Shamanism in Modern Britain

"'Trance' is achieved when the shaman is conscious of, talking to and operating in all the relevant worlds of his reality at the same time. The shaman can get there by more techniques than can be readily named. Generally, these can be grouped into six main categories: music, song, dance, pain, traditional hallucinogenics and stillness." [367]


Dancing on the Edge: Shamanism in Modern Britain
Gordon Maclellan

The Reality of Spirits

"Then I knew the Africans were right. There is spirit stuff, there is spirit affliction: it isn't a matter of metaphor and symbol, or even psychology. And I began to see how anthropologists have perpetuated an endless series of put-downs about the many spirit events in which they participated — 'participated' in a kindly pretense. They might have obtained valuable material, but they have been operating with the wrong paradigm, that of the positivists' denial." [146]


The Reality of Spirits
Edith Turner

Ojibway Shamanism

"The final stage, namely, the diagnosis of the underlying cause appears to be peripheral to the healing ceremony itself ... This stage recalls the initial stage of invocation ..." [95 - 96]


Ojibway Shamanism
John A. Grim

Intonation

"While the links between intonation and punctuation apply, of course, only to literate societies, the links between intonation and gesture are of an altogether more primitive sort. That intonation is a unique part of language is clearly demonstrated from experiments in dichotic listening. In this sort of experimentation similar auditory material is fed to the two ears and the listener shows a preference for the material presented to one ear. For language generally, for tone in tone languages, and even for consonant-vowel nonsense syllables, an advantage is shown for the right ear, which involves the left hemisphere of the brain; whereas a left ear (right hemisphere) advantage is shown for intonation, along with music and general environmental noises. So it is not surprising that in a large majority of cases of acquired language disorders, and even in cases of severe phonological or grammatical disorder, intonation is unaffected. In those few cases in which intonation is affected, patients may well have gestural problems as well. This suggests a close connection between intonation and gesture." [177]


Intonation (1986)
Alan Cruttenden (1936-)