is why, in order to be recognized during his magical journey and “taken for one of his own”, animal attributes were present in the clothes and jewelry of shamans - feathers, fangs, claws.
It was possible to become a shaman in different ways - many shamans learned about their gift not by inheritance, but through self-healing, having cured themselves of some serious illness. By the way, the disease itself could serve as the initiator of initiation, and its individual phases of the disease could be likened to the stages of life and death, granting “some kind of initiation”, and among those spirits with which the shaman had to “interact” were not only good, but also those hostile to people who caused illness or other misfortunes.
The shaman was not immortal, but the very idea of death for a shaman is a familiar reality, because the road to other worlds, both upper and lower, is constantly associated with the idea of symbolic death and resurrection of a person or other creature, who is now granted not only new knowledge and experience, but also a new name (like the baptismal procedure), his religious status also changed. At the same time, death and sex seemed to complement each other. "The sexual act means the source of life, just like the bones that return to the womb of the Great Mother to be reborn." Death meant only the other side of life.
Shamans “learned” in different ways - for example, among the Conibo Indians living in the Upper Amazon, it is believed that it is better for a shaman to learn from trees than from another shaman. Many Indian tribes living among the mountain passes of Ana still believe that the cause of the disease is nothing more than the capture of the soul of the sick person by a hostile spirit. Therefore, not a healer can help from an illness, but a shaman who will find the enemy and take his soul back from him. To help the person, the shaman had to find the very magic item that caused the disease. It could be a pebble, an insect, a worm, or something else.
In shamanism, the main condition is to preserve one's own strength, because most often the shaman salted out such a cursed object after many rituals, symbolically taking over. This was usually accompanied by sessions of a special "therapeutic-magical massage", fumigation with special smoke, cleansing the body with herbal decoctions from local herbs collected in a certain place and at a certain time.
Shaman is just a general term, a potentially successful combination of priest and warrior, healer and avenger, priest and psychologist. “If we believe him, then we will understand him, if not, we will read about his deeds, as a fascinating journey into the world of sorcerers and demons – an alien, incomprehensible, frightening world.”
Until now, Latin America is one of the most "shamanic territories" of our planet.
The article uses the materials of M. Harner "The Way of the Shaman".
OFFLINE DALILADALILA
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DRUID
Druids, the high priests of the Celts, who were in charge of sacrifices, performed judicial functions, and also trained warriors to kill using force, and military training was based on teaching young men to accept death without flinching. The priests believed that people have an immortal soul, which, after the death of a person, passes into the body of another. For centuries, they performed rituals on huge circles surrounded by stone slabs, the location of which was subject to some as yet unsolved mathematical or astronomical pattern. Druids predicted the future and conjured the forces of nature, sacrificing animals and people. Soothsayers or priests performed a sacrifice before the battle in order to know its outcome. They brought the victim to the edge of a huge cauldron and stabbed it with a dagger so that the blood splashed onto the walls. The color, the consistency, the direction of the bloody streaks - everything made sense for the prophecy. If the priests found it difficult to interpret these signs, they began a new action with another victim. When enough liquid accumulated, the priests, having scooped it up, sprinkled the crowd of warriors, whom this ritual brought into a state of frenzy, and they were gladly ready to accept death in battle. The Celts considered Stonehenge (a unique megalithic monument in Europe), which has been towering in the Salisbury Valley for about 5000 years, to be the creation of the Druids.
OFFLINE DALILA
DALILA
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"For me, there is no interest in knowing anything, even the most useful, if only I would know it alone. If I were offered the highest wisdom under the indispensable condition that I keep silent about it, I would refuse."
“Everything in the world is a sign,” said the Englishman, putting down his journal. “A long, long time ago people spoke the same language, and then they forgot it. It is this Common Language, among other things, that I am looking for. That is why I am here. I must find a person who speaks this Common Language..."
Paulo Coelho "The Alchemist"
Magician, sorcerer, shaman, sorcerer, witch, sorcerer, sorceress, soothsayer... How many names have given us time to identify people with knowledge and abilities that seem supernatural and magical to an ordinary person. We use these words in various interpretations and put our own meaning into each of these words, which has been formed in us since childhood, under the influence of scary stories, stories, fairy tales and legends. Just as it is difficult for a complete materialist to believe in the existence of not only earthly matter, but also the Higher Forces, it is also sometimes difficult for us to get rid of children's "fabulous" stereotypes in the understanding of these words. As soon as we pronounce the word "witch", our imagination depicts an ancient old woman with tousled hair, conjuring over a boiling cauldron of dried frogs or flying on a broom against the backdrop of a full moon. The healer appears as an old man with a beard to the waist, with a knapsack stuffed with various medicinal herbs. A magician, a sorcerer - again an old man in a cone-shaped hat, in a mantle and with a magic staff in his hands ... In any case, the abilities and knowledge of these people, no matter how we call them, are unknown and incomprehensible, and what is incomprehensible is frightening. In this article, we will try to understand who these people are, what these words mean, and we will do this on the basis of historical facts and philology - science and words.
Let's start with the concept most frequently used on our site. It is the most generalized and complete definition of a person with Higher knowledge and abilities. So Mag.
The word Magus itself comes from the word Magic, which, in turn, has its root in the Greek word "megus", which means "great" (as a great science) or from Greek word"magein", science and religion. Therefore, the word Magician means "possessing the knowledge of great science." The magician works in accordance with the natural laws of the Universe and, thanks to his knowledge, knows how to achieve an effect and a result that will seem like a miracle to an ordinary person. Magic itself is neutral, beyond morality. And the difference between "black" and "white" magic is due to spiritual qualities and concepts of good and evil of each particular magician, sorcerer, sorcerer, etc. In the annals and historical testimonies, we find a lot of examples where one sorcerer causes trouble, dashingly, deprives a person of life, and the second sorcerer causes blessed rain, returns a person to life, using "dead" and "living" water. Note that the names of these people are the same. The word Mage, in fact, is a collective image of all the concepts that we mentioned at the beginning and which we will talk about below.
The next word is probably the most controversial and causing many negative emotions and fear - a witch, a sorceress. But even in the terrible times of the Inquisition, there were smart, learned people who were not afraid to consecrate the true meaning of this word in their writings. Such a scholar was Henry More, a Cambridge scholar who wrote a treatise on witchcraft in the 17th century and explained the very meaning of the word witch. AT English language the word "witch" (witch), according to Dr. More, means nothing more than "wise woman." This word comes from the English verb "weet", which means to know. Therefore, "witch" (witch) simply means "a knowing woman." This definition, as a mirror image of the meanings of the Slavic-Russian names for the words witch and sorcerer. Both words come from the verb "know, know". These words have the same meanings in German, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, Sanskrit. Agree, it cannot be an accident that in so many languages the meaning of this word comes from one verb that has one meaning - to know, and not, for example, "evil". Nowhere, in any language, do the words that we talked about come from words denoting evil, but in any language - from the word "knowledge".
Other Russian designations for the sorcerer and witch are the sorcerer and sorceress, which have the same Slavic root - to know. According to Henry More, these words mean "people who have the knowledge and ability to do or say the unusual."
In the dictionary of V. Dahl, which is an undoubted monument of Russian literature, we find the following definition of a healer: "A healer (healer, fortune-teller, witchcraft, healer, healer, whisperer) is a person who knows how to use magic and various objects (plants, ash, coals and etc.) to heal the sick and cattle. The healer can also predict the future through fortune-telling. Also, the healer - in the field of love spells - he bewitches grooms for girls, protects them from damage at the wedding. Also, the healer knows how to destroy pests in the house - insects, mice, protect crops from them, to ensure the fisherman's luck in fishing. Witchcraft is not only a male, but also a female occupation."
Healing at all times was the sphere of activity of healers, sorcerers and witches. Such people were often born with the gift of touch healing, many studied herbal medicines and passed the knowledge down in their families from generation to generation. Healing with the touch of the hands, like herbal medicine, was used as early as 15,000 years ago. These treatments have been used in ancient india, China, Tibet, Egypt and Chaldea, they are mentioned in the New and Old Testament. Therefore, there is no doubt that sorcerers, sorcerers, witches and magicians inherited and inherit to this day the highest knowledge known from antiquity.
