Korean Shamanism

[hindupridemn]

What distinguishes Korean shamanism from shamanism as practiced by other groups? Does anyone hee know anythiing about Korean shamanism?

 

[Renji]

I don't have an idea on this (since I'm not really a practitioner and I haven't heard about this either in a cultural perspective), though I know some far relatives who practice this one.

 

[Sylvan]

I know quite a bit. There are wide ranging differences between Northern and Southern shamanic practices, the northern being practiced among war refugees. If it still exists in North Korea it is likely extremely underground, as it had been under various neo-confucian dynasties.

It's a very elaborate form of shamanism, primarily involving mediums who are possessed by the spirits of the dead and various elevated spirits of buddhist/animist extraction. The various lineages of the shamans and those families for whom they tend to the dead are intertwined. It should be noted that many in Korea are ashamed to be associated with shamans, and being afflicted with the "spirit-sickness" which necessitates shamanic initiation was for centuries considered to be a source of shame. Their clients are more than happy to pay for their services, but the source of their power is seen as something to be feared, especially since intermarriage in the house of a shaman will ensure that your granddaughters may be afflicted with the "spirit-sickness" as well.

Most people associate the word shamanism with spirit vision or travel. While they use heavy percussive elements to maintain trance they don't travel anywhere.. the spirits come down to them. Kind of reminds me of Vodou or Umbanda, but definitely has it's origins in Siberian tribal traditions. They often maintain huge wardrobes so that all the various spirits will have their outfits and be danced. Very fascinating and beautiful tradition.

Lawrence what can you tell me about these family members?

 

[hindupridemn]

Are any animals in particular considered sacred or taboo?

 

[Renji]

Lawrence what can you tell me about these family members?

I'm not quite sure. I think they contact spirits of nature and such, though I don't know if they do "mediumship" or allowing themselves to be possessed by those spirits.

And yeah, since I'm not a practitioner, I don't know!

 

[Sylvan]

As far as your question about animals I am unsure. They are quite unlike any Native American traditions around animals though. Like many forms of so-called shamanism, they are focused upon working with the spirits of the elevated dead.

Here is a video.
[youtube]SRlUy2dyBQA[/youtube]

I love this music. Wait until she begins singing.
[youtube]neqpTEgilyM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]

 

[Sylvan]

Oh now I see what you mean by taboo animals. I think they can eat whatever they want but probably have to fast on a yearly basis when they go to the mountain. Many of them are also Buddhists however, or will be given periods of eating using strictly Buddhist diet or the diet of a nun due to the influence of some Buddhist spirit. But popular Korean Buddhist dietary practice was far from strict so take that as you will. Some of the spirits are offered pig heads, that I can remember.

a good article

 

[Sylvan]

I'm not quite sure. I think they contact spirits of nature and such, though I don't know if they do "mediumship" or allowing themselves to be possessed by those spirits.

And yeah, since I'm not a practitioner, I don't know!

Interesting. Only the shaman usually is possessed, so this sounds right. What is the opinion of the rest of your (Catholic?) family bout this? There are some interesting features in Korean Catholicism I would attribute to a shamanic influence although they are subtle.

 

[hindupridemn]

I have heard that certain shamanistic tribes in Siberia revere the bear and/or the tiger and since many linguists and ethnologsts beieve the Koreans had thir origin in Siberia I was wondering if thy did also.

 

[Sylvan]

No offense but that's kind of a simplistic way of looking at it. When cultures close to nature revere the spirits of animals they can be doing it (and "we" (aka observers) could be noticing it) for a number of reasons. It could be like heraldry where bear and tiger represent large clans or moieties, and some local shamanic traditions have particular use or taboo regarding parts of those animals, but I've never heard of that in Korea. As far as contemporaneous Korean practice the most i've seen is references to the spirit of a fox in so-and-so woods being the cause of some issue. Prior to the fall of the Goryeo dynasty, there were likely far more of such state-oriented totemic considerations. Neo-confucianism wasn't down.

