Professor Gerardo Reichel Dolmatoff dedicated great deal of his extensive work to the study of shamanism. This essay explores the evolution of his thought on this theme within the framework of a general theory of shamanism. His contribution to the ethnography of shamanism in the Amazon and the interpretation of the iconography of Colombian gold and silver work stand out. It argues that Reichel opened up new perspectives for the interpretation of shamanism, as a fundamental axis of the development of Colombia’s complex societies and as a model that allows regulating society’s relations with its environment.