The next of the many words for sorcerers and magicians is shaman. This word is of Tungus-Manchu origin. A shaman is a mediator between people and beings of other worlds, a custodian of customary law, myths and customs in many cultures and among many peoples. The shaman is the bearer of universal knowledge. The shaman has access to clairvoyance, biolocality (simultaneous stay in two worlds) and other magical abilities. In shamanism, the image of a bird is human soul. This is explained by the fact that shamans are able to "visit the heavenly worlds." For example, the Kunk shaman of the Australian Dieri tribe ascended to heaven on a hair rope. The metaphorical climbing to heaven on a rope testifies to the supernatural abilities of the shaman, and the rope itself is a symbol of the connection between the earthly and other worlds. Shamans among many peoples are not only healers, but also sorcerers who protect their community from foreign sorcerers, they are able to cause and stop rain, they are soothsayers, clairvoyants, mediums who own the techniques of hypnosis and trance, composers of magical songs, interpreters of dreams.
And, finally, the closest definition of a magician and sorcerer to our, Russian, Slavic culture is a sorcerer. Magus - one of the oldest names for a magician, a strong sorcerer. Magi, according to Holy Scripture, bring gifts to the infant Christ. In the annals, the sorcerer is a seer who predicted the death of Prince Oleg. Magi, magicians were sorcerers of a special rank, influencing the state and public life. Since the priests from ancient times were called sorcerers among the Slavs, and their activity was sorcery, then later this word became synonymous with magic and sorcery. The Magi knew many meteorological signs, the strength and action of various herbs, and skillfully used hypnosis. In some cases, the Slavs and the princes were perceived as sorcerers. For example, they believed that Prince Vseslav of Polotsk "mother gave birth to sorcery" (ie, with the help of conspiracies). And, the Magi imposed a nauz ("magic knot") on his head, endowing the prince with supernatural powers. The image of the prince - the sorcerer, the leader of the squad, the all-powerful sorcerer was also reflected in epics. In the epic about Volga (Volkh) Vseslavievich, he, a warrior, a hero, turned into a pike, then a wolf, then a bird.
The Magi were excellent herbalists and "watermen". Now even science has confirmed the importance and effectiveness of herbal medicine and the ability to "charge" water, changing the structure of its molecules and giving water new, unusual and healing properties. The Magi had serious knowledge in alternative medicine, used in addition to herbal medicine, poison, hypnotic, extrasensory and a number of other influences, thereby being able to cure many serious ailments.
There are many more words that define a person's belonging to magicians, we have revealed only some of them. And how many of these words were dissolved in time, not reaching our days! We went through the history and culture of different peoples, figured out the intricacies of the grammar of different languages, and all in order to understand that there are many names, the essence is one. And no matter how the name sounds - a magician, a sorcerer, a miracle worker, a healer, a sorcerer, a witch - we now know that they are a person who has the highest knowledge and abilities given to them by the Higher powers. And God forbid that there are more such people with bright souls, that knowledge is given as a reward for a kind and sympathetic heart.
OFFLINE DALILA
DALILA
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- Moscow city
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Everything you wanted to know about witches but were afraid to ask
1) Is it true that witches exist?
And then! All the witches I know are made of flesh and blood, occupy a certain place in society and sometimes quite loudly declare their existence.
2) Who are called witches?
By this word, I mean a female being (in this incarnation), not only possessing a certain power, potential and knowledge in the field of magic, but also using these abilities. Because you can have power, but either not be aware of its presence, or deliberately refuse to use it. As a rule, the witch knows who she is, although she may not use this word as her own characteristic, but call herself something else. After all, she can call herself a fairy and consciously try to do only good deeds. But she knows how it's done with magic.
3) What do witches do?
They live. They live close to people, study, work. Communicate with the outside world. How are they different? The way they do it. And they also do magic (which is by no means a hobby for them). No, they do not light candles with their eyes and do not move boxes of matches with them. But they can bewitch, curse, protect, enchant or send damage, plant a larva. But this does not mean that the whole point of their existence as witches is reduced to certain magical operations. They can do it. When they need it. Really needed, even if only at this particular moment. Witches also communicate with the world through both verbal and non-verbal means of communication. With the world, not just with people. Including with that part of it, which is considered to be inanimate.
4) How to become a witch?
There are no conspiracies to become a witch. If you are a witch, you know about it and do not ask such a question. If you are far from magic, then while you are not a witch, even if you have a certain potential in the field of strength. In this case, you are a potential witch. If you are just starting to discover your own abilities, it is not necessary to try to define yourself. Over time, you will understand who you are. Maybe you will perceive yourself as just a non-human or, for example, a cat, and the concept of a witch will fade into the background.
5) Is it true that the Devil is summoned at witches' sabbats?
Firstly, the Sabbath is still a holiday. And on it, witches not only conjure on purpose, but also have fun, dance, drink and eat, and some of this is sometimes performed as part of ritual festive actions. Secondly, witches are not Christians, and the Devil as such is not known. Although they communicate periodically with all kinds of entities. And not only at the sabbaths, but in quite Everyday life.
6) Is it possible to recognize a witch in a crowd?
It is forbidden. Not in a crowd, not among friends. Unless she herself wants to be recognized. Holy water does not leave burns on it, and at the sight of the cross it does not turn into a pile of ashes. As for various amulets, now they are worn by everyone who is not lazy. In addition, not everyone clearly gives out belonging to the occult, sometimes they look like ordinary jewelry, if they do not depict a well-known symbol.
7) Are witches evil?
The word itself does not carry a negative connotation that speaks of so-called bad intentions, as some believe. From the point of view of human morality, sometimes evil (spells, curses), sometimes good (friends, relatives and clients are helped). In general, they are neither evil nor good. And they don't need definitions.
8) Is it true that witches are lonely in their personal lives??
Not true. They are no more lonely than everyone else. And it is difficult for people to meet their Couple, many meet, live together, get married, but sometimes they still feel lonely. Witches too. They are just more aware of their own feelings and emotions than most people.
9) What attracts men about witches?
Who what. Strength, sexuality, intelligence, beauty. With regard to sexuality, witches, as a rule, share the concepts of love and sex. And they know how to get benefit and pleasure from both. Speaking of the mind in this context, I mean that a witch can always maintain an interesting meaningful conversation with a man, and sometimes initiate it herself if a man needs it. As a rule, witches are beautiful. However, they do not always look like Barbie. But they immediately catch the eye. And with direct communication, they begin to seem even more beautiful than at first sight. In this case, the witch can slip past the gray mouse when she needs it.
10) Witches get together to do magic?
Not always. Sometimes to learn something from each other, sometimes just to have a good time. However, in the latter case, they often exchange knowledge or skills completely unnoticed by a person from the outside.
11) Is it true that in a witch's house it is better not to eat or drink anything?
Yes and no. This may depend both on the purpose of your visit and on the status you occupy in her life. Not to mention the fact that you can bewitch not only by getting drunk. But if your relationship is not good ... Yes, it's better not to go to her at all!
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How do you like this opus?
OFFLINE Silver
Silver
- City: Ukraine
- Real name: nata
Do you want to say that witches really exist in our time ??
OFFLINE BOUH
BOUH 
- Gender: Male
- City: Ancient Ural..
- Real name: Satan
Yes, of course, Silver.
(by the way, let's not be official ..)
There are not only witches.. There are many others..
.. but there is a comfortable position for many, many REALISTS .. to say that
"It can't be, because it can NEVER be!"
Doesn't that sound funny, guys?
Well, to talk about WITCHES, you must first understand WHAT IT IS ...
Have you tried?
OFFLINE Silver
Silver
- City: Ukraine
- Real name: nata
I didn't try to understand. Just wondering. But in life I would not want to face
To live life wisely, you need to know a lot.
Two important rules remember to start:
You'd rather starve than eat anything
And it's better to be alone than with just anyone.
