If we look at basic, eastern and western religions, we see that while there are many differences and contrasting elements among them, they do share some concepts. For the purposes of this discussion, the focus will be on a comparison of similar elements from one religion from the basic (Shamanism), eastern (Confucianism) and western (Christianity) world religions of history. There are some elements common to all three of these religions. Shamanism represents the use of a religious specialist who was most often found in hunting-gathering cultures, like the Native Americans, who were devoid of technology and homogenous in type. The Shaman was a man who acted as a medium between the spirits of the other-world and the tribe members of this one. The Shaman often endured fasts and long periods of seclusion in which he would become aware of the intentions of the spirits, thus relaying them to others in the tribe. A shaman’s main duties were divination and healing, “both achieved either by spirit possession or by the departure of the shaman’s soul to heaven or to the underworld. Shamans also divine the whereabouts of game, the position of the enemy, and the best way of safeguarding and increasing the food supply” (Saliba 1).
While shamans and shamanism are examples of religion in a simple community system lacking a high degree of organization, we can see that the role of medium between the other realm and this one is an element that is present both in Confucianism and Christianity-much more organized religious systems. In Christianity, an elaborate hierarchy exists with the Pope at the top and the priests and clergy at the bottom as the mediums between the will of God and the faithful believers. Like the shamans, those good are their Christian work usually gain an elevated economic and social position. In Confucianism, we have the development of the Higher Man. The Higher Man is the
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