Shamanism and the Brain

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CHAPTER 21
Shamanism and the Brain
Michael J. Winkelman
Associate Professor (Retired), School of Human Evolution and
Social Change
Arizona State University, Tempe
The concept of shamanism is derived from the spiritual and religious practices found in
premodern societies. Worldwide similarities in shamanistic practices suggest that their
bases lie in fundamental aspects of human nature and consciousness. Shamanism engages
alterations of consciousness that involve physiological and neurochemical changes that
occur as a result of fasting, overnight dancing, extensive singing and drumming, and the
use of psychedelics. This chapter assesses the effects of shamanic ritual practices on
consciousness in terms of specific effects on neurotransmitter systems caused by ritual
activities in eliciting endogenous opioids and effects on the operations of the serotonergic,
dopaminergic, and cannabinoid neurotransmitter systems. These neurotransmitter
systems are neuromodulators that are involved in the regulation of a wide range of
physiological, emotional, and cognitive processes, as well as activities of other
neurotransmitter systems. Their effects underlie numerous mechanisms that evoke
alterations of consciousness and elicit the operation of the integrative mode of
consciousness that enhances processes of ancient brain systems. These responses provide
adaptive effects in moderating emotions and enhancing integration of normally
unconscious brain processes.
THE HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF SHAMANISM
The concept of the shaman has been recognized by Western scholars for hundreds of years,
based on strikingly similar configurations of spiritual practices reported for premodern
societies around the world (Flaherty 2014). The academic use of the word shaman derived
from contacts with indigenous cultures of Siberia, particularly those of the Tungusic
language groups of Central Asia, where cognates of šaman are widespread. As
anthropological studies deepened understandings of this phenomenon, the conceptualiza-
tions of shamanism have transformed from notions of psychopathology and deluded
theatrics to recognition of the roles of these practices in human social and cognitive
evolution. Although conceptualizations and definitions of shamanism vary, they share
recognition of something fundamental to human nature based on ritual practices designed
to produce adaptive transformations of consciousness that expand awareness and enhance
ritual manipulation of healing processes.
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SHAMANISM AS TECHNIQUES OF ECSTASY
Widespread academic use of the concept of the shaman followed Mircea Eliade’s seminal
book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy ([1951] 1964), which offered a synthesis of
the features of these practices found around the world. Eliade characterized the shaman as
someone who entered into ecstatic states in order to interact with the spirits on behalf of the
community. He also elaborated other features of shamanism such as an initiatory death and
rebirth experience, a soul flight or magical flight, the acquisition of animal allies as a source
of power, and the alleged ability to transform oneself into an animal.
Eliade noted that shamanism was the most significant ritual activity of premodern societies.
The shamanic ritual typically lasted all night, with the entire local community participating in
singing and clapping while the shaman danced for hours. After hours of exhaustive dancing,
drumming, and singing, the shaman would physically collapse or recline, be covered with
blankets, and cared for by the assistants who would continue to drum and chant. The shaman,
appearing unconscious, would enter into a visionary state that was interpreted as entry into the
spirit world, a soul flight that was considered to be a defining feature of shamanism. In the spirit
world the shaman appealed to the spirits for help in divination, communicating with the dead,
healing, recovering lost souls, and obtaining protection from spirits and sorcerers. Soul journeys
may also be used to determine the fate of missing group members, the location of lost objects, or
to direct the hunters to successful hunts.
The shaman’s soul journey was produced by ritual fasting and other restrictions, as well
as through prolonged drumming, singing, chanting, and dancing. Although Eliade initially
considered psychedelics to reflect a degeneration of shamanism, he later acknowledged that
shamans might also ingest these psychoactive plants as part of their rituals. Some of the
prominent examples of these substances include mushrooms of the Psilocybe and Amanita
genuses, as well as tobacco, ayahuasca, and mescaline-containing cacti such as peyote.
Acquisition of the role of the shaman included a calling from the spirits, an arduous
period of training, and eventually acceptance by the community. It was believed that
shamans were selected by the spirits, especially their shaman ancestors. The calling might be
manifested in signs at birth, in visitations from spirits manifested in apparitions or other
signs, and in a period of illness caused by the spirits. This illness could only be resolved by
engaging in the shamanic path to acquire a cure. Key to the shaman’s abilities was the
relationship to animal spirits developed during training, typified in a vision quest. This
involved arduous activities of fasting and prayer, generally alone in the wilderness, which
would last for weeks or even months in search of a vision that would reveal the source of
power. The initiate followed prohibitions on sex and social contact, and engaged in extreme
austerities involving self-torture, sleep deprivation, and exposure to temperature extremes.
During this quest, the animals that the initiates encountered would become allies that
would give the initiated a particular power to be used in their professional activities. During
initiatory practices the initiates typically experienced visions of death in which they were
torn apart and devoured by the animals. These entities eventually reassembled the initiate,
incorporating themselves into the shaman’s body as they reconstructed him as a healed and
reborn individual with new powers.
SHAMANISM AS A CROSS-CULTURAL PHENOMENON
Although shamanism was a central concept in comparative religious studies long before the
seminal work of Eliade, there has been controversy regarding the empirical status of the
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concept, that is to say, whether shamanism represents something real or is a construction of
academics or Westerners without a basis in reality. There has been, however, empirical
research that establishes a cross-cultural distribution of remarkably similar spiritual healers
that correspond to Eliade’s conceptualizations of shamanism (Winkelman 1992).
This systematic ethnological (cross-cultural or holocultural) research illustrates
empirically similar religious healers in foraging societies worldwide that correspond closely
with Eliade’s concept of the shaman. This empirically derived magico-religious practitioner
type was found in association with other social features such as nomadism and a lack of
political integration beyond the local community. These societal predictors of shamanism
maintain their significance with statistical controls for the possibility of diffusion, indicating
an independent causation of this phenomenon in different societies rather than the spread
(diffusion) of the practices. These findings that shamanism is not predicted by a diffusion
model indicate that the distribution of shamanism worldwide reflects independent origins
derived from human nature (Winkelman 1992).