Chapters from the book: Yury Stukalin "Endowed with Power: Shamans and Sorcerers of the American Indians". M.: "Geleos", 2005
Foreword: Shamanism Yesterday and Today: Myths and Realities
Part II. Shamans: Power for Good
Chapter 1. Shamans, their Power and ceremonies
Shamans and differences between them
Ways to get the Force
The power finds you
You find strength
Transfer of Power to another person
The Obligations and Dangers of Taking the Force
The connection between the shaman and the source of his Power
The functions of the guardian spirit and supernatural Power
The complexity of shamanic ceremonies
Five stages of the shamanic ceremony
Chapter 2. Predictive techniques of Indian shamans
Military divination and predictions
Divination about life expectancy
Search for lost people, animals and things
Predictions in trance states
Sioux witch stones
Dreams and their interpretation
Chapter 3
Causes of diseases, ways of their penetration into the body and diagnosis
Appeal to the shaman and shamanic ceremonies
Psychotherapeutic effect of shamanic ceremonies
Prayer Healing Ceremony of the Winnebagh Shaman
Magical Healing or Magical Performances
Treatment by sucking out the "causes of illness" from the body
Other healing methods of shamans
Treatment of injuries and wounds
Medicines of Indian shamans
Collection of medicinal plants
Preparation of medicines
Medicinal plants used by Indian shamans
Other medicines
Part III. Sorcerers: Strength for Evil
Strength for evil: sorcerers, their differences and motives
Methods of sorcerers and differences in witchcraft practices
Anti Navajos and Poisonous witchcraft of other peoples
Sorcerers
Sending witch arrows
Witchcraft that suppresses the will
Symptoms indicating the effects of witchcraft
Methods of protection against sorcerers
Methods for detecting sorcerers
Concept of "battle" between shaman and sorcerer
Treating Victims of Witchcraft
Sorcerer, shaman and danger to their relatives
Punishment of sorcerers
Indian attitude towards witchcraft
Bibliography
Each part of our religion has its own Power and its own purposes. Every nation lives by its own principles. You can't mix these principles because they are balanced. Breaking this balance is disrespectful and very dangerous. And therefore it is forbidden... There is much to learn, and learning is very difficult. That is why there are few real shamans among us, only a select few are. For a person who does not know how this balance is maintained, pretending to be a shaman is very, very dangerous. This is a manifestation of great disrespect for the Forces, and it can cause irreparable harm to any person and those whom he supposedly teaches, as well as to nature and everything around. This is extremely dangerous.
Matthew King, Sioux Indian
Foreword
Shamanism yesterday and today: myths and realities
Despite the presence of a huge amount of English-language literature on Indian shamanism, a person who begins to study this issue in depth will certainly face the problem of the reliability of most sources. The bulk of the works published in the United States from the second half of the 20th century to the present day are not only designed for the tastes of the average layman, whose goal is to acquire "secret knowledge" quickly and easily, but also has nothing to do with either the spiritual tradition of the American Indians or with such aspects as shamanism and the possession of supernatural powers.
A few years ago, at the annual meeting of the NAE (Native American Elders), the leaders of a number of Indian tribes passed a resolution denouncing this trend: “In the last twenty years, we have seen the birth of a new industry in the United States. numerous literary hoaxes by non-Indians such as Carlos Castaneda, Jay Marks (Jamake Highwater) and Lynn Andrews." Concerning the works of Carlos Castaneda, Professor Vine Deloria, Jr., a Sioux Indian, very accurately reflected the opinion of many researchers, noting that they "have much more to do with" travel "after taking LSD than with Indian culture." In addition to the white hoaxers, there is a wide variety of Native American authors, such as Sun Bear (Sun Bear)1, Wallace Black Elk and others, but their writings are nothing more than a mixture of ideas drawn from Eastern cultures and astrology, superficially seasoned with Native American paraphernalia. Today you can even buy Indian fortune-telling cards, astrological forecasts of Indian shamans and other inventions of modern business.
It is not surprising that in recent years a huge number of white shamans have appeared, whom the Indians themselves call plastic shamans, or sheimmen1. In newspapers and on Internet sites you can find a huge number of advertisements in which pseudo-shamans not only from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but also in cities as far from the American continent as Moscow and St. everyone who wants their secrets and make them "real shamans". And their students do not have questions about how in such a short time it is possible to gain knowledge that real shamans took many years to master.
would become reasonable person interested in Christianity, Buddhism or Judaism, to pay someone who would offer after training at a two-week seminar to make him a bishop, lama or rabbi? Hardly. But there are more and more people who want to become real shamans in a couple of weeks. The attitude of the Indians themselves is superbly expressed in the words of a Nisqually Indian, Jennet McCloud: “Suddenly, there was a huge number of unscrupulous idiots running around and claiming that they are shamans and will teach you the ceremonies of fifty bucks. This is not just bad, it is obscene. .. These people appear on the reservations supposedly lost and hopeless, truly pathetic, and some kind old man can take pity on them. And how will these people repay his generosity? After fifteen minutes of talking with a spiritual leader, they consider themselves "certified" shamans and "spread the word of truth"... for money. Some of them even claim to be the "official spiritual representatives" of various Indian peoples. I'm talking about people like Dhyani Iwahu1 and Lynn Andrews. It's disgusting... There are Indians among us We have Sun Bear, Wallace Black Elk and others who are ready to sell their mother if they can get a quick de ng... They are corrupt thieves and they themselves know about it. Therefore, at our traditional meetings and gatherings, you will never see either the Sun Bear or the like."
And yet, despite numerous attempts to do business on the spiritual culture of Native Americans, serious studies of Native American shamanism began to be carried out by ethnologists and historians at the end of the 19th century and continue to this day. These works, however, as a rule, go unnoticed by frivolous seekers of "secret shamanistic knowledge".
The change in the way of life of the Indians, the influence of civilization and the tough policy of the US government at the end of the 19th century led to the forced rejection of many traditional views and their oblivion. Nevertheless, some researchers managed to convince the old traditionalists to talk about the methods of the red-skinned shamans. “The old Indians who know them will soon leave our world,” James Walker urged one of the eminent Sioux shamans in March 1914. “And since the young Indians do not know them, they will be lost forever. I want to write them down so that they have been preserved and your youth have been able to read them."2
Getting reliable information about the shamanic and witchcraft practices of the American Indians in the past was incredibly difficult, and the same state of affairs remains today. And the reason for this is not only the closeness of their communities. Firstly, the Indians still do not like to talk about supernatural powers with white people, not wanting to be ridiculed and accused of unjustified superstitions. Secondly, this knowledge is secret and sacred, and its dissemination among the uninitiated threatens with punishment from the Higher Powers. Isabelle Kelly, who conducted research among the Northern Paiute in 1926-1927, wrote: "Unfortunately, shamans are of the opinion that if information is disclosed, serious illness and death await them, and therefore it is not surprising that the Indians are not talkative."1 Except as George Grinel very rightly noted at the end of the 19th century: “There are no subjects more difficult to study than those related to the abstract beliefs of other people. Even from compatriots it is not easy to get clear information about their religious views and what we call superstition And if this is the case with civilized people, whose language do we speak and whose education and life experience similar to ours, how much more difficult it is to understand the beliefs of an alien race, speaking an unfamiliar language and completely different traditions, upbringing and attitudes.
Nevertheless, anthropologists and ethnologists sometimes managed not only to obtain the necessary information about shamanism from the Indians, but also to participate in such ceremonies, which resulted in serious scientific publications. But even in this case, many researchers first had to earn the trust of shamans, and often become one of them. For example, James Walker, before gaining full knowledge of the shamanistic rituals and religious beliefs of the Sioux Indians, went a long way and was initiated into the ranks of the Wichasha Wakans. In the same way, Frank Cushing was able to gather invaluable information among the Zuni Indians. But even in this case, part of the knowledge remained the "personal property" of the shamans. The Sioux elders told James Walker in 1896: "We will tell you about the ceremonies as if you were a Sioux who would like to take part in them. But we will keep silent about those parts of them that the shamans perform in secret." Old Sioux George Sabre explained the reason for this secrecy: "I can tell you about the ceremonies ordinary people and warriors, but I'm afraid to tell you about the ceremonies of the shamans." Little Rana, a Sioux shaman, echoed him: "I can tell you about the Bison (his spirit), but I can't talk about the Wind (his spirit), because he makes up my shamanic secret".2 The disclosure of the secret, according to the beliefs of the Indians, entailed immediate punishment from the Higher Forces, up to sudden death.
In addition to the fear of incurring the wrath of the Higher Powers, the reluctance of Native Americans to share their sacred knowledge with strangers has another weighty, but very banal reason - ridicule and accusations of primitive savagery. Indeed, many Indian beliefs that still exist today seem superstitious absurdity to a person of Western culture, but do not forget that the concept of "superstition", like many religious beliefs, can be defined as "what your people believe in, but do not believe in my". It seems no less amusing to the Indians when a white man is afraid to be the thirteenth, to start a journey on Friday, to shy away from black cats crossing the road, hang a horseshoe over the door for good luck, etc. The white man, who has received an excellent education, laughs at the stupid rites of people of another culture, but at the same time adheres in whole or in part to a religious faith, which also cannot be explained from the standpoint of modern science.
