Shamanism: religion or complex of psychotechnic experience? (Some aspects of problem)

In the present paper I would like to offer a perspective on shamanism as a world view system based on mythological world perception. Development of different options of consciousness stratification is typical for transpersonal psychology. Russian scholars S.V. Dremov and I.R. Semin identify several levels of consciousness. These are 1) mythological consciousness; 2) vital (existential) level; 3) autopsychic level; 4) level of social role attachments. The levels of consciousness labeled mythological and existential are equivalent to totemistic perceptions. At the animistic stage of cultural evolution consciousness is already defined by the autopsychic level. Emergence of the social role level is associated with emergence of shamanist societies. During the ritual shaman goes beyond the vital-existential level of consciousness, which allows him to identify himself with different animals, who personified totemic ancestors and even to expand his consciousness to the cosmic scale. The motive of initiation expressed by shaman's body dismemberment with his subsequent revival in the new capacity may mean the acquisition of ability to disengage from the vital-existential level and transfer to the earlier level - that of mythological consciousness. Relying on the mythological world view, shamanism at the same time possesses all main features of religions. First of all, shamanist ideology relies on acknowledging the ambiguity of being, consecrated myth and desire to develop one's life in accordance with mythological patterns. In order to compare one's life with consecrated reality, man needs some kind of religious experience that is embodied in shamanism in transpersonal experience. Owing to this experience, shaman maintains the connection of the whole group with the world of nature alienated from people, but containing patterns and roots of the human life. And the most important feature of shamanism is individualization of religious experience and hence transition from collective mythological perceptions to religious ones. Taking the above-mentioned into account, I believe that one can claim that shamanism is a religion in the full sense of the word. It may have been, as E.A. Torchinov believed, the earliest example of religion, ''anthropological and existential phenomenon of religious nature''. Shamanism offers a certain type of religious experience, transpersonal experience of return to the myth. That is why the myth is always relevant as an integral part of human nature. That is why shamanism as a special tradition of mental life, as a crucial element of spiritual history does not become a thing of the past and again and again manifests itself in various areas of contemporary culture. The special state of shaman during the ritual, represented in cultural interpretation as shaman's trip to the heavenly or underground world or as embodiment of spirits, is a creative reprocessing of early collective perceptions alienated by the group, formed during the domination of mythological consciousness and transpersonal area of human psyche.

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