A Shaman is a person anchored securely in both the physical world and the spiritual realm, a mediator if you will. Therefore, Shamanism is a way of life revolving around interaction of the spiritual and physical worlds. The Shaman does not solely exist as other humans do; they lead a totally different life in conjunction with their earthly duties within their tribe. The two are not separate by any means; one has direct impact on the other, or so it is believed by those who study this form of healing. For, of course, the Shaman is also a magician and a medicine man; he is believed to cure, like all doctors, and to perform miracles of the fakir type, like all magicians, whether primitive or modern. But beyond this, he may also be a priest, mystic, and poet.
Illness, according to shamans, begins on the spiritual plane. If left unchecked, then the spiritual disturbance manifests itself as a physical malady. A large part of the healing process is to remove barriers within the body to allow the impurities to leave the body, and to encourage the body to heal itself. The energy is channeled through the healer from a higher source like a conductor into the patient and in turns the malevolent entity, disturbance, is pulled into the healer to get rid of. To remove the disturbance, different Shamans have different techniques. However, the purpose is identical and the end result usually comes out about the same frequency of success to failures. There are countless documentations of a Shaman sucking an evil spirit from the body of the affected person (Alexander, 12-22).
Witch doctors, psychics, mediums, spiritualists are but just a few of the many names associated with Shamans.....
