Essay Archive - Plants, Spirits, and Healing
Plants, Spirits, and Healing
A man lies on the ground screaming in pain. Others around him get
the shaman or medicine man. The shaman calmly walks up to the man with a
few things in his arm. Among them are needles made from thorns, threads
from vines to sew up the man's wounds, and the last thing brought was witch
hazel to control the bleeding. That is a situation men or women would be
in if they were wounded many years ago. But even now some cultures don't
depend on hospitals or doctors with degrees in medicine to cure them; they
believe in the supernatural powers of the shaman and plants around ....
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