This cross-cultural research established features associated with shamans worldwide.
These include their role as the preeminent charismatic figure who leads a nighttime
community ritual focused on healing and divination and making group decisions ranging
from movement to where to acquire game. The shaman is typically, although not always, a
male, and has a family lineage of shamanism, but he or she acquires the position through
developing special relations with spirits and initiatory crises involving a death and rebirth
experience. During this period the shaman developed special relations with animals as a
source of power, including the ability to transform into an animal.
The shaman’s alterations of consciousness generally involve a soul journey, but
normally not possession. Shamanic practitioners engage in a variety of alterations of
consciousness, including some that are imperceptible to the outsider not attuned to subtle
signs (closed eyes, body relaxation, hand trembling, etc.). Another well-recognized shamanic
alteration of consciousness is animal transformation, a widely espoused belief that the
shaman can become an animal and act through the animal’s body.
The shamans’ritual healing practices focused on soul loss and soul recovery, as well as
the removal of illness caused by spirits or sorcerers, and the intrusion of foreign objects or
entities into the body of the patient. Shamans also had the ability to act as sorcerers, causing
illness or death to others. Shamans were also believed to have other special powers, including
the ability to fly and control the weather.
SHAMANISTIC HEALERS AND HUMAN NATURE
Shamans are distinguished from other magico-religious healers (mediums, healers, and
shaman/healers) found in more complex societies (Winkelman 1992). Shamans are a social
universal, found worldwide in foraging societies and slightly more complex semi-nomadic
horticultural and pastoral societies. Nonetheless, some of the core features of the shaman—
alterations of consciousness, community rituals, spirit relations, and healing—are cultural
universals, found in every society. The similarities of shamans worldwide, as well as the
universal distribution of shamanistic features, reflect biological bases. Michael J. Winkelman
(2010) has proposed that these be understood in terms of neurognostic structures,
biologically structured ways of knowing.
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Shamanic ritual has roots in the primate use of ritual as a bases for group
communication, a dynamic deeply rooted in the mammalian opioid-mediated attachment
responses. The alterations of consciousness typical of shamanism derive from the effects of
ritual behaviors on the overall dynamics of brain functioning and the serotonergic,
dopaminergic, and endocannabinoid neural transmitter systems. The psychological
dynamics of the experiences of spirits are derived from innate psychobiological processes,
exemplified in the experience of shamanic soul flight.
SOUL FLIGHT AS OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE
Although not all shamanic activities involve soul flight, it is a central feature of the shamans’
alterations of consciousness. Eliade emphasized this ecstatic state in his definition of
shamanism. The shaman was “believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to
the underworld”(1964, 5). This experience of self as separate from the body is manifested
not only in shamanism, but also in cultures around the world and in response to diverse
circumstances. Phenomena similar to the shaman’s soul flight are studied as an out-of-body
experience (OBE) in contemporary spiritual practices, near-death experiences, and
anomalous psychological experiences (see Dieguez and Blanke 2011). These involve a
subjective sense of one’s self and consciousness location different from one’s body.
One of the widely recognized contexts of these experiences is in the near-death
experience, where a person suffers from severe trauma. Such experiences may occur as a
result of injury, heart attack, drug overdoses, or even extreme fright without any physical
trauma to the person. The person undergoes a period of physical unresponsiveness—even
clinical death—while continuing to have an extraordinary experience of separating from the
body and traveling to other places. This may include travelling in some nonphysical form
through the hospital facility where physicians are frantically attempting to revive the
person’s body, or travels to spiritual realms where dead relatives are encountered. The
experience of the self as separated from the body and traveling through a tunnel and into
bright light has substantial parallels with many shamanic accounts. These cross-cultural
similarities and the manifestation of this phenomenon in response to a variety of insults
reflect their basis in some aspects basic to human nature.
ANOMALOUS SELF EXPERIENCES
The experiences of the shamanic soul flight also have parallels in a variety of phenomena
studied in contemporary psychology as anomalous self experiences. There are a variety of
recognized psychiatric syndromes in which people feel that they are somehow separated
from their body and feelings (see Dieguez and Blanke 2011).
OBEs and similar phenomena involving body-self dissociations reveal a human capacity
for separation of different aspects of human consciousness, a dissembling of the normal
unity of self experience, where the self, body, and one’s visual perspective of the world are
perceived from the perspective of the physical body (Metzinger 2009). OBE experiences
involve several prominent features, including a sense of the separation of the self and visual
perspective from the physical body; a visual experience of the presence of one’s spiritual or
etheric body distinct from the physical body; and experiences dominated by this spiritual
visual field rather than the actual location or situation of the physical body.
The neural correlates of OBEs are revealed in laboratory studies, imaging brain activity
of people who can deliberately induce these experiences, as well as in normal people who
have such experiences as a consequence of electrical brain stimulation or false visual feedback
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regarding tactile stimulation, body location, or sensory input. These studies reveal that these
experiences are the result of interference with the area of the brain that is involved in the
integration of bodily and sensory information (temporo-parietal junction). This interference
with the normal integration of sensory information (i.e., the self, body, and visual field in
the same location) leads to disintegration of the self model that underlies typical experiences
of the unity of the self (Lopez, Halje, and Blanke 2008).
Shamanic ritual practices contribute to the disruption of brain functions. The primary
candidates for producing these effects are drumming and dancing, which can overwhelm the
vestibular system through excessive stimulation, resulting in habituation. Extensive
drumming interferes with the normal integration of the vestibular, proprioceptive, visual,
and tactile senses due to the process of habituation, where sensors stop responding to
repetitive stimuli. This habituation of the sensory receptors can lead to a shutdown of the
functions of the sensory system, resulting in the body and self-processing systems
functioning independently of actual sensory input to the body. An interference in the
connections of the temporo-parietal junction can cause a functional loss of connectivity
among the motor, somatic, and balance functions. Such failure in the normal integration of
sensory information can result in disintegration of the normal subjective sense of the self and
body. This results in a disengagement of the self-image and awareness from the visual field
and body orientation, allowing an illusion of movement typical of dreams, and manifested
in the OBE sense of travel independent of the physical body.
