Perception of space in Siberian shaman tradition

Every cultural tradition perceives the space and time structure of the world in its own way. Space and time represent universal categories of human consciousness and special forms of reality perception. In this paper consciousness is regarded as the main attribute of being that defines the existence of man in the world. Space and time emerged at the same time as human consciousness, which was comprehended in mythological tradition as creation of the world. Space presupposes the presence of a certain structure - cosmos (as opposed to chaos), where boundaries of objects and their positions are clearly outlined. The first borderline lies within the man; it separated him from the world of nature and thus revealed the presence of consciousness. However, in early mythological consciousness the main principle was that of part and whole, rather than that of contraposition of self and non-self. Man understood himself as part of the world and perceived the part and the whole as identical. Acknowledgement of non-uniformity of space is typical for mythological consciousness. Qualitative characteristics of individual space sections are directly related to their proximity to the sacred. The most sacred is the point in space, where and when the act of creation took place, i.e., the centre of the world is the world axis. The spatial structure of the universe becomes more complex, as the relations with the sacred become more complex. On the one hand, man strives for maximum proximity to the sacred, endowing his domicile with properties of a median object in relation to the scale of cosmos. On the other hand, man always feels foreignness and danger of the other world beyond the world of human culture. Existential threat accompanying the man from the moment when he realizes his separation from the world of nature explains the need in new cultural symbols that would help reduce or mask the contradictory nature of being. That is why after the central axis was identified, the space was divided into different zones: the most sacred, i.e., endowed with maximum mystical energy, less sacred, and endowed with negative characteristics. External space endowed with negative properties lay beyond the organized space of the tribal territory. This was already an inhuman world, otherness, departure to which was equal to death. The space of traditional Cosmos was characterized by alive and pulsing structure, rather than the frozen one. During certain periods of time otherness could intrude into the human world, posing an existential threat to the man even within the familiar territory. Night and winter were the periods when negatively perceived space came close to the man's domicile. Early mythological consciousness possessed many properties, completely forgotten now, pushed out of the format defined by contemporary cultural tradition. One of the most important features of mythological consciousness is the fact that it is not limited by boundaries of an individual organism, boundaries of Ego. Smooth transformation of various forms of being one into another is a result of this. The study of altered states of consciousness in transpersonal psychology resulted in identification of such phenomena as spatial expansion and spatial narrowing of consciousness. Shaman performing controlled the return to the early layers of psyche, which also acquires the ability to go beyond the spatial boundaries of his own body turning into different animals, plants, natural elements, ability to expand or narrow his own consciousness. The study of shaman tradition of Siberian ethnic groups based on mythological world perception and structuring of space can to a large extent clarify the issue of mutual relations between consciousness and reality, go beyond the accepted world perception and present alternative solutions to the world outlook dilemmas of contemporary man.

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