Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses Neoshamanic communities active in Soviet Lithuania in the 1980s. In addition to the examination of their practices and local particularities, the circulation of Neoshamanic ideas in the Soviet cultural space and across borders of the Soviet Union and Western Europe is considered.

Paper long abstract:

The paper analyses Neoshamanic communities active in Soviet Lithuania in the 1980s, mostly following C. Castaneda's teachings and experimenting with psychotropic substances induced trance experiences. In addition to the examination of their practices and local particularities, the circulation of Neoshamanic ideas in the Soviet cultural space and across borders of the Soviet Union and Western Europe is considered.

The examination of published materials and interviews with participants of the analysed practices reveal that Neoshamanic communities in Soviet Lithuania in the 1980s were closely related to youth artist subcultures and broader networks of alternative religiosity / spirituality seekers interested in intensive religious / spiritual and consciousness shifting experiences. In the beginning Lithuanians got acquainted with Neoshamanic ideas in major Soviet cultural centres (Moscow, Leningrad), later some ideas reached the Lithuanian communities from Western Europe through books or direct contacts. Although most practices and concepts of the Neoshamanic communities were seen as an expression of universal human nature and human experience, some elements were localized through fusion with themes of Lithuanian mythology and historical symbolism. In this way, the Neoshamanism in Soviet Lithuania is a perfect case that can reveal changing of relevant cultural space and adaptation of content of religious imagery in the alternative religious field of the late Soviet era.