Interview with the Siberian shaman Alya, who wished to remain anonymous. Filmed by the TV channel Russia-Culture in cooperation with Ethno Taiga. Translated into English by ©Excellence Reporter.

Q: There are shamans in Siberia. But who are they? Probably people don’t know much about them or what they represent?

Alya: Yes, unfortunately most people have no idea what a shaman is, who a shaman is, what they do, or why they do it. Everyone has preconceived ideas. And, as a general rule, people are afraid of what they do not know. Shamans are feared, sometimes even vilified. People invent all sorts of rumors. As a matter of fact, it is much easier to defile something than to accept a concept. Of course, not everything a shaman does is comprehensible, and precisely because of this, people often develop a prejudiced or unpleasant attitude toward shamans. I will allow myself, perhaps, to lead you a little into awareness.

A shaman is a person who sees subtle realms, subtle worlds. In these subtle realms live spirits. Most shamans know these spirits; they see them. In the realm of spirits, everyone knows everything. The spirits know everything. All knowledge is available there. There is no falsehood or deception. Therefore, when the shaman enters the realm of spirits, he receives answers to any question.

Let’s say someone comes to a shaman to be healed. The shaman may not know what to do; perhaps he has never encountered such a case before. He enters the realm of spirits and asks questions through rituals. There are traditional rituals and there are individual rituals. The shaman asks questions and receives answers directly from the spirit realm. Then he helps the sick person heal. This is the blessed side of shamanism. A shaman who cannot heal is not a shaman. Remember this. What is the point of disturbing the spirit world if there is no need?

As a general rule, a shaman who properly channels the power of the spirits — and there are shamans who even know the gods — usually does not need healing himself, because these energies constantly flow through him, keeping him harmonious and stable. A true shaman is one who does not fear death. One who fears nothing. If you are afraid of something, then there is something you cannot do. The shaman’s purpose is to help those who do not understand, do not know, and do not know how.

Q: Is a shaman born? Were you born into a shamanic family? Was there some sign that you would become a shaman?

Alya: I was five years old when it was transmitted to me; my great-grandmother, so to speak, laid her hand upon me. Many years later I understood what it was all about. But I will say this: it is a duty, a responsibility. It is not easy. When you begin helping others, you stop living only for yourself. You are always serving others. It is a kind of self-sacrifice.

And then you yourself almost die. Because there is this feeling of homeland, you know. It arises from somewhere… from that place you never want to leave and always want to return to. There is something magnetic and special there. I don’t know… perhaps a part of yourself. And you return to yourself. You feel that it is your homeland, your home. What is interesting is that no matter how you arrive there, even empty and exhausted, it is there, in your homeland, that you quickly recover and regain strength.

No artificial means are needed to perform rituals. You simply come into nature, lie down on the earth, look at the sky and the clouds, wash with clean water, and breathe fresh air. You make a small fire and feel that grace — the power of the fire, how gentle and noble it is. It is miraculous. Everything you ask for, you receive; it responds. But of course, one must learn to feel this. It does not happen all at once.

Q: Alya, did you have a teacher? Did your grandmother initiate you?

Alya: I had two master teachers. One of them guided me, and I learned mostly in a theoretical way. But I think that before you take an instrument into your hands, you need to understand what you are taking into your hands. There must be a sense of responsibility. It cannot simply be, “I want this,” and then you rush ahead. No. But thank God I inherited this feeling from my parents. It is the same as with a knife, you know.

Aside from wanting to live for yourself, you also begin living for others. This is not easy. Yet not doing it is not an option, because you are gifted for it, and you have the calling to make something of it.

Q: But you did not think in childhood that you would become a shaman, did you? You had another profession, you studied somewhere. At what moment did your life change?

Alya: I bake bread and build stoves for a living. After school I studied construction engineering. I love creating beautiful things, because if you saw the delight people feel when they see them, and you realize they will look at them every day, then they should be beautiful. Perhaps somewhere intuitively I understand that I love giving people joy. Why? Because it hurts me, and I feel despair when I cannot help someone and they do not know how to be joyful themselves.

