In the course of this paper, I will try to present the different aspects of mysticism in order to discuss whether or not Shamanism should be considered as a typewhich is under the umbrella term mysticism. Through the second half of the paper, my focus will be on the language and its usage in mysticism and as well as in Shamanism. While I am arguing about Shamanism, I will use some parts of Singing Story Healing Drum which is a book about Shamanic and oral culture. With the help of the theoretical background, I will try to show that Shamanism and its practices are entirely included in mysticism.
Before stating other aspects of mysticism, it would be a good start to mention the term experience at first. Since in mysticism the only way for the knowledge of Absolute is experience, other terms of mysticism can be presented by relating to experience. There is no other way to experience that knowledge of absolute except being initiated to it. This initiation of mystic is a direct, individual experience and this experience is unique to every mystic. The important thing is that mystic’s experience is not a kind of observation. Because, observation causes you to put distance between you and what you observe.
In the initiation of the mystic, it is very important to mention that the state of the mystic is not called as hallucinating, dreaming or going crazy. Even if it is hard to understand it from today’s perspective, it is an experience within a different kind of consciousness. While the mystic initiating into mysticism, he experiences the most inner reality. There is no question, no definition. It is directly an experience. Even he himself does not know how to define. He may ask “What is this? What am I?” However, he asks himself here. Even though he could go crazy, he does not. Like in the ocean, mystic is not standing on any ground. He cannot stay where he used to be before, he is moved from his normal consciousness to a mystic’s consciousness. Just like this, Shaman’s journey is taken within the consciousness. He reaches another kind of consciousness in the experience but it is also the ability to stay conscious during the journey.
Another aspect of the mystic’s experience is to grasp or to feel the unity. With the help of experience of God, Other or Absolute, mystic can reach the state that everything is a unity and he/she experiences the All. This word All really means all material and immaterial, visible and invisible, worldly and supernatural. In Shamanism, the idea of unity is also involved, because there is no difference between material and immaterial, visible and invisible for Shaman, once he initiates. In the rituals, Shaman uses his body as a channel to connect visible and invisible in order to make a contact with the spirits. Shaman himself takes a mental journey during the Shamanic ritual and this mental journey is not different from a physical journey. Because Shaman does not distinguish material from immaterial, and when you stop distinguishing them then there is no difference between a mental journey and a physical journey.
Like a rebirth, mystic’s life totally changes, his daily life is redefined, because when he is initiated, his way of sensing also changes. The senses of the mystic are not like as they were used to be. Because the mystic has changed, and he is not like as he was used to be. The mystic changes, moves after every experience. He cannot stay at the same point where he is initiated. In one sense, this new way of sensing is related to unity of consciousness, because there is no distinction between the objective and subjective reality in the way of his sensing, seeing. His subjective reality is the most objective reality, and it exists. During his experience there is a storytelling taking place, Shaman experiences and sees the reality during the storytelling.
In order to grasp the story and the reality, there are lots of props getting involved in this storytelling of Shaman. Shaman brings the characters of the story via his body which serves the sight of the audience. Also, costumes and fire are used for the visualization of the story. There are music and instruments which stand up for sense of hearing. Music, instruments, poems are really important to convey the story because in Shamanism landscape is a soundscape. There is a difference between sound and sight. Sight comes from one direction at a time, but as opposed to it, sound gathers event simultaneously from all directions. Since the storytelling is not just telling or showing, it is all of them. Shamanic storytelling is an involvement, it is not passive, it has a movement. Because audience involves in a kind of experience via Shaman, storytelling has to work with all senses in order to pull the audience in the story.
In Shamanism, it is important to see that space, sound, vision are not grasped as we understand them today. As I have said, the movement is important for Shaman and landscape as a soundscape serves this movement more or less. On the other hand, this different way of sensing the world is not just about space and sound, they have also a different understanding of sense of time. In the story which is titled as “The Igıl” in Singing Song Healing Drum, we can see easily the changing sense of time after the mystic initiates. Even if it takes many years, the mystic hasn’t aged. In the Shamanic context, Shaman can travel all cosmos and he comes back as it took one hour.
I would like to state Raymond Nelson’s definition of mysticism for a better understanding of Shamanism as a way of living. Nelson says that “In its largest sense, mysticism is a way of life, art, and worship based upon an intuitive knowledge of mystery- the ‘mystery’ of the nature of the universe, or God, or ‘Reality’” (Nelson 3). As it is presented above, the center of mysticism is the mystical experience to reach the Unity and experience is nothing but an act. How can one claim that mysticism is only a philosophy? Since its center is acting and experiencing, this can easily lead us to claim that mysticism is a way of living. In my opinion, Shamanism and its rituals fit in this general definition of Nelson. Hence, it would not be wrong if I claim that Shamanism and its rituals are the ways of art, life, and worship at the same time.
