On this segment of North Star Journey, MPR’s Jacob Aloi talks with Hmong shaman Billy Lor and others about shamanism and its importance in the Hmong community.
The shaman's role in Hmong spirituality is often mistakenly thought to be solely related to religion. But shamanism is only part of traditional Hmong spirituality and religious practice. It also involves animism, which is the belief that everything in nature has a spiritual essence, and ancestor veneration, which is the practice of showing respect and reverence towards deceased ancestors.
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SPEAKER 1: Minnesota is home to the largest concentration of Hmong in America. For many of them, shamans play an important role as spiritual guides and healers. Jacob Aloi reports on Billy Loehr, a shaman who is serving a new generation of Hmong.
JACOB ALOI: At his family home in Wisconsin, Billy Loehr demonstrates the tools and instruments he uses in rituals and ceremonies.
SPEAKER 3: Bill has the different pitches, the different tones.
JACOB ALOI: Although younger generations may be unfamiliar with their purpose, these objects hold importance in Hmong culture.
BILLY LOEHR: These are split bull horns, and its one horn that's been split in half. And these bull horns are cut and used as divination tools.
JACOB ALOI: One of the tools is a wooden bench about 4 feet long, and represents his spirit horse.
BILLY LOEHR: There's a belief that if you fall off the bench, you may get hurt very-- you may get physically ill or you can even die. And the reason for that is because when a shaman is performing ceremony, we're traveling to the spirit realm on our spiritual horse.
JACOB ALOI: Loehr is a shaman, which is part of traditional Hmong spirituality. It also involves animism, which is the belief that everything in nature has a spiritual essence and ancestor veneration, which is the practice of showing respect and reverence towards deceased ancestors.
But it is important to understand that the role of a shaman is not just limited to religion. Loehr explains that the role of a shaman is more like that of a healer.
BILLY LOEHR: Pretty much, a shaman practices holistic healing within the community, whether that be spiritual, physical, and mental. And through that they work with ancestral shamanic spirit guides that help them navigate and perform ceremonies.
JACOB ALOI: However, not all ailments are treated by a shaman.
BILLY LOEHR: Most times when someone comes to us and they're having maybe symptoms that may be physical, we will most times suggest them either visit your family doctor. We'll ask, have you have you checked up medically? And the reason we do this is because we believe that spiritual illness is not that common.
JACOB ALOI: Mark Bergson is a religion professor at Hamline University. According to him and other scholars, shamans often serve as a connection between the physical world and the supernatural or the spirit realm.
MARK BERGSON: The specialists, these mediums, these practitioners, voluntarily enter into altered states in order to engage in some kind of connection with, dialogue with, sometimes combat with the spirit realm in order to serve their communities largely as healers, but in other ways, too.
JACOB ALOI: Shamans enter altered states and trances to communicate with spirits and ancestral guides, and they use this ability to perform ceremonies and rituals that can improve the health and well-being of their community.
BILLY LOEHR: Let's say a spirit has fallen into the ground and I need to raise the spirit up. And so why am I jumping off the bench? It symbolizes me jumping into the pit, or the ground, or whatever burden that the spirit is stuck in. So I'll jump in and I'll take my tool and I'll stab it to the ground.
And the body is mimicking what is happening in the spiritual. I'll raise the spirit. And once the spirit's up, I'll jump back up.
JACOB ALOI: These rituals can range from funerals to calling back wandering spirits. This trance may involve multiple chants. It will involve hours of performing, of shaking, of maybe stomping their feet. So how does one become a shaman? Well, the process varies from culture to culture, but often begins with an experience known as the shaman illness.
BILLY LOEHR: No one can choose to become a shaman on their own willingly. Most shamans are chosen through their-- they're selected from these ancestral guides. And once you are selected, you typically start getting sick, experience a lot of physical illness actually, and many times mental. And it's uncurable.
JACOB ALOI: Loehr's illness began with pain in his hands, which prevented him from writing. He was eventually taken to a shaman who performed a ceremony on him.
BILLY LOEHR: I particularly didn't really believe in shamanism at this time. I'm not going to lie about that. And they hit the gong and I just shook. I started shaking. So my whole body was shaking profusely. And then I leapt up onto the bench. And I just started jumping on and off the bench on top of the wooden bench. And I started chanting, probably some of the best Hmong I've ever spoken.
JACOB ALOI: After the ceremony, Loehr's illness became better, and eventually led to his life as a shaman. Like all Hmong shamans, Loehr's knowledge was not entirely learned from books. According to Loehr, about 90% of what shamans learn comes from connecting with shamanic guides during trances. Ancestral guides are important in Hmong spirituality and may be called upon to help in certain ceremonies.
BILLY LOEHR: But if I'm doing a ceremony and let's say I'm helping someone heal because they've gone through traumas in the past. And now their spirit, their personal soul is having a hard time processing it, I may call upon a spirit guide who is good at talking.
JACOB ALOI: Loehr offers his services to Hmong people throughout the Midwest. About 50% of his clientele is in Minnesota, like Pa'Ku Hang in Inver Grove.
PA'KU HANG: Billy has become so important. Not only as a friend and someone who's journeying with me through my grief journey, but also as a teacher of shamanism and a teacher of Hmong history.
JACOB ALOI: Although Hang has known law for some time, it was the recent death of her mother that made her appreciate Loehr and shamanism more deeply.
PA'KU HANG: I feel really blessed that there's someone like Billy, because he is a teacher that many young people can be much more inquisitive. And it's not a curiosity that hits against the wall, but it's a curiosity that's fed and that's nurtured.
JACOB ALOI: Hang practices both Catholicism and Hmong shamanism. And says that the first generation of Hmong people who came to America are passing away, and some of their knowledge has not been passed on. She is determined to uphold and interpret Hmong traditions for the next generation, especially since her mother's passing.
PA'KU HANG: It wasn't that our parents and grandparents didn't want to teach us about shamanism or certain types of Hmong cultures, it was that the environment was conducive to the type of the method of learning that they grew up with.
JACOB ALOI: Hang explains that Loehr's natural talent for teaching makes him a helpful resource for learning about Hmong traditions that may not have been passed down. She says that in her experience, shamans don't always take the time to explain their process, or why a particular ritual was performed.
PA'KU HANG: The way that he practices shamanism is very much in a teacher mode. He is much more interested in, what was the intention?
JACOB ALOI: Billy Loehr acknowledges the challenges of being a shaman, and has questioned whether he would choose the same path again if he had the choice. But he does not regret becoming a shaman.
BILLY LOEHR: Just to know that the impact I'm making, whether it's for the next generation or for our predecessors. For those who have come before us and after us to be able to hold that tradition, I think it is such a blessing and such a privilege. And so no regrets in that.
JACOB ALOI: Jacob Aloi, NPR News.