THE OBE AND COMPONENTS OF MIND
This disintegration of the normally linked body and self perspectives reveals the separate
individual components of our normal mind and ordinary awareness. The OBE is a
phenomenal self model that has adaptive features, including the maintenance of vital
cognitive functions in the separation of cognitive capacities from the physical self model. A
separate sense of self manifested in the OBE is maintained when physical trauma
undermines somatosensory integration. During these experiences, the person is capable of
higher cognitive functions, including problem solving, agency, and volition, independent of
the limitations of the physical body.
This disembodied self provides a sense of personal continuity (of the soul) while facing
a potentially mortal crisis, a perspective that is the basis from which spirits and supernatural
powers are experienced. OBE experiences involve a perception of the soul as separate from
the physical body, contributing to humanity’s belief in souls and other spiritual phenomena.
OBE phenomena reflect neuropsychological potentials that produce the personal experience
of being a spirit. The experiential impact of such episodes often produces profound spiritual
transformations, and was undoubtedly a factor in the formulation of spiritual, mythological,
and cosmological beliefs. Such experiences may have been selected for in human evolution
because such experiences may be adaptive, as exemplified in the altruistic tendencies of
people who have near-death experiences.
The central features of soul flight involve self-awareness and self-modeling that exceeds
primitive concrete mental processes of the body. This OBE experience reflects a cognitive
evolution beyond the body’s mimetic capacity and an ability to project consciousness into
the past and the future. This ability for mental time travel is a capacity that primarily
functions in anticipating future events, reflecting selection for mental processing and
decision making regarding anticipated behaviors and future events.
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SOUL FLIGHT AND THE DOPAMINERGIC MIND
Fred Previc (2009) proposes that these shamanic experiences are a function of the activation
of the dopamine system. Dopamine plays fundamental roles in mammals, mediating
mother-infant bonding, mating and affiliation in social groups, having central roles in
managing emotions and social relations. In addition to reinforcing fitness-enhancing
behaviors, dopamine and its external analogues produce powerful pleasurable experiences.
The roles of dopamine as a neurotransmitter are central for understanding the
neurochemical dynamics of alterations of consciousness, both those induced by drugs as
well as ritual activities. A large variety of drugs (i.e., alcohol, stimulants, nicotine, and
marijuana) stimulate the dopamine system, both directly and indirectly through effects on
other neurotransmitter systems, including serotonin and the endogenous opioids
(endorphins, enkephalins, dynorphins).
Previc proposes that the effects of dopamine account for a variety of features of
shamanic practices. These higher order sensory processing activities and cross-modal sensory
experiences, typified in the shamanic soul flight, are mediated through dopamine association
areas. The effects of dopamine include reduced arousal, fear, and anxiety, enabling
individuals to function more effectively in stressful environments. High levels of dopamine
enhance executive and internal locus of control, provoke intense unconstrained aggressive
drives, stimulate creative genius, and strongly stimulate motivational drives. Excessive levels
of dopamine can lead to a sense of invincibleness, delusions of grandeur, and manifestations
of magical ideation regarding one’s ability to control others and distant events features.
These dopaminergic effects may explain both the charismatic aspects of shamanism as well
as some of the ideology of shamanic power.
Various shamanic ritual practices enhance dopamine because the general autonomic
nervous system profile produced by extensive exercise such as dance enhances dopamine.
The parasympathetic (relaxation) effects of the neurotransmitter dopamine is reflected in the
characteristic phase of the shamanic soul flight when the shaman collapses. Dopamine also
likely reflects the neurochemical factors that elicit the shamanic visionary experiences
because increased dopamine transmission has been implicated in causing a variety of
visionary experiences (hallucinations, dreams, psychosis). The reduction of serotonergic and
noradrenergic modulation (control) results in the ascendance of the dopaminergic and
acetylcholine systems that produce dreaming (Hobson 2001).
DREAMS AND SHAMANIC VISIONS AS PRESENTATIONAL SYMBOLISM:
A VISUAL EPISTEMOLOGY
Dreams are central to shamanic practices. Dreams were explicitly recognized as a domain of
shamanism, with ritual activities used to enhance dream experiences. Shamans’practices are
intrinsically linked to dreams by their overnight nature. The functional basis for this
shamanic use of dreams is revealed in the evolutionary and functional roles of dreams as
information-integration processes and opportunities for off-line thinking—a risk-free
exploration of options faced in conflictive situations. The capacities of dreams were a natural
platform from which shamanism expanded integrative mental processes through a variety of
technologies for altering awareness. Shamans utilize these images for divination and healing.
The discovery of the distinction between REM activity (thought to cause dreaming)
and the actual experiences of dreaming allowed for the attribution of the causes of the visual
experiences typical of dreaming to the dopaminergic forebrain mechanisms. These dream-
like visual experiences can be elicited by a wide range of stimuli besides the cholinergic brain
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stem mechanisms that produce REM activity. This dopaminergic forebrain mechanism
produces diverse visual manifestations exhibited in shamanic visions, as well as in near-death
experiences, in delirium caused by illness and trauma, in drug-induced experiences, and in
dreams. These visual experiences are a manifestation of a natural symbolic system, the
presentation of structures of abstract intelligence manifested in the imagetic mode of
presentational symbolism (Hunt 1995). Such symbolic potentials are reflected in the phrase
“a picture is worth a thousand words,”a recognition of the rich symbolic expression
exhibited in visual images. Visionary experiences reflect fundamental functions of the
human brain, an ancient mode of imaginal consciousness or awareness that results from the
brain’s matching of sensory input with a prior mental image.
