Michael James Winkelman

Evolution of Hominins, Consciousness and Religion

My interest in biological evolution focuses on roles of ritual in hominin evolution (2009, 2019a) and the effects of shamanism on physical, social and cognitive evolution (2010, 2014a, 2015). Ritual was a significant factor in hominin emergence as group rituals constitute the most complex behaviors in hominids (i.e., chimpanzees) and shamanic ritual was the most important social activity in foraging societies. Homologies and differences between chimpanzee ritualization and shamanic ritual identify the common baseline features and what evolved in the development of shamanism (2009, 2019a). The mimetic complex and its production in dance, drumming and song extended ritual, expressive and cognitive evolution of hominins (2015, 2002). and the development of shamanism as a communal healing practice (2010).

Human evolution was affected by environmental sources of exogenous neurotransmitter analogues, typified in psilocybin effects on the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems (2021a). Psilocybin enhanced human adaptations through a psychedelic instrumentalization, stimulating the serotonin 5HT2 system and its adaptive stress response and by enhancing sociability, extroversion and positive interpersonal dynamics and cognitive innovation. 

Ritual and psilocybin also stimulated integrative cognitive processes in altered states of consciousness (ASC). ASC are recognized in mystical traditions an evolution of consciousness, an expansion of awareness beyond culturally conditioned forms. ASC are integrative cognitive processing of innate cognitive modules and bottom-up cognitive processes, as well as the production of symbolic syntheses in visions (2010, 2017, 2018). 

My research has addressed several aspects of the roles of shamanism in human evolution, religion and consciousness, including biological (2009), neurological (2021a), cognitive (2002) and sociocultural (1992) dimensions.  Shamanic visionary experiences reflect the activation of our original visual symbolic system, a multisensory synesthetic integration of many unconscious forms of meaning (2017, 2018). The shamanic soul flight has separation of self-consciousness from physical embodiment and exhibits extrapersonal cognition that permits projected and context-independent thought (2019c).  Shamans provided the foraging group psychosocial leadership that embodies the ritual, spiritual and therapeutic processes that uniquely characterize humans and the primordial areas of proximal development for hominin evolution. A pre-shamanic hominid ritual was the context for adaptations of chanting and dancing as natural technologies for expanding the endogenous opioid system and its social bonding effects.  Shamans’ animal identities provided forms of empowerment, individuation, incorporation and projection that enabled higher levels of psychological integration and social functioning. Shamanism also exhibits forms of symbolic thought that characterized the emergence of modern human culture (2002, 2013, 2014). Shamanism: A Biopsychosocial Paradigm of Consciousness and Healing illustrates why shamans have to be recognized as the deep origins of religion and a significant feature in human cognitive evolution.

My focus on sociocultural evolution involves roles of religious practitioners in organization of society. Shamans, Priests and Witches provides cross-cultural evidence for the sociocultural transformation of an archaic shamanism from changes caused by foraging loss, intensive agriculture, warfare and political integration (also see 2021b).  These conditions produce other forms of religious practitioners, notably Priests, Healers, Mediums and Sorcerer/Witches (1986, 1990). 

Articles

  • 2021a
    Psychedelics, Sociality and Human Evolution. Frontiers in Psychology. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729425 With José Manuel Rodríguez Arce. ResearchGate link

  • 2021b
    An Ethnological Analogy and Biogenetic Model for Interpretation of Religion and Ritual in the Past. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-021-09523-9 Researchgate link

  • 2021c
    The evolved psychology of psychedelic set and setting: Inferences regarding the roles of shamanism and entheogenic ecopsychology.  Frontiers in Pharmacology 12,  Article 619890 doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.619890. ResearchGate link.

  • 2019a
    The evolutionary origins of the supernatural in ritual behaviours. In: Craffert, P., Baker, J. and Winkelman, M. (Eds.) The Supernatural After the Neuro- turn. New York: Routledge. P. 48-68. Researchgate link.

  • 2019b
    The supernatural as innate cognitive operators. In: Craffert, P., Baker, J. and Winkelman, M. (Eds.) The Supernatural After the Neuro- turn. New York: Routledge.  p. 89-106. ResearchGate link.

  • 2019c
    Shamanic alterations of consciousness as sources of supernatural experiences. In P. Craffert, J. Baker and M.J. Winkelman (eds.) The Supernatural After the Neuro-turn. p. 127-147.  Researchgate link.

  • 2017
    Mechanisms of psychedelic visionary experiences: Hypotheses from evolutionary psychology. Front Neurosci. 11, article 539. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00539. ResearchGate link.

  • 2017
    Shamanism and the brain.  In Clements, N.K. (ed.) Religion: Mental religion (pp. 355-372). MacMillan Interdisciplinary handbooks. USA: MacMillan Publishers. ResearchGate link.

  • 2015
    Shamanism as a biogenetic structural paradigm for humans’ evolved social psychology. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 7(4):267-277. ResearchGate link. doi:10.1037/rel000003

  • 2014a
    Shamanic Consciousness and Human Evolution. In: Seeking the Sacred with Psychoactive Substances: Chemical paths to spirituality and god, J. Harold Ellens, ed. Vol 1, Pp. 129-155. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ABC-CLIO. ResearchGate link.

  • 2014b
    Evolutionary Views of Entheogenic Consciousness.  In: Seeking the Sacred with Psychoactive Substances: Chemical paths to spirituality and god, J. Harold Ellens, ed. Vol 1,  Pp. 341-364. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ABC-CLIO. ResearchGate link.

  • 2013
    The Integrative Mode of Consciousness: Evolutionary Origins of Ecstasy. In: Ekstasen: Kontexte – Formen – Wirkungen. Pp. 67-83. Edited by Torsten Passie, Wilfried Belschner, Elisabeth Petrow. Würzburg Germany: Ergon-Verlag. ResearchGate link.

  • 2013
    Shamanic Cosmology as an Evolutionary Neurocognitive Epistemology. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 32(1), 2013, pp. 79-99. ResearchGate link.

  • 2009
    Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality and Ritual Healing. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 3(4):458-489. ResearchGate link.

  • 2002
    Shamanism and Cognitive Evolution. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 12(1):71-101. Researchgate link.

  • 1993
    The Evolution of Consciousness: Transpersonal Theories in Light of Cultural Relativism.  Anthropology of Consciousness  4 (3):3-9.  ResearchGate link.

  • 1990
    Shaman and Other “Magico-religious” Healers: A Cross-cultural Study of their Origins, Nature and Social Transformations.  Ethos 18(3):308-352.  ResearchGate link.

  • 1990
    The Evolution of Consciousness: An Essay Review of Up From Eden (Wilber 1981).  Anthropology of Consciousness 1(3-4): 24-31.  ResearchGate link.

  • 1986
    Magico-religious Practitioner Types and Socioeconomic Conditions.  1985 C.S. Ford Cross-cultural Research Award.  Behavior Science Research  20 (1-4): 17-46. ResearchGate link.

    BOOKS AND EDITED VOLUMES

    2010
    Shamanism: A biopsychosocial paradigm of consciousness and healing. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO (Second Edition). ResearchGate link.  Publisher Link

    1992
    Shamans, Priests and Witches: A Cross-cultural Study of Magico-religious Practitioners. Anthropological Research Papers #44. Tempe, Az.: Arizona State University. ResearchGate link