Urban shamanism raises a concrete question: how do certain spiritual explorations take shape in contemporary life? The expression appears in teaching programmes and research on very different practices. Understanding it means looking at who uses the term, what they do and how they explain their relationship with other traditions.
What urban shamanism means
“Urban shamanism” does not, by itself, identify a religion, a school or a shared method. Here, we use it as an entry point into contemporary spiritual practices and language associated with city life, without gathering them under a single ancestral origin.
It helps to separate two questions: where a practice takes place and which tradition or approach it comes from. Living in a city cannot, on its own, tell us whether someone maintains a community tradition, follows a recent school or develops a personal practice. Each connection needs its own context.
One contemporary approach: core shamanism
One identifiable example is core shamanism, developed by Michael Harner. The Foundation for Shamanic Studies presents it as a set of methods not tied to a single culture. That is the teaching organisation’s account; it does not establish that all communities share one tradition or that this approach represents them.
This example gives us a specific approach to explore: who developed it, how it presents itself and which terms it uses. It then becomes easier to compare its understanding of spirituality with other experiences while keeping their differences in view.
Documented practices in a specific setting
The Foundation’s introductory workshop teaches visionary journeys accompanied by drumming and includes sharing experiences in a group. Its promoters describe encounters with helping spirits and power animals. These terms express the programme’s spiritual framework; understanding it does not require accepting those encounters as established facts.
Another format is the drumming circle described by Susan Mokelke: regular meetings for practice, exchanging experiences and organising the group’s work. Rhythm, gathering and continuity have a specific place in this approach. They are not a universal inventory of what everyone called an urban shaman does.
Describing an activity and its origins is therefore more useful than placing instruments, apps and objects under one label. A contemporary resource can belong to a personal practice without establishing its antiquity, lineage or health effects.
Cities and diverse experiences
Silvia Rivadossi’s research on contemporary Japan (2020) describes musical performances and individual sessions by Sugee, active in Tokyo. She examines how this spiritual figure is constructed in its metropolitan context, a different case from Harner’s teaching programmes.
“Urban” and “Western” are not interchangeable either. In a survey by Carolina Ivanescu and Nienke Groskamp published in 2022, practitioners from mainly Western contexts lived in cities, smaller towns and rural areas. The voluntary sample was not representative. It challenges an automatic equivalence rather than describing an entire population.
These examples make it possible to explore the subject without imagining cities as inevitably empty of nature or meaning. What matters is how each person or group connects their surroundings, everyday life and spiritual language, and how they explain that relationship.
Spiritual experience and research
A study by Michael J. Hove and colleagues, published online in 2015, used functional MRI to examine 15 experienced core shamanism practitioners during trance and non-trance conditions accompanied by drumming. It found differences in brain connectivity. The study investigated states of consciousness, not the treatment of disease.
An experience can be meaningful to the person who has it. That meaning, its spiritual interpretation and evidence of a clinical benefit are different questions. An account of calm or clarity does not establish improvements in everyone’s physical and emotional health. Claims to treat a disease require specific clinical evidence.
How to approach these practices
If you encounter an activity presented as urban shamanism, a few questions can help you understand it:
- Who developed or teaches this practice, and how do they explain their training?
- If a community or tradition is invoked, what sources from that community explain the connection?
- What will actually happen during the gathering, and which elements are personal interpretation?
- Is the activity presented as spiritual exploration, or does it make treatment claims that need a different kind of support?
Understanding urban shamanism means paying attention to these differences. Curiosity about spirituality can remain open while recognising who developed each approach, the particular traditions it references and the limits of what we know about it.
