Colourful flags snapped in the sea breeze as more than a dozen Korean shamans, dressed in bright colours, danced and chanted prayers in front of a huge cow's head stuck to a trident.

What is a shaman, and how does someone become one? Here's a beginner's guide to shamanism that will help you understand the spiritual background and healing powers of elemental shamans.

Shamanism: The Timeless Religion Manvir Singh. Knopf, $30 (304p) ISBN 978-0-59353-754-1 New Yorker contributor Singh (Zoostalgia) brilliantly traces the evolution of shamanism across history.

While shamanism exists worldwide, Korean shamanism is unique in terms of the costumes shamans wear, the spirits they interact with, and (most of all) the way they communicate with the spirits.

Michael Fobes Brown, Shamanism and Its Discontents, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jun., 1988), pp. 102-120 ...

Partly because the numbers are small, that makes shamanism Britain’s fastest-growing faith. Alexander Alich, who researches the subject at Birmingham University, says its appeal cuts across age ...

The Koreanization of Hamlet productions, in particular, is closely connected with shamanism. The most prominent of Hamlet productions since the 1990s stage rituals like the gut— in which a shaman ...