Know Your Story

Shamanism has three goals, at least according to me.  These are (in my order of importance):

1. Know who you are,
2. Maintain a close connection with Spirit, and
3. Serve others from a place of respect, love and compassion.

Why doesn't service to others come first?  Well, because (again according to me) one can't serve others without first know her/him self, and without maintain a close connection with Spirit.  Shamanic practitioners are sometimes referred to as "hollow bones"; that is, a conduit through which Spirit can flow to others.  We work with Spirit, the Spirits of nature, beings from the lower and upper world.  Without that connection we are, at best, good conversationalists.

So, let's take a look at knowing ourselves.  We are all screwed up; at least I know that I am.  I look at my parents and how they raised me and my four younger brothers, and they were a mess.  They had no idea what they were doing; but neither did their parents . . . And guess what, my three boys probably think that I'm a mess too.  Try as I do not to repeat the mistakes that I think that my parents made, I'm creative enough to invent my own.

I look at my students at the university where I teach.  They are 18 and 19 years old trying to pick out a major that they will study for the next four or more years.  Sad thing is, they really don't have enough maturity or experience to pick a life-long career at that age.  I didn't think that I really knew what I wanted to to until I was in my mid-30's and changed my career.  I left the business world and got a Ph.D. so that I could profess. Now that I'm in my 60s I sort-of-kind think that once in a while I have my act together.

In Western cultures we spend an inordinate amount of time planning, and that means planning for the future but very little time looking at how we got where we are today.  That's too bad, because if we can change our stories, we can change our lives.  Part of that requires that we look back and see what our story is.

You might want to try an exercise that I spent a couple of hours on this past weekend.  I decided to diagram a road map of my life.  I knew where it started so I drew a straight line until I came to the first big fork in the road.  The early forks in the road, decisions that were made, were made by my parents, but they affected my life.  So I drew the fork in the road and put a question mark on the path not taken and continued along. Sometimes I realized that I took a path, decided that it was the wrong one and backtracked and took a different path.  I labeled and dated all of the paths so I could keep track of the major decisions and see how each fork in the road led to other forks.  Some of the paths had smiley faces, others had sad faces with tears, or mad faces; I included my emotions on my map, not just places, events, accomplishments and failures, and decisions.   At the end of a couple of hours I had several pieces of paper all taped together.  Then I put my map away.  

Actually I was tired of looking at it. But the next day I got it out and started to analyze it.  I looked for repeating patterns, both good and bad.  I appreciate the good patterns and hope to replicate them, and identified the dysfunctional patterns so that I could make sure that I don't repeat them. There are some life lessons, like high school, that I really don't want to relearn.  You know, got the t-shirt and I'm not going back there again.

I also found a couple of stories on my life map that I want to change.  For those I'm going to take some shamanic journeys, cut etheric cords and change the outcomes of those events.  Guess what, time isn't linear and we are affected by events in the past (obvious, no?) and also by events in the future.  Shamanic journeys give us the ability to move in time and make changes to our stories.

Anyway, you might find the life map exercise enlightening, that means one that you can learn from.  In any event, live in peace and joy, and don't just let life happen to you.  

Dave

Journey for Steve

This is a summary of a shamanic journey that I undertook for Steve (name and some personal details have been changed to protect his identity).  I held a video interview with him on Skype and then he completed and email consent and personal history forms to me (one page each).  We set up a time for an audio Skype session.  Both of us would be laying down with our eyes closed so a video Skype session wasn't needed.  Here is the summary:

Steve is a 45 year old, divorced male.  He was experiencing a number of symptoms including constant Headaches, slight sickness in stomach, abdominal pain with cramps, and painful urination. He reported heavy tobacco use, moderate to alcohol usage, and denied narcotic or recreation drug usage.  He reported to have good relations with both of his parents and his ex-wife.  He as a few friends at work but doesn't go out with them outside of work.  We enjoys watching sports but doesn't participate in any physical activities other than work (he is a machinist).

I undertook a journey for Steve and used a portal that I had recently discovered.  I start the journey walking alongside a stream, against the current.  Following the stream I come to a small, wide waterfall that hides the entrance to a cave.  By walking around the side of the waterfall I am able to enter the cave without getting wet.  Walking down the path in the cave I quickly see a opening through which light is streaming and walking towards the light I find myself in the underworld on a path next to another stream.  The stream is on the right with a field on the left.  A forest appears on the far side of the stream.

Today I was met, as is usual, by Raven and Bear.  Raven has been with me for as long as I have been journeying.  Bear appeared recently.  Bear usually gives me a hug when I appear and then drops to all fours and I place my hand on his neck as we walk together.  Raven usually does all of the talking.  I asked Raven where we were going and Raven responded, “Follow me.” so we did.  He led us around a corner where we found Steve sitting on a log in deep shade.  I could tell it was Steve, although he was more slender than Steve’s 220 pounds and looked like a man in his mid- to late 30s even though he is now 45 years old.

