James Parker reviews Manvir Singh’s new book Shamanism: The Timeless Religion for The Atlantic:
Singh is less interested in the specific contents of trance states, or in a psychic map of shamanic otherness, than in shamanism as a world-historical phenomenon, popping up all over, almost a function of human consciousness. It starts, for him, in the same place that religion starts: in the wobbly conditions of life, in the dicey nature of our contract with existence. He calls it “a compelling technology for dealing with uncertainty.” Against a welter of contingency and fucked-up stuff that won’t stop happening, the shaman intercedes on our behalf; he can negotiate with chaos because he’s plugged in to the invisible grid behind it.
You can see where all of this might link up with conspiracy theory and—one short step further—psychosis. Hovering beyond our day-to-dayness is another order of reality, fiery and supercharged and copiously populated with entities. The shaman has gotten the coordinates. He has wrangled, or been wrangled by, the monsters of this zone and its tutelary spirits. So he has power. He can change the weather. He can suck out the infection. He can reverse the curse and erase the malaise.