We talked about how science studies the phenomenon of shamanism with the head. Center for Medical Anthropology of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Valentina Kharitonova.
Culture shock
Dmitry Pisarenko: Valentina Ivanovna, why did the Academy of Sciences need to study shamans?
Valentina Kharitonova:What do you mean why? There are scientific directions that have been formed long ago. Shamanism refers to religious studies, on the one hand, and on the other, to cultural and social anthropology. It is interesting for ethnographers, anthropologists, psychologists … Shamans have been studied for a long time, traditional shamans were described by the first travelers to Siberia and the North. Modern scientists also study them on this territory. But now there are Muscovites who consider themselves shamans. By the way, many shamans, moreover, well-known, came out of the walls of the faculty of psychology of Moscow State University. For example, his graduate Alina Slobodova became a Harner shamaness (a school founded by the American anthropologist Michael Harner). Another, Vera Sazhina, became a Tuvan shaman. One of the local old men passed on his attributes to her, she considers herself his successor and even kamla in the Tuvan language, which she specially learned.
Shamanism is everywhere, on all continents, it is a worldwide phenomenon. Since his rituals are bright and colorful, they cannot fail to attract the attention of scientists. When the first Russian travelers encountered him, as you might guess, it was a culture shock for them. Then they talked about him either as a mental anomaly, or as a special religious belief.
And during the Soviet era?
- It cannot be said that shamanism completely disappeared under Soviet rule, otherwise it would not have revived so quickly in the 90s. By the way, in the Siberian outback I have heard more than once that the communists were the first to run to the shamans when they needed it.
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By the way, such a phenomenon as hypnosis was studied in the USSR, and since it is believed that shamans can own it, there was a scientific interest in them from neurophysiologists. For example, Vladimir Bekhterev did not ignore this topic. In addition to hypnosis, he was also interested in the problem of telepathy - the transmission of thoughts.
Then the special services should have an interest. After all, hypnosis and telepathy can be used in intelligence - to learn all sorts of secrets from the enemy
- (Laughs.) I did not work with the special services, so I don’t know. Their research is classified. But it is known that the CIA was interested in the topic of Indian shamans, so, I suppose, Soviet intelligence also did not stand aside.
Axis of superconsciousness
“You studied the brains of shamans during the rituals. What did you find out?
- Yes, there was a project under my leadership in which Professor Nina Evgenievna Sviderskaya from the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences participated. The research was carried out mainly in Moscow, but among the subjects were representatives of different peoples. We also had two expedition trips to South Siberia.
We wanted to check whether the shaman really enters an altered state of consciousness (ASC) and how his brain functions at the same time. The subjects (the shaman and the person with whom he worked) were put on special hats, which recorded the EEG readings, and a specially written program processed the data. Everything was confirmed. We saw that the active work of the brain is blocked: plunging into the ASC, the shaman switches one of his zones to others. If in the normal state the anterior lobes of the left hemisphere and the occipital right hemisphere dominate in the subjects, then during shamanic practices the opposite happens: the anterior lobes of the right hemisphere and the occipital left hemisphere are excited. These zones are responsible for deep imagery and inner vision. Sviderskaya believes that a person develops an "axis of superconsciousness," as she called this state. We observed a similar picture in people during meditation. True, the general picture there depended on the type of meditation.
I must say that what happened during the experiments puzzled researchers more than once. Of course, it should surprise anyone when someone starts to speak a language they did not know before. Or when the subject tells something reliable about the person he sees for the first time.
How can studying shamanism be useful? Let's say, can his practitioners come into mainstream medicine?
- In regions where shamanism is traditionally developed, one of my graduate students recently conducted a survey of doctors. It turned out that modern doctors in the provinces often admit that shamans or healers can provide some kind of help to patients. And the more remote the region, the freer local doctors are about this. Moreover, in certain situations the doctor sends patients to the shaman, and the shaman - to the doctor. It has always been that way.
Now scientists all over the world have an interest in shamans. Scientific and scientific-practical conferences are held, in which researchers from different countries and universities, academic institutions participate. Books about shamans are being published. Sometimes practicing shamans participate in such congresses and conferences. It is interesting that there are also scientists who have passed shamanic initiations and become shamans themselves (the same Michael Harner, for example, which I mentioned). The study of shamanism will help us to better understand the phenomenon of man, some aspects of his psyche that have not yet been investigated.
Can you, as a scientist, admit that the spirit of another person enters the shaman - say, his ancestor?
- No, I can't (laughs). But I can admit that if someone feels that a certain spirit has infiltrated him, then this means that the person has plunged into a certain state of consciousness. As an anthropologist, I only describe shamanic techniques, but I often describe them in the words that the shamans themselves use. Yes, for you and me the ritual will look like a theatrical performance with excellent acting and plasticity. But if you ask a shaman, naturally, he will tell you that it was not he, but the spirit of the ancestor shaman, who had taken over in him, for example. And he will argue that his own soul at that moment left the body and it seemed to become an empty vessel into which a foreign spirit entered.
It is also believed that shamans are able to change reality, to influence the weather. Have you ever seen it?
- I watched, for example, the rituals of making rain. And sometimes it did start to rain, but I’m not sure it wasn’t just a coincidence.
Of course, the easiest way is to assume that the shaman knows the weather forecast and adapts to it. But there was such a case. We were in Tuva, there was a terrible drought, fires were blazing. We were accompanied by the now deceased well-known Tuvan shaman Sailik-ool Ivanovich Kanchyro, with us were two of his Moscow students (one of them, by the way, is a graduate of the same psychology department of Moscow State University). We were asked to conduct a ritual on one mountain pass in order to make it rain, and so the circumstances developed that I chose the date for the ritual, not the shamans. The three of them conducted a ritual, we left, and after that we learned that in the evening a heavy rain fell in this area, which poured for several days.
Dmitry Pisarenko