Since I am writing on Shamanism and claiming about it by comparing with mysticism in general, I have to consider that Shamanism is an oral culture and the main aspect to work on has to be the role of the language. First of all, we speak about mysticism and Shamanism based on the experience, then there has to be a transfer from mystic to people about his experience. Otherwise, we would not know about it, because the experience of the mystic is an individual experience. Since he speaks about it and redirects his experience from personal to the social, mystic’s individual experience becomes historically and culturally important events. Instead of one-to-one secret relationship with The Other, it turns into public. In other words, his joining with The Other will join with others. Experience is always defined as culturally, and in oral culture language is the most important way of it. Hence, there are ways of using the language for different functions. First of them is language as transformation, it is the kind that transcends the word itself. Language as transformation does not describe, it transforms words in act. Actually the point is what it does instead of what it says. We do not take word’s initial meaning into account and word is used as only a tool. This is actually where language is broken down, and also reality is. While the mystic is speaking about his experience by transcending the words, he also transcends the ordinary meaning of the words.
In mysticism, language has a kind of power which is really different than as we use it today. Steven Katz says in his book Mysticism and Language:
“Mantras, koans, mystical alphabets and lexicons, ascent texts, prayers, the repetition of scripture, the recitation of religious poetry, and still other linguistic acts embody a primal, radiant, metaphysical energy. They incorporate and encapsulate a dynamic power, the dynamic power, that enlivens the entire cosmic order. By deciphering their meaning, by utilizing their potential, the mystical personality is empowered to alter its own nature and fate. . . (24)”
In Shamanism, words are not things, but actions, occurrences, events. You can manipulate people with words. Words are powerful, it can unite people in a group. Also, in Shamanism people have the idea of soul as a center of cosmology, and everything is imbued with spirits: animal, rock, people,etc. Shamans have a general part in metaphysical nature of things, for example they know mountain spirit, river spirit, animal spirit, etc. Thus their existence depends on the ability to interact in nature. In the “Seventy Languages” story in Singing Story Healing Drum, he chooses to learn animal language rather than accepting gold as a reward. Nature is the very reality that they connect with and they have to find ways to interact with it. And language as a power functions like a weapon, or a tool.
Besides, naming is very important in Shamanic culture and it is a good example of using language as power. Because name has a sort of effect on the person to whom it belongs. In The Book of Dede Korkut, we frequently see this way of usage of language. After a special case, Dede Korkut names the person who deserves the name by showing his virtue. In Shamanism, we also have many examples of language used as an act. In the story “Algysh For A New Drum”, we see the Shaman who tries to get the drum. He is doing this by poetry and it is a good example to grasp why shamans need words.
Language as information is also the very common way to use language while the mystic is speaking about his experience. Basically, the reason that he speaks about his experience is to share that experience and the inner truth with others. Hence, the information which is transported via language can be the main aim of the public who cannot experience it directly. Otherwise there would not be a transformation from mystic to people and in that case how could we know and talk about mystic’s experience.
In my view, the aspects of mysticism and Shamanism overlap in many ways as far as I tried to present throughout the paper. In general I claim that Shamanism is a type of mysticism and also a way of living, because it is far away from being comprised of doctrines, it is based on experience. This main point makes it and acting, experiencing, living. On the other hand, Shamanism is nourished from language, because it is an oral culture. And this makes the role of language very important. Thus I have tried to give examples from language usage in Shamanism in order to see the similarities between mysticism and Shamanism clearly. Especially the language functions in Shamanic stories and rituals can be counted as the examples of the different ways of language usage in mysticism.
Works Cited
Katz, Steven T. “Mystical Speech and Mystical Meaning.” Mysticism and Language. Ed.
Steven T. Katz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 3-41.
Nelson, Raymond. “ Mysticism and the Problems of Mystical Literature.” Rocky Mountain
Review of Language and Literature. 30/1 (1976): 1-26.
The Book of Dede Korkut: A Turkish Epic. Trans. Faruk Sümer, Ahmet E. Uysal [and]
Warren S. Walker. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972.
Van Deusen, Kira. Singing Story Healing Drum: Shamans and Storytellers of Turkic Siberia.
Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004. Print.
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