SHAMANIC 'DOUBLING': A PARADOX

Shamanic "doubling" of the identity is paradoxical – it implies self-awareness of the lower parts of the brain otherwise designated as the source of the Unconscious – more in the Jungian sense, than in the Freudian sense. Human beings in advanced, industrialized societies have been taught to view these lower parts as nefarious, if not the source of "sin". Nonetheless shamanic "doubling" facilitates the integration of higher and lower minds, to make one more whole.