ShamanResearcher

SO many stand out moments. But the funniest one happened on my last night in Mongolia. My host brother (who I will call "M") is a shaman, and I requested he shamanize so I could inform his spirits that I was leaving and say goodbye to them. A fellow researcher came and she brought her extremely handsome guy friend, "Mark".

The first spirit that posessed the shaman was a grandfather spirit. The second was grandmother (grandfather and grandmother are the terms used for virtually all male or female spirits). The shaman's face is covered with a headdress/mask which has spirit eyes sewn on it. Grandmother decided she thought Mark was hot. She started flirting shamelessly. It was painfully funny. Male shaman, possessed by a female spirit, and flirting with this handsome guy. She was calling him "My Mark", offering him glasses of wine so that she could brush her fingers against his, and occasionally just losing track of her thoughts and just staring at him without saying anything. It was priceless. My friend and I decided to encourage it. I told Mark to take her hand. My friend said "Tell her she's pretty!".

The shaman's wife was also watching. We were working our hardest to not laugh, lest grandmother get angry. We could hardly breath. When the shamanizing finished, M couldn't remember what had happened (whether or not you believe in shamanism, trance amnesia is real). And we had tears in our eyes from laughter and he didn't know why. We had to tell him. His wife was absolutely gleeful. It was great!

They identified the exact generation back from my father when my family ethnically intermarried (4). In my case, I had 2 questions that were very specific and I had not told anyone, and before I even asked the question, the shaman very specifically answered them. I was shaking. It included pinpointing specific areas of an odd pain that had recently developed and I hadn't told anyone, and the cause of it.

No, but I am a level 13 laser lotus!

Not really, but I did say (to my host family, and always in jest) "What the hell is WRONG with you???" Usually when my big brother would start mercilessly teasing me. Like when I threw up one morning and he decided I was pregnant. When I reminded him I didn't have a boyfriend, he declared my child must be Jesus. That got a "What the hell is wrong with you?" We had a great relationship.

But seriously, there were some times when I just wanted to go home and couldn't cope with everything. The stress to be perfect, to avoid cultural errors, is a lot stronger with shamans than with the general population. But overall it was an amazing experience.

I did, actually, see a few shamans know things they couldn't know, and that went well beyond cold reading. My dad, a fan of James Randi, huge skeptic, came to Mongolia and even he was shocked by what some of the shamans knew. Did I see people flying through the air or anything like that? No. But some of the shamans, in possession, clearly knew more than they should. That was creepy at times.

Some of them knew a lot of value. They functioned as counselors, healers, advisors, and were clearly helping their community. Some of them, of course, are fakers and charlatans. But the good shamans I met clearly were inspired by the ancient ways, the ancient customs, and were greatly helpful to their surrounding community.