Spiritual leaders or healers in indigenous cultures who are believed to communicate with the spiritual world and heal people using rituals and plant medicines.
From Russian 'shaman,' borrowed from Tungus (a Siberian language) 'šaman.' The word entered European languages in the 1600s as explorers encountered these practitioners in Asia.
Modern neuroscientists have discovered that many shamanic practices actually affect brain chemistry and healing in measurable ways—what looked like magic was sometimes sophisticated psychological and herbal medicine.
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