 

[Renji]

Interesting. Only the shaman usually is possessed, so this sounds right. What is the opinion of the rest of your (Catholic?) family bout this?

Nothing. All I know is they don't practice it or ever will.

There are some interesting features in Korean Catholicism I would attribute to a shamanic influence although they are subtle.

Hmm, I think you're referring to "Folk religiosity", where some aspects of non- Catholic/Christian beliefs, such as belief in spiritism, magic and such are intertwined with Catholic/ Christian practices.

 

[Sylvan]

Actually in particular I am referring to a number of Korean Catholic churches called "Korean Martyrs Catholic Church", and the tendency to create singularities out of larger groups of the dead. You saw this in some of the shamanic ritualism adopted by student protesters during the 80's as well. I should clarify this is a speculation.

 

[Troll_ov_Grimness]

ok I hope what I am about to say doesn't put off the Korean here posting because I am an outsider, white, english, a Canadian from Montreal, and my initial flirtation with the nature of kundalini was first introduced to me through a young girl I had met involved in reiki. She had told me about this and it really entranced me.. her being so pretty and me being a teenager this is easy to understand.. but more than this she was a schizophrenic, and I had been friends with these kinds of people because I was hospitalized as a depressed individual, with problems in school and whatever.. at the time I had been familiar with Anton LaVey and his writings on Satanism. So, I had developed a propensity to be a) atheist (ever since I could think) and b) interested in magic and the occult. It is a particular world-view uncommon in pagan circles. AKA, I was not at all a spiritual person, but I was looking for things that were authentic. As a kid I loved Unsolved Mysteries. and X Files, and Whitley Strieber novels. I loved 'the other-side', the threshold.. I wanted to reach the other-side, when I thought of stuff like big-foot, loc ness monster, aliens, whatever.. 'Lovecraftian' ideas of the other side, the un-location of chaos, when I thought of things from that world, the unknown, coming into our's, it was a feeling, a seeking, that frankly... as a child of the 1990s, I had become addicted to this.

this is my youtube channel where I tell my story
TrollOvGrimness - YouTube (I cant post URLs yet)
Please, give it a listen, these are my musings on korean shamanism
I would greatly appreciate feedback especially from Koreans .

here's an interesting video relating to korean superstitions uploaded by a pair of koreans living in korea... this is superstition according to them.. and I think it is a viewpoint I have some affinity and kinship for .. BEANIEHEAD EP1-Korean Superstitions - YouTube

Now,
I'm going to go over my background very quickly for purposes of reading here..
but I would appreciate being heard on my deeper introspection on this.
a summary is basically this...

So I had heard about reiki from this girl. this was back in the early 2000s.. like 2002 or 2003.. and what had happened was I became interested in this and looked it up online. the way she described it, combined with her mental state.. this is hard to explain but she delivered something more than convincing. ok? now, I had learned that (especially at this time) this would cost a good deal of money to do. 'attunement' costed like $250, and I would have to go back for more 'training' and whatever.. I didn't just want some therapeutic touch treatment, I wanted the whole kit, I wanted to be the reiki practitioner, not just get a 'massage'. but this is the thing and the focus of my point I am getting to is this. when I had looked up Dr. Usui online, and where reiki came from, it was said that he initiated spontaneously. I figured.. I could do this myself, and had conversed with Satanists online who were familiar with the occult and this kind of thing, and were able to confirm this to me that yes, the world is a bigger place than just reiki afterall, and it seemed there were other people who had done this. So that is exactly what I did, I tried to initiate myself, and amazingly it worked. it triggered a dramatic kundalini awakening, and a psychosis and was sent to emergency by my parents after some days without any sleep.

