El chamanismo se refiere a una clase de creencias y prácticas tradicionales similares al animismo que aseguran la capacidad de diagnosticar y de curar el sufrimiento del ser humano y, en algunas sociedades, la capacidad de causarlo. Los chamanes creen lograrlo contactando con el mundo de los espíritus y formando una relación especial con ellos. Aseguran tener la capacidad de controlar el tiempo, profetizar, interpretar los sueños, usar la proyección astral y viajar a los mundos superior e inferior. Las tradiciones de chamanismo han existido en todo el mundo desde épocas prehistóricas. Algunos especialistas en antropología definen al chamán como un intermediario entre el mundo natural y espiritual, que viaja entre los mundos en un estado de trance. Una vez en el mundo de los espíritus, se comunica con ellos para conseguir ayuda en la curación, la caza o el control del tiempo. Michael Ripinsky-Naxon describe a los chamanes como «personas que tienen fuerte ascendencia en su ambiente circundante y en la sociedad de la que forman parte». Un segundo grupo de antropólogos discuten el término chamanismo, señalando que es una palabra para una institución cultural específica que, al incluir a cualquier sanador de cualquier sociedad tradicional, produce una uniformidad falsa entre estas culturas y crea la idea equívoca de la existencia de una religión anterior a todas los demás. Otros les acusan de ser incapaces de reconocer las concordancias entre las diversas sociedades tradicionales. El chamanismo se basa en la premisa de que el mundo visible está impregnado por fuerzas y espíritus invisibles de dimensiones paralelas que coexisten simultáneamente con la nuestra, que afectan todas a las manifestaciones de la vida. En contraste con el animismo, en el que todos y cada uno de los miembros de la sociedad implicada lo practica, el chamanismo requiere conocimientos o capacidades especializados. Se podría decir que los chamanes son los expertos empleados por los animistas o las comunidades animistas. Sin embargo, los chamanes no se organizan en asociaciones rituales o espirituales, como hacen los sacerdotes.

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Shamanism (/ˈʃɑːmən/ SHAH-mən or /ˈʃeɪmən/ SHAY-mən) is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world. A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing. The word "shaman" probably originates from the Tungusic Evenki language of North Asia. According to ethnolinguist Juha Janhunen, "the word is attested in all of the Tungusic idioms" such as Negidal, Lamut, Udehe/Orochi, Nanai, Ilcha, Orok, Manchu and Ulcha, and "nothing seems to contradict the assumption that the meaning 'shaman' also derives from Proto-Tungusic" and may have roots that extend back in time at least two millennia. The term was introduced to the west after Russian forces conquered the shamanistic Khanate of Kazan in 1552. The term "shamanism" was first applied by western anthropologists to the ancient religion of the Turks and Mongols, as well as those of the neighboring Tungusic and Samoyedic-speaking peoples. Upon learning more about religious traditions across the world, some anthropologists began to also use the term to describe unrelated magico-religious practices found within the ethnic religions of other parts of Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas, as they believed these practices to be similar to one another. Mircea Eliade writes, "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = 'technique of religious ecstasy'." Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment. Shamanic beliefs and practices have attracted the interest of scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers, and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. In the 20th century, many westerners involved in the counter-cultural movement have created modern magico-religious practices influenced by their ideas of indigenous religions from across the world, creating what has been termed neoshamanism or the neoshamanic movement. It has affected the development of many neopagan practices.

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