What is shamanism?
What is a shaman
What are shamanic healing methods?
What does a shaman do?
How can shamanism help heal the emptiness
in our spirit?
What is a journey
Is shamanism a religion?
What is shamanism?
Shamanism is the oldest (10,000 to 30,000 years) spiritual practice known to humans. In shamanism everything—animals, plants, mountains, stars, people,—has a spiritual essence or soul.
What is a shaman?
Shamans are men or women who interact directly with the spiritual world to help create health and peace for individuals and groups. They perform soul retrievals, divine information, teach the ways of the spirit, interpret dreams, help the spirits of deceased people to cross over, mediate the spirits and the ancestors on behalf of the community, align individuals and communities with the elements and the natural world, and perform a variety of ceremonies for the health and well-being of their community.
Becoming a shamanic practitioner takes personal dedication and instruction from shamanic teachers. It requires a commitment to spiritual and personal growth, compassion for others, maturity, strict adherence to ethical behavior, and a willingness to be guided by the spirits.
I have trained with a wide variety of experienced shamanic teachers, and continue to study individually with a respected, experienced shaman. I have completed Sandra Ingerman’s two-year teacher training, and I am an acknowledged practitioner and teacher. I also follow a Zen spiritual tradition and sit in silent retreats with my teacher, Adyashanti. Because I am passionate about the benefits of shamanic healing, I continue as a research investigator and co-author research publications in order that the results of clinical research on shamanism can become available to the wider health care community.
What are shamanic healing methods?
Although the core healing methods of shamanism exist in all cultures, the practice of shamanism adapts to the culture in which the shaman practices. For example, our psychologically sophisticated culture has neither the community support nor widespread acceptance or knowledge of shamanic practice. Therefore, I allow time for your soul retrieval and other shamanic healing, encourage you to return for integration work, and offer to teach you to journey so you can empower yourself. In essence, I help to provide the community support for the integration of your new, creative, whole self during and after shamanic healing.
Shamanism is concerned with loss of spirit, usually resulting from trauma or long term illness, and with removal of negative thought forms that attach when an individual is in a weakened condition.
Soul retrieval. The trauma that produces soul loss causes an aspect of one’s self to dissociate and feel alienated and disconnected. This injury to one’s essence is often manifested as despair, a loss of meaning in life, and loss of feelings of belonging and connection with others. Soul retrieval helps the self to regain its sense of being whole.
Power animal or guardian spirit retrieval. Sometimes people feel a loss of power and connection to their inner wisdom. Power animal retrieval helps to mend this spiritual illness.
Energetic extraction, cord cutting. Our thoughts are powerful energy. In our culture, we are often unaware of how we throw our negative thoughts out to others. Often theses attempts to control others result in energy that “sticks” to us. Extractions and cord cutting help to remove these negative energies that are interfering with our vitality and ability to heal.
Depossession. Often we feel that something is dragging on us or causing psychic or physical pain. Depossession of energies that have attached to us can help us to feel re-energized.
Psychopomp. Shamans help the dying to accept death and cross over.
Other methods. There are methods such as creating ceremony and ritual, divination, dream interpretation, ecstatic body postures, and healing with light. These all help to empower you and open you to a new, creative sense of who you are.
What does a shaman do?
Shamans enter a shamanic state of consciousness (SSC) on your behalf to bring back healing information. They enter the SSC by beating a drum or rattle from 230-250 beats per minute. This produces a dominance of theta EEG brain waves (4 to 7 Hertz), indicative of a deeply meditative state. Although some shamanic practitioners use consciousness-changing substances, I do not.
Shamanism recognizes two realities that depend on our state of consciousness. In our everyday lives we are in “ordinary state of consciousness” and perceive “Ordinary Reality” (OR). When shamans “journey” they enter a “Shamanic State of Consciousness” (SSC) and perceive “Non-Ordinary Reality” (NOR). Entering NOR allows us access to knowledge that is not bounded by the time or space constraints of ordinary reality.
How can shamanism help heal the emptiness
in our spirit? Shamanic healing helps us reconnect with aspects of our true self. The shaman’s journey in non-ordinary reality and the information brought back facilitates the transfer of unconscious thoughts and behaviors into consciousness. The universal consciousness embodied in the spirit world provides a context for releasing archetypal symbols and energies.
Shamanic journeying produces theta waves that unite the three main structures of the brain, the neo-reptilian, neo-mammalian, and neo-cortex. The wave process taps information that is preverbal and often linked to archetypal images. Enhancing the connections with these ancient, archetypal symbols activates them in ways to make them a significant source of energy for healing. The connectedness with nature provided by the natural and archetypal symbols helps produce a sense of wholeness and connectedness. These integrative processes enhance attention, internal focus of attention, self-awareness, learning, and memory.
Working with a shaman provides you with a protected space for manifesting and re-expressing feelings to unleash the potential for transformation. Shamanic healing can, thus, heal old traumas and allow you to reestablish contact with aspects of your true self.
What is a journey?
When an individual or shaman enters a shamanic state of consciousness (SSC) they experience traveling out from and returning to where they are. While undertaking a journey, most people meet up with helping spirits who give them advice and help in healing. Most people who are reasonably healthy can learn to journey.
Is shamanism a religion?
Shamanism is a spiritual healing practice that pertains to matters concerning the soul or spirit. Shamanism is not a religion because it does not encompass a set of beliefs about deities and an institutionalized system of beliefs and practices related to the divine. People who are shamanic practitioners come from a wide variety of religions from all over the world. Their practice of shamanism does not interfere in any way with their religious beliefs.
