Shaminism universal?

I go with the first possibility:
One explanation holds that shamans are beta-versions of modern healers... Their expertise ... extends from the physical to the psychological. This happens because many tribal cultures do not differentiate between the material and mental in the same way that modern science often does...
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I'd qualify that by saying our modern healers are beta-versions of the shaman, after all, they were there first.

Also the 'do not differentiate between the material and mental' is another modernist take. I don't think the mental was ever a big deal in the ancient world, rather it was the spiritual and the physical. Even in my time I can recall people regarding someone who today would be placed on one spectrum or another as 'touched' ...

The shaman was an holistic healer. The culture was an holistic culture. Not so today.

In the UK, the average doctor's visit is numbered in a handful of minutes. Less than 10. The British Medical Association is heading for a 15-minute norm, but reckon it will be in the 2080s before we reach that target.

A (paid) visit to an alternative therapist is somewhere between an hour to an hour-and-a-half. Some critics have pointed out that the time alone is therapeutic enough and is more effective than the actual treatment! Not sure I agree with the latter point, but I do see the healing value of someone willing to listen without half an eye on the computer, half an ear on the phone, etc., etc.
 
Thomas said:
The shaman was an holistic healer. The culture was an holistic culture. Not so today.

In the UK, the average doctor's visit is numbered in a handful of minutes. Less than 10. The British Medical Association is heading for a 15-minute norm, but reckon it will be in the 2080s before we reach that target.

A (paid) visit to an alternative therapist is somewhere between an hour to an hour-and-a-half. Some critics have pointed out that the time alone is therapeutic enough and is more effective than the actual treatment! Not sure I agree with the latter point, but I do see the healing value of someone willing to listen without half an eye on the computer, half an ear on the phone, etc., etc.
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My doctor was once fired by an HMO run medical center for not following proper protocol. It seems that even after repeated warnings, he refused to limit patient visits to no more than 15 minutes. That was quite some time ago. He's a private practitioner now, but proudly tells that story whenever he's asked.

That's how it is with him. He's one of the finest doctors I've ever know, but during a visit to his office, he'll likely talk about everything, but your condition. At times it's as though he's more interested in what's going on in your life than he is your actual ailment. I asked him about that once and he told me that he treats the whole person, not just their physical symptoms and that in his view this was a major part of the healing process. One largely ignored by modern medicine.

All I know is, after a visit to his office, I always feel better. Even if, medically speaking, he's done relatively nothing. I called him one day when my BP was spiking. Yes, he answers his own phone. We talked about that for all of 2 minutes and something else completely unrelated for another 15. I checked my pressure afterwards and it was normal.
 
I thought I’d throw this out here, in the very large expanse of the Amazon, where many tribes were separated and had not communicated with each other, all had the knowledge of ayahuasca. The pharmacological principle of ayahuasca, is a plant with a b carboline alkaloid/s that have monoamine oxidase inhibition activity, and a plant that contains dmt. Now dmt is not orally active, so only the temporary inhibition of mao makes the dmt orally active. When ethnobotanists asked the diverse tribes how they had discovered the principle of ayahuasca, all being separate, they all basically replied with the same answer: “the plants told us”.
 
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