From the most ancient times, human beings have practised disciplines of psycho-spiritual and physical healing. Of the three great traditions of transformational practices that have appeared on Earth, shamanism is the oldest. Yoga and alchemy can be regarded as the Eastern and Western extensions of shamanism. Many of our modern systems of medicine, of psychotherapy, of complementary healing and spiritual practice are the inheritors of one or another strand of these traditions.
The renowned historian of religion Mircea Eliade referred to shamanism as “archaic techniques of ecstasy”. The word ‘ecstasy’ ...
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