{"id":4288,"date":"2012-05-22T21:18:48","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T03:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4288"},"modified":"2012-05-22T21:21:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T03:21:27","slug":"shamanism-in-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4288","title":{"rendered":"Shamanism in Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Detroit Metro Times<\/p><\/div>\n

Michael Harner<\/a>, cover your ears. Despite the new interest in shamanism since the 1970s, the real shamans on the American religious scene (and elsewhere) are certain Pentecostal<\/a> Christian preachers.<\/p>\n

Contacting the unseen world while in an altered state of consciousness? Check.<\/p>\n

Faking when it they have to because the audience expects it? Check.<\/p>\n

Healing people, sometimes? Check.<\/p>\n

Frequently having deep problems of illness or bad behavior in their own pasts, problems that went away once they acknowledge or were granted their “spiritual gifts”? Check.<\/p>\n

Identifying spiritual causes of mundane misfortune? Check.<\/p>\n

Putting on a good show, a spiritual spectacle? Check.<\/p>\n

It all sounds like shamanism<\/a> to me. Read this story<\/a> about the Triumph Prophetic Worship Glory and Deliverance Center.<\/p>\n

Some in the audience spin off from the circular march and sit alone in their seats, praying intensely, with heads bowed. Others are crying their eyes out, standing along the wall, sobbing with their whole bodies, as others lay their hands on them, exhorting them to give in, to let the self melt away and allow the voice of the spirit to break through in the same unreal language being shouted by the woman on the stage. Everything is now a swirl of loud noise and quick movement and sheer intensity, and it feels like something’s about to give, the room’s about to burst, and everyone’s just waiting to finally exhale or collapse in surrender.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing.<\/a> Tell me if all the essential elements of the spiritual technology that we call shamanism aren’t there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Harner, cover your ears. Despite the new interest in shamanism since the 1970s, the real shamans on the American religious scene (and elsewhere) are certain Pentecostal Christian preachers. Contacting the unseen world while in an altered state of consciousness? Check. Faking when it they have to because the audience expects it? Check. Healing people, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-4288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-shamanism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-17a","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1546,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1546","url_meta":{"origin":4288,"position":0},"title":"The Horse Boy: See it for the Shamanism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"When a psychology professor and a human-rights activist\/journalist have an autistic son, their lives become incredibly difficult. Among other things, little Rowan never learns bowel control, and like many autistic children, he is prone to screaming, inconsolable tantrums. But his parents live in rural Texas, and they discover when Rupert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Mongolia\"","block_context":{"text":"Mongolia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=mongolia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6430,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6430","url_meta":{"origin":4288,"position":1},"title":"Anthropologist Describes Rebirth of Mongolian Shamanism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A news release from the MIT News Office carries the subhead, \"MIT anthropologist finds that after Soviet domination, a rebirth of shamanism helped Mongolia rewrite its own history.\" The release continues, In 1990, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating, Mongolia, long a satellite of the U.S.S.R., regained its independence. Socialism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"anthropology\"","block_context":{"text":"anthropology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=anthropology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsoffice.mit.edu\/sites\/mit.edu.newsoffice\/files\/styles\/news_article_image_top_slideshow\/public\/images\/2013\/20131213180343-0_0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1674,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1674","url_meta":{"origin":4288,"position":2},"title":"Is Your Teen Involved in Shamanism?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been out in the woods the last few days, so meanwhile, here's something on the worrisome increase in teen shamanism. Your dog could be a shaman's helper too.","rel":"","context":"In \"dogs\"","block_context":{"text":"dogs","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=dogs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9017,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9017","url_meta":{"origin":4288,"position":3},"title":"On Michael Harner (1929\u20132018)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The news of Michael Harner's passing has been going around, and of course some magical practitioners have to react by disrespecting him. You might well have heard the usual string of insults: he is an academic poser, he's a fake . . . a cultural imperialist . . . from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"shamanism\"","block_context":{"text":"shamanism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=shamanism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/michael_drum.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3994,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3994","url_meta":{"origin":4288,"position":4},"title":"Introduction to Mongolian Shamanism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Introductory ten-minute video about Mongolian shamanism, revived in the post-Communist decades. Just enjoy the visuals, unless you understand the language. Jenghiz Khan shows up, of course, as does Buddhism. This well-made video shows the drumming and trance dancing of both male and female shamans. Some of the drums seem to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Mongolia\"","block_context":{"text":"Mongolia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=mongolia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3778,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3778","url_meta":{"origin":4288,"position":5},"title":"Siberian Shamans and their Music","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Russia\"","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=russia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4288"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4295,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions\/4295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}