Life without joy is meaningless. One must know how to receive joy from life. In most cases, I… I felt that great joy when I made that fire a while ago. I was filled with fire, and from that joy I even shed tears. Yes, they came from joy. It is as though you are filled completely. In fact, this is happiness. What is happiness? It is to feel yourself as part of this great, vast state. And you become this state. You are it — this greatness. Happiness is to feel yourself within this greatness, within this vastness.

Q: Alya, you said you have never done rituals for yourself… healing or summoning spirits.

Alya: Well, it just happened that I never got around to doing it for myself. Someone else always needed it, and I kept doing it for others. Somehow I never thought about doing it for myself. As the saying goes: a shoemaker without shoes. It really is true. Basically, I mostly give. All the time I give, give, give. I can do this because… it never ceases… I don’t even know how to say it… this connection, this communication with the subtle world.

Q: Alya, on this path of the shaman, have you ever had to die?

Alya: I died four times. I know what death is. During the last death I experienced, I could completely control the state. I died and recovered immediately. Remember: every death is a rebirth. It is true what they say in church — death does not exist. If you leave this state, then you are born into another.

Q: How did it happen? During a ritual or through an accident?

Alya: The first time I was young, and physically I really could have died. It was some kind of miracle. Perhaps that was when it all began. Somehow I understood that death was not something to fear. Probably a shift in consciousness began afterward. I was twenty at the time.

Q: What happened then?

Alya: I underwent surgery. The doctors did not think I would survive. Somehow I left… and then I came back.

Q: Did you force yourself to return?

Alya: I did not force myself. There was a person who prayed intensely and wished very strongly that I would live. So I came back.

Q: Was it prayer?

Alya: Yes. When a person truly prays, they can bring anyone back. This is salvation of the soul. It comes directly from the heart, from deep within — a true prayer. Not mere words, but a real prayer arising from the depths of the heart.

Q: And the other deaths?

Alya: All four were different. The second was also frightening. By the third, I understood there was nothing to fear. And by the fourth death, I could already control the state. And the fifth… I no longer needed that. It no longer interested me. I was simply reborn. I stepped into another state. Quality determines quantity. The quality changes, and you enter another state. Of course, not everyone can do this. It simply happened to me this way.

Q: If death is not fearful for a shaman, then what is? What is the hardest or worst thing?

Alya: Not doing what you are capable of doing. It is like a doctor walking past a patient who needs help. That is the most terrible thing. That shame, that disgrace. It is the worst thing. It is unforgivable.

Q: Have there been cases when someone was brought to you and you could not help them?

Alya: Yes. That feeling of helplessness is the hardest. I understand that I cannot help. In such cases, the only thing I can do is direct the force to help the person pass away peacefully and gently. After all, we all leave at some point. So that it is not torment, so that the person departs without fear and without pain.

Q: Who comes to you? What kind of people?

Alya: Mostly people frightened by doctors. In general, visits do not happen often. Local people do not really come to me, because they can help each other themselves. You know, this is passed down from generation to generation. It is something natural. Usually at least one person in the family can heal. It is normal. Local people do not really need others for such things.

Q: You mean that among the Chulyms each family has its own shaman?

Alya: Yes. Of course, the levels are different. I perform rituals somewhat differently. I stay a little apart, on the side. The most important thing is to avoid conflicts. The Chulyms have this in their blood. This power is given to them by nature. During rituals they attract spirits, totems, animals. They merge with them and identify themselves with the animal. And when a person identifies with an animal, they can receive power through the totem of that animal.

Q: What does the totem of an animal mean?

Alya: The spirit of the animal. Today, for instance, I threw a piece of meat and called the totems. We are in the woods; this is their element, their territory. This is respect. We must appease them.

Q: Who is your totem?

