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One of the techniques used to induce trance state in shamanic ceremonies is monotonous drumming. According to previous EEG research, certain patterns of drumming cause an increase in power of alpha and theta frequencies of the listener. Present study aimed to determine, if suggestion to experience trance state could increase the relative alpha and theta amplitude and the intensity of experienced state. A group of twenty-four subjects participated in the study. Suggestion to experience trance state decreased alpha frequency power during the drumming condition. No other significant effects of suggestion or drumming were found.

Thesis advisor: Danny G. Willis / Abstract Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors are at risk of suffering from myriad physical, emotional, relational, spiritual, and energetic aftereffects. Scant research has addressed healing of spiritual and energetic aftereffects, especially sense of fragmentation/soul loss. No published research has addressed shamanic healing for CSA survivors. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative descriptive research was to describe the use of shamanic healing as a complementary health approach for adult CSA survivors from the perspectives of shamanic healers. A qualitative descriptive design was used in this research. In-depth semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 15 shamanic practitioners. Interviews focused on the shamanic practitioners’ perspectives of CSA healing from western and shamanic viewpoints, shamanic methods of assessment, intervention, evaluation of outcomes, and benefits for adult CSA survivors. Interview data were analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis, including coding, sorting, and categorizing. Shamanic practitioners described the Western viewpoint on CSA healing as limited in scope by not adequately addressing energetic and spiritual aftereffects, with the potential to leave the survivor stuck in victim mode. In contrast, the shamanic perspective was described as an expanded paradigm for CSA healing, extending beyond the individual to multigenerational healing. CSA was framed as an event in the survivor’s life that served as a teacher of life lessons, inviting the survivor to live up to one’s full potential and not be defined by CSA. The findings indicated that shamanic healing has the potential to facilitate transformative integrative healing of the adult CSA survivor by addressing the relational, spiritual, energetic, and multigenerational impact of CSA. Shamanic healing involved integrating the survivor’s perceived lost soul parts (vital energy) back into consciousness, clearing toxic energy, and restoring energy flow. The findings have implications for nursing education, theory, practice, research, and policy. The findings can serve as a foundation for designing future research on shamanic healing to address the full spectrum of healing needs of adult CSA survivors. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

This thesis is about curses. It shows how the mechanics of cursing are intrinsically linked to shamanic practice in the ethnographic context of social, economic and political shifts in post-Soviet Kyzyl, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tuva. Moving beyond discourses that understand 'economics' as narrowly pertaining to wealth, power and the circulation of goods, the thesis explores curses as distinct social mechanisms within an 'occult economy' that constitutes a wider sociocosmic politics emergent from human and non-human interactions. Along these lines, while presenting Tuvan shamanism as central to cursing phenomena, the thesis explores the distinctiveness and efficacy of shamanic practice as a form of artistry embedded in instrument-derived (shamanic drum) and human (the shaman's voice) sound production. Thus, it challenges the 'classical' readings of shamanism which emphasise trance and mediumship usually seen as involving significant changes in the 'physical' and 'psychic' states of the shamans. Contextualizing cursing in the practice of Tuvan shamanism, the thesis illuminates the significance of sound creation among Tuvans in order to introduce the notion of 'turbulence' as integral not only to shamanic sound production, but also to immediate experiences of cursing and the overall patterning of the cosmos. More than that, bringing sounds and turbulence together in the context of shamanic rituals, it shows how sounds are imbued with a potency of their own rather than simply constituting a sonorous aspect of shamanic words. Along these lines, it contributes to a better understanding of im/materiality and the logic of representation. Lastly, exploring the multiplication of curses in the post-Soviet context, the thesis also offers an interpretative framework which unveils how occult phenomena can become efficacious analytical tools, allowing us to grasp the mosaic-like characteristics of the sociocultural contexts in which they are embedded. In this way, the thesis attempts to emancipate 'occultism' from the rigid dichotomies of tradition and modernity, and challenge those anthropological approaches to post-colonial transformations which emphasise cultural revivalism and ethnic identity, remaining caught in the usual dynamics of 'the old' and 'the new' - dynamics we need to leave behind.

The aim of this dissertation is to develop and illustrate a spiritually centered narrative method for transforming disorder into agency and action. I use my own position as a second-generation Hispanic female immigrant to show how training in a spiritual practice that mirrors my ancestral traditions helped me productively move through a sense of displacement, illness, and lack of purpose. My research includes travel to Havana, Cuba, and immersion in a five-week shamanic counseling training program in Tampa, Florida, during which I learned how to narrate my experiences as I engaged in shamanic journeying. As I reflect on these experiences, I explore three questions: How can second-generation immigrants 1) overcome family histories of displacement to create a sense of home? 2) engage in self-care practices that promote healing and nourishing relationships? and 3) create healthy identities and a sense of purpose within their communities? Through the process of writing my own story, I move from individual pathology toward communal creativity and tap into the burgeoning activist movement of bruja feminism.

