Mircea Eliade has argued that ancient peoples viewed the world as existing in two domains, the domain of sacred space and the domain of profane space.
The word profane means common. Profane space is the everyday, ordinary world of time and space. Profane space is the world as it is in its natural state, the common world. As such, it has no special order or significance to it (Eliade, Sacred and Profane 20). In this ordinary world, people live their lives without regard for any special significance to their surroundings.
Ever try to imagine what exists outside the universe? The sacred world is that other world, the world beyond the universe, the "something" on the other side of everything we know. When the sacred enters the "real world," that sacred space is ordered, a reflection of the cosmos, connected to the transcendent (Eliade, Sacred and Profane 20).
When a sacred space or object appears in the natural world, it opens a person up to the transcendent. In the Old Testament, when Jacob stops to sleep on his way to his uncle Laban's, he has a vision of a ladder reaching into heaven and angels ascending and descending it. On awakening, he says, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (KJV, Genesis 28.17). He marks the place with a pillar of stone and calls it Beth-El or the House of God. Jacob saw that place as a connection to the infinite and eternal realm of God (KJV, Genesis 28).
Because of this, people's behavior is often ritualistic in a sacred space, different from their everyday behavior. They may speak of a sense of reverence or quiet meditation. However, they define it, people recognize that entrance into this sacred space allows them to tap into the transcendent for renewal and regeneration.
The Shaman
In the most general sense, a shaman is a person who can move between the sacred and profane worlds. Natsu Hattori, in The Oxford Companion to the Body, writes
In their trances, shamans are able to communicate with the dead, and with demons, nature spirits, and the elements, without becoming subject to them. They speak secret or otherworldly languages, and, in the soul's 'magical flight', they can travel immense distances, ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld. Shamans cure illnesses, accompany the dead to the next world, and serve as mediators between people and the gods. They form a small mystical elite which directs the community's religious life and guards its 'soul' (Hattori, par. 2).
Universal characteristics of shamanism
- Belief in spirit world, mostly spirits in animal form, that can affect humans - The shaman controls or cooperates with these spirits to benefit the community.
- Shaman's ability to enter a trance state through various means in order to leave the body and enter the supernatural world.
- Shaman's capacity for treating disease (particularly psychosomatic) and assisting community members with "difficulties and problems"