spirits haunting the person (Mowszowski, 2001, p. 14).
Furthermore, the Shaman is seen by some as a necessity in linking the spirit world with our physical world. At some point the power of the Shaman, then, became that of “mediator between spirits and human beings (Lewis, 2003, p. 41). The Shaman would use his power to bring the people of the tribes closer and in harmony with the spirit world. To others in various tribes, Shamanism is a way of reducing the stress and fear of the unknown. Often, in times of stress, hunger, and chaos the Shamanic belief system is relied upon to reduce tension, stress. Essentially, as Jobsen puts it: “The shaman’s role is to reduce the fear of these forces and establish a balance in society as a whole…often the shaman is the only one who can travel to the spirits because he knows the way” (Jacobsen, 1999, p. 2). At times of total concentration and connectedness some Shamans believe that they can enter the spirit world and “go into battle with the malevolent spirits of the dead, thought to be the cause of illness and death…” (Furst, 1996, p. 20) They also believed that things from one world had effects in the other. For example, Mowszowski also notes that some Shamans believed that rain was a manifestation of bloodshed of animal spirits in the spirit world (Mowszowski, 2001, p.14).
Naturally, we must admit that the Shamanic aspect of trance and meditation is profoundly interesting. Many Natives, along with the people of other regions, have throughout time, held on to their belief that the soul has the ability to detach from their physical body. They believed that the only thing that they really had in their possession was the physical flesh. After a deep trance, they believed that they