The Supernatural Powers and Their Role According to Incantation in the Karo Beliefs: A Study of Shaman for Healing

Abstract

Incantation in the Karo people is very important. There are several terms that describe incantation, including tabas, mangmang, and persentabin. There are incantation that are influenced by outside cultures. Therefore, as the corpus, it was chosen using the original Karo language. This study is to understand the supernatural power which is very important in the Karo beliefs. The approach taken is not only with phenomena but also with noumenons. Thus the analysis is carried out not only based on what is seen, but also pays great attention to the underlying causes of incantation. Analysis shows that the person chanting, can feel that there is a flow of energy to the material. This shows that incantation is believed to have a very large influence to make medicinal herbs have supernatural powers. On the other hand, not all diseases require drugs that need to be incantation. The words used in incantation are generally understandable and not special or secret words. There are supernatural power from the greatest to the smallest in the incantation which is very important for the shaman in obtaining energy from them. With the incantation,  the shaman is able to make healing to the patient.