Plants, Spirits, and Healing A man lies on the ground screaming in pain. Others around him get the shaman or medicine man. The shaman calmly walks up to the man with a few things in his arm. Among them are needles made from thorns, threads from vines to sew up the man's wounds, and the last thing brought was witch hazel to control the bleeding. That is a situation men or women would be in if they were wounded many years ago. But even now some cultures don't depend on hospitals or doctors with degrees in medicine to cure them; they believe in the supernatural powers of the shaman and plants around them for cures. The beliefs and ceremonies