“In the Name of the Father, Mother, and Those That Need It” (Healing Strategies in Practices of Urban Shamans)

Abstract

Urban shamanism is a dynamically developing phenomenon of the contemporary culture. Unlike neo-shamans, urban shamans are not successors building on their ethnic shamanic traditions. Three groups may be distinguished among them: 1) followers of traditions; 2) followers of the Core Shamanism concept by M. Harner; 3) “shamans for themselves”. Urban shamans employ different notions of health and illness as well as different healing strategies. In practices of most urban shamans these strategies are mainly represented in the form of psychocorrection. Urban shamans use both borrowed and own methods and techniques. Their activities are variously assessed by specialists. As urban shamans frequently lack a proper background in medicine or psychology, the issue of adequacy of psychocorrection in many cases remains open to questioning.