‘Plastic shamanism’ is a derogatory term for shamanism judged inauthentic because it is modern or lacks an unbroken traditional lineage. Therapeutic Shamanism rejects the assumption that traditional automatically means authentic. Its test is a practical one: does it work?
What is the accusation behind the term? #
The term is a criticism aimed at attempts to develop a modern shamanic practice. The objection is that a practice without an unbroken tradition or lineage cannot be authentic. Something new is treated as an imitation of something old.
The assumption behind it does not hold. Tradition means customs or beliefs being transmitted from one generation to another. That tells us how something has been passed on. It does not, by itself, establish whether the practice is helpful, whether it fits present conditions, or whether it is led by Spirit.
This is different from the concern about cultural appropriation. Someone can claim an indigenous tradition they have not been taught, and that claim needs addressing. But a practice that openly describes itself as contemporary is making a different claim. See Is Western shamanism cultural appropriation?1
Native American activists and elders were the first to use the word. In the 1980s they spoke of ‘plastic medicine men’ for people, white and Native, who sold ceremonies, workshops and objects presented as authentic Native tradition, and a Lakota declaration of 1993 named ‘shamanism’ workshops among those exploiting their ceremonies.2 Teachers of core shamanism, on which Therapeutic Shamanism builds, reply that it does not imitate any one culture’s tradition, and teaches only principles found across many cultures.3
Does being traditional make a practice authentic? #
Not necessarily. A practice may have helped people in the circumstances in which it developed and be less useful under different conditions. Its age does not settle what it can do now. Nor does an unbroken lineage settle whether the assumptions transmitted through it are healthy.
Not by itself. There is pre-Fallen, Fallen and post-Fallen shamanism, and Fallen shamanism differs from pre-Fallen shamanism in ways that include hierarchy. A tradition’s age alone cannot show which kind of shamanism it is.
Therapeutic Shamanism does not use ‘traditional’ as another word for ‘bad’. The point is that tradition cannot decide the question in either direction. A practice needs to be understood through what it teaches, what relationships it develops and what happens through doing it.
The same applies to novelty. Being new does not make a practice helpful either. A contemporary practice still has to be tested, rather than accepted simply because it describes itself as modern, innovative or suited to the present.4
Can shamanism be learned directly from Spirit? #
Yes. Being Spirit-led is central to the approach. The practitioner develops relationships with the GuidesGuides. The Lower-World and Upper-World beings a practitioner works with and learns from, of whom the Power Animal is the first and foremost. True Guides are ethical to their core; the shaman’s power comes from the depth of these bonds, not from the shaman. More about this and learns through those relationships, rather than treating human transmission as the only possible source of teaching.
There is a tension in the lineage argument. If shamanism must always be passed from human to human in an unbroken chain, direct teaching from Spirit cannot establish anything new. But if shamanism is Spirit-led, then learning directly from Spirit must remain possible. This is the path of direct revelation.
This does not mean that every human idea should be accepted as spiritual teaching. Hollowing-out matters, as do the Guides leading the journey and being clear about who the Guides actually are. The practitioner’s own ego, agendas, beliefs and projections can interfere with the work.
Learning from the Guides therefore involves becoming less dominated by those agendas. It is different from inventing a practice and declaring it Spirit-led because that is what the practitioner wants to believe.5
What does ‘does it grow corn?’ mean? #
It means asking whether a practice works. A teaching is offered for people to try and assess through experience, rather than take on faith because someone claims authority.
The test concerns what the practice actually does. In Therapeutic Shamanism, healing, connection with the more-than-human world and right relationship belong together. A practice that gives someone a powerful experience still has to be understood in relation to how they live.
This is also why the approach allows different practices to work for different people. Therapeutic Shamanism is not presented as the only answer. Paul Francis and his Guides developed what it offers, whilst recognising that many versions of shamanism can contribute to recovery.
The same chapter, discussing spiritual bypassing, lists what an imbalanced spirituality can cost: emotional numbing, spiritual superiority, poor boundaries and difficulty functioning in ordinary life.6
Why does modern shamanism need to adapt? #
We live under conditions very different from those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors: widespread disconnection from nature, psychological wounds and the changes brought about 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 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. A practice intended to help with those conditions has to recognise them.
Therapeutic Shamanism brings psychotherapeutic understanding into shamanic work for that reason. This is not intended to reduce spirits to imagination or make journeying a form of self-guided visualisation. The work remains Spirit-led, whilst recognising the psychological difficulties that a practitioner and client may bring to it.
The approach also needs to be possible within contemporary life. Most people will not leave their work and homes to apprentice themselves within another culture. Therapeutic Shamanism seeks ways for people to reconnect with the living world whilst living where they are.
Adaptation is therefore part of the work, rather than evidence against it: “true shamanism is never a static thing”. What is recovered is a living relationship, not a finished object that can only be preserved unchanged.7
Can a practice have shamanic techniques but lose its animist roots? #
Yes. The problem comes when shamanic techniques are added to the assumptions of Taker culture without questioning those assumptions. Journeying and healing techniques alone do not establish an animist way of living.
Reciprocity gives a practical example. We cannot ask Panther or Wolf for healing and teaching whilst ignoring the plight of physical panthers and wolves. The relationship involves giving back, including through action in the world.
See What is right relationship and reciprocity?8
What if someone is called a plastic shaman? #
Paul has seen it many times, and it deeply saddens him: people who have become excited about the shamanic path being put down by others in the shamanic community, called plastic shamans or inauthentic, or told that what they do is not proper shamanism. The answer is not to let anyone do that, and not to give them that power over you. What matters is finding out what works, and whether it grows good corn. That applies to everything taught here as well, which is offered, not imposed; there are different ways of doing things. Cultural appropriation is a separate question. See Is Western shamanism cultural appropriation?
