Saturday, September 10, 2011

Rise of The Shamans in India

Drumbeats sound echoing in the small meeting room, as the shaman goes into a trance. Others - with your eyes closed - focus on rhythmic sounds like a shaman makes the journey in a parallel reality to find solutions to various problems Motley group has brought with him.

For many people this may seem strange - even unsettling - but experience is becoming a fairly routine for many. People of different professions - students, businessmen, housewives, even if the ex-military men - turn to shamanism, the ancient spiritual practice, a doctor with common, "spirit guides" to get the information and healing.

Gurpreet Singh, who left a successful career for taking the time to complete shamanism, today have workshops throughout the country. He says that people are attracted to it as "the way of direct revelation, highlighting the fact that we are part of a network of life where everything is connected to everything else."

Cosima Klinger-Paul, an Austrian who moved to India in 2000 and started a school of shamanism in the country, says that interest in the practice is not surprising. "Shamanism has always been there in every culture. It is the oldest method of healing for humanity. What we see today is simply its resurfacing."

But how shamanism? Shamans believe that all diseases have a spiritual cause, which occurs in the physical body. Thus, spiritual healing in September to improve the physical body.

Harnam Sidhu, marketing executive of 46 years, vows to practice. "He has helped transform my illness," he says. Sidhu suffered from glaucoma - a condition that causes degenerative loss of nerves leading to blindness. He had lost 98% of the optic nerve endings in the eye and doctors told him that was a couple of months before he went completely blind to the evil eye. As a last resort, has been experimenting with shamanism. After a couple of times, when he went to check his doctor told him that a miracle had happened - his condition began to reverse.

Shamanism was really at work, or simply the placebo effect? Enthusiastic believers point out that shamanic healing is successful because it is a tradition that has withstood the test of time. "Shamanism is the principles that have been tested over and over again over the centuries. Proof of its success are the testimonies that have benefited," says Singh.