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The apapalutápa are usually in all parts, except inside the village, where they appear only in extraordinary situations of sickness, shamanism and ritual. Two figures of human society maintain a special relation with the apapalutápa: the shamans and the sorcerers. Every spirit is by definition an iatamá, shaman. Several are shamans specific to certain animal orders, but "shaman" and "spirit" are to a certain degree synonymous.

The relations of the apapalutápa with Yawalapiti society are predominantly individual, in the basic form of sickness. Except for the evils caused by sorcerers, who can, otherwise, avail themselves of the help of spirits, all sicknesses derive from contact with the supernatural world. The sick person is someone who has "died" (kuká inukakína, which is equally said of the shaman in transe) from the actions of an apapalutápa. Such a state is due to the penetration of invisible darts in the body, which the shaman extracts and displays in the curing session. It can also be caused by a stealing of the soul (ipaïori) by the spirit, which takes it (the soul) to the village of the apapalutápa. This theft is experienced by the sick person as an especially intense dream journey (every dream or feverish delirium is a journey of the soul); it ends when the shaman replaces the soul with the help of a doll (yakulátsha: from yakulá, "shade", "soul of the dead") thought of as an image of the sick person.

Once cured, the individual then owes something to the spirit that he saw. He then must sponsor a cerimony in which he represents the spirit by means of songs, dances and corporal paintings or adornments. This ceremony is the moment in which the group of substance to which the sick person belongs (which tends to be a unit of daily production) distributes food to the entire village. The spirit is incarnated-represented by the community, and both are fed by the group which, ideally, has fasted during the period of sickness: the food distributed is said to be "(name of the spirit) inúla". The sick person becomes the patron of the cerimony (wököti), and does not participate as an actor in it.

The shaman thus exercises social control over the relations between the village and the supernatural world: he regulates the relations between men and spirits who inhabit the waters and forest; through his diagnoses, the sickness-causing spirits are socialized through ritual. The sorcerer, in turn, represents the paradigm of the marginal being: he is the backdoor man, who invades the houses, who puts sorcery on the gardens, who transforms into an animal in the forest.

The shamanic vocation comes from a sickness in which a spirit appears and gives tobacco to the novice, teaching him songs and medicines. Pepper and tobacco are said to be Kahiúti, painful or burning hot, and constitute part of the specific diet of the shamans. Tobacco is the preferred substance of the spirits, who appreciate its sweet smell örö (which contrasts with blood and genital fluids, which the spirits detest) and is a supreme transforming agent. The demiurge Kwamuty made the first humans by blowing tobacco over wooden logs; the Sun revived the Moon by fumigating him. There are numerous episodes in the myths where tobacco gives life, mends and remakes. The apapálu flutes, originally aquatic spirits, were captured by using pepper and above all tobacco.