Many people of Western culture at all times treated shamanic practices as the delusions of superstitious savages, skeptical about their ability to heal people and other inexplicable abilities. There were two main reasons for this attitude:
1. Tough opposition of shamans to numerous Christian missionaries.
2. Cases of death of patients exposed to shamans.
Regarding the first reason, it is hardly worth saying anything, since history keeps many examples when the Christian religion was planted by the cross and the sword. Regarding the second reason, it is enough to ask a number of questions: do modern doctors always correctly diagnose diseases, despite the latest equipment, does the treatment prescribed by them always help, and does modern medicine cope with all ailments? I think the answers to these questions will be the same for all readers. But does this call into question the possibilities of Western medicine? Then another question arises. How legitimate is it to question the effectiveness of a number of aboriginal practices of healing the body and spirit, if people have turned to them for centuries for help? As one Indian from the Oto tribe said: “An Indian doctor (shaman) differs little from a white doctor. He pays to get knowledge for which he will later be paid. If he is a bad doctor (shaman) and cannot heal, no one will turn to him."1 Even among hardened skeptics there were people who reported strange cures by shamans of seriously ill and wounded Indians, which were refused by highly educated white-skinned doctors. In many cases, shamans were very successful in treating not only their fellow tribesmen, but also white people, and in a number of areas of the American continent, the first white settlers were often completely dependent on Indian shamans until the middle of the 19th century. Among the white population of that time, the so-called Indian doctors were very popular - white people who received their knowledge from the red-skinned shamans. Many herbs used by the Indians are now part of Western medicine, and some diseases that were not amenable to Western medicine were successfully treated by Indian shamans. For example, scurvy, which European doctors attributed as far back as the 17th century as "the influence of bad air," was successfully treated by the Redskins with animal and vegetable remedies, which turned out to be extremely rich in vitamin C.
Unfortunately, much shamanistic knowledge was lost when the US government banned the Indians from practicing their religious ceremonies in the late 19th century, and many researchers dismissed such information as worthless garbage. An example is James Mooney,1 one of the greatest ethnologists in the United States of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who in 1891 conducted a study of a number of medicinal plants used by Cherokee shamans. As a standard of medical thought of that time, he took the official reference book "Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America"2. According to the Pharmacopoeia, five plants were used correctly by shamans, twelve were useless, and three were questionable. Mooney wrote: “The results obtained will no doubt surprise those who believe that the Indian must be a good doctor and that the shaman, with his theories of spirits, sorcerers and vengeful animals, knows more about the properties of plants and the treatment of diseases than a trained botanist. or a doctor ... It is absurd to suppose that a savage, whose mental development is akin to the development of a child, can achieve in any branch of science more than a civilized person - a fetus years intellectual growth. One of the plants recognized by the Pharmacopoeia and James Mooney as useless for the treatment of diseases was ... ginseng, widely used in modern medicine. While the shamans of the Cherokee and many other tribes used it to treat headaches, colic, of women's diseases and other ailments, the "Pharmacopoeia" stated: "The extraordinary medical virtues attributed in the past to ginseng exist only in the imagination of the Chinese. Ginseng is nothing more than a sedative, and is not used as a medicine in our country. 1 I think that comments are superfluous here.
People of Western culture, laughing at the amulets and fetishes of savages, themselves still rely no less on icons, crosses, relics of saints, carry small bags in which they keep prayers printed on paper, and so on. In 1700, when the struggle of Christians for the lost souls of savages was in full swing, the Jesuit missionary Jacques Gravier reported that he had discovered an excellent remedy for fever. He promised God for nine days to read prayers in honor of the Monk Francois Regis, whose relics he had, and the result exceeded all expectations. “A small piece of Father Regis’s hat,” he wrote, “given to me by one of his servants, is the most reliable remedy known to me for the treatment of all types of fever.”2 Any historian can confirm that such “scientific” research by advanced representatives the white race in former times was numerous. And even today, people of Western culture often resort to the help of the church to solve problems of the body and spirit, not to mention all sorts of magicians and psychics, most of whom are ordinary scammers shamelessly profiting from human grief.
If a person of Western culture draws a clear line between the real and the supernatural, then for the Indian there is no such line. With him, both worlds are so intertwined with each other that one can easily pass into the other, and the Forces of the invisible world can influence the people of the visible world, which is the basis of shamanic practices. It is important, however, to understand that shamanism has never been a separate religion of one or another tribe, but was only an integral part of the religious beliefs held by the representatives of these peoples. In many tribes, such as the Navajos, Apaches, and Ojibways, during rituals, the shaman expounded myths about the first creation or the deeds of legendary heroes, and the patient, as it were, merged with mythological characters, receiving from them the Power that overcomes the disease in a supernatural way. The shaman could retell his personal spiritual experience of communicating with the supernatural world. Shamanic practices have always been esoteric knowledge accessible only to a small number of gifted people. Even in the case of the Navajo and Western Apache, where the Force could be obtained not through direct contact with supernatural Forces in trance states, but by learning certain ceremonies, a person had to have a truly phenomenal memory for this.
For many years, ethnologists and religious scholars have argued about the possibility of applying the term "shamanism" to certain practices used by various peoples of Asia, America and Africa. This term came through the Russian language from the Tungus word "shaman" and at first was used only in relation to Siberian practices, in which great attention was paid to the state of trance. Unlike Siberian shamanism, many practices of the North American Indians did not require falling into a trance and traveling to the world of spirits, but were limited to invoking spirits during ceremonies. But the practices of the American Indians cover not only the entire range of methods of northern shamans, but also have in their arsenal other methods that are not characteristic of them.
In many peoples of America, almost every person had a patron spirit that guarded and warned him in a mystical way, and in some societies it was believed that the lack of patronage of spirits made a person practically defenseless in the face of real and supernatural dangers. For example, among the tribes of the Great Plains, every man at least once in his life went through the ceremony of "search for visions", associated with a long fast and self-torture, during which he prayed, calling on supernatural beings to become his patron spirits, and therefore the line between the shaman and an ordinary person among these peoples was very ghostly, and sometimes completely erased. But there was a peculiar hierarchy of spirits - in addition to the fact that they could endow the suffering with Forces of various kinds, some of them were stronger, others were weaker. Therefore, not everyone who received help from above became a shaman. Using the conclusions of the American researcher Guy Cooper, we can give the following definition of an Indian shaman: "We can distinguish a shaman by the presence of a larger number and / or the Strength of his patron spirits ... Usually it was the essence of the spirit and the Force associated with it, which distinguished the shaman from others people."1 In the future, undoubtedly, the confirmation of the possession of a powerful Force by the shaman and his public recognition were required. The Indian shaman, unlike the Siberian, did not need to travel to the world of spirits during the rituals. In most practices, with the help of songs, prayers and donations, he called on the patron spirit to come to his aid, and he told him about the causes of the disease and how to treat it, or solved other problems. According to the Apaches, the spirit "worked through him (the shaman)." At the same time, it was very important that the shaman correctly and consistently perform the appropriate rituals, otherwise he could anger the patron spirit, which at best led to the futility of the shaman's actions, and at worst, to the death of the patient or the shaman himself.
At present, the term "shamanism" is used in relation to a special religious form, which is distinguished by the presence of a certain characteristic, which is the primary call to action from the side of supernatural Forces during a trance or vision in which a person travels to the dwelling of these Forces, where they endow him with secret knowledge that changes his status in society and gives him the right to perform shaman functions. The supernatural beings that appeared became the guardian spirits of the shaman, and the Force transmitted by them to a person could be used to solve all kinds of problems, and also provided him with protection from misfortunes. But receiving the Force, the person agreed to follow certain rules and observe strict taboos, the violation of which could cause his sudden death. characteristic features shamanistic practices are:
1. Use of musical instruments - tambourine, rattles, whistle.
2. Chants and prayers in which all those present participate.
3. Audiovisual effects - flashes of light, sparks, voices of birds and animals, ventriloquism.
4. Inexplicable from a position ordinary person manifestations of the Force - all kinds of magical performances during which the shaman removes from the body of the patient various items, instantly removes traces of fresh wounds, for a short time grows fruit-bearing plants, etc.
The shaman has always been of great importance in the Indian community. The Indians are convinced that man is not the ruler of the universe, but only of it. component. The forces around him can influence the affairs of people, and as long as everything is in harmony, they do not disturb them. Therefore, contact with the supernatural Forces, vital for the community, achieved through special techniques, has always been the central idea of shamanism. The Indians believed that a person constantly - from birth to death - needs supernatural help, otherwise a person alone cannot count on success in life. Other people are not able to help him in difficult life situations - only the Higher Powers can do this, and as a rule, the shaman became the link between the world of people and the world of spirits.
The help of a shaman was used to treat illnesses and injuries, predict the weather and influence it, predict the future, search for lost people and things, kill or injure an enemy from a distance, and also create prerequisites for the common good of the tribe. The power of the shaman could also be used by him for anti-social purposes when he resorted to witchcraft. In this case, another shaman was invited to treat the effects of witchcraft, who fought the evil shaman on a supernatural level.
