A short documentary on contemporary Siberian shamanism from the Russian television channel RT.
The interesting part is a young shaman and his friend composing a sort of “house” music (or so the narrator describes it) to try to bridge contemporary sounds with the shamanic tradition, which was almost destroyed by seventy years of atheistic Communism. A little throat-singing comes in as well.
“Music helps me withdraw from the [trance] state,” says the shaman-musician.
The relationship between the revival of Siberian shamanism and Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies is briefly hinted at.
FASCINATING video! Thank you! My Byelorussian grandfather did something similar before he came to this country. Unfortunately my grandmother, who was a fanatical Catholic forced him to stop doing the rituals.
Nice to see that the real Old Ways, going back thousands of years, are still being done.
I also found the description of how the spirits “take over” the Shaman to be fascinating as it appears to coincide with descriptions of so-called “new age” channeling. Not only have I had the opportunity to see that done in person (which was scary when the spirit revealed itself prior to “taking over” the person), but having done that myself, I know that the description is close to be accurate. Not quite, but close to it.
Again, thanks for the link!
Cool video. I often wonder, however, how much cross-polination there is between the indigenous folk and those who study them, and worry about homogenation. We humans absorb and mix everything …
Well, as Star Trek said: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Which, of course, is exactly what Mother Nature does!
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