Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews • July 1, 2026 • Athanasia Kontouli, Michael J Hove, Alexandre Lehmann et al.
Trance states induced by music, from shamanic rituals to electronic dance music raves, share common musical features and cultural narratives. Anthropological and neuroscientific evidence suggests that different forms of trance engage partially overlapping neural dynamics, including increased low-frequency brain wave synchronization and a shift from executive control networks to limbic and default mode networks. These patterns reflect the interplay of cognitive, emotional, and sensory systems, though current empirical evidence remains fragmented and methodologically heterogeneous. The review emphasizes trance as both a cultural and biological phenomenon and calls for integrating phenomenological and neurophysiological data to build comprehensive models of music-induced non-ordinary states of consciousness.
June 30, 2026 • Woojang Sim
A folk tale about a magical ruler that heals and revives the dead is analyzed through a shamanic lens. The ruler acts as an axis mundi, a spiritual bridge connecting heaven and earth, guiding the soul back to the body. The tale's narrative follows shamanic initiation: a mysterious dream (supernatural calling), imprisonment and symbolic death, learning healing from animals (shamanic education), and reviving a princess to gain communal recognition. Similar shamanic elements appear in related tales, where powers like healing and understanding animals reflect traditional shamanic abilities. The study argues that shamanism, as a primordial system of thought, forms a foundational cultural framework underlying many folk narratives.
Religions • June 19, 2026 • Dongkyu Kim
Shamanic healing rituals in Korea, specifically byeong-gut, paradoxically follow the rigid format of blessing rituals rather than adopting a clinical approach. This article argues that previous scholarship wrongly reduces shamanic healing to psychological comfort or social liberation. By integrating Roy Rappaport's theory of ritual invariance with relational ontologies from Bruno Latour and Tim Ingold, the authors propose a relational displacement model. Healing operates through two mechanisms: at the material level, the ritual objectifies and displaces individual suffering onto external surrogates; at the linguistic level, the invocation chant re-assembles the patient's fragmented life into a network of human and non-human agencies. The byeong-gut transforms suffering into an intelligible event within a shared cosmic order.
June 19, 2026 • Jules Evans, Christian Jurlando, David Luke et al.
preprint
Belief in sorcery and supernatural harm is common among Western psychedelic users, with many reporting experiences they interpret as shamanic attack. In a survey of 895 adults involved in psychedelic culture, participants often downplayed indigenous sorcery frameworks in favor of psychological explanations, yet some left ceremonies convinced they had been harmed supernaturally. The study estimates the prevalence of such beliefs, examines how psychedelic experiences and cultural immersion shift these beliefs, and characterizes experiences interpreted as black magic. It also assesses whether fear of magical retaliation inhibits criticism of ceremonial leaders. Findings aim to inform harm reduction in ceremonial settings.
IRA International Journal of Education and Multidisciplinary Studies • June 19, 2026 • Liangying Zeng, Zongyu Xie, Yuyan Wang et al.
Robes from Tomb No. 1 at Mashan, Jingzhou, representative artifacts of the ancient Chu state, encode a hierarchical symbolic system. Using semiotics and textual exegesis of the Chu Ci alongside excavated bamboo slips, the analysis of three motif categories—divine symbols, cosmic imagery, and botanical patterns—reveals that the decorative patterns convey Chu cosmology, ritual practices, and aspirations for longevity. This finding bridges textual religious records and material cultural relics, providing a foundation for studying cross-cultural transmission of Chu heritage.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies • June 2, 2026 • Brandon Reynante, Jack Buchanan
Music has been integral to psychedelic experiences across history, from shamanic rituals to modern psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT), yet standardized protocols for its use are lacking. This interdisciplinary review compared musical features in three contexts: modern PAT, traditional entheogenic rituals, and musically-induced peak experiences. Conflicting features emerged: PAT music peaks with simplicity, consistency, and slow tempo; ritual music uses simple forms with rhythmic complexity, subtle variations, and fast tempo; peak-experience music is complex, surprising with large dynamic changes, and fast. These differences likely stem from music's assumed role and the associated non-ordinary state of consciousness.
Highlights in Art and Design • May 28, 2026 • Yiming Sun
Shamanism has gained growing popular attention in China despite the state's official secularism. Through analysis of literary works, documentaries, social media, and interviews, the paper shows how artistic representations aestheticize and simplify shamanism. It argues that Chinese mass shamanism is a cultural response to structural and affective predicaments of contemporary China, including instrumentalism in diffused religion, social atomization, and the erosion of 'the nearby'. The phenomenon is presented as a hybrid formation born of modernity's failure to achieve complete disenchantment, situating it within modernity's entanglement with occultism.
International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research • April 19, 2026 • Krushnakant Nagargoje, Arvind Rawat, Kirti Maurya
Human spirituality originated not from organized religions or formal philosophy but from early experiential practices within indigenous cultures. These practices, involving trance, ritual, and direct experiential learning, formed the foundational basis for spiritual and mystical experiences. The work argues that such indigenous traditions provided the epistemological and aesthetic roots for later religious and philosophical systems, emphasizing experiential knowledge over doctrinal belief.
