PSYCHOTECHNOLOGIES

Term used byMircea Eliadeto refer to the strategies shamans use toalter states of consciousnessand thereby achieve “ecstasy”—fromdrummingand dancing to fasting andchanting, alongside other forms of sensorydeprivation andoverstimulation—but Eliade was dismissive ofentheogenuse, erroneously seeing this as a degenerate practice. Since such “psychotechnologies” might easily be associated with other religious practices as well, they should not be overemphasized as indicative of “shamanism,” with recent trends focusing more on what shamans do in their engagements withother-than-human persons.