Month: March 2022

Stone, Alby – In response to Paul Devereux’s reinterpretation of “ley lines” as the spirit tracks used by shamans on out-of-body journeys, Stone wrote Straight…

Stoller, Paul – Anthropologist best known for his studies of the Hauka movements among the Songhay in Niger, West Africa. He not only describes shamanic…

Spiritual Baptists – A movement that originated in Saint Vincent in the Caribbean but is now also growing in the United States, especially among Vincentian…

Spirits – A term that commonly appears in ethnographic and religious discourse but remains of uncertain and/or misleading reference. Not only does it translate a…

Spare, Austin Osman (1887–1956) – Artist and occultist who was born and lived in London. His automatic drawing, esoteric system of “atavistic resurgence,” and other…

Space Aliens – Parallels are sometimes found between narratives of shamanic initiation and those of alien abduction. UFOs may also be found in the colourful,…

Southern Africa – Application of the term shaman in this vast region of Africa (ranging from desert and semiarid areas to rain forest and temperate…

South and East Asia – Piers Vitebsky illustrates the wide variety of practices that might be called “shamanism” in this religiously, geographically, ethnically, and politically…

South America – Many of the most significant developments in the study of shamanism in recent decades have come from those interested in Amazonia. Similarly,…

Soul Retrieval – In a number of shamanic traditions, illness is understood to have supernatural causes, including soul loss, the stealing of a soul by…