A shaman is a medicine man. The essential characteristics of shamans are mastery of energy and fire as a medium of transformation. A shaman may exhibit a particular magical specialty - such as control over fire, wind, magical flight, or shape shifting. In contemporary, historical or traditional shamanic practice the shaman may at times fill the role of priest, magician, metaphysician or healer.
Personal experience is the prime determinant of the status of a shaman.
The shaman makes use of spirit helpers, with whom he or she communicates, all the while retaining control over his or her own consciousness. The ability to consciously move beyond the physical body is the particular specialty of the traditional shaman. These journeys of Soul may take the shaman into the nether realms, higher levels of existence or to parallel physical worlds or other regions of this world. Shamanic Flight, is in most instances, an experience not of an inner imaginary landscape, but is reported to be the shamans flight beyond the limitations of the physical body. While most shamans in traditional societies are men, either women or men may and have become shamans.