ABSTRACT
Shamans are socially designated practitioners who purport to deliberately alter their consciousness to obtain information or exert influence in ways useful to their social group, and in ways not ordinarily available to their peers. From a philosophical standpoint, presumptive parapsychological phenomena in shamanic practices differ from 'supernatural' or 'miraculous' phenomena. Eyewitness observations date back to Bogoras who made an intensive study of the Chuckchee Eskimos at the turn of the last century. Adrian Boshier, an amateur South African anthropologist who refused to take medication for his epileptic seizures, found that these seizures attracted the attention of the local natives who saw them as 'signs' that he should become an apprentice for extensive training. Giesler conducted several studies, each carried out with a different group of Afro-Brazilian 'shamanic cultists'. Giesler's and Saklani's studies are among the few experimental parapsychological investigations to have been made of native practitioners who claim to have anomalous abilities.