Raven flew around Steve a few times and then landed on my left shoulder.  I asked Steve who he was, expecting him to tell me that he was Steve, or at least part of him.  He responded with, “I am heart.”  I responded with, “You mean that you are Steve’s heart?” and he replied, “Yes, I am.”  I asked why he was here sitting in the dark when there was so much light in the field.  He explained that he hurt too much during a separation and decided to leave and the he felt best alone in the dark.  I told him the Steve needed him to come back and Raven started to fly around him again.  He finally agreed to return, I put my arm around his shoulder and we started to walk back to the tunnel.

I was thinking that this was really easy.  We seemed to walk for a long, long time, much longer than it had taken us to arrive to where Steve was sitting.  Finally Steve’s heart said that he was tired and that he wanted to sit down.  I looked and we were back at the same log, in the same place where we had started out together.  After resting for some time we got up to leave and started walking again.  This cycle repeated itself three more times with us always returning to the same place.  The fourth time that we returned to the same log I looked carefully at Steve and detected a dark shadow within his chest.  I reached my hand inside and pulled out what looked like a large, oblong, black balloon made of leather, roughly four inches in diameter and about a foot long.  The balloon was sort of moving and pulsating.  I reached into my bag and pulled out a knife and slit the bag open and a flock of hundreds of yellow butterflies escaped from the bag.  Steve looked up, saw the butterflies, and said one word, “Love.”

This time when we stood up to leave we were quickly able to arrive at the entrance to the tunnel, walk back to the cave and through, not around, the waterfall.  That water felt refreshing and cleansing.  The 30 minute drum track that I was using had just started the callback at this point.  I looked down and saw Steve, the physical Steve, lying on a blanket.  I took Heart Steve into my hand, he was now small and wispy, put him into my Native American Flute, closed all the flute wholes with my fingers and blew Heart Steve into Steve. 

Once again I thought that all had been accomplished when I saw Heart Steve sit up inside of Steve.  It appeared that the two Steves were superimposed on each other and Heart Steve was sitting up so that he protruded from Steve’s chest.  He looked at me and said, “I need the butterflies.”  I replied, “Of course, here they come.”, when all of the sudden hundreds of yellow butterflies streamed into Heart Steve.  When the last butterfly disappeared Heart Steve too seemed to melt back into Steve.  I noted that a yellow aura had begun to build around Steve with the arrival of the butterflies and then that it was quickly absorbed into Steve.  All of this happened so fast that the absorption of the yellow aura coincided with the ending of the callback on the drumming track. 

My analysis is that sometime during Steve’s separation and divorce he had lost the ability to love or feel love.  That left a whole in his being that he was trying to fill with other substances.  The return of Heart to Steve should fill that void and I expect, with that his other symptoms will start to fade away, as should his reliance on substances as substitutes for love.

Why Shamanic Journeys are Possible

I have written before about shamanic journeys and here is a list for quick access to some of them.  I have had a few questions about why it is even possible to journey. 

When we journey we enter into an altered state of consciousness and that makes it possible for us to sense other realities.  We live in a three-dimensional world (four dimensions if you consider time to be a dimension).  However, physicists have developed mathematical models that indicate that we exist in a multi-dimensional universe with at least 11 dimensions.  Here is a link to a Nova page on imagining multiple dimensions.

In any event we seem to live in universe where we are only able to sense three dimensions, and our ability to sense energy within that three-dimensional universe is severely limited.  Image for a minute that we live in a two-dimensional universe; a universe that exists like a page in a book.  In such a universe we wouldn’t know that there were other pages in the book, pages above and below the page that we lived on.  Beings on those other pages could go happily about their lives as oblivious to us as we were to them.  If we were suddenly able to sense and move in three dimensions then we would discover that we had neighbors above and below us and that we could “jump” into their universe.  To them, we would appear to have arrived out of nothingness.  They were alone, content in their universe, and in an instant we suddenly appeared.

The upper and lower worlds may exist as other dimensions that we are only able to access when we enter an altered state of consciousness and are able to traverse dimensions.  A second explanation is that there are vibrational differences between the lower world, our world, and the upper world.

At the most basic level everything is energy.  From time-to-time my boys play a game with my.  One will ask, “Dad, what is bread made out of?”  and I will respond, “Well kido, bread is made out of flour, water, salt and sugar, and yeast.”  One will then ask, “Dad, what is wheat made out of.”  To which I will respond, “Wheat is a complex carbohydrate with some protein molecules.”  Another boy, now knowing where the game is going, will ask, “So, what makes up complex carbohydrates.”  and the response is always, “Carbon and hydrogen atoms.”  Of course we haven’t gone far enough so another boy asks, “What are carbon atoms made from.”  You know, “Carbon atoms are made from a nucleus of protons and neutrons with six electrons arranged in two shells around the nucleus.”  It’s probably hard being my son, don’t you think?  “Well Dad,” another asks, “what are neutrons made out of?”  The answer is always “Subatomic particles, two down quarks and one up quark.”  We final get to the end and I am asked, “What are quarks made out of?” and I say “Whirling fields of energy.”  We are really all well-organized whirling fields of energy.

