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Practices involved in Shamanist healing
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There are many religions in the world and each religion has different beliefs. Most religions have a higher power (e.g. a God, a spirit, etc.). Those religions that believe in a higher power also try to communicate with them and often feel as if they get possessed by that spirit or God when they successfully communicate with them. I will be looking at two readings that share the different types of experiences people have when they communicate with their spirits. In the first reading, “Mama Lola,” written by Karen McCarthy Brown, Brown talks about her experience in learning about the Vodou religion. Brown visits a woman in Haiti known as Mama Lola. Mama Lola is a priestess in the Haitian Vodou religion (Brown, 1991). During the saints’ day, which is set by the Catholic calendar, Mama Lola has “birthday parties” for her spirits, which are also called “lwa” (Brown, 1991). During these parties, people that practice Vodou gather around a “niche” that has a table with food as a centerpiece (Brown, 1991). The Vodou people pray, clap, and sing and they do …show more content…
People that believe in Shamanism that features of the world such as trees, animals, mountains and man-made objects hold some form of spirit (Vitebsky, 2001). These objects and features of the world notice how the people treat them and can give or take from us (Vitebsky, 2001). The spirits are able to interact with people and can be the cause of the events that happen in our lives (Vitebsky,). Shaman’s also go through a journey that “allows him or her to perceive the true nature or essence of phenomena.” When the Shaman’s go through the state of unconsciousness, it is like they are taking a journey through space (Vitebsky, 2001). They travel to another world while they are on this spiritual journey. Shamanism is based on acknowledging the essence and process of the world and they also use this to achieve their goals (Vitebsky,
Although the thought of being involved in such rituals is scary, I developed a deeper understanding and appreciation for the practices that Haitian voodoo participants, if it is appropriate to refer to such people as, engage in. The most impressive bit of information that I will keep with me is to be less judgmental of others; “people who practice voodoo believe in the same God as Christianity, but they also believe in communicating with other spirits, who serve various roles in healing, casting spells, and more” (Boudreaux, 2015a, p. 110). As a golden rule, I know that I should not be judgmental of others anyway, but I am human and am prone to quickly create stereotypes in my mind. I don’t always share those thoughts, but thinking makes me just as guilty as doing or saying. I am thankful for the reminder that all people are children of God, and I should research and learn about different beliefs before I make a judgmental decision, if I make that judgment at
As David Hufford said, in Beings Without Bodies, much of folk belief about spirits is found to be reasonable. This account is reported under his experience-centered theory. Hufford said much of the belief of spirits is reasonable as it is established on logical understanding from a person’s own experience. However, Hufford said not all beliefs are backed up by experience or even evidence. Some beliefs are made purely on faith. (Hufford p.11)
In the Voodoo religion, a priestess hosts a number of different ceremonies each year. During these ceremonies, one of the people present (usually the priestess herself) is supposedly possessed by one or more spirit(s) who then communicates with the rest of the people present. A typical example of a Voodoo ceremony is that described in the book Mama Lola by Karin McCarthy Brown. Here, Mama Lola, as this voodoo priestess is known, lives in Brooklyn and does all she can to stay faithful to her Haitian religion. After inviting her voodoo ‘family’ for what will be the birthday celebration of the spirit Azaka, all members, important and close gather to help set up the intricate and festive alter in the basement of Mama...
At the University of Chicago, Dunham decided to study anthropology with a focus on African and Caribbean ritual dances. Here, she studied under many of the best anthropologists of the time, and in 1935, she was awarded a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to study dance in any way she wished. So, she decided to use this money to travel to the islands of the West Indies and document the ritual dances of the people. She visited such islands as Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique and Haiti; however, she found a special connection with the people of Haiti and the dances they performed, particularly in their Vodoun rituals. In 1936, Dunham received a bachelor of philosophy from the University of Chicago, and after gathering her research and materials from her work in the Caribbean, she submitted her thesis, Dances of Haiti: Their Social Organization, Classification, Form, and Function,” to the University of Chicago in 1938.
When one first hears the word Vodou, immediately images of curses and little model dolls come to mind. We tend to synonymize it with words like sinister, evil and revenge. However, Vodou is nothing like what mainstream North American media has brainwashed people into believing. As best put by Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, “Vodou is far more than [a religion] it's a spiritual system” (Tippet and Bellegarde-Smith 145). Haitian Vodou is a spiritual system that syncretizes the practices of Roman Catholicism with West African spirituality. This paper will contextualize Vodou and give a brief history on what it is, explain how I came to gain an interest in Vodou and close off with an introduction to Chouk Bwa Libète a traditional Haitian Mizik Rasin—roots
Gloria Naylor, as an African American, has deep connection with her southern roots and heritage. The element from her life that has been most influential on her novels is her southern heritage. Understanding that southern life in many ways defines the African American experience, Naylor feels obligated to capture this essence in all of her works. Though she knows that every black experience is not southern or working class, she affirms the southern space as an inescapable foundation. According to her-
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
All things in nature; humans, plants, and animals were believed to be a spiritual being. Totemism, the belief that humans all humans have a spiritual connection with spirit beings (often in the form of an animal) was central to the Native American tribe’s spirituality. Health and wellbeing are closely linked to spirituality, requiring a spiritual and harmonious relationship with the environment.