A respected shaman could be invited to resolve various disputes. The Indian shaman acts as an intermediary between the world of people and the world of spirits, but unlike northern shamanism, the methods of obtaining supernatural Power by Indian shamans were different. So, if among the tribes of the Great Plains and the Chiricahua Apaches, as well as among the peoples of the North, personal contact with the Higher Forces during visions or trance states was required to receive supernatural Powers, then the Navajos and to some extent the Western Apaches received them through training from shamans. But regardless of how the shaman acquired his knowledge, personal experience with the spirit world was a prerequisite. To date, only the practices used by Asian and American natives are considered to be shamanism.
It is important to note that any ceremony performed by a shaman in most cases does not focus only on him, his assistants and the patient. Shamanic ceremonies are a collective effort to help the victim. At a certain stage, all those present become active participants in the action. The rhythmic beat of tambourines, the rumble of rattles and intense singing help the shaman, the patient and those who are gathered to enter a trance or borderline state with him. In the process of performing various rituals, the shaman not only merges with his supernatural Power, but also shares it with those present. Many Indians spoke about the sensations of a surge of prosperous energy of the Force. The support of the audience, of course, also has a positive effect on the shaman himself and on his patient. It is not surprising that many rituals are aimed at demonstrating the presence of the shaman in the Force, which, of course, has a strong psychotherapeutic effect not only on the patient, but on all those present.
As noted above, shamanism is not a separate religion, it is a segment of various religions, and the shamanic concept is based on the elements of a particular religion and nothing more. The shaman is just a member of the community who, with the help of the sources of the Force (patron spirits), establishes a relationship with the supernatural world for the benefit of his people and its individual representatives. The division into natural and supernatural, accepted in European culture, is not characteristic of representatives of Indian tribes. Mythological heroes and creatures, ghosts, inexplicable Forces called supernatural in Western culture, animals that can speak human language, etc. - all this was as real to the American Indian as any objects material world. They were not opposed to the world visible to the human eye, but were part of it - part of the real world, part of the Universe surrounding people. It was from the inhabitants of the invisible world that a person could receive various supernatural Powers, which he used either for the benefit or to the detriment of people.
But it is wrong to believe that the Indians unconditionally believed and believe everyone who declares that he has the Force received by him from the spirits. Maurice Opler1 correctly observed in 1941 that reports about the Power of a particular shaman came from himself, his relatives, friends, or patients successfully cured by him. Opler noted that, despite the general respect for the main ceremonies of the tribe, there is skepticism among the Chiricahua Apaches regarding the presence of supernatural Powers in a particular person. But people were skeptical not about the idea as such, but only about the unjustified ambition of individual pseudo-shamans. The Indians recognized that any real shaman in the treatment of serious diseases can periodically fail, but in every tribe there are memories of how some announced their supernatural abilities, attempts to manifest which ended in failure not only for themselves, but also for some of their fellow tribesmen. A funny story was told by old Apaches. A certain woman claimed to have been given a supernatural Power to locate enemies. One night, when the tribe feared an attack, she was asked to perform her ceremony and find out where the enemies were. The woman, having performed the rituals and moving away from the place where her fellow tribesmen were hiding, waved her hands with an important air and said: "There is no one here. Everything is calm." It was at this moment that she was seized by the creeping soldiers. The rest of the Apaches escaped safely, not because of her supernatural Strength, but only because they saw what happened to her.2
Sometimes, hiding behind the presence of a supernatural Force, people went to a direct deception for their own benefit. The Apaches long remembered how they asked the shaman who was visiting them to find out from the spirits about the missing tribesmen. In the evening, he sang, trembled in ecstasy, and then announced that for further searches for him, the Force required a good, saddled horse to be tied at a distance from the camp. When this was done, he continued to sing, and his Power allegedly led him into darkness. Everyone waited for him for a long time, until someone exclaimed: "I'm ready to bet that he went to the horse!" His words turned out to be prophetic - the guest fled, taking with him their best horse. The Apaches themselves noted the presence of religious excitement or religious ecstasy in some of the tribesmen during the ceremonies - some began to shake, others ardently clapped their hands. According to the Indians, "It happens to you when you take religion too seriously. Some Chiricahuas thought it was funny and amusing."1
But in the memory of the Indians there are many more cases that may indicate that shamans have inexplicable, according to white people, abilities. It would be wrong to reject them only on the grounds that they do not fit into our understanding of the world and cannot be explained from the standpoint of modern science. At one time, the Western world anathematized the methods of Chinese medicine, which have been successfully used for centuries to treat the sick. Only by the end of the 20th century, many of these methods (acupuncture, qigong, etc.) were recognized as effective and very popular all over the world today, despite the fact that Western science still cannot really explain the principles of their effect on the human body. .
There are numerous inexplicable manifestations of the Power of shamans, which are taken not from the tabloid press, but from the publications of American ethnologists, historians and white contemporaries, whose memories are not disputed by modern science. Edwin Denig1, who traded with the Indians of the northern part of the Great Plains in the period from 1833 to 1855, based on personal observations, believed that shamans understood little in the treatment, and the recovery of the sick and injured was not connected with the skills of the red-skinned doctors, but with their excellent health and the unusually healthy climate in which they live. "Indians get dangerously wounded, even mortally, and yet recover," he wondered. But, despite his skepticism, in the same work, Dönig mentioned a striking incident that cannot be explained only by the excellent health of the redskins: “A few years ago, a man from the Assiniboine tribe was surrounded by three blackfoots ... three enemies shot at him, and all three bullets hit One broke his thigh, the second broke the shin of the other leg, and the third pierced his stomach and came out near the kidney and spine.The Blackfoot rushed to him, intending to scalp, cut him on the head with a knife and even partly tore off the scalp, but the assiniboine continued to fight back furiously. Then the Blackfoot struck him from top to bottom with a long spear, the tip of which pierced the unfortunate under the collarbone and entered under the right ribs by 30 centimeters.Several times they pierced his body with their knives. retreat a few paces.Meanwhile, the people in the camp, hearing the shots and suspecting the worst, rushed to the rescue. the ragi fled, and the Assiniboins carried the bleeding wounded man to his tent. A few days later the camp wandered past the fort, and I saw the wounded man. He was in such a deplorable state that nothing else could be expected but his death. The weather was extremely hot, his wounds became purple, fetid and had all the signs of gangrene. The camp moved away, and after a while the wounded man recovered. The half-torn off scalp was placed in place and it took root ... This man is still alive and ... now his tribesmen call him the One Who Received Many Wounds. "1 Any modern doctor will confirm that even today, despite all the successes of medicine, life a person so severely injured would be in great danger.The effectiveness of shamanistic healing methods has also been reported by many US Army officers. One of them, John Bourke2, wrote: "I can mention, among many other cases, two Apache chiefs who recovered thanks to the treatment of their shamans, after our military doctors refused them."3 And another combat officer, Major Frank North1, admitted , which, based on personal experience, in case of injury, would rather be treated by a good Pawnee shaman than by an ordinary American surgeon.2
Another incident occurred in 1958, when an elderly Apache was admitted to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a fatal form of tuberculosis. Not wanting to die in the cold walls of the hospital, the woman asked to be allowed to go home. At home, her husband arranged for the Mountain Spirit Ceremony, the most powerful healing ritual of the Western Apache. The shaman performed the ceremony for four nights. On the first night, the patient, who arrived home on a stretcher, was able to sit up and drank some of the broth. The second night she asked for food. On the third night there was no improvement, but on the fourth night she was able to get up and take a few hesitant steps. In 1970, she was about seventy years old, she was still seriously ill, but she continued to live in defiance of the diagnosis made by American doctors twelve years ago!3