Alya: I have several totems. There is the bird totem — the white owl. I also have the marten. Somehow they come to you, and you simply know: this is it. You identify with it. The most powerful thing for any shaman is to possess the power of the bear totem. Bears both take and protect at the same time. One who has the bear totem protects others. These are powerful people.

Q: Alya, where does the music come from?

Alya: You know what a wonderful state it is? When you are alone, there is this vastness surrounding you — the fresh air, stillness, nature — and you merge with it all. When you begin dissolving into it, suddenly you stop feeling the ground beneath you and feel as though you are flying. This sensation of flying liberates the soul. The soul opens up and begins to sing. You yourself do not understand or know it; everything happens by itself, and you sing, and sing, and sing…

What is interesting is that when someone else hears the song, they remember it. But no matter how much I sing, I do not remember the songs myself. When you sing, a certain sensation arises within, waves begin to rise, and you start to see and understand everything, even if it is in another language. You understand the song anyway. Images are transmitted. This is a real song — songs that come from the soul. Not those composed for money, but a true one.

Q: Are you ever amazed by something in life? In the Taiga, perhaps by unusual phenomena, or by people?

Alya: Sometimes the behavior of animals astonishes me. I am amazed that they are smarter than we are. Someone once told us that animals are less intelligent than humans — impossible, do not believe it. Sometimes animals will look at you in such a way that you feel you are nothing. It becomes eerie. You understand that the animal is more than you — smarter and stronger than you. This astonishes me. It is majestic.

It also still surprises me that animals possess dignity. They too can defend themselves to the very end. Nowadays even people are often incapable of that. We have lost this power, this wild will. That is why we have become weak, broken invalids. It is terrible. We have lost the will, the connection to nature. We stopped feeling the animals, the forest, the elements, the earth, the water. We stopped connecting everything through ourselves, digesting it all deep within. This is where the power of life appears. This is where we carry children.

Q: Alya, are you not afraid of this world — of the Taiga, of the Chulyms?

Alya: For a long time I have carried this alarm within me. The most terrible thing is that by destroying himself, man destroys the world. Everywhere now there is a kind of imposed program of self-destruction. People do not understand that they are destroying themselves. There is no awareness. They cannot see beyond their own noses. “I, me, mine.” That is all.

Q: Have there been moments in your life when higher powers helped you?

Alya: Yes. When my mother passed away, I felt as though I were falling into an abyss. A very, very long fall. My soul kept falling and falling. At some point I wished simply to reach the bottom at last. I grew tired of the endless falling, and I prayed. Eventually I saw a face. I understood that I had been heard. It looked at me, and suddenly everything disappeared miraculously. My soul calmed as though nothing had happened. I know they exist. I do not believe — I know.

I think knowledge gives power. But belief stimulates. It inspires one to rise, to change. Life is a constant transformation. Under no circumstances should you remain the same. You must change continually, become better and better. Work on yourself. Help others.

And the most important thing is to live your own life. Most people who come to me, I tell them: your problem is that you are not living your own life. If you were living your own life, why would you interfere in someone else’s? Why allow yourself to diagnose others, to give advice when nobody asked for it? That is when you stop living for yourself and begin living someone else’s life. You begin interfering in others, and conflicts arise. First you must learn to live, and become such that you can offer yourself to the world — become a gift. It is the state in which you give yourself as a blessing.

Q: Could you have chosen an ordinary life — as an engineer in a big city, for instance?

Alya: I do not think so, because I believe it was meant that sooner or later a greater vision would open before me. I could not have chosen that kind of life. As the saying goes: one who is born to crawl crawls, but one who is born to fly will never crawl. What is destined will happen anyway. There would have been no fulfillment in an ordinary life, in a standard way of living. All my life I have been drawn somewhere… I always need to know more. I long for more. What I have is never enough for me. I need more of it all.

Q: Is there something for which you are grateful to destiny?

Alya: I am grateful to my parents — my father and my mother. I am grateful for the moment when I realized this great world, this spiritual world. I thank the rulers of that spiritual world who help us live in this world, draw upon that power, and become better.

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