Introduction
For centuries they have been tormented, tortured and isolated, considered as outcast of the society. Witches, sorcerers, shamans or magical doctors have been misunderstood and burned at the steak for heresy, because their practices overpassed the human understanding. Through a combination of herbal mixes or psychedelic substances plus a thorough understanding of the human mind, the magical methods of these traditional practices have been analyzed across centuries (Haule 17). While in the modern societies the conventional science, medicine or human psychology are largely preferred, discoveries show that shamanic, witchery, sorcery or magical practices have pragmatic basis and scientific value (Davis 232). Ignored for centuries or millennia, such ancient or medieval practices mirror scientific processes that have been recently discovered, and further inform scientists on how brain can be manipulated or bodies healed.
Body
Forgotten for millennia and remembered in the 15th century as a heretical practice, shamanism is largely considered up to the current times a combination of charlatanry, pathological condition and dark forces manipulation (Haule 17-18). Although these perceptions about shamanism are mostly the reflection of ignorance and fear of understanding this religious and spiritual phenomenon, the scientific and academic environment is divided into accepting and rejecting shamanism as an actual science (Haule 3; Haule 18). While some suggest that shamanism is dark attempt to communicate with the evil forces through psychedelic induced substances that alter human consciousness (Spinrad in Davis 232), others, like Levi – Strauss, consider shamanism a primitive psychoanalysis, requiring the mind to engage in similar processes as in the case of science (Haule 18).
Shamanism procedures have been largely studied in the 20th and 21st century, which resulted in findings that position this practice in the realm of science, explaining what seems magical and supernatural for a primitive mind, unacquainted with the processes of the brain. For instance, Winkelman describes the shamanic – produced state of mind that appears to be a “walking – dream state” as the alignment of the sympathetic system with the parasympathetic system, which generates high voltage in the brain, and synchronizes the right and left cerebral hemispheres (in Haule 20). Of course, this is a hallucinogens – induced state of mind, widely criticized and considered an unreliable and irrational, because it implies an altered consciousness (Haule 17). Specifically because its use of drugs to inculcate super consciousness by inducing individuals into a state of trance, shamanism is associated with magic and witchery (Davis 232).
However, witchery has a long social tradition, being encrypted in the popular culture since the oldest times, defining mystical practices beyond the natural sphere of human understanding, often associated with evil intentions (Harvey in Thompson 18). The trance – like state of mind reached during the shamanic or witchery ceremonials are compared in the current age of technology with the “digital daytime virtual reality” that captures human brain, keeping it captive in a world that controls its actions (Davis 226).
Yet, as even the classical stories like “Rapunzel” indicate, there is a difference between the witchery and sorcery rituals, because whereas the first is solely associated with the acts of wicked old women, the latter is considered to be the work of knowledgeable individuals (Harvey in Thompson 19). But what sorcery, as it is triggered from the Middle Ages mysticism, and the current technological progress have in common is their potential to control the mind.
Umberto Eco found a connection between the Middle Age sorcery practices and the nowadays cyberspace, suggesting that they both rely on visual imagery for communication purposes, which traps individuals into a virtual reality (in Davis 245). Many of the phenomena perceived as supernatural in the past, hence the products of witchery or sorcery, are currently explained through scientific knowledge, which indicate that the human mind has evolved, grasping more sophisticated levels of human potential. For instance the shamanic practices, based on herbs and drugs for inducing a state of hypnosis, reach the point wherein the beneficiaries of such ceremonies disintegrate, in that certain particles leave their bodies. As Edith Turner, an American anthropologist reported the experiences of a participant observation experiment, “a large gray blob of plasma emerge[d] from a sick woman’s back” (in Haule 18). This condition would have been considered as a dark practice of communicating with the unknown forces from beyond human reach, but based on existent research, this phenomenon has scientific grounds.
According to Haule (20), during the trance induction, the sympathetic system spills over the parasympathetic system, generating a high voltage and EEG waves. While formerly perceived as witcheries or sorceries are currently scientifically explained, others remain a mystery. The only difference is that in the information era they are rarely referred to as witcheries or sorceries, but as phenomena pertaining to the science – fiction sphere (Davis 245). This implies that shamans, witches, sorcerers or magical medics possess superior means of understanding the human psych and the individual behavior. Considering the fact that such practices date back to Middle Eve or even to antiquity, it is not surprising that people considered these practitioners as supernatural, as they possessed knowledge about the functioning of human brain that are just being discovered centuries, or even millennia later.