Today, despite the possibility of being treated in modern hospitals, many Indians prefer to turn to their shamans. One of the Navajos expressed the typical attitude of fellow tribesmen to the methods of American doctors and Indian shamans: “You go to the hospital. Once a day a doctor comes to you and spends three to five minutes with you. He talks little to you, but asks a lot of questions. From time to time they give you a little medicine, just a little. Almost the only thing they do is put medicine in your mouth and check your temperature. The rest of the time you just lie there. And the shamans help you all the time - they give a lot of medicine and sing all night long. They do a lot of work on you and work on every part of your body."1
But the shaman treats diseases of the body and spirit not only with the help of medicinal plants and various procedures - shamanic rituals have an undoubted psychotherapeutic effect. As one scholar of shamanism so aptly noted, "If prostitution is the first oldest profession, then psychotherapy must be second on the list." medicine in general and psychotherapists in particular. According to the Indians, psychotherapists look down on them and, like other white doctors, "practice" on them. A serious problem is the language barrier, and Indians (mostly old people), who do not speak English well, go to shamans. Psychotherapists, like other white doctors, usually work on the reservation for two or three years, after which they leave. All this time they live near the hospital, isolated from the Indian community. As a result, mutual isolation leads to mutual distrust. As in other societies, Indians call psychotherapists "doctors for madmen", and accordingly there is a certain barrier that a person must overcome before turning to such a doctor. And since everything is in plain sight on the reservations and it is difficult to hide anything from others, the Indians are afraid of being seen entering the psychotherapist's office, afraid of being labeled "crazy". But, despite the fact that the shamanic ritual is a public event, it does not call the disease in such "shameful" terms. An Indian who has nervous breakdowns, turning to a psychotherapist, becomes "crazy", while one who gives himself into the hands of a shaman only has some problems associated with the influence of external Forces - witchcraft or the influence of spirits, but not with "sick brains". Based on the practice of communicating with shamans, the Indians believe that a cure for an illness should occur almost immediately, as happens after shamanic ceremonies, and therefore they are disappointed after visiting a doctor, since there is no immediate healing. In addition, the collection of medical tests, according to the Indians, is proof that doctors simply do not understand the patient's problems.1
White people for several centuries tried to "civilize the red-skinned savages", and one of the ways to achieve this goal was to convert them to the Christian faith. But the North American Indians managed to avoid the planting of Christianity by violent means. The reason for this lay not in the kindness of God-fearing missionaries, but in the worldview of the Redskins themselves. Since they believed that all the extraordinary abilities of a person come from the Higher Forces, in their opinion, the source of the power of white people could not be otherwise and came from their God. Many of them believed that by joining him, you can take a better position in a changing world and gain additional superiority over enemies. It was the love of the Indians for everything supernatural, bestowing the Force, that made some tribes easy prey for missionaries. Some tribes even sent their messengers to the white people's settlements with a request to send them priests who could teach them a new religion. When in 1846-1847 the first Christian missionary, Rev. Nicholas Point, began to preach among the warlike Blackfoot, he was not much different for them from the local shamans and sorcerers. They even nicknamed him the Thunder Chief, as they believed Point could summon thunder. The Blackfoot believed that the Baptism taught by Point served to improve the state of mind, health, and so on. - as, for example, the Indian sweat tent ceremony, and the most courageous warriors came to the white missionary, wanting to join Baptism. These people (missionaries), it seems to me, did not want to change my belief in the Great Spirit, but only tried to teach me to speak to him differently. "2 As the American historian Robert Utley wrote, "faced with undoubted evidence of the power of white people , they (the Indians), in search of this power, naturally turned their eyes to the God of the white man. But they did this without renouncing their former gods. practices.
At the end of the 19th century, the US government, under pain of imprisonment, banned shamanic rituals, but the Indians continued to perform them in secret. Rodolphe Petter, a pastor on the Cheyenne reservation, reported in May 1926: "The well-intentioned government is under the impression that with the departure of the elderly, all shamanic practices will disappear without a trace. What a delusion! Today, about 160-180 shamans live on the reservation, and not more than 30 of them are really old. Young shamans are constantly appearing, and even people who have returned from school4 and speak English well become shamans. doubt that if their methods had not brought the expected result, the modern red-skinned citizens of America would have long ago stopped using their services. For example, the frequency of shamanistic ceremonies among Western Apaches is so high that over 225 healing ceremonies were performed in Sibikyu alone during the period 1960-1970. And this is a lot, because the population of Sibikyu before 1964 was less than 750 people.2 In just four months of 1965 (from June 1 to September 30), 41 ceremonies were held there. At that time, only five shamans lived in Sibikyu.3 Among the Navajos, the state of affairs differs little from that of the Apaches. An example is the Navajo healing ceremony Night Way, held for sick people. With the help of it, through the shaman, people try to harmonize, balance and put in order their relationships with each other and with the Universe (in the Navajo sense). So, in the period 1984-1985, this ceremony was held only 42 times on the Navajo reservation, and even more often in 1986-1987. The need of the people for the Night Way turned out to be such that its implementation was scheduled for two years in advance.4
Shamanism continues to be an important part of the lives of many Indian peoples, including the Sioux, Ojibway, Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache. Some federal programs aim to unite the efforts of American doctors and Native American shamans. "Both in heart and in thought, the average Indian living on a reservation is still an Indian, rooted in an ancient spiritual tradition opposed to Western tradition," writes Ake Hultkrantz, a well-known scholar of Indian religions.
Treatment of injuries and wounds
All white contemporaries recognized that Native American shamans were experts in the treatment of injuries and wounds. the highest class. The Redskins were constantly at war, and the ability to heal wounds was a vital necessity. Noah Smithwick wrote that he had never seen any Indians with congenital physical defects, but they were very proud of the scars received in battle, especially from bullets, and tattooed around them.1 Gouged eyes and maxillofacial injuries were not uncommon among the warriors of the Great Plains . The fighters, whose faces were mutilated, usually covered them from the eyes of their fellow tribesmen. The Piegans of the early 20th century remembered a warrior who wore a piece of skin that hid the lower part of his face, disfigured by terrible scars. until there is no free space left on it.3
Sometimes the wounds were very serious and left the soldiers crippled. Leg injuries were especially common. Some fighters, such as the great Sioux chief Sitting Bull, remained crippled but were able to fight in tribal wars. Others were forced to forget about military campaigns forever and tried to find themselves in the life of the tribe, becoming, for example, arrow makers. But the fighting spirit did not leave many crippled. Crow Deathseeker, whose thighbone was shattered by a Sioux bullet so that he could hardly move, during attacks on his native camp, asked his fellow tribesmen to tie him to the saddle of a war steed and fought among them on equal terms, protecting the camp from enemies.4
The vitality of the Redskins was simply amazing. One combat officer noted: "The will to live in a red man and the number of bullet wounds that he is able to withstand indicate that he has such a blunted nervous system, which occurs more often in wild animals than in people. The impact of a bullet usually paralyzes so many nerve endings and muscles in a white person that it knocks him to the ground, even if the bullet does not hit any vital organs. The Indian, on the other hand, does not pay attention to such wounds, and in order for him to fall, the bullet must enter his brain, heart, or break his spine. I myself saw how the Indian did not stop when two bullets pierced his body an inch from the spine, but he only switched from running to a stately step. "In history, many examples confirm the words of this officer. In a battle with his original enemies, the Piegans, the Crow Indian fired one of them was hit in the back with a bow and hit in the shoulder, as Two Leggins recalled: "Piegan reached for the arrow with his hand, pulled it out, broke it and threw it to the ground, then drew his knife and ran to me. Jumping to the side, I shot him in the chest. Piegan snatched the arrow away again, broke it, and threw it away. I tried to stay away from him and fired a third arrow, hitting him in the stomach. He growled, but having broken this arrow as well, he signaled me to leave. I signaled to him that I was going to kill him. Then the enemy suggested that I come closer so that he could fight me with a knife, but I refused him. Piegan was already barely alive, and there was no reason to fear him ... He tried to dodge my next arrow, but it stuck into his chest so that the tip came out of his back. Blood gushed from his mouth and nose as he walked towards his own. I fired again, the piegan stumbled, fell and died in a moment."
Sometimes operations had to be carried out in field conditions. Crow mentioned a curious case when one of the warriors was wounded during a raid: "A bullet pierced his stomach, and the intestines began to fall out. Then his friends took a needle and sewed up his stomach with tendons."
