

Definitions:
The term ‘shaman’ has roots in the Tungusk region of Siberian Russia. There are also highly contested roots from ancient Vedic culture which may have with numerous variations or similarities, either verbal or written, found in Indo-european, Germanic, Chinese, Tibetan, Arabic, Persian and Greek.
‘Shamanism’ is a loanword adopted by anthropologists as an umbrella term to describe the many culturally unique roles played throughout the world’s indigenous cultures including medicine woman/man, healer, priest, diviner, oracle, seer and so called ‘witch-doctor’.
Whenever possible we’ll be using the more culturally specific terms for these roles used by the many different indigenous cultures around the world. ‘Shaman’ will be reserved for describing general characteristics of ancient traditional practitioners and the term ‘shamanic practitioner’ will be reserved for people those working in the modern day.
Animism:
Shamanic cultures often see the world in animistic terms, with a belief that everything is alive and conscious in some way. We could use the language that everything has a spirit. Some suggest everything physical having a spiritual or energetic origin. Many traditions suggest that matter is an epiphenomenon, by-product or result of consciousness.
These beings causing healing or interference may also be entities who don’t have a physical body. This model includes the idea of us being able to form alliances with beings who exist outside of consensus reality. There are also models that include us having existing alliances with ancestors, peers and mentors from our life between lives; from before we were born. Soul groups or families, guides etc. Some may remain there and offer guidance from outside of physical reality, some may come into physical form and play roles in our lives as we do in theirs. Before we are born we may decide, in consultation with our guides, that we will experience pain and challenges in order to learn certain lessons. The making of this agreement may happen in advance, before we are born.
Boundary Dissolution:
Shamanism is essentially the mastery of being a person who experiences boundary dissolution. The boundary between the physical world and multidimensional realities that are said to exist outside this reality can be generally thin for some people, or it came dissolve periodically and then return, bringing the person back to consensus reality. For some, the boundaries dissolve to the point where the person is walking in both worlds at all times.
Voluntary and Involuntary Non-ordinary States:
There are those go through these experiences involuntarily and also those who use traditional technologies to voluntarily dissolve these boundaries at will. There are others still who begin with involuntary experiences of non-ordinary awareness but later learn control to open them and close them as they wish, or cope if they remain. According to this model, learning to be able to cope with these experiences is shamanism. Being overwhelmed by these experiences can indeed lead to temporary and even long term madness. The experiences themselves however are not madness.
Common Threads Found In The Shamanic Worldview:
Further reading:
For more information on the origins of the term ‘shaman’, check out the following resource.
http://www.sourcememory.net/womanshaman/samaan.html