A steadier base

"the shamanistic crisis, when properly fostered, yields an adult not only of superior intelligence and refinement, but also of greater physical stamina and vitality of spirit than is normal to the members of his group. The crisis, consequently, has the value of superior threshold initiation: superior, in the first place, because spontaneous, not tribally enforced, and in the second place, because the shift of reference of the psychologically potent symbols has been not from the family to the tribe, but from the family to the universe. The energies of the psyche summoned into play by such an immediately recognized magnification of the field of life are of greater curve than those released and directed by the group-oriented, group-contrived, visionary masquerades of the puberty rites and men's dancing ground. They give a steadier base and larger format to the character of the individual concerned, and have tended, also, to endow the phenomenology of shamanism itself with a quality of general human validity, which the local rites-of whatever community-simply do not share." - Joseph