The Indians were very skilled in the treatment of bone fractures, sprains, contusions and wounds from firearms and knives. Breckenridge wrote in 1811 that the Arikara were "very successful in healing wounds." If the wound did not respond to the usual treatment, it was cauterized, and healing was much easier.1 It should be noted that, according to Denig, the Indians rarely washed the wounds.1 Daniel Barnet in 1847 reported that the Comanches "are experts in the treatment of bullet wounds."2 The Mandans, like many other tribes, pulled bullets and arrows out of the flesh.3 Naturally, some parts of the muscles could be cut off during surgery. In one of the battles, the Cheyenne was wounded by an arrow in the shoulder blade. The tip went into the bone, and the shaft broke off. Several people held the patient, and two more pressed his head. His friends tried to pull out the tip, but could not pick it up. They had to cut off some of the muscles around the wound, but that didn't help either. Then they took a very sharp knife, drove it into the bone next to the metal tip on each side and, moving it from side to side, loosened it and removed it. During the entire operation, the young warrior never flinched. The method for extracting arrows with serrated tips from soft tissues was as follows. A willow stick was split, the ends of which were rounded so as to easily enter inside along the arrow and close the notches. After that, the stick was tightly tied to the shaft and the arrow was pulled out without tearing the muscles.5
Removing stuck tips was such a serious task that the shamans received a fortune for its successful completion. The Mandans recalled how, in a fight with the Sioux, one of their warriors was hit by an arrow in the stomach and the tip was stuck in the bone. His family announced that the shaman who could extract the tip would receive a magnificent buffalo horse, two pack horses, a huge tipi of twenty skins, a mule, a women's dress made of mountain sheep skin, decorated with five hundred deer teeth, a military headdress and a large number of blankets and buffalo capes.1
Sometimes it was not possible to pull out a bullet or an arrowhead. Sioux Flying Hawk recalled: "My father was a chieftain. In a battle with the Crows, an arrow pierced under his right eye and sat so deep that it could only be pulled out by pushing through the ear." But this was impossible. The father survived, and many years after his death, the son visited the place where the old man was buried on the platform: "Only the bones remained of him. A rusty arrowhead stuck out in the back of the inner part of his skull." pull out the shaft, but the tip remained in the body. In addition to the fact that the wounds from the arrows were dangerous in themselves, the tip that had settled in the body was also dangerous for a number of other reasons. Firstly, even a slight wound did not heal well. Secondly, it led to suppuration, which could cause blood poisoning. The tip began to move in soft tissues and could touch vital organs and lead to death. In 1862, Kiowa Chief Satamore was shot in the buttock by a Pawnee arrow. The shaft was pulled out, but the tip remained inside. The poor fellow urinated blood, but the wound healed quickly, and after a few weeks he was able to go on a buffalo hunt. Satamore led active life until, seven years later, the wound began to bother him, and in August 1869 he turned to the military surgeon at Fort Sill. After the operation of lithotomy Bladder a huge stone 6.2 cm long was taken out, inside of which was a tip.3
Some white contemporaries were rather skeptical about the skill of Indian doctors. But cases of healing the wounded by shamans, when they were abandoned as hopeless by US Army military surgeons, are too numerous in the history of Indian wars to be thoughtlessly ignored. In the winter of 1876, a bullet entered the shin of a Cheyenne warrior and, exiting between the knee and thigh, shattered the patella and shattered the bones above and below the knee. The man was sent to Camp Robinson Hospital, where a military surgeon said the leg needed to be amputated. The Indian refused, he was taken away and a Cheyenne doctor took care of him. The leg healed and the Indian could even walk, though of course it no longer flexed at the knee. Two other cases were reported by Major North, who for several years commanded a company of Pawnee Scouts and knew the Indians well. In July 1867, the horse of one of the scouts fell at a gallop, the rider, hitting the ground hard, received an open hip fracture. He was immediately sent to a military hospital, where he was treated for several weeks. It was not possible to set the bones, the thigh was swollen to an incredible size and became very inflamed. The surgeons declared the patient hopeless, and he asked North to put him on a train and send him to the Pawnee reservation to die. But in December, to the great surprise of those present, he returned and again signed up for the service. His wound has healed, only his leg has become a little shorter. The second incident occurred in June 1869, when a bullet shattered the arm of another Pawnee. The surgeon who treated the wound said that nothing could be done and that the arm should be amputated, but the Indian did not agree. In the field conditions of the military campaign, he could not receive proper treatment, began to weaken before his eyes, and larvae started up in the wound. In an army van, he was sent to Fort MacPherson, and from there railway to the reservation... to die. But by November he recovered, only three fingers on his hand no longer worked. Both of these wounded, who were deemed hopeless by army surgeons, were treated by Pawnee shamans.2 North managed to observe some incredible shamanic rituals himself, which he could not explain, but was absolutely sure that they had nothing to do with tricks or deceiving the audience. North himself saw what was happening from a distance of ten meters.1
Naturally, for the treatment of wounds and suppurations, all tribes used various medicines of plant and animal origin. Some warriors had their own medicine or treatments that they received from the spirits in a vision or dream. They were used for self-treatment during illness or from wounds received. They included the consumption of certain foods (usually lacking sufficient healing properties), songs, dances, etc. There are many testimonies of old people from various tribes regarding these methods, and no matter how strange they may seem, they really did bring results. Mandan Thin Bear was wounded in the chest by a Sioux warrior so that the bullet exited his back through the shoulder blade. His patron spirit was a bear, who promised him that if he followed the instructions given in the vision, the bullets might hit him but not kill him. He asked his wives to bring him wild plums, but they could not do it, because it was the beginning of summer, when there were no plums yet. Then they brought him the leaves of this tree and said that they were plums. Thin Bear chewed them and sang his sacred songs. His wives helped him to his feet, and he danced and sang as blood flowed from his wounds. Four days later, he was able to walk around the village on his own.2 Another incident was with a Cheyenne named Oxhead, who was wounded fighting the Utes. An enemy bullet pierced his side, leaving a wound from which they do not survive. But Cheyenne cured himself by eating rattlesnake meat. A Sioux named Sitting Bull, who had long lived among the Northern Cheyenne and called them the Tall Sioux, was wounded fighting the Crows. The bullet hit him in the back and exited his chest. Blood flowed from his wounds on his back and chest and from his mouth. He asked his friends to find the anthill, and when it was found, Sitting Bull dismounted, collected a handful of ants, stuffed them into his mouth, and swallowed them. "Now," he said, "I'll be all right." He mounted his horse and rode all night. Later, he actually recovered. Such tales are found among all the plains tribes in too great numbers to be rejected on the grounds that modern man they are unconvincing. Undoubtedly, the iron health of the Redskins, and the trance state into which the person fell, and self-hypnosis played an important role in the recovery. True, all this can hardly shed light on miraculous recoveries from very serious wounds.
Yet usually warriors used the services of shamans who specialized in the treatment of wounds. Such shamans received appropriate visions, or some shaman ceremonially passed on his knowledge to them, along with amulets and songs. The magical Power necessary for the treatment of wounds was obtained from the spirits of the bison, bear, wolf, badger, otter, turtle and other animals. Among the Pawnees, in addition to the spirits of animals and birds (loons), Power and knowledge in visions were received from the Moon, the Sun, the Mother Cedar and the Water Monster. 2 Treatment techniques and specialization varied depending on the nature of the vision through which the knowledge was received by the shamans. For example, members of the Sioux Wolf Cult - those to whom the spirit of a wolf appeared - were considered experts in drawing arrows from the bodies of wounded warriors. They also prepared military amulets (wotawe) for protection from the enemy.3
Shamans of many tribes often used the skin of an otter in the treatment of wounds. The Mandans said that the otter (an amulet in the form of an animal skin) was able to extract bullets and arrowheads from the body of a wounded person by sticking its head into the wound.1 The skin of the otter is mentioned in almost all descriptions of Crow healing procedures. One of the most famous and skilled shamans of this tribe was Dapik, who lived in the first half of the 19th century. After the usual fast for young men, during which he received a vision and patron spirits who transferred powerful magical Powers to him, Dapik went on a military campaign and was wounded, a bullet lodged in his body. It was then that the tribesmen first saw the manifestations of his magical Power. Dapik sang his song and dived into the river, holding an otter skin in his hand. Soon he surfaced with a bullet in the mouth of an otter, and people realized that he could heal the wounded. In one of the battles, a Crow warrior was hit by an arrow, and the tip remained in the body. Dapik repeated the above procedure, entering the water with the wounded, and when he came out, the tip was sticking out of the otter's mouth. Dapik healed many wounded warriors using a similar technique. Crow was said to be the only one who could cure a person almost immediately and rarely failed. During the procedures performed by Dapik and other Crow shamans, people chased away the dogs, because it was believed that if a dog crossed the path of the shaman, his assistants, or the wounded, the latter would surely die.
