Observations placeholder
Mircea Eliade - Taulipang and the Yecuana
Identifier
014740
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy
The trance sometimes ends in the shaman’s ‘possession’ by his familiar spirits (for example among the Taulipang and the Yecuana). But we have already seen that, for the shaman ‘possession’ often consists in entering into possession of all his ‘mystical organs’, which in some sort constitute his true and complete spiritual personality.
In most cases ‘possession’ merely puts the shaman’s own helping spirits at his disposal, realising their effective presence, manifested through all perceptible means; and this presence, invoked by the shaman, ends not in trance but in a dialogue between the shaman and his helping spirits