Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice by Mark J. Plotkin PhD Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice chronicles the interesting journey of the Harvard graduate and ethnobiologist Mark J. Plotkin as he attempts to record what’s left of the slowly dying art of shamanism and traditional medicine, particularly in the northern part of South Africa. The book does an excellent job of relating important medicinal discoveries to their origins in nature and traditional medicine. In this way, the book cleverly mixes the subject of medicine and history in a way that I believe will be interesting for pharmacy students. Throughout my reading of the book, I enjoyed how it felt as though I as the reader got to go on this journey with him to all these interesting locations
CULTURE AND COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES Martina Fernandez is a 65-year-old Hispanic woman who has had diabetes for 42 years. She is admitted to the hospital with extreme circulatory deficiency and evidence of early gangrene of the left foot. After speaking with her family members, she decides to go ahead with a below-the knee amputation. Following surgery, she had a stroke and the nurses gave her medications to dissolve the clot. As the day progressed, she got progressively worse; none of the medication seems to be working.
Those who practice use an important tool, magic, “not black magic, but the magic of healing and making whole” (Wicca, Chambers
Overview: Cultural Group: Santeria Religion Origin of Africa, fostered by Cubans, Cuban-American in Miami. Santeria: a religious system that blends African and Catholic beliefs, is practiced by many Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans. Stigmatize with devil worship and idolizing catholic saints. Baptized as Christian Pentecostal, I will be initialing myself into the Santeria cult. The research will be based on my own initiating experience, Interviews regarding the Religion, and superstitious approach within healing, regarding how strong of a coping system it is to mental health clients who believe in the Santeria cult.
• This book is about finding medicinal plants in the Amazon Rainforest to cure common diseases. • Sometimes, Western medicines cannot cure the common diseases. • This book was written by Mark Plotkin and it was published in 1993. • Mark Plotkin travels to different parts of the rainforest and collect several medicinal plants for a research experiment. •
Through partaking in interaction rituals, individuals become members of something greater than themselves. This feeling of being apart of something greater than oneself provides a moral community for the individuals, which then guides individuals in their beliefs and behaviors. It is similar to a never-ending circle; as individuals see the emotionally charged environment that this religion provides, they want to be a part of it, so they partake in unusual rituals, which furthers their engagement and emotional connectedness to their community. It almost reminds me a bit of an addiction. This community turns objects, such as poison and snakes as sacred, which in turn creates a sacred and profane world.
The Yanomamo Shamans go into a trance to heal the sick and cause sickness to enemies. Moreover, Shuar shamans achieve a trance state to enter the invisible realm with the aim of bewitching enemies or curing. Although a trance state serves as an important part of shamanism in the Yanomamo, Shuar, and San, shamans within the San never bewitch others, while shamans in the Yanomamo and Shuar use their power to heal and to curse. In the San, a trance state is achieved through dancing, whereas in the Yanomamo and Shuar, shamans contact supernatural forces through the use of drugs.
Psychologist William Richards has been carrying research into the potential for psychedelic drugs to be used therapeutically, and his findings have promising results when treating anxiety, PTSD, and addiction. His speciality is the psychology of mysticism and religion, and the application of therapy involves preparing patients for a high dose of psilocybin, guiding them as they have a “really transformative experience,” and then helping them integrate that into their lives. Richards and his colleagues have repeated their results so reliably that they can induce specific experiences with certain doses and stimuli, and they claim to have empirically proven Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious. Because psychedelics are classified as schedule I
The popularized concept that Native American people have a “mystical” spirituality and live in harmony with nature is yet another taboo myth. Native Americans do believe in living in harmony with all elements as well as balance and harmony of spirit, mind, body and the environment. This belief also provides the Native American culture with a holistic approach to medicine. Health issues and solutions are typically seen as spiritually based and cared for without western medical interventions. This cultural custom directly affects treatment and how long an individual goes before being treated by a speech pathologist or audiologist.
The medicine is still a useful concept in Aboriginal healing and many First Nations bands including the Plains Cree people of Thunderchild First Nation support the concept of the traditional teachings of the Medicine Wheel (Graham & Leesberg, 2010). Also Etowa, Jesty, & Vukic (2011), indicated that Aboriginal people have a holistic definition of health that involves a balance of emotional, mental, spiritual and emotional health which has its origins in the medicine wheel and that cultural traditions such as sweat lodges, talking circles, drumming circles, and smudging are crucial elements of healing and empowerment. The medicine wheel is used as a tool to emphasize the need for bal¬ance between these dimensions of life, as well as the holistic
In this belief the shaman was able to transform into powerful preternatural animals such as the jaguar, eagles or caimans in order to prevail the dangers of the supernatural world. Through Shamanism is that they performed sacrifice, cave rituals, pilgrimages, offerings, and ball
So when a sickness arises in a person the elders, shaman, medicine man, incorporate traditional healing practices into the treatment and wellness of the sick person. There are ceremonies and rituals that the Native American people perform to peruse healing for the sick
In this approach, the anthropologist “plays” along with a religious practice or belief only so far as to gain an understanding of the belief without condoning the actions taken in the rituals. Edith Turner wrote an article titled “The Reality of Spirits: A Tabooed or Permitted Field of Study?” in which she explained how while merely playing along with a ritual, she actually sent someone into a trance. “We were running a workshop at the New York University Department of Performance Studies which was attended by performance and anthropology students… We enacted the Umbanda trance session…
Psychedelic drugs are a type of psychoactive drug which causes hallucinations and alters a person’s perceptions of reality. Some examples include LSD, ayahuasca, DXM, ecstasy, and LSD. It is most common for psychedelic drugs to be taken orally, but it is also possible for some of them to be taken via injections or snorted. These types of drugs have been used throughout history for a number of reasons. Along with being used for religious rituals, they have been used for medical purposes as well.
Mysticism means many things to many minds and is undeniably a term that is used in varying contexts with different shades of meanings. Many have used this term to designate a special mark of spiritual disposition, and others have employed it to mark off a higher and final development of life itself. Anyone who reflects God or the Holy Spirit as the vital, determining norm or principle of his or her life could validly be called “Mystical.” Mysticism means, the attainment of higher levels of being in which this knowledge is fully realized in conformity with man’s destiny on earth.