This is exactly what korean shamanism is like
i had learned of this some years later just recently
and when i began to read about it realized that korean shamans initiate through a sacrifice of 'ki', and this 'always' triggers a psychotic episode, a kundalini emergency/awakening. this is psychological fact, there is tons of documented cases of this, and my secular viewpoints, my interest in the paranormal, and my skepticism, came to a dramatic head : i found the real mccoy

this was it. and it was reiki (at the time). but as for my own experience, the way I had initiated myself, really perfectly matches much closer to korean shamanism. I would make the assertion that reiki *really* needs to be understood from the lens of a Japanese person, and not a North American or otherwise western individual. the japanese like the koreans believe in a world inhabited by spirits.. for the japanese it is kami, and is through revering kami that Shintoists receive blessings .

references,
KOREAN SHAMANISM -MUISM by Dr. Kim Tae-kon & Dr. Chang Soo-kyung
KUT : HAPPINESS THROUGH RECIPROCITY by Hyun-key Kim Hogarth
SHAMANISM IN KOREAN CHRISTIANITY by Jang Nam Hyuck
THE SACRED & THE PROFANE by Mircea Eliade
THE SATANIC BIBLE by Anton Szandor LaVey (there is something of interest here to shamanism and reiki)

I have read these books and I would say that my experience and korean shamanism gels with me
It has been amazing coming across this, as the field of misfortune, without the new age hipsterism and puffing up reiki gets

reiki is all roses
but korean shamanism shows those roses have thorns

korean shamanism delves far deeper, and more sincerely and honestly into the occult and spiritism, and kundalini, than reiki and yoga

I have been BLESSED to learn of korean shamanism,
the SINCERITY has deeply relieved me. that I -am- ok.

 

[Troll_ov_Grimness]

Here's an alternative way to understand the nature of korean shamanism as a worldview in which the spirits descend to the newly initiated shaman as opposed to ascending (through drugs or whatever)

Find the trailer for SAVE THE GREEN PLANET! on youtube.. or whatever
playing over the top of that is a punk rendition of Over The Rainbow,
the famous song sung by Judy Garland in the Wizard Of Oz

she sings this song before the tornado comes that sweeps her off to the land of Oz
the beginning of the film is black & white. when she goes to Oz the film becomes colour
try to also find the original song from the Wizard Of Oz movie, and listen to it

feel the 'vibe' of that song.. have some empathy for it

I like to think of korean shamanism this way
they initiate through some kind of combination of the following,
lament and a wish for love
it is said that many korean shamans initiate through a wish for love, and connection

 

[Sylvan]

Not only Korean shamans, but shamans everywhere have the experience of the "shamanic illness".. or more accurately for you: "kundalini burn". I would say there is a good difference between the former and the latter as the former focuses on messages from the spirit world, where as "kundalini burn" distorts and blunts the sphere of subtle sensations in a general way.

You are right at seeing the parallel but there are lots of ways to burn yourself up playing with magic.

 

[Troll_ov_Grimness]

Not only Korean shamans, but shamans everywhere have the experience of the "shamanic illness".. or more accurately for you: "kundalini burn". I would say there is a good difference between the former and the latter as the former focuses on messages from the spirit world, where as "kundalini burn" distorts and blunts the sphere of subtle sensations in a general way.

You are right at seeing the parallel but there are lots of ways to burn yourself up playing with magic.

on the topic of korean shamanism in particular it was said in Kut : Happiness Through Reciprocity that korean shamans initiate through a sacrifice of 'ki'. and Dr. Chang Soo-kyung had done lots of research into korean shamanism initiation illness. which she said 'resembled a psychotic episode'. when it had actually happened to me i didn't know anything about korean shamanism nor kundalini awakening. reiki enthusiasts don't tell you that this can happen. they also really downplay it in yoga, so you often won't hear of it

 

[Sylvan]

reiki enthusiasts don't tell you that this can happen. they also really downplay it in yoga, so you often won't hear of it

Well they are selling something, so its not really in their interests to do so. Also such a low percentage of people will have these kinds of problems outside of really serious practice I imagine some will never encounter it. Reiki likes to consider itself designed to handle problems like this with energy work, and who's to say.. could you have been doing something wrong..? if the instructor or the person giving you the attunement sucked or something? Oh wait you didn't have a person giving you the attunement and you did it yourself? Do you maybe see why people get other people to teach them stuff like this in person, even if it costs $$*? DIY books are ok for your bathroom sink (maybe not.. depends how good you read the book) but in my opinion for our subtle bodies they are pretty lousy.