Shaman are known in many cultures, but are identified by different names: healers, spiritual healers, medicine men, angakok, ganga, mulogo, witch doctors and warlords, just to name a few. However, this does not mean that all Shamans will hold the same beliefs, they may be good or evil, but they do receive their paranormal powers in many forms, some receive them thru visions or trances. Shamanism is humanity's oldest form of relationship to the Spirit. But it is not a religion. Given the various traditions of Native American people, shamanism takes in a diverse range of methods for collecting knowledge.
Harriet Jacobs in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl uses clear detail and straightforward language, except when talking about her sexual history, to fully describe what it is like to be a slave. Jacobs says that Northerners only think of slavery as perpetual bondage; they don't know the depth of degradation there is to that word. She believes that no one could truly understand how slavery really is unless they have gone through it. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl do not only tell about the physical pains and hard labor that she went through. It mostly concentrates on the emotional viewpoints on it and what it did to shape who she is. When writing her story, Jacobs had a clear motive. Her motive was one of a political taking. She writes through her experiences and sufferings to make it clear to people, mainly the Northerners, and more specifically white women in the North, how slavery really is. She does not want sympathy, however, she does want "to arouse the women in the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women of the South, still in bondage" (460). Jacobs wants people to take action in antislavery efforts. Jacobs in telling her story uses many techniques to make it effective. Some of the techniques that she uses are dealing with the use of her language, her selections of incidents and details, and her method of addressing an audience.
In the United States, we look mainly at mainstream religion and don't even look much into other religions apart from our own. Vodou is occasionally depicted as very dark, so it's not given the light of day, to learn about the religion itself. But in Karen McCarthy Brown's book, Mama Lola, she talks about Vodou and the connectedness people have to the religion and the spirits in Vodou. In the excerpt of Mama Lola, Brown talks about how Vodou is a religion that empowers women, more frequently than other religions throughout the world; but there are still constraints on gender, social class, and race. Throughout the excerpt we learn about the ways spirits help the people who practice Vodou in their everyday lives, especially women.
In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, we learn about a family that includes a mom called “Mama” and two very different daughters named Dee and Maggie. One daughter, Dee, has had a much easier life than her sister, Maggie, in many aspects. The relationship between Mama and her daughters provides the basis for Mama’s actions. The story is told from the perspective of Mama, allowing readers to learn about her thoughts and the motivation behind her actions. At the beginning of the story, Mama worries about what Dee thinks of her and tries to please her by giving her anything she asks for. By the end of the story, we see Mama changes because she stands up to Dee, resulting in her finally able to give Maggie something she desires. Mama changes because she realizes Dee shouldn’t control her actions and that Maggie deserves better treatment. Mama’s choice to stand up to Dee is crucial to understanding her character because we’ve seen how Dee has controlled Maggie and Mama for a long time and this action shows a turning point in all of their lives.
Mysticism, mystic experiences, and encounters with the divine are important—and even integral—to many religions throughout the world. Mysticism, defined as experiencing the divine, should have a special importance in Christianity. Christianity posits a God who is transcendent, yet immanent, and as Christians we believe we can have a relationship with the Deity. Because of this we should have a unique conception of mystical experiences as significant to our spiritual lives.
Eva Hoffman’s memoir, Lost in Translation, is a timeline of events from her life in Cracow, Poland – Paradise – to her immigration to Vancouver, Canada – Exile – and into her college and literary life – The New World. Eva breaks up her journey into these three sections and gives her personal observations of her assimilation into a new world. The story is based on memory – Eva Hoffman gives us her first-hand perspective through flashbacks with introspective analysis of her life “lost in translation”. It is her memory that permeates through her writing and furthermore through her experiences. As the reader we are presented many examples of Eva’s memory as they appear through her interactions. All of these interactions evoke memory, ultimately through the quest of finding reality equal to that of her life in Poland. The comparison of Eva’s exile can never live up to her Paradise and therefore her memories of her past can never be replaced but instead only can be supplemented.
“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” According to Buddha, everyone needs some form of spirituality to define his or her life and existence. Webster Dictionary defines spiritualism as “a system of beliefs or religious practices based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, often times through mediums.” Though this is one general definition of spiritualism, this concept is one that does not hold a conclusive meaning. Each and every single person has the ability and right to create and practice their own idea of spiritualism. From ancient times to present day, the term and practice of spirituality has transformed, particularly from region to region. Despite the discrepancies in practices and overall understanding of this idea, spirituality has had an effect and impact upon all of humanity since the creation of time. This religion that is believed to have been established in the early eighteen hundreds, after two little girls claimed to have the ability to talk to spirits, sparked interest in this spiritual movement, allowing it to spread rather rapidly over many geographical locations. Aside from being recognized as a religion, spiritualism is also believed to be a form of philosophy and a science in which spiritualists believe that there is life after death and try to demonstrate this through the ability of attempting to communicate with those that have passed on. Spiritualism was socially different from other religions in existence at the time because it presented followers with a more tolerant belief system that assimilated the principles and facts from a selection the world's religions. Spiritualism also made it acceptable for women to play a disti...