”Sometimes Miracles Happen ... ”

My booklet from 2004 on Saami shamanism and traditional healing is now available for free in full text on my web site – both in English and Swedish. This text was a way to summarize what I had learnt from three decades of deep studies into shamanism and traditional healing both theoretically and experimentally and through journeys and field studies in the northernmost parts of Sweden, Norway and Finland. In this booklet I set out to analyse the methods, concepts and functions of traditional healing and shamanism. From the activities and thoughts of the healers I could draw conclusions on how it all works and how other human beings can extract wisdom from this tradition of knowledge. 

As long as human beings have existed there have also been diseases and non-technological healing methods. It was the shaman who was responsible for curing diseases and for other magical interventions, such as tracking game and influencing wind and weather. Shamans were depicted already in the oldest rock art, which is more than 30.000 years old.  

The activities of the shamans have been functional and that is why they have survived into our days, even if the form has been changed and simplified. Today’s healers are active within an unbroken tradition, even if they are far from the ancient shamans and their more drastic methods of ecstasy. 

But what is it that makes healing work? What is really taking place in the ritual drama of the healing act? Which role does the healer play? Which role does the patient play? Which philosophy is directing the actions of the healer? From where does the healing ability come? Is it possible at all to explain healing except as miracles? And when do miracles happen? Some answers can be found in the text Sometimes Miracles Happen. You will find the English version here and the Swedish text here.