Another Crow shaman, nicknamed One-Eye, was also famous for his incredible success. Gray Bull recalled how he helped him heal a warrior whose bullet had gone right through his body. A buffalo cape was thrown over the shoulders of the shaman, and his forehead was painted in White color. He tied feathers to the patient's hair, drew white circles around his eyes, and began to touch his entire body with his fingertips smeared with white clay. Standing at the entrance to the tent, he sang his song, while Gray Bull and several other Indians sang inside. The relatives of the wounded man asked several young people to sing the healer's song. One-eyed danced at the entrance to the tent, holding a buffalo tail with feathers tied to it. He whipped it on the ground until the dust rose, then went up to the wounded man, blew on his stomach wound, stood up, stretched out his arms and bent down. Mad Head, his patient, repeated the movements. When blood mixed with pus flowed from the wound, people stood in two rows from the tent to the river. This was followed by water procedures, which Dapik once carried out, but the Gray Bull did not see this - being one of the singers, he was at that time in a tent. Mad Head later recovered.1
Quite successfully, Indian shamans treated dislocations and fractures of the limbs. Often, thanks to the treatment, the broken bones of the legs healed perfectly and the person did not even limp. True, if the victim immediately after the fracture had to ride a horse or was transported to the grass2, the bones of the legs did not grow together correctly and the person remained a cripple for life. Cheyenne shamans wrapped a broken limb with wet skin, and when it dried, it perfectly tightened and fixed the affected area. , patting on it, they set it in place and put on two splints.5 Ojibway shamans put splints on broken limbs made of very thick birch bark, which was heated and bent to give it the desired shape until the bark became soft, like a band-aid. Tires were also made from thin cedar bark. One of the shamans described the process of splinting a broken arm in this way: "Wash your hand and rub fat into it. Then apply a warm poultice to it, cover it with cloth and wrap it with a thin splint of cedar bark." For a poultice, the roots of the hoof and aralia were used. They were dried, crushed and mixed in equal parts. When the poultice dried, it was either changed or rewetted.1
Various types of fractures have also been used to treat fractures. medicinal plants. Rib fractures were treated by the Plains Cree by cutting the skin at the fracture site with a flint and rubbing the medicine inside.2 The well-known Sioux shaman Eagle Shield mixed dried leaves and roots with fat and smeared his palms with this compound. Then he held them over the coals until they were heated, after which he rubbed the ointment into the muscles over the fracture. According to him, the patient received such relief from this that he often fell asleep immediately. The massage continued three times a day until the bone healed. When a bone of an arm or leg was broken, the Eagle Shield pulled out the damaged limb, returning it to its place, tightly fitted it with leather and tied it with leather braid. For massage, the bandage was removed. In all cases of treatment of leg fractures, the victim was able to walk independently within a month.3
Denig noted that Assiniboin shamans were good at setting broken bones and dislocations. For example, they adjusted the shoulder in the following way - they pulled the arm, pressing the armpit up. “Most middle-aged men have seen this procedure so often that they can do it themselves (without the help of shamans),” he wrote.4 Pawnee fractures were treated by shamans who wielded special magic wands. The shaman came to the victim with a ratchet in his hand, followed by his wife with a mat and a bunch of sticks. The sticks were three wooden splints 26 28 and 34 cm long and 4.5, 4.5 and 4.25 cm wide, respectively. One of them was painted red. The tires were wrapped in four fur-covered strips of buffalo hide and four strips of rawhide. The mat was spread out and the patient was laid on it. The shaman mixed the medicinal composition and applied it to the fracture site, and then pulled out the injured limb, shaking the rattle and singing a special song. When he finished singing, he put on splints, tying sticks to the injured limb, placing the red one over the most painful place. But not all tribes seem to have successfully managed fractured shamans, as McDermot noted that the Osage never healed or set broken bones, causing them to heal incorrectly. But this information is most likely not entirely correct.2
The plains Kree shaman Fair Day reported that it was not necessary to be a shaman or receive any instructions from the spirits to heal fractures, it was enough to see others do it a few times. "You should have watched the process (fracture healing) and be brave enough," he said. The same was true of other tribes.
Shamans were quite successful in treating gangrene. Ojibway Vezawange cut the dead tissue with a knife to "liberate" it, and then treated it with a medicinal mixture that "removed" the dead tissue. According to him, in such cases it was necessary to observe special cleanliness. The medicinal mixture consisted of the inside of the bark of white pine, wild plum and wild cherry, with the bark of pine and plum being removed from young trees. This recipe was given to him by the mide shamans and was especially valuable. Pine cuttings were cut into short pieces and boiled with the green inner bark of two other trees until the bark was soft. If necessary, the water was changed, and the last water was used for treatment. Then they removed the bark from parts of the pine, and with a heavy hammer turned the bark of all three trees into gruel. It was applied to cuts and wounds, especially to the most dangerous ones, in which gangrene began. This drug mixture was considered one of the most effective.1
The Indians were very negative about amputation and, according to contemporaries, they never practiced it. The Cheyennes said that no warrior would agree to this and no shaman would take on such a responsibility. Daniel Barnet reported that the Comanches "do not know the art of amputation, and if gangrene set in, the man always died." 2 Edwin Denig wrote that the Assiniboins never amputated limbs. 3 However, the Blackfoot remembered one young Piegan who was shot in the leg by the Crow. After examining the wound, a military surgeon from Fort Benton came to the conclusion that the leg should be amputated, which was done. When the cripple returned to his native camp, his friends gave him horses and tips. Since then, members of his community have always brought him from the hunt part of the meat obtained. .2 In some cases, Indians lost limbs when they were shot in battle - for example, the bones of the arm could be completely broken by a bullet and the arm hung on one tendon or part of a torn muscle. The Blackfeet remembered a warrior named Wolf Eagle, whose arm was shot off by the enemy - during ceremonial dances, he always held the feathered bone of his lost limb in his surviving hand. froze his leg, that it was impossible to save it. The pain was so terrible that he asked to be amputated, which was done with an ordinary knife. After the amputation, the shaman covered the wound with dry powdered wild cherry bark (Prunus serotina). When the powder swelled, it was changed - usually twice a day. Nothing else was done, but the treatment went well.4 Frances Densmore knew a Sioux Indian in the early 20th century whose arm had been paralyzed by an accidental gunshot wound. Two American surgeons told him that it should be amputated. But the shaman Eagleshield, whom she also knew personally, was able to heal him, saving his hand.5
Major North, mentioned above, told William Clark that in case of injury, he would rather be treated by a good Pawnee shaman than by an ordinary American surgeon. Frank Linderman wrote that he had heard many stories from old people about how Indian shamans, with the help of rituals, put the hopelessly wounded on their feet. According to him, the answers to the question: "Why is this treatment not practiced today?" -- have always been the same. Many Labors explained it this way: "Such deeds were committed before good people who were wise. Nobody today understands what our Wise Ones knew before the white man came to change the world. Our children learn nothing from us and, imitating the white youth, have no religion."2
Once sorcerers and witches were burned at the stake, now they sit in cozy offices and receive clients. Despite this, many scientists still consider people who believe in witchcraft to be either very backward or mentally ill ...
REAL WIZARDS ARE NOT LOOKED FOR IN OFFICES
Do wizards and witches really exist, or is witchcraft just a deception that has been going on for centuries? The overwhelming majority of scientists will no doubt answer yes to the second part of the question. To some extent, this view of witchcraft is understandable. Real sorcerers and witches sip tea somewhere in the taiga outback, without advertising either their knowledge or skills. They still need to be found and they still need to be negotiated so that they demonstrate something “beyond” to pundits. Well, since scientists completely deny the reality of witchcraft, no one is going to look for real sorcerers and witches.
In this respect, the shamans were much more fortunate. True, for a long time they were considered, if not crooks, then mentally ill people, but now books are being written about them and films are being made. Scientists have established that during the ritual, the process of healing the patient, shamans are able to enter into altered states of consciousness (ASS).
Shamans perform rituals with the help of a tambourine in a special suit, usually they always have assistants. EEG (electroencephalograms), taken during the work of the shaman, recorded changes in the activity of his brain during certain periods of the session. At the same time, the EEG shows that the shaman's brain and the brain of his patient work in pairs, while the patient's brain is in the position of a slave. The Yakut scientist Anatoly Alekseev spent 18 years next to the Tunguska shamans and was personally convinced of their ability to heal a wide variety of diseases.
SCIENCE IS NOT "GROWN" TO THE STUDY OF WITCHING
At one time, scientists conducted research on the abilities of a number of psychics and came to the conclusion that they really exist. For example, the famous N. Kulagina could mentally move small objects at a distance, act on the compass, illuminate the film in the cassette. Classified studies of psychics were carried out by the special services of the USSR,.
Academician of the International Academy of Energy Information Sciences A.F. Okhatrin managed to prove the reality of thought forms that represent energy clots at the field level, generated by thoughts or emotional outbursts of a person. The most amazing thing is that these thought forms can infiltrate people and influence them.
Summarizing all of the above, we can draw a rather unusual conclusion that modern science has not yet “grown up” to the study of witchcraft ...
A real sorcerer (witch) is a psychic, herbalist, psychologist and hypnotist "in one bottle." In addition, he knows how to create thought forms and manipulate them, with the help of conspiracies he can give water and other substances other properties. However, his abilities are not limited to this either.
