Sinbyeong

Sinbyeong, also spelled shinbyong or shinbyeong and also called self-loss, is the possession by a god that a chosen mu, or shaman, undergoes in the Korean shamanic tradition, said to be accompanied by physical pain and psychosis. Believers hold that its physical and mental symptoms cannot be treated medically and can only be cured through acceptance of and full communion with the possessing spirit. The illness is characterized by loss of appetite, insomnia, and visual and auditory hallucinations, and is cured by a ritual called a naerim-gut, which also serves to induct the afflicted person as a new shaman-priest.