The Work of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies

Beyond scheduled training courses, the FSS has initiated a wide range of projects and programs for the study, preservation, teaching, and application of shamanic knowledge. Results from these strategic programs are incorporated into FSS courses worldwide.

Shaman

Shaman
To Preserve and Revive Indigenous Shamanism
The FSS has a network of specialists in shamanism throughout the world to help save indigenous shamanic knowledge in imminent danger of being lost. The FSS also responds to requests from native peoples to help revive and maintain their own shamanic traditions.

To date, the FSS has sent basic training teams to the Republic of Tuva, China, Siberia, Samiland, Australia, Canada, the northeastern United States and Alaska. The Foundation is actively engaged in preservation work in Nepal, Siberia, China, Central Asia, the Amazon, and elsewhere.

Scholarship rebates are available to Native Americans on federally recognized tribal rolls for all FSS workshops.

Our Living Treasures designation provides an annual lifetime stipend to exceptionally distinguished indigenous shamans in less-developed countries where their age-old knowledge of shamanism and shamanic healing is in danger of extinction. Special care is given to providing the economic assistance necessary to allow these Living Treasures to pass on their knowledge to their people.

Examples of these Living Treasures honored by the FSS are:

  • a Daur shaman of Inner Mongolia, China ... read more...
  • one of the last known Tibetan shamans recently passed ... read more...
  • a Yaminahua shaman in the Upper Amazon
  • a Camaiura shaman in Central Brazil
  • a Nanay shaman and an Ulchi shaman, both in Siberia
  • a shaman in the Republic of Tuva
  • and a Buriat shaman in Siberia.
  • a shaman of the Kofán people of the Colombian Amazon ... read more...

Urgent Indigenous Assistance
Helping to preserve shamanism where it is being threatened, and assisting its revival when invited, are critical dimensions of the Foundation's mission. This work is accomplished largely through the Foundation's extensive international network of Field Associates and Faculty who are now operating on five continents.

Research on Shamanic Healing
The Foundation studies the effectiveness of shamanic healing methods to help deal with illness and other problems of daily life. Significant findings become incorporated in the training offered to medical doctors, psychotherapists, and others through the Foundation's educational programs. A critical part of this work is accomplished through the Shamanism and Health Program, where the Foundation engages in research in a progressing effort to find how shamanic practices complement mainstream medicine.

The Mapping of Nonordinary Reality (MONOR)
The Foundation is involved in a long-term project to develop the world's foremost database of cross-cultural accounts of shamanic journeys, near-death, and other nonordinary explorations. These research materials are being used to begin to construct a map of the hidden universe discovered and rediscovered by shamans and others through the ages, independent of culture. The results of this ambitious project are expected to challenge orthodox scientific definitions of reality.

Reviving Shamanism in the West and East
Developing courses and offering serious training is a top priority of the Foundation, and it currently offers more than 200 courses to thousands of individuals annually. The Foundation also sponsors and financially supports grassroots shamanic training in new geographic areas throughout the world. Introducing individuals to the direct and democratic spirituality of shamanism continues to be one of the most important and broad-based efforts the Foundation can make toward healing humankind and its relations with the Planet and its other inhabitants.

Discoveries made through all projects in the work of the FSS have an interactive relationship and together they contribute to pushing forward the boundaries of knowledge -- knowledge that is then passed on to people worldwide through FSS workshops and training courses. We invite you to become part of this worldwide effort.