La tradition se balance entre la continuité de l’ancien et l’évolution, le changement. C’est le cas du sinawi, une des musiques instrumentales populaires de la Corée. Cette musique complexe, improvisée et hétérophonique, interprétée par un ensemble instrumental qui était utilisée lors des rituels chamaniques comme accompagnement du chant et de la danse des chamanes, est devenu au fil du temps une musique purement instrumentale de scène et artistique représentant la tradition populaire du pays. Dans cette thèse, l’auteur propose particulièrement une étude analytique des caractéristiques musicales (phrases musicales, forme) des divers sinawi à partir de ses transcriptions pour percevoir comment le sinawi parle, exprime la vie du peuple puis comment celui-ci évolue dans le temps et pour observer ainsi son évolution et son artistisation jusqu’à nos jours où il est présenté comme une musique purement instrumentale de scène. Cette musique qui est à l’origine des musiques populaires coréennes les plus connues comme le sanjo ou le p’ansori est aujourd’hui influencée de retour par ces genres. Aussi, les analyses permettent de constater que l’improvisation et l’hétérophonie qui qualifiaient cette musique complexe sont remplacées par la simplicité et la structure. / The tradition emerges from a balance between the continuity and the evolution, the change of the old. This is the case of sinawi, one of the Korean traditional instrumental music. This complex, improvised and heterophonic music played by an instrumental ensemble was used in shamanic rituals as accompaniment of song and dance of shamans. Over time, it became an artistic instrumental music representing the popular tradition of the country. Throughout this thesis, the author proposes the analytical studies of various sinawi’s musical characteristics (e.g., musical phrases, form) from her own transcriptions. This study characterizes how the sinawi speaks, expresses the life of the people and how it has been changing over time. The author also presents sinawi’s evolution and its artistisation process to the present day where it is performed on stage as a pure instrumental music. The sinawi, which is at the origin of the Korean popular music, the best known as sanjo or p'ansori, is now influenced back by these genres. Also, the analysis reveals that the improvisation and the heterophony that rated this complex music are replaced by the structure and the simplicity.

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....

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This thesis examines the use and promotion of shamanic themes in contemporary Canadian Inuit art, being the principle venue in which Inuit identity is presented to non-Inuit in Canada and internationally. The image of Inuit identity promoted through the arts since the mid-twentieth century is arguably the product of non-Inuit state authorities, but Inuit artists themselves are increasingly asserting their voice in their arts and crafts, thereby challenging the image of Inuit identity to non-Inuit. This project first problematizes the history of contemporary Inuit art, where the construction of Inuit identity was heavily prescribed, and then turns to the shifts occurring in Inuit art to highlight the process of identity construction and the agency of Inuit within it. In the process, this project challenges the static conceptualization of minority identities in diverse societies by both state authorities and majority populations. This dissertation contends that Inuit art and identity are fluid concepts and there must be an emphasis made to permit for their fluidity, to avoid affirming a static minority identity in a diverse society, whether in the public or state forums. Consequently, the effort to assert the authenticity of these intangible concepts is contrary to the ideals of diversity and equality promoted in Canada.

This thesis examines the use and promotion of shamanic themes in contemporary Canadian Inuit art, being the principle venue in which Inuit identity is presented to non-Inuit in Canada and internationally. The image of Inuit identity promoted through the arts since the mid-twentieth century is arguably the product of non-Inuit state authorities, but Inuit artists themselves are increasingly asserting their voice in their arts and crafts, thereby challenging the image of Inuit identity to non-Inuit. This project first problematizes the history of contemporary Inuit art, where the construction of Inuit identity was heavily prescribed, and then turns to the shifts occurring in Inuit art to highlight the process of identity construction and the agency of Inuit within it. In the process, this project challenges the static conceptualization of minority identities in diverse societies by both state authorities and majority populations. This dissertation contends that Inuit art and identity are fluid concepts and there must be an emphasis made to permit for their fluidity, to avoid affirming a static minority identity in a diverse society, whether in the public or state forums. Consequently, the effort to assert the authenticity of these intangible concepts is contrary to the ideals of diversity and equality promoted in Canada.