Shamanism: a biopsychosocial paradigm of consciousness and healing

1. Introduction to Shamanism and consciousness Introduction: Shamanism and the alteration of consciousness A neurophenomenological approach to consciousness Consciousness and altered states of consciousness: a reconceptualization Biological bases of the integrative mode of consciousness An evolutionary biological approach to shamanism Conclusions: visionary experience as a neuroepistemological system

2. The nature and basis of shamanism : cross-cultural, linguistic and prehistorical perspectives The phenomena of Shamanism The classic shaman The shaman as a cross-cultural phenomenon The "Shamanism controversy" The sociocultural evolution of shamanic potentials Linguistic roots and survivals of Shamanism in Indo-European languages Indo-European magico-religious linguistic roots Shamanic roots in Hinduism and Buddhism Magico-religious structures in Indo-European societies Roots of Indo-European medicine Shamanic elements in origins of mystical traditions The ancient presence of Shamanism in pre-proto Indo-European societies The Shamanic paradigm in cave art The origins of modern human cognition Mimesis and the expansion of the ritual capacity Social and psychodynamic functions of Shamanic ritual Conclusions: Shamanism and neurognostic potentials

3. Consciousness in system perspectives The nature of consciousness Etymological roots of consciousness Consciousness as a system Forms of symbolic consciousness: representational and presentational Presentational symbolism: imagery and action Mimesis: the body as metaphor Social consciousness: others in self and mind forms of self-agents and consciousness The guardian spirit quest Death and rebirth as self-development analogical thought and metaphor in shamanism Animism and analogical processes Shamanic flight: the out-of-body experience The biological bases of the out-of-body experience Conclusions: shamanic consciousness as special knowledge

4. The integrative mode of consciousness Introduction: different states of consciousness in the integrative mode of consciousness Shamanistic SoC in the IMC Shamanistic states of consciousness Music and drumming Incorporating "dreamtime" into Shamanic consciousness Inhibition of natural drives "Sacred medicines": the hallucinogens as psychointegrators Meditative states of consciousness Neurophenomenological perspectives on meditative commonalities Contemplative views of the postformal development of consciousness Possession states of consciousness A diversity of possessions Social and physiological correlates of possession Possession and dissociative identity disorders Brain conditions of possession and dissociation Functional aspects of integrative consciousness

5. Shamanistic therapies Introduction: bases for Shamanistic therapies Altering consciousness as a basis for Shamanistic therapies The IMC as a healing modality Stress and its psychophysiological dynamics Dance and music as core Shamanic therapy Psychointegration: the therapeutic effects of sacred medicines Meditation as biopsychosocial therapy The Spirit World as a therapeutic resource: symbolic healing Spirits as representations of mental and social processes Psychoneuroimmunology Symbolic healing through metaphor Biosocialization and symbolic penetration Shamanistic healing and the self Possession illness and therapy Community rituals: social relations and well-being The functional efficacy of ritual Physiology of community bonding: endogenous opioid releasers Neuroanatomical bases of ritual healing

6. Evolutionary origins of shamanic ritual

Ritual and evolution

Play and ritual

ritual processes in the great apes: baselines for hominin ritual

Religion and ritual capacities in chimpanzees

Homologies of chimpanzee displays and Shamanic ritual

the coevolution of healing and religiosity

Hypnosis as a foundation for religious healing

Placebo responses as endogenous healing mechanisms

Attachment and cooperation as functions o religious ideology

Human evolution and the alteration of consciousness

Human evolution and drug use: mismatch or adaptation?

Human-chimpanzee differences in drug metabolism and neurotransmitter systems

Evolution of serotonergic systems

Bipedalism and mystical experience: the runner's high

Music and the origins of Shamanic ritual

Spirit assumptions as adaptive mechanisms

The supernatural and the symbolic

Shamanism and human evolution

Preadaptations and evolutionary developments of Shamanic healing.