abilities had great survival value, by enabling a connection with the interior worlds of spirits and animals, with which split humans coexisted. Persons adept at such entering the psyche of the split client for the purposes of integration were given positions of considerable power and respect in “primitive” societies.
Shamen and the enlightened, though, always had the ability to enter, heal and then come back. Split Personalities are lost, they are still searching for the road home, searching for Integration and healing.
The shamanistic tradition has survived almost to the present day in the circumpolar regions of Asia and North America, and study of these cultures provides our best view of how shamanism operated over tens of thousands of years so it is illustrative to examine this incredibly ancient and successful tradition.
Most shamen, as near as can be determined, seemed to be healthy and not suffering from mental disorders. They were integral members of their societies and often went through long periods of training to become adept, all of which argue against any sort of pathological component to their craft. The Shamen of the far north rarely, if ever, used hallucinogenic plants, relying instead exclusively on self-hypnosis and meditation. They were, in effect, rigorously trained professional psychics, priests who functioned variously as weather forecasters, doctors and conveyors of the oral tradition.
An example of the training given to Shamen is available in a 5000 years old text called, “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.” In there a meditational methodology for integration with the soul has been extant for millennia. However, always the Guru Shaman who has walked the path was considered essential to the process of