In the case of Korean shamanism I think saying that the illness is due to a sacrifice of ki is a little presumptive. Although I can see how they would say that. The distinction from how the illness affects Korean shamans is quite different. If you were having visions of your ancestors or spirit generals/priests/dignitaries dressed in period Confucian official garb.. and these visions were causing you to wander in the mountains neurotically performing cleansing rites and visiting Buddhist shrines... then I'd say it was quite possible you were experiencing the shamanic illness Korean style.

Also- re: your friend. Crazy people who are into energy work get leaky, so consider you may have picked up a bit of whatever is affecting her. Or perhaps experienced how she acquired it in the first place. From you videos I don't quite understand. How do you feel that studying Korean shamanism has given you an attunement? Do you think you are practicing this?? One important detail I should mention is that in the Korean tradition for men to be called is EXTREMELY rare and when they do the male initiate must wear female undergarments even if he is dressed as a male spirit.

I couldn't disagree with you more or on this Shinto vs. Buddhism thing. Also a lot of your historical characterization is pretty weird. Korean shamanism is indeed a vibrant living tradition, for which I have much respect and have studied in depth, but there are plenty of charlatans and many people in Korean society have a TERRIBLE opinion of them. First by looking down on them as the lowest rungs of the Confucian social strata: next to prostitutes and merchants, then later by viewing them as Satanic when 70%+ of the country became Presbyterians. Many many shamans were forced by their families to have their spirits exorcised, not so much for the sake of their souls but because having a shaman as a mother/sister/wife/etc was a great embarrassment. Not to mention that the entire northern half of the tradition either moved to the south as refugees, continue in extreme secrecy, or more likely were systematically slaughtered or "re-educated" by the North Korean government.

I am all for doing what you are doing.. mindfully experimenting with these matters. Its how I got started. Continue. But what you are talking isn't Korean shamanism...or Reiki I would say.. it is a personal practice informed by both. But also by Eliade (who I have fallen FAR out of love with but we can talk about that elsewhere**), Reich (who totally ruled. follow that... ), and maybe some anime you watched?

*BTW 250$ seems real steep. Look for the students and one will give you the first for like 40-50$ and that's all you need.

**Please check out Huttons 'Shamans'

Yay I'mma post this video again.

[youtube]neqpTEgilyM&feature=related[/youtube]

 

[Troll_ov_Grimness]

Spirit-growth through the infilling of 'ki' was collaborated in both the book by Jang Nam Hyuck as well as by Hyun-key Kim Hogarth . I do not own those two books but had borrowed them from the library. In the book by Dr. Kim Tae-kon it was said that korean shamans initiate, triggering some kind of psychotic lapse (which I could only guess is kundalini syndrome), and then the shaman returns to the ritual chamber on a regular basis for spirit growth.. said to 'reinforce spiritual power'. Although the book by Dr. Kim Tae-kon does not explicitly mention 'ki', I can cite two korean films in which that word is mentioned, which would to me point to the high-probability that it plays an important role in shamanism.

'Yoga Academy'
'Secret Sunshine'

I consider my appropriation of korean shamanic ethos about as authentic as the westernized tradition of reiki

I am aware that I am an outsider from the korean tradition but what I am emphasizing is the possibility that the korean tradition holds more water than the tradition reiki supposedly stems from. Reiki is an enigma. It would seem to have come out of Shinto but it's historicity is highly suspect. Korean shamanism doesn't have this problem of lack of much historicity- it has plenty of it.

