THE 21ST CENTURY SHAMAN
THE 21ST CENTURY SHAMAN Alternate Medicines and the Scientific Method by Norman Spinrad Written over a decade ago as a proposal for a book that never got written but all too pertinent to the era of the coronavirus There are many medical systems on this planet, some of them ancient, some of them new, more of them that not based on metaphorical systems. Only “Western” or “alliopathic” medicine is based on rigorous science. But many of the traditional non-western systems cure some conditions cure some conditions but not others. Many of these cures work in practice, but not in theory. That is they do work, but not for the reasons the theory behind them contends, metaphoric shamanic systems that over centuries evolved them over trial and error, and some of these belief-based cures can do real harm. With the ones that do work, the shamans know they work, but are mistaken as to how. So what i