These visual images, generally characterized as hallucinations, may be induced by a
variety of pharmacological mechanisms. This includes the hyperactivation of dopamine
receptors, such as caused by psychostimulants; stimulation of serotonin receptors by
psychedelics; and the blockage of glutamate receptors as caused by dissociative anesthetics
(Rolland et al. 2014). A general model of the mechanisms underlying diverse alterations of
consciousness is provided by recognition that there are various mechanisms that can cause
disruptions of the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loops that link the basal areas of the brain
with medial areas and the frontal lobes (Vollenweider and Geyer 2001). A variety of
substances may interfere with these circuits, which provide filtering processes that modulate
awareness and attention and repress spontaneous visual images. Although sharing common
effects in releasing the activity of these cortical loops, the different pharmacological
mechanisms that can produce hallucinations also interact with cerebral processes in distinct
ways that give each a different phenomenological pattern. For example, the stimulation of
serotonin mechanisms produces multisensory activation, and synesthesia especially in the
visual system, whereas dopaminergic stimulation causes the motor agitation associated with
stimulants.
These visionary experiences of shamanism are natural, spontaneously produced by the
brain with the disinhibition of the regulation of the visual cortex. These visual images
emerge naturally out of the unconscious, exemplified in their spontaneous manifestation in
dream imagery, hallucinations, and religious experiences. This presentational symbolic
modality is a nonverbal symbolism that represents self, others, emotions, and attachments
and their connection with the body-self at a pre-egoic level. These experiences are core to
the alterations of consciousness found in shamanistic traditions.
THE BRAIN AND THE ALTERATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
In assessing the foundations and causes of experiences of altered consciousness, we must
recognize the underlying similarities in conditions induced by ritual behaviors and those
produced by drugs. The functional aspects of shamanic alterations of consciousness and
phenomenological features of these experiences result from effects of ritual activities and
agents on brain functioning, particularly various neurotransmitter systems. The common
underlying mechanisms of diverse alterations of consciousness are attested to by the
phenomenological similarities of drug-induced and natural mystical experiences (Smith
2000) as well as by empirical similarities between drug-induced (psilocybin) and naturally
induced mystical experiences that have been established with controls provided by double-
blind studies (Griffiths et al. 2006).
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Behaviorally induced and drug-induced alterations of consciousness affect functioning
of both the serotonergic and dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems, neuromodulators
that have complementary roles in balancing numerous brain functions and its other
neurotransmitter systems. Fred Previc (2009) characterizes the inhibition of dopamine
release by serotonin as one of the brain’s most important neurochemical interactions, with
the serotonergic and noradrenergic systems of the right hemisphere inhibiting the dopamine
system and the left hemisphere. Shamanic activities alter consciousness by stimulating both
serotonergic and dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems, as well as the endocannabinoid
neurotransmitter system, which together produce a variety of aspects of shamanistic
experiences.
GENERAL MODELS OF ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS
The general dynamics of altered consciousness involve effects on the autonomic nervous
system (ANS) through extreme stimulation of either the sympathetic nervous system (which
activates the fight-or-flight response) or the parasympathetic nervous system (responsible for
rest and recuperation of the body). Shamanic rituals typically involve an extreme activation
of the sympathetic nervous system until exhaustion and collapse, particularly through hours
of dancing and drumming. This collapse results in a rebound effect in the parasympathetic
nervous system, inducing a state of extreme relaxation.
Many different activities and agents can produce similar brain responses, such as those
typically manifested in altered states of consciousness—synchronized slow wave brain
discharges (Mandell 1980; Winkelman 2010). Arnold Mandell documented how diverse
activities and agents can produce similar effects on serotonergic transmission, which are
manifested in coherent slow wave brain discharges in the theta (3–6 cycles per second) and
alpha (6–8 cycles per second) range that synchronize the frontal cortex with these discharges
originating in the serotonergic circuitry of the lower levels of the brain. These serotonergic
pathways are stimulated by diverse factors—most classes of drugs, a variety of physiological
imbalances, and activities such as drumming, chanting, dancing, fasting, sensory overload,
and meditation. These conditions activate the serotonergic pathways that link the temporal
lobe and limbic system with basal areas of the brain (raphe nucleus and reticular formation),
which regulate the ascending flow of information. Activation of this serotonergic circuitry
produces ascending discharges to the limbic brain through slow wave hypersynchronous
discharges in the hippocampal-septal-reticular-raphe circuit. These synchronous brain wave
discharges from lower brain areas release serotonin’s control of affective and cognitive
processes, the ascending theta waves coordinating the entire brain with common brain wave
patterns, including synchronization of the frontal hemispheres.
Arne Dietrich (2003) characterized alterations of consciousness in terms of a temporary
deregulation of the prefrontal cortex, a common consequence of activities such as endurance
running, dreaming, hypnosis, and meditation, as well as drug-induced states. These all disrupt
the higher order functions of the prefrontal cortex, resulting in a loss of higher cognitive
functions that integrate neural information processing. Disruption of the functions of the
prefrontal cortex allows for a release of the activities of the ancient brain structures, which then
allows for the emergence of the effects of the brain’s lower centers of consciousness.
THE INTEGRATIVE MODE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Winkelman (2011) elaborated a general model of altered consciousness as involving
enhanced linkages between the lower levels of the brain that are projected upward along the
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central axis of the brain and into the frontal cortex. These ascending brain wave patterns are
highly coherent (coordinated) and consequently induce a synchronization of the frontal
cortex with these ascending theta and alpha waves discharges. This integration of brain wave
patterns generated by lower brain areas into the frontal cortex through these
hypersynchronous slow wave discharges is a process as basic to human nature as the
waking, sleep, and dreaming modes of consciousness. It constitutes a fourth mode of
consciousness, which Winkelman (2010) called the integrative mode of consciousness,
reflecting the overall coordination of the brain.
The ability of a wide variety of agents and procedures to elicit this brain activity
illustrates that it is a natural response to the disruption of normal waking consciousness.
Activities that can induce this integrative mode of consciousness include long distance
running; auditory driving induced by drumming, singing, and chanting; austerities such as
fasting, water deprivation, lack of sleep, and sensory deprivation or overload; meditation;
psychophysiological conditions resulting from physical or emotional trauma; metabolic
imbalances and nutritional deficiencies; hereditary conditions predisposing to nervous
system liabilities such as epilepsy and temporal lobe syndromes; and a variety of exogenous
chemical analogs of our body’s neurotransmitters.
