Neurodiversity is the idea that differences in how human brains and nervous systems work, such as autism, ADHD and high sensitivity, are a natural part of human variety, not illnesses to be cured. Therapeutic Shamanism goes a step further, asking whether many of these differences are closer to our original, wild human nature, and whether what our culture calls normal has itself been shaped by domesticationDomestication. The process by which, in domesticating other species, we domesticated ourselves. When dated precisely, Domestication begins with the Neolithic era, before the Fall proper, which begins with the first city-state cultures around 4000 BCE. What rewilding works to undo. More about this. It speaks of the Wild Mind and the Domesticated Mind.
What does neurodiversity mean? #
That difference is not the same as disorder. In the words of Erika Dyck and Ginny Russell, writing on its history, neurodiversity “is a concept that implies that neurological difference is best understood as an inherent and valuable part of the range of human variation, rather than a pathological form of difference.”1 The word is credited to Judy Singer, and the movement grew up in the 1990s, alongside early online communities run by autistic people themselves.2
Some researchers take a similar view. One team of psychologists describes autistic-like traits as “continuously distributed dimensions of normal personality”, which most people have to some degree.3 Two researchers in autism and evolution write that “modern environments disadvantage certain individuals to cause functional impairment”.4 In other words, a good part of the difficulty lies in the fit between the person and the world they live in.
How does Therapeutic Shamanism see it? #
As a question about domestication. Therapeutic Shamanism teaches that modern people have been tamed, as surely as the animals and plants we domesticated: “the species we have most domesticated is actually ourselves. We’ve dumbed ourselves down and diminished ourselves in order to fit in to a dysfunctional society, a prison of our own creation.” And “Compared to most hunter-gatherer cultures, the mental health of modern-day human societies is truly, truly awful.”5
Seen this way, the question is not only what is wrong with the person who does not fit, but also what has happened to the culture they are trying to fit into. Therapeutic Shamanism puts the question directly: “Maybe the term neurodiverse is still pathologising us, and incorrectly still seeing neurotypical as normal. What if, instead, we are neurowild, and what passes for normal is neurodomesticated, or neurotamed, or neuromaladaptive – an illness that is the result of domesticating and the FallThe Fall. The catastrophe at the root of the whole diagnosis: the shift from animist, egalitarian hunter-gatherer life to owning, agricultural Taker culture. In domesticating other species we domesticated ourselves, cutting ourselves off from Mother Earth (Power-loss) and from parts of our own nature (soul-loss). When dated precisely, the Fall begins with the first city-state cultures, around 4000 BCE (Domestication begins earlier, with the Neolithic). A sickness, not our true nature. ‘Fallen culture’ is used interchangeably with Taker culture; the Great Rupture is a looser alternate name. Read the full answer?”
There is “lots of interesting stuff on places like Tiktok these days, about how many neurowild/divergent people are naturally non-hierarchical”, and hunter-gatherer cultures were fiercely egalitarian. That would suggest “neurotypical”, with its acceptance of power-over social structures, “a product of the Fall and not normal in terms of healthy, but neurotamed.” This is why Therapeutic Shamanism calls our original human way of being the Wild Mind, and what passes for normal today the Domesticated Mind. See What are the Wild Mind and the Domesticated Mind? and Can modern humans recover an animist way of seeing and undo domestication?
Were shamans neurodivergent? #
Many probably were, in today’s terms. It is probable that many shamans in Indigenous cultures would not have been what we now call neurotypical. The shaman’s role has always asked for a different way of seeing: “For the shaman has always been someone who sees things differently. Someone who sees the things that other people either cannot see, or choose not to see.”6 Therapeutic Shamanism makes the link plain: “Most people in a culture just buy into the stories the culture tells. The (original) shaman though is not neuro-conformist in this way, but neuro-wild; undomesticated.”
He is honest, too, about how much we can know. On neurodiversity among hunter-gatherers, he has said that “the evidence we do have is scanty from anthropology”, since it was not something anthropologists tended to look for. “We can certainly speculate and make good guesses though.”
Outside research points the same way for sensitivity. The psychologist Elaine Aron, known for her work on highly sensitive people, writes that sensitivity is valued “in most cultures living close to the earth, which need their trackers, herbalists, and shamans.”7 What our culture often treats as a problem, those cultures needed. See What do tribe and belonging mean, and what is the shaman’s role in a community? and Were traditional shamans neurodivergent?
Why are so many neurodivergent people drawn to shamanic work? #
Many of the college’s students are autistic, have ADHD, or are highly sensitive, gifted or twice-exceptional. Part of the reason may be that shamanism has always had a valued place for people who see differently, a place our own culture rarely offers. See Will the courses suit me if I am neurodivergent?
See also What is a highly sensitive person, and why are so many drawn to shamanic work?, What is masking, and how is it linked to domestication?, What is giftedness, and why can it feel like a burden? and Is shamanic work suited to introverts?.
Is this romanticising neurodivergence? #
It should not be. Being neurodivergent in this culture can be really hard, and for some people, and their families, the difficulties are serious and lifelong. Even within the neurodiversity movement there are cautions. Hunt and Procyshyn record that some parents of severely disabled autistic people find the language of ‘difference and not disease’ contradicts what they live with.8 Nor does Therapeutic Shamanism romanticise the past: looking back to hunter-gatherer life “is not about romanticising but about relativity.”9 It is about seeing our own culture’s idea of normal in a much longer light. See Is shamanic work safe if I have a mental health condition?
