Oxford homeopath Steven Cartwright has just returned from a month living among witch doctors in Nepal. He talked to health reporter KAREN ROSINE about his experiences...

In the deepest villages of Nepal the witch doctor is king. The sick, injured and dying are not taken to the doctor or to hospital but to shamans.

These ancient medicine men - known locally as jhankri - are imbued with god-like status - capable, the natives believe, of curing terminal diseases, predicting the future or casting spells.

Steven Cartwright, a homeopath at the Summertown Clinic in Oxford, needs no convincing of their powers. After a month-long trip to the mysterious Himalayan country, he is deeply impressed by their ancient rituals. Three years ago Steven was awarded a grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to study the shamans in Peru but the trip had to be cut short for medical reasons.

But not before he witnessed some truly amazing spectacles, including people apparently cured of illnesses such as dysentery, cholera and even paralysis - just by calling on the spirits.

This year he journeyed to an area west of Katmandu, Nepal, on another grant from the foundation.

Steven, 43, of Hayfield Road, Oxford, explained shamans were responsible for the health and emotional wellbeing of entire communities.

He said: "In the places I went to there were no doctors or hospitals. It was a day or two's walk to the nearest road. If anyone was sick they would call on the shaman, as they have done for centuries.

"They believe it works. They have been brought up with it and use shamans to heal, to predict the future and make sure the crops grow."

A shaman's power relies heavily on ritualised ceremonies, and they often speak in tongues. Most commonly, drums or other musical instruments are played to send the shaman into a light trance or "journey" to contact the spirits. The shamans have many "magical songs" and tunes they create to call on the spirits. A typical ritual would last two or more hours and end in a celebratory party.

Some also use ritual daggers - or thurmi - to mark out the sacred space, and bells, feathers and eagle claws.

Steven was initially treated with suspicion, but as he lived with the villagers in their primitive mud huts, he began to be accepted by the elders.

In the town of Pokhara and villages such as Gandruk, at the foot of the Himalayas, he caught a glimpse of their world.

He said: "The shamans are primarily healers. They mediate with the spirits to heal people. They find out why they are ill by asking the spirits.

"They say quite serious injuries are caused by people not behaving in a proper way - by not respecting the gods."

Steven, who stayed with five different shamans in all, explained this led on to spell-making - the darker side of the shaman's work.

The shamans are loathe to talk about this side of their work but it is the belief in Nepal that many people are made ill by witchcraft. The shamans have to find out what is making the person ill and fight it out with that person. The Nepalese believe someone who has a grudge against another villager can make them sick by casting a spell on them.

For instance, if they have stolen something from them, failed to keep a promise or shown disrespect. A lot of the spells in Nepal are as a result of disputes over land or family feuds.

Steven said: "The stories I was told was If a witch wants to make someone ill he gets an article of clothing or a bit of hair and casts a spell on it.

"Then he hides it and from then on the person gets sicker. The shaman has to find this thing. He goes into a trance and the spirits tell him where it is hidden.

"Then he goes and gets it and can tell from what it is who the witch is and where they are and can go and confront them."

Steven explained punishment would then be meted out before the sickness could go away.

But he is not clear exactly how the disputes were resolved as his visit was too fleeting and he did not get the chance to stay with an individual shaman for weeks on end.

Instead he stayed with five different shamans - all of which were very different.

Most amazingly, just as we have specialist consultants, Nepal has its specialist witch doctors.

For example, in the Tibetan refugee camp west of Kapura, there were big problems with rabies among the children until a shaman was brought in. Steven said: "In his right hand he had a drum and in his left hand a bell. Then he would go into a trance and call on his spirit helpers and they extract the poison from the child.

"The shaman says he can see into the body of the child and can see a baby dog inside. His job is to go in and get that dog and he asks the spirits to help.

"Sometimes there are spirit dogs who go into the body and bring it out," he added.

Steven explained that the shaman claims the spirits are getting rid of the poison, but he extracts it physically by sucking it out.

Steven is hoping to be awarded another grant from the foundation to go back to Nepal - this time concentrating on a single shaman. He cannot explain why he believes, only that he does.

"My only evidence is that everybody believes it. Part of it is the power of the mind, but I have come away believing the spirits are real.

"One of the shamans who was an oracle started saying things about me that were true. It was spot on. It freaked me out.

"There was no way he could have found these things out - he said things about my family there was no way he could have known. All I can say is, go out there and see for yourself."

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