Addiction and the Law

Patricia Brotzel January 19, 2008 Human Services 145 Week 3 Assign. 1 Shamanism Compare and Contrast After reading “Shamanic Origins of Religion and Medicine” Written by Weston La Barre, PH.D. I have a new outlook on what a shaman is. A shaman to me is a person who has understanding of the paranormal in dreams, trance, vision, hallucination, spiritual state. Shamans use drugs most of the time to heal or see the vision that help in there assistance to people in need. Sometimes history has shown that shamans were jokesters and entertainers. Drug and alcohol counseling (Chemical Dependency Counseling) assists addicted clients to stop using illegal drugs and there is possibility clients might need prescription drugs to treat other mental issues do so. In chemical dependency counseling counselors can use many different recommendations from other professionals in the field to help treat clients. Possibly sending clients to other professionals in different fields of expertise, family counseling, individual counseling, or mental health counseling, as these entire things factor into a client’s recovery process. Shamans look to the gods, the spirit world, or a dissociative physic state, and are habitually connected with hallucinogenic drugs, some being soma, Manita muscaria mushroom, psilocybin mushrooms, oloiuhqui, morning glory glort seeds, mints, coca, daturas, alcohol and numerous others. One thing similar in both professions is the shaman and the counselor both look outside of their knowledge to treat people, and no two Clients are the same. One of the biggest differences is, the profession of shamanism uses hallucinogenic drugs to treat people, and they use the drugs them selves. In chemical dependency counseling the objective is to get the client so stop using drugs, possibly by correcting other areas in there life, abuse, neglect, mental issues, or just addiction. In conclusion there are many similarities and contradictions between