Mandell proposed that activity in the hippocampal-septal circuits produces theta brain
wave activity and provides the mechanisms for the commonalities underlying diverse means
of altering consciousness. The hippocampal-septal system functions as an information
convergence center and association area, receiving and integrating the information projected
there from both the somatic nervous system (body) and the autonomic nervous system
(which control unconscious organic functions such as digestion). This integration has the
effect of connecting information from lower brain systems with the limbic (emotional) brain
system and the frontal cortex. This integrative process stimulated by alterations of
consciousness provides the functional justification for characterizing them as involving the
elicitation of an integrative mode of consciousness.
PSYCHEDELICS AS EXOGENOUS SEROTONIN ANALOGUES
There are a variety of research findings regarding the effects of psychedelics on the brain and
neurotransmission, some of them apparently contradictory. This is a consequence of many
factors, including different doses; different set and setting influences; and different effects in
initial, full, and late phases of the drug action. Nonetheless, there appears to be a general
profile of psychedelic effects on the brain that involve the general pattern of the integrative
mode of consciousness, including the slowing of brain waves and induction of a
parasympathetic dominant phase (Mandell 1980; Winkelman 2007; Hintzen and Passie
2010; Nichols and Chemel 2011).
Serotonin is the primary neurotransmitter system affected by psychedelics such as LSD
and psilocybin. These serotonin-mediated effects are central to understanding the
neurochemical nature of the human capacity for spiritual experiences. Serotonin is
the principal neuromodulatory system, with central roles in the overall management of the
nervous system and in causing alterations of consciousness. Psychedelics activate the brain
primarily through stimulating effects on serotonergic and other neurotransmitter systems
(adrenergic and dopaminergic) but also have blocking (agonist) effects on some serotonin
receptors (5-HT2A). Psychedelics produce hypersynchronous slow wave brain discharges in
the serotonergic circuits that link the hypothalamus and limbic brain with the lower brain
systems. Activation of this descending serotonergic hippocampal-septal-reticular-raphe
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circuit results in activation of ascending hypersynchronous discharges that produce a
synchronization of the brain waves of the frontal areas of the brain with impulses from the
ancient lower stratum of the brain.
PSYCHEDELICS AND THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK
The typical cognitive effects of psychedelics are distinct from our normal resting mental
states characterized by mind wandering, reflection on the past, and future planning. These
mental activities are sustained by the Default Mode Network, a specific brain area which has
a notable feature of increased activity when the person rests or is not engaged in specific
tasks. This Default Mode Network, characterized by daydreaming, metacognition, mental
travel, or reflecting on memories, is apparently disabled by psychedelics (Carhart-Harris
et al. 2014).
The mechanisms by which psychedelics alter this normal relaxed brain function are
manifested in decreased cerebral blood flow, as well as decreased functional connectivity
between areas of the brain and the oscillatory power in brain areas of the Default Mode
Network that are typically synchronized and functionally connected. Psilocybin has been
found to decrease functional coupling of the frontal cortex and medial temporal lobe nodes
of the Default Mode Network. The typical cognitive effects of psychedelics are distinct from
our normal resting mental states characterized by daydreaming, mind wandering, and
reflecting on memories. Ayahuasca causes decreases in the functional connectivity within the
prefrontal cortex and in connections with other areas of the brain that are involved in a wide
range of ordinary cognitive processes (Palhano-Fontes et al. 2015).
This decoupling of the medial and frontal lobes produces a disorganization of activity in
high-level networks and reductions in large-scale brain network integrity. This decoupling is
associated with increases in flexibility of networks involving a more open communication
among them. This decoupling permits a freer operation of the medial temporal lobe
structures, which are associated with more primary forms of consciousness. The effects of
the psychedelics result in the release of primary cognitive states reflecting unrestrained
medial temporal lobe activity that is strongly affected by emotion and fears. This primary
cognition produces a consciousness that is based in a somatic awareness and subjective
feeling states, but is without the metacognitive ability for self-reflection on personal behavior
and one’s thinking provided by the frontal cortex. This primary cognition produces a state
of heightened suggestibility because of the suspension of the frontal networks that are
typically used to maintain control over mental processes and perceptions of the
environment.
SEROTONERGIC REGULATION AND PSYCHEDELIC DEREGULATION
The principal functional properties of the serotonergic system are directly related to Paul
MacLean’s (1990) model of the evolution of the brain. This model helps to illustrate the
primary ways in which psychedelics modify consciousness through their intervention in
the serotonin processes. The effects of serotonin and psychedelics involve modifications in
the control and coordination among the three major brain subsystems proposed by
MacLean, which he referred to as the R-complex (reptilian brain), paleomammalian (limbic)
brain, and neomammalian brain (neocortex).
The serotonergic networks originating in the paleomammalian brain regulate the
activity of the lower reptilian levels, reducing the ascending flow of information from there
to focus on information most relevant in the moment. Serotonin also inhibits emotional
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responses generated within the paleomammalian brain. One of the eventual effects of the
psychedelics is to reduce these regulatory effects of the serotonergic system and its inhibitory
control over the reptilian and paleomammalian brain activities. The saturation of the
serotonergic system by the psychedelics, which lock into serotonergic transmitter sites but
are resistant to the normal reuptake mechanisms, eventually blocks the functioning of the
serotonergic system, and as a consequence, reduces its regulatory processes. This blockage of
serotonin’s inhibitory functions results in the disinhibition of the dopaminergic system,
releasing a flood of information that is normally inhibited by serotonin.
These effects on the brain are typified by the action of psychedelic drugs in interrupting
cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loops that inhibit the lower brain structures’sensory gating
systems that reduce the flow of information to the frontal areas of the brain (Vollenweider
and Geyer 2001). This interruption of serotonergic inhibition of thalamic screening results
in a flood of information that can overwhelm the frontal brain with a variety of normally
repressed sensations and enhance the availability of information managed by these ancient
levels of the brain.
