Shamanism; A brief history

Shamanism  is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to encounter and interact with the spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world. A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual and practices divination and healing.

The word "shaman" probably originates from the Tungusic Evenki language of North Asia, specifically for the spirit-workers in these cultures. According to the noted Finnish ethnolinguist Juha Janhunen,"the word is attested in all of the Tungusic idioms" such as Negidal, Lamut, Udehe/Orochi, Nanai, Ilcha, Orok, Manchu and Ulcha, and "nothing seems to contradict the assumption that that the meaning 'shaman' also derives from Proto-Tunguisic" and may have roots that extend back in time at least two millennia.^[3] The term was introduced to the west after Russian forces conquered the shamanistic Khanate of Kazan in 1552. The term "shamanism" was first applied by western anthropologists to the ancient religion of the Turks and Mongols, as well as those of the neighboring Tungusic and Samoyedic-speaking peoples. Upon learning more about religious traditions across the world, some anthropologists began to also use the term to describe unrelated magico-religious practices found within the ethnic religions of other parts of Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas, as they believed these practices to be similar to one another.

Mircea Eliad writes, "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism, 'technique of religious ecstasy'.Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Although there is very little references about he shamanism and its relation with naths or sidhas but the practices like these are common in almost all sects. So its not easy to separate the things with the yogic  kriyas because ultimately leading to the healings and self development.