Unfortunately we are not built to sense all forms of energy, all possible wavelenghts.  Think about the known electromagnetic spectrum.  It ranges from gamma waves that are 0.000001 of a meter long to energy waves that are 100 megameters long and a megameter is about 621 miles long . . . that’s a long wave.  If we could see a megameter it would look, from our vantage point, like a straight line.  The following table shows how little of the total know spectrum we are able to see and hear.

So where is this going.  Well it might be that the lower world exists at a vibrational level that is slightly slower than what we are normally able to sense and that the upperworld is at a slightly higher vibrational level.  When we enter an altered state of consciousness we either slow down or speed up our consciousness so that we are able so sense the other vibrational levels.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether we sense another dimension or sense new vibrational levels when we journey.  What matters to me is that shamanic journeying is possible and that it can be used for good.  If you haven’t tried going on a shamanic journey, give it a try.  You will come back with a new sense of what reality really is and what is truly possible.  You are more than you ever thought.

FRAGILITY OF LIFE

Hi all.  I have been away for a few days and so this is going to be a little more personal than usual. So if you don't like personal blogs then please come back tomorrow and I'll be my usual self again.

Pulling Away

My 86 year-old mother (that sounds a little funny, like I have another mother who is not 86 years old . . . oh well . . .) recently suffered a massive stroke and I flew across the U.S. to spend some time with her. She is not doing very well physically, emotionally or mentally so it was a pretty hard trip.  Our roles reversed while I was there and I was the one feeding the baby food to her.  I suppose in her mind that was especially difficult because, while I don't remember her feeding me, I'm sure that she remembers when she use to spoon baby food into my mouth. The whole experience reminded me how fragile life is and that it is important that we not just enjoy, but cherish and love every second of it.

While sitting with her I entered into my shamanic world and remembered how we are all connected, really connected.  Saying that we are connected is not an empty, happy-talk phrase in shamanism; it means that we are all one and what happens to one happens to all. There are energetic links that connect all of us together into a grand web of life. Some of the strands are thick and pulsate with energy while others are very fine and faint echos travel back and forth, but we are all connected. In fact, think of the structure of your brain.  It is a complex network of neurons that are all connected together with energy flowing from one neuron to another.  We are the neurons in the web of life.

Neural Network - - The Web of Life

Thus connected, I could feel her fear, her sadness, and her frustration.  I looked for her energy field and saw how faint and tenuous it was and I saw how weak and slowly her chakras  were spinning.  I was tempted to stand over her and wind her chakras up so that they would spin faster and draw more energy into her body but rather than acting impulsively I had the respect to ask her spirit first.  The reply was, "No, don't do that, the clock is slowly winding down and I am ready to move on.  She doesn't know that you are here, but I do, and thank you for asking."

The web that connects us is eternal and so I expect that sometime soon I will find her with my spirit guides and wisdom teachers when I visit the upper world.  When I do I will find the energy of the young woman who energetically cared for a small boy, not the energy of the frail shell that was laying upon a hospital bed.  

It is good to be connected and I thank you for connecting with me.  Love life and cherish each other because everyone is you.

Peace,

Dave

What is Shamanism?

The word "shaman" comes from Tungus language where it refers to a person who enters into an altered state of consciousness to facilitate a journey into non-ordinary reality.  Although the term is from Siberia, the practice of shamanism existed on all inhabited continents.

Shamanism is not a religion and it may not even be a spiritual practice.  However, it is the most ancient form of healing, practiced by humans around the world and it is a method for connecting and working with spirit.  Once in non-ordinary reality the shaman is able to request healing and advice from personal power animals animals, humans and other spirits including spirit guides and nature spirits. Spiritual healing is complementary to modern medicine, therapy and training. Often it is the missing link, the wind in the sails that allows healing, recovery and training to rapidly progress.

Is shamanism a religion?

A “religion” is usually defined as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.  Shamanism does not have any prescribed doctrines or belief systems.  In fact, shamanism doesn’t have any beliefs at all.  I learned from Andean shamans in Bolivia and Peru and they didn’t “believe” in spirit helpers like the Apus or mountain spirits.  They worked with them every day and knew them.  The Andean shamans didn’t believe  in spirits any more than they believed  that they wore clothing, ate food or lived in a home.  Shamanism isn’t a faith-based system, rather, it is experiential and so rather than  believing something shamans know because they have experienced.  If you begin to practice shamanism then you too will eventually come to that knowing.

Shamanism coexists with Buddhism and Lamaism in Siberia.  In Japan it coexists with  with Buddhism and Shintoism.  In fact in some Buddhist traditions a monk is ordained as a Shamana.  In South America shamanism coexists with Christianity and you will find shamans who place Christian symbols on their mesas.

So it if is not a religion, what is it?  It is a method, a way of working with spirit.  It is also a holistic approach to healing that can work alongside and with contemporary Western medicine.  A shaman’s role in society is not to convert others to a way of believing, it is to use spiritual means (as in working with Spirit) to help the people become well and whole, not to prove that his or her system is the only one that works.

Thanks for reading . . . I hope that you will read my other blog posts about shamanism.  There is a prettycomplete list at my website.  And then, I hope that your interest will be peaked and you will want to give it a try.