In the paleomammalian brain, psychedelics stimulate limbic system areas that manage
emotional information and the visual system, as well as mediate personal relations and social
bonding. The deregulation of this area caused by serotonin saturation and inhibition results
in the release of normally unconscious personal and emotional dynamics, which are
transmitted by the ascending networks into the frontal brain and conscious awareness. The
shamanic visionary experiences similarly reflect the loss of the inhibitory effects of serotonin
on the mesolimbic temporal lobe structures, manifested in increased activity in the visual
cortex experienced as visions.
These effects of psychedelics on the brain have been used to justify their
characterization as psychointegrators (Winkelman 2007). This psychointegrative effect
mirrors the concept of the integrative mode of consciousness, and the ingestion of natural
psychointegrators such as psychedelic mushrooms may have been the original cause of these
integrative brain states.
PSYCHEDELICS AND THE ORIGINS OF SHAMANISM
The role of serotonin has expanded over human evolution in what appears to have been a
selection for enhanced serotonergic systems and an increased sensitivity of these systems to
psychedelics. Adaptations to psilocybin-containing mushrooms appear to have played a
significant role in hominin evolution, illustrated by notable molecular divergences between
human and chimpanzee serotonergic systems (Pregenzer et al. 1997). Human serotonin
systems exhibit significantly greater binding of LSD and natural psychedelics, evidence of
selection over the course of human evolution for more efficient processing of psychedelic drugs.
Psychedelic substances also contributed directly to the development of shamanic
practices, illustrated in the similarities of the basic features of shamanism with the
experiential effects of psilocybin and other psychedelic substances (Winkelman 2010).
There are similar features and beliefs associated with the ritual use of psychedelics found in
cultures around the world. When institutionalized, these substances are used for the training
of shamans, or in collective rituals that enhance group cohesion and integration. These
substances are seen as producing experiences of a spiritual world, the supernatural, including
the signature experience of the shaman, the separation of one’s soul or spirit from the body
and its travel to spiritual worlds.
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Psychedelics are seen as activating a variety of powers within the person, as well as
releasing special powers inherent to these plants, which are seen as divinities. These
substances are thought to have the ability to provide information through visions or direct
communication with the spirits viewed as indwelling entities of these plants. These
substances are viewed as capable of engaging endogenous processes of healing, inducing and
eliciting healing energies in the body. The psychedelics are renowned for inducing a
powerful sense of the presence of spirits, their incorporation into one’s body, and the
personal transformation into an animal spirit. These substances may produce a sense of
personal or ego death, followed by a rebirth with personal transformation and new abilities.
The objective ability of the psychedelics to produce shamanistic experiences,
independent of expectation, is demonstrated in controlled clinical studies. Griffiths and
coauthors (2006) demonstrated that psilocybin has an objective ability to produce mystical
experiences. Participants administered psilocybin (as opposed to a control substance) had
significantly higher levels of spiritual and mystical experiences, as well as lasting effects on
their attitudes. Most participants who received psilocybin considered it to have produced
one of the most spiritual experiences of their entire life, with formal assessments revealing
significantly higher scores on measurements of mysticism scales, sacredness, a sense of
transcendence, oceanic boundlessness, and ineffability. Furthermore, participants who
received psilocybin were found to have had significantly higher levels of positive mood,
peace, harmony, and happiness; more positive attitudes about life; and significant increases
in altruistic social behaviors as determined by third-party observers.
SHAMANIC ALTERATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
A variety of shamanic ritual activities has effects on brain functions and neurotransmitter
systems that can be inferred from clinical studies. Central to shamanic practice are periods of
preparation involving fasting, which has effects on the serotonergic nervous system. Other
shamanic activities such as ritualized drumming and dancing involve exhausting exercise
that induces changes in neurotransmitter responses, including an elicitation of the brain’s
endorphins and cannabinoid system. Activities that induce pain, as well as exposure to heat
and cold extremes and other sensory extremes, elicit responses from the opioid system (see
Vaitl et al. 2005; Winkelman 2010).
FASTING AND NUTRITIONAL DEPRIVATION
Shamanic practices involve fasting, an activity used in meditative practices to alter
consciousness. Fasting and nutritional restrictions result in an increase in slow wave brain
discharges mediated by effects on the hypothalamus and hippocampal-septal system. Fasting
induces a hypoglycemic state, which increases susceptibility to driving influences and
producing slow frequency brain discharges from activities such as drumming and chanting.
Semi-starvation results in a variety of changes in consciousness, including classical mystical
experiences, as well as dissociation, depersonalization, paranoia, hallucinations, and
megalomania (Fessler 2002). Fasting’s effects on serotonin synthesis also result in
hallucinations and dissociation. Daniel Fessler proposed evolutionary adaptations that
resulted in a human propensity toward voluntary restriction of diet because it results in a
reduction of serotonin activity, which promotes increased risk-taking behaviors that can
enhance survival.
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RITUAL AS AN ENDOGENOUS OPIOID ELICITOR
Shamanic rituals are collective ceremonies traditionally involving participation of the entire
local group, reflecting ancient mammalian opioid-attachment mechanisms for maintaining
personal and community well-being. Endogenous opioid release that is involved in mother-
infant attachment is extended to broader social attachments through socialization, especially
ritual. These reflect adaptations derived from extensions of a biosocial behavioral system that
evolved to maintain proximity between infants and caregivers through biologically mediated
attachments. Such attachments are fundamental dynamics underlying religions, embodied
in an assurance of protection from a powerful figure in a supernatural symbolic other.