I simply feel personally that it is a good match for what I experienced
and was happy to have found out about it .

also,
the charismatic mudang/paksu initiate outside of any family tradition
kangshinmu
these are the ones who have the psychotic lapse and kundalini syndrome

Another thing I should emphasize is that the shamans who have had this experience are considered the better for it
but many koreans prefer the hereditary shamans since they know all the right ceremonial procedures
it should also be noted that hereditary shamans function as priests, and are not considered to be shamans in the same sense that the kangshinmu are
all hereditary shaman groups enjoy the company of at least one to several kangshinmu


My research into korean shamanism is as legitimate as your own

Please take especial note that the nature of 'ki' is an idea that exists across asia

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his history of spiritualism writes,

In his first vision Swedenborg speaks of "a kind of vapour steaming from the pores of my body. It was a most visible watery vapour and fell downwards to the ground upon the carpet." This is a close description of that ectoplasm which we have found to be the basis of all physical phenomena. The substance has also been called "ideoplasm," because it takes on in an instant any shape with which it is impressed by the spirit. In this case it changed, according to his account, into vermin, which was said to be a sign from his Guardians that they disapproved of his diet, and was accompanied by a clairaudient warning that he must be more careful in that respect.

Air and ether being all around us, it is as if some men could breathe more ether and less air and so attain a more etheric state. This, no doubt, is a crude and clumsy way of putting it, but some such idea runs through the work of many schools of psychic thought. Laurence Oliphant, who had no obvious connexion with Swedenborg, wrote his book "Sympneumata" in order to explain it. The Indian system of Yoga depends upon the same idea. But anyone who has seen an ordinary medium go into trance is aware of the peculiar hissing intakes with which the process begins and the deep expirations with which it ends. A fruitful field of study lies there for the Science of the future. Here, as in other psychic matters, caution is needed. The author has known several cases where tragic results have followed upon an ignorant use of deep-breathing psychic exercises. Spiritual, like electrical power, has its allotted use, but needs some knowledge and caution in handling.

 

[Troll_ov_Grimness]

Nothing. All I know is they don't practice it or ever will.




Hmm, I think you're referring to "Folk religiosity", where some aspects of non- Catholic/Christian beliefs, such as belief in spiritism, magic and such are intertwined with Catholic/ Christian practices.

this is something I have read about. like, shamans leading Christian congregations, and interpreting the gospel in such a way that they saw the infilling of the holy spirit as 'ki' energy, and they're concerned with the charisms spoken of Corinthians, such as... speaking in tongues, which the shamans interpret as mediumship.. which it is

an understanding of where Christianity came from is important to understand how Christian demonization of spirits happened.

ancient greek/roman pagans worshipped daemons, much like the Japanese worship kami

daemon later morphed into demon, and former gods like Lucifer were placed with the denizens of Hell, which is the underworld.. Hades.

Do you see how Christianity,
as a religion,
is really confusing?

 

[Sylvan]

triggering some kind of psychotic lapse (which I could only guess is kundalini syndrome), and then the shaman returns to the ritual chamber on a regular basis for spirit growth.. said to 'reinforce spiritual power'.

This is fine. I would argue for subtler distinctions between something occurring in a culturally-agreed upon context (the shamanic illness) and something happening when a culture bound practice (kundalini yoga) leaves that context.

I'll get back to this later as I'm on my way to work but I meant no disrespect. I would encourage you to study as much as you can from whatever sources you feel inspired to get a context for your own experience. Much as I would discourage anyone from saying they are somehow involved in Korean shamanism unless they went to Korea and got legitimate initiation and training from a shaman there.

I consider my appropriation of korean shamanic ethos about as authentic as the westernized tradition of reiki

I quite agree with you. However, since Reiki has obviously taken on a life of its own in newage spiritual circles, I feel in some way it has become a different thing from whatever it was originally in Japan. Have you read much about Japanese New Religious Movements? You may find the roots of Reiki somewhere there.