Further Clarification

Quoting Piers Vitebsky in The Shaman,
“the word ‘shaman’ comes from the language of the Evenk, 
a small Tungus-speaking group of hunters and reindeer herbers in Siberia.  
It was first used only to designate a religious specialist from this region.  
By the beginning the the 20th century
 it was already being applied to...[cultures outside Siberia].”

And by the beginning of the 21st century,,  
the terms shaman and shamanism have been stripped altogether 
of their original identity with Siberia, 
to be applied to the cross-cultural phenomena 
of walking between two worlds,
between this world and the spirit world, 
between Castaneda’s ordinary reality (OR) and non-ordinary reality (NOR), 
between Harner’s OSC (ordinary state of consciousness) 
          and  his SSC (shamanic state of consciousness),
between the dreamtime and the awaketime,
between sanity and insanity ..

And different though these terms and phrases may be 
according to their cultural and linguistic origins,
they all essentially refer 
to the same place/destination/objective/perspective ...

Quoting Michael Harner in The Way of the Shaman:
“The widespread similarities in shamanic methods and beliefs 
throughout much of the world have been extensively documented
by [Mircea] Eliade in his classic work, Shamanism.”
Harner also tells us that, “In addition ...to the famed shamanic journey ...
[there are] nonjourneying methods through which one maintains and improves personal power.”

This seems to clarify a previous point of contention in this forum,
that ‘the famed...journey’ is not a universal requirement of shamanism.

Again, thank you for your cooperation.
 
NHT
Shamanism
host