Suomen Antropologi Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society • April 1, 2026 • Olof Ohlson
A new theory of shamanism combines four existing ideas: that mystical experiences are shaped by culture, that shamans take on roles in their communities, that mental imagery is a learned cultural practice, and that the universe is fundamentally mental (panpsychism). This framework allows for recognizing genuine experiences in shamanic altered states while respecting cultural differences. The author argues that spirit is another word for mind, and shamanism is an exploration of consciousness by means of consciousness.
Religions • April 1, 2026 • Xiaoshuang Liu
In northern China, shamanic practices have developed an indigenous concept called 'virtual illness' to address mental distress arising from modern individuation. Prolonged mental distress is understood as leading to possession by external malevolent spirits, constituting a form of virtual illness. Healing involves attributing misfortune—including failure and mental illness—to the possessed spiritual identity, conducting spiritual healing on that identity, and encouraging individuals to maintain a positive, forward-looking state. This approach builds a psychological foundation for coping with mental illness and offers a unique response to the individualized self. These cultural healing practices adapt to the modern Chinese medical system and provide a targeted perspective for understanding mental illness in China's individuation process, prompting philosophical reflection on the concept of the self.
Sci Rep • March 23, 2021 • 80 citations
A study of 256 participants from three ayahuasca healing centers in South and Central America examined changes in the Five-Factor personality traits after ceremonial use of the psychedelic brew. The largest change was a large reduction in Neuroticism, observed in both self-reports and informant reports, with effect sizes ranging from −0.62 to −1.00 across timepoints. Baseline personality, acute experiences during the ceremony, and purging experiences moderated the degree of personality change. The findings suggest that ceremonial ayahuasca use is associated with substantial decreases in emotional instability.
Contemporary European History • May 1, 2020 • J. Quijada • 67 citations
In the 1960s, Soviet anti-religious journals changed how they depicted shamanism: it shifted from being presented as a specific ethnographic practice of Siberian indigenous peoples to being portrayed as a universal human capacity for altered states of consciousness and a precursor of mysticism, albeit a 'primitive' one. The article argues that this transformation coincided with changes in the Soviet atheist project and serves as a point of comparison highlighting similarities and differences between Soviet and Western modernist projects.
Social Science & Medicine • August 31, 2019 • Evgenia Fotiou, Alex K. Gearin • 86 citations
Ayahuasca, a psychoactive plant mixture used ceremonially in Western Amazonia, has become popular among westerners traveling to the Peruvian Amazon for its healing effects. Drawing on a literature review and ethnographic data from shamanic tourism in Peru and neo-shamanic networks in Australia (227 people interviewed or surveyed between 2003 and 2015, including healers and participants), the authors demonstrate that purging is integral to ayahuasca's therapeutic use across and beyond Amazonia. Therapeutic approaches combine modulations of the gut and mind, and the bodily and social, expressed through healing discourse. Relating ethnographic evidence to scientific studies connecting gut and emotional health, the authors argue that ayahuasca purging should not be dismissed as a drug side effect or irrational belief but reconsidered for its potential therapeutic effects.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America • June 4, 2019 • Melanie J Miller, Juan Albarracin-jordan, Christine Moore et al. • 171 citations
Chemical analysis of a ritual bundle from a Bolivian rock shelter, dated to about 1,000 C.E., detected traces of bufotenine, dimethyltryptamine, harmine, and cocaine (with its breakdown product benzoylecgonine). These compounds come from at least three different psychoactive plants, including the two key ingredients of ayahuasca—harmine and dimethyltryptamine—found together in a single artifact for the first time in this region. The plants originated from distant and ecologically distinct areas of South America, indicating that hallucinogenic substances were traded or transported over long distances. This suggests that pre-Columbian peoples possessed sophisticated botanical knowledge and incorporated such plants into shamanic rituals.
Cogent Psychology • April 24, 2017 • P. Flor-henry, Yakov Shapiro, Corine Sombrun • 100 citations
A trained Mongolian shamanic practitioner self-induced a trance state without external sensory stimulation while undergoing quantitative EEG mapping and LORETA source imaging. The shamanic state of consciousness involved a shift from the normally dominant left analytical to the right experiential mode of self-experience, and from anterior prefrontal to posterior somatosensory mode. These neurophysiological changes may help explain brain networks underlying the autobiographical self, the boundary between self and others, and dissociative, psychotic, and transpersonal experiences. The findings offer a basis for integrating Western and traditional healing approaches.
