These myths often rationalize the enactment of rituals in terms of cultural materialism or social pragmatism. The essence of social existence is centered around mythic imagery, which lends to life an existential dimension. Pure, rational thought is no more an objective reality than the myths whence such a concept is derived. Myths make up, in part, the fundamental responses to the basic human need for meaning. It is an inescapable condition of human existence, pervading all areas of interactions.
Shamanistic ideology lies at the foundation of systematic knowledge.
Shamanism, with its techniques and visions of the Otherworlds, has modified the syntax of cultural metaphors, and consequently, epistemology. In turn, shamanistic cosmology has been influenced by the shaman's own cultural worldview. The meanings of shamanistic experience and symbolism are modulated by culture. The cultural worldview formats and renders a definition to paradigms acquired directly via shamanic states of consciousness. From a soil nourishing a common existential root sprouted a new universal ritual system, where the role assumed by humankind, as part of nature's chain of being, became less passive and more articulate.