Academics load the ancient witchcraft practices and magical medicine with customized patterns of their culture, suggesting an adaptation of various practices to the social norms. For instance, regarding the story of “Rapunzel”, known in French and German versions, the French adaptation highlights the benefits of Rapunzel as a plant corresponding to parsley, enriching the gastronomy, while the German version focuses on the astrological, supernatural dimension (Harvey in Thompson 40). Nevertheless, both plants and supernatural pertain to the witchery, sorcery or shamanic universe, and it is often considered that they are interdependent for creating the magical or science – fiction like effects.
The gastronomic interpretation of plants, in the French culture, parallel the healing purpose with which that Africans associate herbs (Haule 18). While for African culture, herbs mixed and prescribed by magical medics or shamans are used as traditional medicine for combating diseases or ailments, in the German culture herbs represent the transportation means to a supernatural experience, where the realm of science forms (Harvey in Thompson 62; Haule 18). Between the healing benefits and ecstatic experiences, witches, magical medics, sorcerers and shamans integrate traditional, often considered occult practices, in helping the ones in need.
However, unlike the academically – formed doctors, the magical medics, shamans or alike, are believed to have powers superior to normal people and an immense social influence, being feared in African or other traditional societies, as superstitions indicate that they have sold their soul to the devil (Haule 17). Aside from such traditional suppositions, the power of these magical medics is scientifically explained as very advanced, up to the point of influencing or manipulating the psych into unconscious actions. No wonder that the naïve or traditional brains, unacquainted with the science behind the witcheries or shamanic practices fear them. Furthermore, shamans are not solely known as healers, but also as propagators of diseases, curses and many other ailments of the body and soul, commanded by their clients, or from their own initiative, targeting specific victims. Therefore, they can utilize their knowledge on the psychodynamic processes that reveal the repressed structures into the consciousness, tormenting the ego and the development of the self (Winkelman in Haule 22).
In fact, the mechanism that guides the shamanic mystic processes is mirrored in the 21st century world by the cyberspace realm, which also manipulates human brain through devices such as buzzwords, pop-ads that inculcate an “arational thinking” (Davis 232). This association between the effects that shamanic practices produce through drug – induced trance and the outcomes of cyberspace instruments that keep the human brain captive in a virtual world suggest that the shamanic model has a widespread legacy in the current, modern existence. According to Harvey (in Thompson 61), the mythological or mystical experiences find correspondents in the scientific narratives, where the nature of knowledge is triggered by imagery.
However, when discussing about science, there is only one available and reliable truth, discovered through conventional research, while the magic and mysticism pertaining to shamanic, witchery, sorcery or magical medicine practices are more subjective. The drug – induced procedures that place individual into trances lead to experiencing emotions or sensations that are particular to each individuals. Nevertheless, through the power of inculcation that shamans and alike possess, there can be generated similar experiences for different individuals, although the drugs affect them distinctly.
Davis (234) creates an interesting association between the Haitian Vodou religion and the computer world, explaining that through artificial intelligence, specific for both cases, the practitioners can make their targets dance, run or engage in different actions by simple touches. The computer – savvy world finds many other resemblances with the mystic magical world, not solely because it captures human brain in a trance – like virtual reality, as already explained, but also because it is based on religious norms and practices that guide its dynamics and evolution. Davis (233 – 234) notes that magical practices like Voudou or religious beliefs like polytheism offer significant information on how the cyberspace is created and how it can be threatened by computer viruses, hacks or cyber-crimes. From this perspective, the magical practices are still very relevant today for informing the developments and the threats of the modern science.
Conclusion
The evolution of the human mind has gone through ages of scientific discoveries that parallel the shamanic, witchery, sorcery or magical tradition. How did the shaman or the sorcerers knew hundreds or thousands years ago how to work with the human mind, psychologic and brain processes for healing, manipulating or endangering people, is still a mystery. What is nevertheless clear is that these mystical practices pertaining to the age of magic are still relevant today, in the age of information. Not only do many of these practices have scientific demonstration in the psychological or neurological fields, but they have an actual applicability for the technology age, influencing the computer world and the users, much as Vodou practitioners manipulate their targets.
Works Cited
Davis, Erik. TechGnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information. New York: Harmony Books. 2004. Print.
Harvey in William Irwin Thompson. Imaginary Landscape. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 1990. Print.
Haule, John, Ryan. “Chapter Three – Shamanism and the Mastery of Altered States”. Jung in the 21st Century. Volume 2. New York: Routledge. 2011. Print.
