San healing practices

In the cultures of the various San or Bushman peoples, healers administer a wide range of practices, from oral remedies containing plant and animal material, making cuts on the body and rubbing in 'potent' substances, inhaling smoke of smoldering organic matter like certain twigs or animal dung, wearing parts of animals or 'jewelry' that 'makes them strong.' Anecdotal records reveal that the Khoikhoi and San people have used Sceletium tortuosum since ancient times as an essential part of the indigenous culture and materia medica. The trance dance is one of the most distinctive features of San culture.

San people perform all-night trance dances, or healing dances, in which rhythmic singing, drumming, and dancing activate what is described as a spiritual energy called n/um; this leads healers, often men, into a state called !kia. In !kia, healers are described as perceiving and removing sickness, mending social conflicts, and undertaking spiritual journeys beyond ordinary perception through the use of precise hand movements, vocalizations, and ritualized actions. These dances are physically and emotionally intense. Dancers are trained from childhood.

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