singularname
PBS had a fascinating program last night: A couple with a severely autistic son, as a desperate measure, took him to Mongolia for a month to a shaman. They weren’t “believers” per se, but they were also drawn to doing this because the father is a “horseman,” so he was also intrigued by the Mongolian horse culture. (I’ve worked in hippotherapy as a volunteer and seen some very amazing things go on between “humans with severe challenges of all varieties” and horses.) Spoiler now:
The results were phenomenal (although certainly didn’t “cure the autism” or anything)–and believeable when you view the context of how all this happened.
Anyhow, a Western psychiatrist interviewed during the program had some very profound things to say about all this. I paraphrase very loosely here:
Shamans from all cultures are very often persons with eccentricities that we in the West might call autism, bipolarism, depression, or just plain bizarre. In the West, we shun these people; we are the only culture who “institutionalize” these people, remove them from our view and interactions. Many less industrialized cultures believe such people are simply here with their “eccentricities” for a reason like anyone else, which is what elevates many to a shaman or other status: All humans should be allowed to find their place, their contributions, to their communities, to society. They’re appreciated and respected as any other person.
I strongly agree with this.
(Drugs and alcohol were mentioned earlier in the thread–I have only a vague opinion on how that might apply to what I learned during this program, other than to venture that it could be very likely we treat our “eccentrics” with such disdain that many are driven to substance abuse.)