| The English language word shaman comes to English | | | | It has been observed that shamanism dies out in |
| from the Tungus language of Siberia through Russian. | | | | advanced cultures where codified and |
| The word is at once a verb as well as a noun. Some | | | | specialist-guided religious practices and more |
| people today believe that "shamanism" is a religion, | | | | psychiatric-oriented methods of handling personal |
| but it isn't. Instead the word has been taken to | | | | problems hold sway. However, shamanism still holds |
| describe practices that are global throughout a vast | | | | value for some people because of its intensely local |
| array of ancient cultures from all over the planet. | | | | and personal nature and its practices of making direct |
| These practices were described by the cutting edge | | | | connections to a cosmic spiritual realm that is seen as |
| anthropologist Mircea Eliade as "ecstatic" and refer to | | | | vast, mysterious, all-pervasive, directly perceived as |
| spiritual-communion rituals and other behaviors that | | | | energetic shapes and forms rather than mostly |
| the shaman uses to connect himself and, by | | | | material ones, and not defined by scriptures or the |
| extension and through reporting on what he finds or | | | | kind of tight organization and hierarchy prevalent in |
| learns, his community to the deeper spiritual or | | | | monotheistic religions. |
| cosmic realms. | | | | |