There are a variety of endogenous opioid peptides (e.g., endorphins, enkephalins,
dynorphins, and endomorphins), substances similar to morphine and opium, that are
naturally produced by the body and are elicited by ritual activities. Shamans typically
prepare for ritual activities with restrictions on basic natural drives such as food and water,
engage in austerities and painful ordeals, and perform exhaustive drumming, dancing,
singing, and chanting. This extreme exertion and fatigue can overwhelm temperature-
regulation mechanisms, resulting in slow brain waves, hallucinations, and the release of
endogenous opioids. Shamanistic activities directly stimulate release of endogenous opioids
through nighttime rituals, when endogenous opioids are naturally highest; exposure to
temperature extremes and self-inflicted wounds; and emotional manipulations that evoke
fear. Opioids are specifically elicited by situations of helplessness and terrifying experiences
and other severe psychological threats.
The body responds to both endogenous opioids (opioid peptides, morphine-like
substances produced by the body) as well as exogenous opioids found in nature (i.e., opium)
or produced chemically (i.e., morphine). Both endogenous and exogenous opioids have
similar effects in engaging neurotransmitter networks that play central roles in a diverse
range of homeostatic functions, and notably in inducing positive emotions and inhibiting
pain. Opioids activate the dopaminergic networks, inducing feelings of euphoria and
belongingness and enhancing the immune system, coping mechanisms, stress tolerance, and
ability to adapt. Shamanic rituals provide a form of socialization of these innate responses,
provoking these physiological responses by associating these emotionally charged
physiological conditions with the cultural symbols of ritual. This involves a cross-
conditioning of the endocrine and immune systems with the group’s ritual and mythological
dynamics and the individual’s psychological systems.
CHANTING, MUSIC, AND DANCE
Dancing, chanting, and singing are human universals that are widely used in spiritual
practices, reflecting the inherent potentials of these capacities to modify consciousness.
Walter Freeman (2000) proposed that a principal force in the last half million years of
human evolution involved adaptations selected for their contribution to enhanced social
communication. These adaptations involved processes that engage neurotransmitters such as
dopamine, serotonin, and vasopressin, as well as the endorphins. Freeman characterizes
music and dancing as the quintessential human technologies for eliciting these
neurochemicals, a biotechnology of information exchange and group formation that played
a central role in human evolution through expanding personal consciousness of others.
Chanting and music provide a vocal communication system conveying information about
emotional states, a pre-language communication system rooted in primate vocalization
systems and their social functions (Cross and Morley 2009). Music enhances adaptation
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through more effective devices for group coordination and formation of stronger emotional
bonds among the members of a group. These effects of music reflect direct effects on the
release of oxytocin, a neurohormone that enhances social bonding (see Panksepp and
Trevarthen 2008).
The evolution of singing and musical capacities in humans was also central to the
evolution of shamanism. Rhythmic auditory stimulation of drumming and music produces
driving of brain waves, specifically in the alpha and theta range (see Maurer, Kumar,
Woodside, and Pekala 1997; Vaitl et al. 2005; Winkelman 2010). Music induces
physiological effects through activity in the amygdala and hippocampus of the
paleomammalian brain, activating emotional processing centers (see Crowe 2004). The
rhythmic properties of music entrain neural oscillations that synchronize perception and
action to the beat of the music, unifying perception, cognition, and behavior in a primordial
form of psychointegration (also see Fachner 2011).
DANCE AND SHAMANIC EXPERIENCE
Dance reflects an expansion of a mammalian capacity, the use of ritual to increase social
cohesion and bind groups together into a common consciousness. In human ancestors these
ritual capacities were expanded through mimesis—the use of behaviors involving deliberate
imitation or enactment to communicate intentions.
The physical activity of dance can alter consciousness through a variety of mechanisms
such as stimulating the release of opioids, producing rhythmic stimulation in the brain, and
inducing exhaustion and collapse (see Winkelman 2010). The extreme physical activity of
shamanic dancing engages a variety of mechanisms that can induce alterations of
consciousness through effects on the opioid and endocannabinoid systems. Prolonged
rhythmic activity and exhaustive exercise can result in an overload of temperature-regulation
mechanisms and the central opioid systems, stimulating release of endogenous opioids.
ULTRARUNNING AND MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES
The physiological effects of extreme exertion from dance may also evoke what has been
studied in the effects of extreme running, which involves behaviorally induced
neurochemical activity activating the cannabinols, neurotransmitters similar in structure
to active ingredients of marijuana. Profound alterations of consciousness can be induced by
extensive running—endurance running, long-distance running, or ultrarunning (see Noakes
1991; Jones 2004). This exercise-mediated production of alterations of consciousness has
roots in a unique human capability—bipedal locomotion—which permitted the evolution
of other unique human features, including mimesis and dance. The effects of extensive
running (for up to 100 miles or more and for more than 24 hours) have particular
significance for understanding shamanic and mystical experiences, which occur as side
effects of ultrarunning activities.
Ultrarunning can induce an out-of-body experience as well as various features typical of
mystical experiences such as perceptions of timelessness and cosmic unity and a direct
connection and unity of self with nature and the universe. Other typical mystical features
associated with ultrarunning include experiences of boundless energy and powerful positive
emotions such as joy, elation, harmony, and inner peacefulness (Dietrich 2003).
These mystical experiences can result from several mechanisms engaged by extreme
activation of the autonomic nervous system. Extensive exercise eventually results in a
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saturation of the sympathetic nervous system and elicits a rebound effect in the subsequent
activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. This simultaneous activation of usually
complementary autonomic nervous system functions overwhelms the brain’s regulatory
structures. This overload of brain processes results in an interruption of normal attention,
orientation, emotional processing, visual integration, conceptualization, and comprehen-
sion. The physical stress produced by extensive running results in elevated release of opioids,
adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cannabinoid neurotransmitters, producing a variety of
dramatic changes in consciousness, including a disintegration of the processes sustaining the
normal experience of self.
ENDOCANNABINOIDS AND THE ALTERATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Extensive exercise stimulates release of endocannabinoids, which have been implicated in
the effects of long-distance running in altering consciousness (Dietrich and McDaniel 2004;
Raichlen et al. 2012). The endocannabinoid anandamide is similar to natural substances of
marijuana, and produces similar psychoactive effects. Extensive exercise can directly increase
concentrations of endocannabinoids, specifically anandamide (an endogenous neurotrans-
mitter), which produces experiences of analgesia, sedation, anxiolysis, and an enhanced
sense of well-being (Russo 2004). People experiencing these states from extensive running
also report subjective experiences similar to those attributed to exogenous cannabinoids such
as self distortions, diminished awareness, and intensified introspection (Dietrich and
McDaniel 2004).
