Shamanism

Shamanism refers to a set of practices in which a shaman, a recognized figure in the community, enters an altered state of consciousness, through drumming, chanting or trance, to make contact with spirits on the group's behalf. The word comes from a Tungusic language of Siberia. Western neoshamanism, which emerged in the second half of the twentieth century, offers adaptations of it, some of which involve psychoactive substances that carry real health and legal risks.