Shamanism

Shamans enter altered states such as trance to deal with the spirit world, and were believed to heal the sick, divine, speak with spirits and escort the souls of the dead to the afterlife. A Buryat epic tells of the first shaman, Kara-Gürgän, who could create life.

The word shaman itself comes from a Tungusic language, probably Evenki or Manchu, and reached English via Russian. The Dutch statesman Nicolaes Witsen carried it to western Europe in his book of 1692.