In What a Shaman See’s by
The Mind Unleashed a graduate student recounts his experiences visiting his
friend in a mental health hospital. In the institution he was able to view the
way Western medicine treats Mental illnesses to be problematic. As a problem
the West does not consider spiritual connotations like the Shaman people. To Shamans’
Mental illness is a sign of spiritual messages by deities from the spirit realm
to warn the community about some important issue. My first reaction sort of
mocked the idea on the existence of a spiritual world.
Grown up in America and
conditioned by Western beliefs I have adopted narratives about the West. Being multicultural
from my own heritage as a Latino I am open and understand outside perspectives
and systems of beliefs on most topics. Its interesting being an American the
way White America is not tolerable to outside beliefs without scientific
evidence as proof. Shamans argue Western society blockes the spirits attempt to
make the afflicted individuals healer transition. The use of medicine by these societies tend to characterize Schizophrenia as a problem which agitates the spirits
mergence into their subject. The transition is pushed away and the result is
pain.
Upon hearing a critique
on Western practices, I believe a spirit world is plausible. Many cultures believe
in the existence of a deity and begs the question whether science has persuaded
us into a materialistic and capitalist frame of mind that thinks humans are
only bodies. Or whether the notion of souls and spirituals worlds as spoken
about everywhere around the globe should be taken seriously.
Similarly growing up in a
Christian household I am a believer to the existence of a spiritual entity or
world that exists. My parents are believers in the Virgin of Guadalupe as a
form to receive assistance in stressful situations. Spirits act like healers
for any kind of affliction: financial distress, health disorders, depression and
much more. Point being that deities in culture give people hope or add meaning
to their lives. The picture above illustrates the Virgin of Guadalupe as a
grand powerful image capable to intervein in the lives of mortals.
I believe our materialist
society has over emphasized her presence as a wizard with supernatural abilities
and loss touch with the existence of God’s role in operating one’s own self
agency. For example, instead of seeing us and god as two separate people, Shaman’s
see spirits as the role model in which they operate under their own self
agency. Their lives is dictated to god’s message.
Work Cited
Stephanie Marohn. The
Mind Healer, What a Shaman See’s in A Mental Hospital. April 2014, Date
Accessed, February 18t, 2019
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