Techniques to Ecstasy

“A shaman is the only human being able to challenge the danger and venture into a mystical geography ...“ or so wrote Mircea Eliade, former professor at the Sorbonne and University of Chicago. Well, if I begin in the territory of “mystical geography“ where could I possibly go from there? My own adventure seemed less dangerous. I went to meet a shaman named Hiah Park, a Korean mudang. She’s a dancer like me; and thus, a kindred spirit. We met on common ground to speak of different worlds.

I first encountered Hiah Park at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg where she spoke about her initiation as part of a series of talks on shamanism. This word now evokes strange images of magic and medicine men, but traditionally a shaman was an integral part of a community. Versed in the arts and the art of healing, they were intermediaries between the people and the world of the spirit. In the setting of a museum Hiah Park was presented as a curiosity: a remnant of our ancient past possessing a certain anthropological interest. What actually confronted me was someone undeniably, stubbornly valid and as she spoke (in English, her adopted tongue) I became fascinated by her frankness and her ...