Nonlocality and the Shamanic State of Consciousness

Abstract

Healing methods based on the altered states of consciousness common to spiritual or shamanic traditions escape neuroscientific explanations based on classical physics and classical cognition–denoted here as ‘perceptual-cognitive’ (characteristic of the ordinary state of consciousness) information processing. A second foundation of knowledge–named as ‘nonlocal-intuitive’ approach–with another way for making representation of the environment is recommended to be introduced for better understanding of the shaman’s reintegrative role in their community and for an improved interpretation of the shamanic state of consciousness with the ‘soul flight’ in its center. This essay offers terminology for translating some common elements of indigenous world views into a frame closer to the contemporary Western mindset. The proposed model suggests that when the coping capacity of the ‘perceptual-cognitive’ mode of processing is exhausted in a stressful or unmanageable situation, or its dominance is eliminated by the use of hallucinogens or contemplation, a frame shift occurs, and an alternate source of environmental information is opened through a ‘nonlocal-intuitive’ channel. Consequently, the core activity of shamanic practice, the shamanic journey, occurs in a field of quantum connections and is not restricted by space-time constrains, but limited by the uncertainty principle.