Abstract

Modern societies are increasingly marked by widespread experiences of disconnection and loneliness, phenomena that have reached epidemic proportions and are now recognized as critical determinants of health. Social isolation and the weakening of communal bonds are strongly associated with heightened risks of cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety, and premature mortality. From this perspective, disconnection and loneliness may be understood as paradigmatic “modern illnesses,” emerging from cultural, relational, and existential ruptures. Traditional concepts such as the “stress of separation” and the “illness of fright” resonate with these conditions, pointing to the embodied and affective consequences of disrupted relational fields.
In contrast, Amerindian perspectivism, as expressed in shamanic practices, offers a radically different ontology of health and illness, one that emphasizes relationality, interconnectedness, and the permeability of human and non-human worlds. Within the vegetalism tradition, healing is not conceived as an individual process alone but as the restoration of ties with the community, with nature, and with the spirit world. Rituals, songs, and plant medicines function as mediators of reconnection, enabling the patient to re-situate themselves within a broader web of relations.
This presentation will explore how vegetalism and shamanic worldviews illuminate contemporary crises of loneliness and disconnection, reframing them as conditions that are not merely psychological but deeply social and cosmological. By articulating indigenous healing perspectives with modern health challenges, the talk seeks to highlight how the pursuit of reconnection (through ritual, community, and plant teachers) can serve as a meaningful therapeutic response to modern diseases of isolation.