Thomas A. Dubois 'Shamanism In The Film Khadak'

To those who have never witnessed or experienced the religion of Shamanism, there are two ways to find out about the religion, either an insider perspective or an outsider perspective, which conflict each other on not just the observation of Shamanism but how people approach it as well. Thomas A. Dubois defines Shamanism as clearly as, “shamanism = technique of ecstasy” (109, Dubois). Dubois then goes on to explain that ecstasy has three features to it: psychological and physiological state of mind, techniques on how to induce the trance state of mind, and a cultural understanding of the events while in a trance state of mind (109, Dubois). Although Edith Turner as well as the movie Khadak, would describe Shamanism. Both Turner and the movie

In the movie, a young Mongolian Shaman named Bagi is able to recreate the same world he lives in as in his visions. One main parts of the movie is what happened to the sheep and horses that the government said were sick, and abruptly took from their owners. Through Bagi’s trance state of mind he is able to locate where the government is holding the animals, and now knows how to rescue the animals. Another intriguing part of the film is how Bagi enters his state of mind, he will calmly count to twelve and by that he will enter a world with spirits. Khadak is a great example of an insider view of Shamanism. Not only does the film show how Bagi can connect with spirits and show where the animals are located but also how the body psychologically and physiologically connects with Shamanism, how Bagi interacts with his trance states of mind has many similarities to Turners observations and even personal experiences. Though Khadak shows an insider viewpoint of Shamanism it also gives an outsider viewpoint as

Dubois brings up how ethnographers observed that trances were actually in fact seizures that affected temporal lobe epileptics, symptoms such as shallow breathing, foaming at the breath altered speech, as well as many other examples (115-116, Dubois). This raises the question, is Shamanism a religion or is it actually just a side effect to medical conditions. Also noted in Dubois writing is that not just epilepsy, buy hysteria has contributed to entering trance states of minds in Shaman traditions (117, Dubois). As an outsider of Shamanism, this would raise a lot of questions. It is difficult to argue with science, when data is saying one thing, it is not easy to turn a blind eye to