Chuonnasuan was the last living shaman who practiced his craft prior to the communist banishment of such "superstitions" in this region in 1952. Over three nights in July 1952, in several separate communities, the Oroqen peoples held rituals in which they begged the spirits to leave them forever. Evidence for and enhancement of auditory (spirit songs) and visual mental imagery during altered states of consciousness can be found in Chuonnasuan's account of his practice of shamanism. Noteworthy is that he reported performing only one ritual journey to the lower world, which he called "Buni." This term for the lowerworld or land of the dead is identical to that used by the Nanai people of Siberia in accounts of shamans collected almost a century ago. Sacrifices to ancestral spirits are still routinely made, and there is a folk psychological belief in animism.