This dissertation examines the process of shamanic healing and recovery with an emphasis on client's perspective and offers an interpretive framework within which patients' experience can be understood. The thesis is based on field research and in-depth interviews with clients of shamanic healing. Based on their accounts, the thesis examines, how they perceive, describe and experience shamanic healing. Then seeks to answer the question of how and what shamanic healing "really" heals and cures. This thesis first examines the broader topics and then proceeds into deeper detail. The first chapter deals with defining and situating contemporary shamanism within the milieu of contemporary alternative religiosity. It understands "alternative spirituality" - through a definition focused on religious practice - as a "religion" and shamanism as its "configuration". The second part of the thesis undertakes a historical analysis of the discursive understanding of the word "shaman" and shows how the meaning of the word "shaman" has changed over time to the contemporary popular understanding of the shaman as a healer. The following chapters deal directly with shamanic healing. The third chapter deals with shamanism in terms of ethnomedical classification and through the concepts that shamans use in healing....

This diploma thesis deals with what one must do in order to become an ayahuasca neo-shaman, or what specific ayahuasca neo-shaman habitus one must acquire in order to be considered a neo-shaman and to be able to perform ayahuasca rituals. For this the author used methods of carnal ethnography and autoetnography. Ayahuasca rituals are embedded in a broader anthropological theory of rites of passage and are examined in the framework of carnal ethnography by the method of observed participation, while semi-structured interviews with neo-shamans are used also. As part of the autoetnography, the author experienced a neo-shaman habitus on himself, which allowed him to easily look into the otherwise non-transferable structure of the neo-shaman habitus. This research has shown that there are three key parts for the ayahuasca neo-shaman habitus, ie the "ecstatic", "didactic" and "material", but their forms are different for each neo-shaman, due to their specific life trajectories. The resulting ritual is then the product of the specific bricolage of each neo-shaman and mixes elements and techniques of different traditions and cultures. Keywords shaman, shamanism, neo-shaman, neo-shamanism, ayahuasca, habitus, carnal ethnography, autoetnography, ritual, rites of passage

Author's name: Magdalena Hošková School: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts Department: Institute of Linguistics and Finno-Ugric Studies Title: Spells as a Part of Finnish Folklore Supervisor: Mgr. Jan Dlask, Ph.D. Number of pages: 77 Key words: spell, Finnish spells, Finnish folklore, Kalevala, Finnish mythology, tietäjä, shaman, prayer, healing magic, homoeopathic magic, John Abercromby, James Frazer, neoshamanism, neopaganism This thesis deals with spells as a part of Finnish folklore. It depicts the circumstances of the spells' genesis, as well as their structural features and different purposes of their use. It is considered that most spells were created during the era of late paganism and early Christianity. This is true not only of Finland but also of Europe in general. The thesis also analyses the role of the shaman as the spiritual leader of Finnish people living in the era before the spells' creation and thereafter analyses the role of the shaman's successor: the tietäjä, the charmer who created spells and used them to help people in his community. So the tietäjä used his spells for the same purpose as his predecessor, the shaman, used trance states, which he entered via drumming, chanting and dancing. In the trance state, he talked to animal spirits and ancestors' spirits and...