Cannabinoids function as neuromodulators that not only alter consciousness, but also
have important roles in physiological processes involved in mood, pain perception,
learning, synaptic plasticity, and stress responses (Raichlen et al. 2012). The ability of
the endocannabinoid systems to mediate stress occurs through effects in habituation of the
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to repeated stress. This occurs through
blockage of excessive glucocorticoids secretion that increases stress. Ethan Russo (2004)
proposes that the anandamide potentiation of the serotonin 1A receptors and inhibition of
serotonin 2A receptors provide mechanisms for a variety of therapeutic effects of
cannabinoids.
The cannabinoid receptor’s inhibition of glutamatergic responses reduces the
organism’s responses to nonthreatening stimuli, inhibiting aggression by producing
anxiolytic (anxiety inhibiting) effects that inhibit excessive arousal. The endocannabinoid
system also plays a role in extinction of memories and the modification of synaptic
responses, facilitating processes of unlearning previous associations. The endocannabinoid
system also facilitates the processes of neurogenesis (new growth of neuron networks) and in
particular the stimulation of growth of new networks in the hippocampus region that play a
role in creation of memories.
SHAMANISM AS A NEUROTHEOLOGY
The universals of shamanism, as well as the convergences between shamanism and
psychedelic experiences, provide evidence for a neurotheology, a neurologically based
theology or set of beliefs derived from intrinsic effects of the interaction of these
neurotransmitter analogues with the properties of our neural system. Exogenous
neurotransmitter sources, typified in psilocybin-containing mushrooms, have a capability
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to induce an animistic worldview that has been fundamental to the understandings of
shamanistic consciousness found in cultures around the world and across time.
These neurotheology principles reflect neurognosis, the biological bases of knowing,
and reflecting particular effects of neurochemicals on the nervous system and experience.
This relationship is best revealed by the agonist (stimulating) effects of the psychedelics on
serotonergic functioning. Serotonin provides a variety of integrative functions,
exemplified in its role as a special neurotransmitter, a neuromodulator. Psychedelics
also suspend some of the serotonergic regulatory effects on the dopamine system,
contributing to other features of shamanic experience, exemplified in the extrapersonal
cognition manifested in soul flight.
Neurognostic features of shamanic and other mystical experiences, such as those
involving a sense of oneness, connection, understanding, and enlightenment, are a reflection
of the overall brain dynamics produced through the ritual alteration of consciousness. These
kinds of experiences are a direct reflection of the psychophysiological dynamics of theta
waves producing the integrative mode of consciousness. These synchronous slow wave brain
discharge patterns, which unify the overall brain patterns, produce experiences of oneness,
and provide integration of usually repressed cognitive material (connection, understanding).
These features of the brain patterns are characterized by these integrative principles because
they reflect the enhancement of the activities of the hippocampal-spetal area and
hypothalamus, which function as centers for information integration and memory
formation. Shamanistic experiences are integrative, enlightening, and especially meaningful
because they are the result of the excessive stimulation of areas of the brain where
information integration occurs.
These typical effects that result from psychedelics acting on serotonergic systems are
also evoked by a variety of ritual activities, especially fasting and exhausting activity such as
dancing, singing, chanting, and drumming. These have direct driving effects on the brain,
manifested in the highly synchronized and coherent slow (theta) brain wave discharges
characteristic of many alterations of consciousness. These effects involve the activation of
major neurotransmitter circuitry of the serotonergic, dopaminergic, and endocannabinoid
systems. Their activation produces the neurochemical effects that alter consciousness in
predictable ways. These effects enhance the activity of the lower brain structures (MacLean’s
reptilian and paleomammalian brains) and the release of informational, visual, and
emotional processes of these regions. Activation of the lower brain dynamics also accounts
for many of the properties of shamanic consciousness such as animism, ecophilia, and
animal identities, a direct reflection of increased activation of our ancient animal (reptilian
and paleomammalian brain) regions.
The enhanced transmission of lower brain dynamics accounts for many of the
properties of the psychedelic and shamanic experiences. Many features of shamanism can be
understood in terms of the enhanced availability and integration of information from the
lower levels of the brain. This enhanced information availability is caused by the release of
the inhibitory functions, enhancing availability of information processes related to the
physical world, body, aspects of self, emotions, and memories. The overall effects of
shamanistic alterations of consciousness is to integrate these behavioral and social-emotional
dynamics within the areas of the brain concerned with higher level cognitive processes,
producing insight from the enhanced access to the informational capacities of the lower
brain systems and the functional integration of that activity into the processes of the frontal
brain.
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Summary
Shamanic universals present an anomaly to simplistic views of religion as merely false beliefs.
Similar cross-cultural manifestations point to a biological basis. These biological aspects of
shamanism have bases in adaptive behaviors and effects found in the causes, nature, and
functions of shamanistic practices. Many commonalities in shamanic practices reflect that
biological bases are involved in producing alterations of consciousness. These transforma-
tions of consciousness involve integrative cognitive processes used for healing and
manifested in beliefs and experiences (e.g., soul flight) that reflect effects extending normal
principles of brain operation. Phenomena such as soul flight are natural manifestations of
the brain that resulted from selective changes that occurred in the course of human
adaptations for extrapersonal cognition—thinking about situations removed from the
physical presence of the body. Such shamanistic experiences are rooted in biological
phenomena that provide part of our capacity for what is perceived as spiritual and
transcendental experiences. These experiences are adaptive features of human cognitive and
emotional capacities that use ritual practices to extend the normal operations of our basic
neurotransmitter systems, particularly the neuromodulatory systems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Fred Previc, Ede Frecska, and Torsten Passie for suggestions for improvements on a
draft of this article.
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