Anthropology of Consciousness • September 1, 2016 • Evgenia Fotiou • 84 citations
Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant mixture used ceremonially in western Amazonia, has grown popular among Westerners traveling to the Peruvian Amazon for its healing and transformative effects. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork near Iquitos, Peru, the paper examines problematic aspects of Western engagement with indigenous spiritual traditions, which often rely on idealized notions of shamanism and overlook unsettling elements like sorcery. The romanticization of indigenous peoples is not benign; it conceals the complexity of their situations by erasing past and ongoing injustices. A more holistic approach is proposed, viewing indigenous peoples not as living in harmony with nature but as facing challenges, including the commercialization of their spirituality.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs • October 20, 2015 • Veronika Kavenská, Hana Šimonová • 109 citations
Foreigners travel to South America for ayahuasca experiences driven by curiosity, a desire to treat mental health problems, a need for self-knowledge, interest in psychedelic medicine, spiritual development, and finding direction in life. Participants reported benefits such as self-knowledge, improved self-relation, spiritual growth, better interpersonal relations, overcoming mental and physical issues, and gaining new life perspectives. Potential risks included distrust in the shaman or organizer, inaccurate information, and exposure to dangerous situations. Personality assessments of 77 participants revealed scores significantly above the norm on intuition, optimism, ambition, charm, and helpfulness, and significantly lower on distrust and quietness.
Oxford University Press eBooks • June 18, 2014 • 164 citations
Indigenous shamanic rituals from the Amazon, particularly those involving the hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca, have spread to Western societies, where indigenous, mestizo, and cosmopolitan cultures have dialogued with and transformed these forest traditions. Displaced indigenous people and rubber tappers creatively reinvent these rituals, using them to build ethnic alliances and develop cultural and political strategies to improve their marginalized position. The book examines how Amerindian epistemology and ontology related to these practices have been adopted and adapted globally.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med • December 28, 2013 • 79 citations
In northern Peru, a region central to Andean traditional medicine, over 510 medicinal plant species are used, 83% native to Peru. Research involving interviews with healers and vendors and bioassays found that 50% of plants used in colonial times are no longer in the pharmacopoeia. Vendors specialize in different plant types, and 974 preparations treat 164 health conditions, with nearly 65% of plants used in mixtures. Antibacterial activity was confirmed in most plants for infections, while 24% of aqueous and 76% of ethanolic extracts showed toxicity, reflecting traditional preparation methods. Most species are wild-collected, raising sustainability concerns as demand grows without increased cultivation.
Journal of ethnopharmacology • April 12, 2011 • X Jauregui, Z M Clavo, E M Jovel et al. • 91 citations
A group of plants called plantas con madre (plants with a mother) are used by Amazonian healers in East-Central Peru to guide apprentices during initiation into traditional medicine. Based on work with 29 curanderos, 3 apprentices, and 4 herbalists from 2003 to 2008, 55 plant species from 26 families were identified. These plants are administered in shamanic diets (dietas) under master healers' supervision, following a sequence: purification, sensitivity and intuition, strengthening, and protection. The system is fundamental to traditional medicine and cultural continuity. The research calls for collaboration with Indigenous healers to better recognize their practices and worldviews.
Economic Botany • November 1, 2008 • Gastón Guzmán • 114 citations
Psilocybe, with 53 known hallucinogenic species in Mexico, is the most important and diverse group of sacred mushrooms used by Mexican indigenous cultures. Psilocybe caerulescens, known today by Nahuatl Indians as teotlaquilnanácatl, is hypothesized to be the ceremonially used teonanácatl mushroom cited by Sahagún in the 16th century, whose true identity has remained obscure for centuries. Correcting a widespread error, Panaeolus species have never been used traditionally in Mexico. Reports of other genera used as sacred or narcotic mushrooms are discussed, along with a history of discovery, taxonomy, distribution, and traditional use.
Zygon® • March 1, 2004 • Michael A. Winkelman • 90 citations
Shamanic practices, found universally across hunter-gatherer societies worldwide and throughout history, reflect fundamental neurological processes and brain structures. The shamanic paradigm—including animism, totemism, soul flight, animal spirits, and death-and-rebirth experiences—arises from innate brain modules and neurognostic structures. This universal biopsychosocial framework can bridge scientific and religious perspectives by explaining the biological underpinnings of spiritual experiences, thereby providing a basis for neurotheology and evolutionary theology.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs • December 1, 1998 • Ralph Metzner • 140 citations
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and indigenous shamanic healing both use psychoactive substances for healing and gaining knowledge, but they rest on fundamentally different worldviews. Four paradigms are reviewed: standard psychedelic psychotherapy, where the drug amplifies internal self-analysis; shamanic rituals, where the healer takes the medicine to 'see' causes of illness; syncretic folk religious ceremonies focused on community bonding; and hybrid shamanic therapeutic rituals combining elements of both. The shamanic worldview diverges radically from the Western one in two ways: the perception of multiple realities accessible in expanded states of consciousness, and the belief that spirits encountered in dreams and visions are as real as the physical organism.
Anthropology of Consciousness • March 1, 1998 • David S. Whitley • 68 citations
Combining ethnographic and cognitive neuroscience research sheds light on the origin and symbolism of Native Californian rock art. The ethnographic record shows that the art depicts mental imagery and somatic hallucinations from trance, representing supernatural experiences. A cognitive neuroscience perspective suggests the shamanistic state of consciousness was often unpleasant, involving negative emotions, rather than primarily ecstatic. Biochemical changes during trance required making rock art to preserve the memory of these experiences.