The theory that shamanism is a compelling technology for dealing with uncertainty explains the spectrum of shamanic activities. Illness, weather, and beached whales are not scattered, unrelated events but members of a single class: big outcomes that we want control over and for which we are apt to suspect supernatural involvement. Shamans are not

…a pervasive human activity: engaging with the supernatural to control life's uncertainties. Such engagement is at the core of shamanism wherever it occurs. Shamans are believed to summon souls, channel ancestors, and struggle against witches. They call upon spirit familiars who travel across time and space. They leave their bodies to journey to

In short, it is our subjective evaluation of a practice's appeal--and less its real-world impact on our health, fertility, or strength—that often determines whether it sticks around and spreads. Of course, subjective appeal and objective benefits often converge. Hammers, matches, and spears produce material advantages, which is why we continue to

In 2015, the psychologist Bruce Wampold showed that, while some treatments might be better than others, these differences are small compared to the effects of contextual factors, like patient expectations, the relationship with the healer, and a shared understanding of the reason for suffering. Much of healing, whether by Colombian shamans or Johns

The rise of trance, spirit possession, and pastor-shamans is not a fluke in a shamanless end of history. It is a predictable outcome of an unfettered race to provide spiritual relief.

The recurrent emergence of shamanism is not conjecture based on universality; it is informed by our understanding of human psychology and cultural evolution. Our desperation to control uncertainty, our suspicions that agents cause misfortune, our tendency to accept special powers when people move beyond humanness—all of them interact to produce a

The irony is that Enlightenment principles have set shamans free. By insisting on autonomy, tolerance, and a separation of church and state, Enlightenment thinkers have protected ecstatic religions from subjugation while creating open markets for religious services.

The convergent evolution hypothesis suggests that shamanism should be as old as the psychological ingredients that compose it. In fact, each ingredient seems evolutionarily primitive.

The intuition that otherness signals supernatural contact is common.