As a specialist in Korean culture, not Korean politics, it is things like shamanism that attract my attention. I haven't studied political science, or political theory, but I have studied Korean religions, including the underlying granddaddy or them all, as they say, but in Korea, since shamanism is often more in the female domain, should I say the "grandmother of them all."

I need to thank my old friend and colleague, Laurel Kendall, a true authority on shamanism, for helping me to see shamanism as a real religion, not an outcaste set of "superstitions." Laurel and I met in Korea when we both were working on our Ph.D. theses, and I visited her "village" — she is an anthropologist — and I met her teacher-shaman several times.

With the recent news that the current president has been consulting a "spiritual adviser" or, really, a shaman, it brings the issue to the front again. Again, because we saw the case of Choi Soon-sil, the shaman or spiritual advisor to Park Geun-hye, who ended up with a 20-year prison sentence for "corruption." Will Yoon's "adviser" meet a similar fate? Park was impeached and removed from office and sent to jail. Yoon is halfway down that path already, but will he end up in jail.

I wrote a piece — here I say I don't do politics, but — on the sad misfortune of Korean presidents. I titled the piece "Presidential Cannibalism" implying that Koreans eat their presidents — meaning they mostly end up in unfortunate situations — impeached, imprisoned, forced to suicide, assassinated, or fleeing the country. Here we go again.

On the one hand, I've said elsewhere that the highest form of democracy, meaning the peaceful transfer of power, is not the election of a new leader, but impeachment. That's much more difficult to conduct peacefully, and democratically.

The critical feature here, is not just the failed attempt to impose martial law, but, perhaps, as in the Park-Choi case, the issue of shamanism. And lest one point the finger at Korean presidents as being particularly vulnerable to "superstitious" advisers, remember Ronald Reagan had his in-office spiritual adviser as well.

As luck would have it, several weeks ago, before the press released stories of the current president's "shaman adviser," I was thinking about my YouTube channel, and was looking down the road, thinking of interesting Korean cultural issues, and I thought I should prepare a piece or two on shamanism. So, I set out a survey on the "community" page of my YouTube channel, and asked two questions about shamanism — not in any way thinking it would become an issue of national importance. It was supposed to be my quiet but quirky look at Korean culture. I asked two questions and received about 1,500 responses for each survey as follows:

#1. Concerning the popularity or importance of shamanism these days —

A. It is greatly declining — 48 percent

B. It is about the same as before — 27 percent

C. It is I increasing —25 percent

#2. Also concerning shamanism —

A. I or someone I know has visited a shaman in the last year — 15 percent

B. If not this year, the last five years, I or someone I know has visited a shaman — 24 percent

C. I nor anyone I know has definitely not visited a shaman — 62 percent

I'm not a professional pollster, but 1,500 people is a goodly sample. The age and gender factor may be skewed — my YouTube channel viewership is mostly males (80 percent) and mostly older (50s and above, mostly), which may mean the numbers in my sample will be higher for not including as many young people. But the numbers may be lower if more women are into shamanism. At any rate, it's not a scientific survey, but still it says something.

Frankly, I was surprised at the numbers. Around half think shamanism is holding its own or is increasing. And a slightly smaller number admits knowing someone who has visited a shaman in the last five years.

The comments that were volunteered by people were similarly revealing. Some said that shamanism is an invalid superstition — you'd expect that. But others said a mother or someone consults with a shaman as a regular client monthly.

In my younger days, like in my 60s, I found myself leading seminars and field trips in Korea on a regular basis, once or twice a year or more, for students, textbook writers and high school teachers. Only the high school teachers were interested in meeting with a shaman to seek good advice. They had heard that Korean shamans were good before they came to Korea. And I facilitated the visit on several occasions and acted as a translator. Some of the "readings" were remarkable, revealing and embarrassing. Many were mundane. But it showed me that the interest in spiritual guidance was strong in America and Korea. American radio in recent years is advertising "California Psychics" that you can call on the phone.

Whether one gets impeached for consulting a shaman or one disregards the whole bit as superstition, it makes for an interesting day for the student of Korean and American culture.

Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is a professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.