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Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman. There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world; following are beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism:[1]

• Spirits exist and they play important roles both in individual lives and in human society.
  
• The shaman can communicate with the spirit world.
  
• Spirits can be good or evil.
  
• The shaman can treat sickness caused by evil spirits.
  
• The shaman can employ trance inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy.
  
• The shaman's spirit can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers.
  
• The shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message-bearers.

Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living.[2] In contrast to organized religions like animism or animatism which are led by priests and which all members of a society practice, shamanism requires individualized knowledge and special abilities. Shaman operate outside established religions, and, traditionally, they operate alone. Shaman can gather into associations, as Indian tantric practitioners have done.