Soul travel 3477916 208070821 2008-04-25T09:01:50Z Physis 822864 /* Waiwai */ Rm self-referent link '''Soul Travel''' is the belief that when one [[sleep]]s, their [[Soul]] leaves its body and seeks spiritual lessons in the [[Soul Plane]]s, or [[heaven]] as [[Christian]]s would call it. Soul Travel is a key element in the religion of [[Eckankar]]. They believe that there are many different Temples that Souls go to in higher Planes, to learn their religion The phrase (or similar expression) may denote also a motif, treated in the anthropological or ethnographic literature of cultures with [[Shamanism|shamanistic]] features. Details may vary: even the mere notion of shamanism is debated sometimes, and in all cases, the cultures described as “shamanistic” are far from being alike.<ref>Hoppál 2005: 15</ref> Diversity can be observed even among linguistically related peoples, like [[shamanism among Eskimo peoples]]. == Some Eskimo peoples == An example for soul travel motif recorded in some [[Eskimo]] groups (admitting that in other cultures, the motif can vary): there are people who are believed to have special capabilities, these people can "travel" to (mythological) remote places, and report their experiences afterwards. The informations they report are things which are important for their fellows or to the entire community: how to stop calamities, bad luck in hunting, cure a sick person etc,<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985: 7–8, 12, 23–24,26, 27–29, 30, 31</ref><ref>Merkur 1985: 4–6</ref> in summary: things that are important, but unavailable to people with normal (non-shamansic) capabilities.<ref>Hoppál 1975: 228</ref> == Waiwai == Also the ''yaskomo'' of the [[Wai-Wai people|Waiwai]] is believed to be able to perform a soul flight. The soul flight can serve several functions: * healing * flying to the sky to consult cosmological beings (the moon or the brother of the moon) to get a name for a new-born baby * flying to the cave of ''peccaries' mountains'' to ask the ''father of peccaries'' for abundance of game * flying deep down in a river, to achieve the help of other beings. Thus, a yaskomo is believed to be able to reach sky, erth, water, in short, every element.<ref name="yaskomo soul flight">Fock 1963: 16</ref> == Notes == <references/> == References == * {{cite book |last=Fock |first=Niels |title=Waiwai. Religion and society of an Amazonian tribe |series=Nationalmuseets skrifter, Etnografisk Række (Ethnographical series), VIII |publisher=The National Museum of Denmark |location=Copenhagen |year=1963}} * {{cite book |last=Hoppál |first=Mihály |editor=Hajdú, Péter |title=Uráli népek. Nyelvrokonaink kultúrája és hagyományai |year=1975 |publisher=Corvina Kiadó |location=Budapest |language=Hungarian |isbn=963 13 0900 2 |pages=211–233 |chapter=Az uráli népek hiedelemvilága és a samanizmus}} The title means: “Uralic peoples / Culture and traditions of our linguistic relatives”; the chapter means “The belief system of Uralic peoples and the shamanism”. * {{cite book |last=Hoppál |first=Mihály |title=Sámánok Eurázsiában |year=2005 |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |location=Budapest |language=Hungarian |isbn=963-05-8295-3 2}} The title means “Shamans in Eurasia”, the book is written in Hungarian, but it is published also in German, Estonian and Finnish. [http://www.akkrt.hu/main.php?folderID=906&pn=2&cnt=31&catID=&prodID=17202&pdetails=1 Site of publisher with short description on the book (in Hungarian)] *{{cite book |last=Kleivan |first=Inge |coauthors=B. Sonne |title=Eskimos: Greenland and Canada |year=1985 |publisher=Institute of Religious Iconography • State University Groningen. E.J. Brill |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |series=Iconography of religions, section VIII, "Arctic Peoples", fascicle 2 |isbn=90-04-07160-1}} *{{cite book |last=Merkur |first=Daniel |title=Becoming Half Hidden: Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit |year=1985 |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell |location=Stockholm |series: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis • Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion |isbn=91-22-00752-0}} ==See also== [[Bilocation]] [[Astral projection]] {{religion-stub}} [[Category:Shabd paths]] [[Category:Shamanism]] [[de:Seelenreise]]