A person becomes a shaman by getting an illness called sinbyeong. Sinbyeong is a sickness that causes loss of appetite, insomnia, and hallucinations. This happens when spirits possess them. Sinbyeong causes the person to have an ability that communicates with the spirits. Other shamans can tell if the sinbyeong is real or if it is just a mental illness. Sinbyeong can be cured by a ritual that chanbes the sufferer into shamanism.
Shamans, mudang, meditate to solve human problems through a metting of spirits and humans. Shamans who play in the roles of guts can be classified into spirit- possessed shamans and hereditary shamans. Shamans are considered to be from a low class. Shamans are reputed to use spiders over the subjest's skin. Some shamans in Korea are men although they preffered women. The shamans that are men dressed up as women. Male shamans are called baksoo mubang.
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