Old, Mysterious Photos of Shamans, Mystics, and Medicine Men

 The Ghost Diaries has posted a collection of old, mysterious photos of shamans, mystics, and medicine men.

Throughout prehistoric times and even in some of today’s remote tribal cultures, shamans and ‘medicine men’ have sought to uncover the mysteries of consciousness and the universe. They did so by appealing to spirits in a practice called animism. In many languages, the word for spirit is the same word used for breath.

The shaman was considered a healer between the natural and spiritual world. He used spells and incantations to drive away the gods or spirits thought to be responsible for people’s illnesses. In order to tap into this unseen dimension of Mana, or life force, shamans used the ecstatic techniques of dreams, visions, and trances. Today, we scoff at most non-scientific methods of understanding reality, but for the people who lived for thousands of years before us, it was a pathway to truth.

Maybe–like with the Hindi cultures that understood certain principles of quantum physics through mystic philosophy long before we did–there are darker realities still to be dug up from our inner psyche that can answer our questions. Read more