Shamanism........................

Sunnygal41

Who's read about it................been involved in it.................would like to share their experience(s)?

Terri

aka Raven Wind Spirit

xjw_b12

Hello sunnygal41 ...... who we would like to meet in person.

Any background on this Shamanism. I have difficulty at home running multiple browsers, so can you give a synopsis?

The only thing I can recall that was similar was Shazam, but I don't think that is what you are after.

El blanko

Have read a bit about it - have a book about it and used to ride the "Shaman's Chariot".

Wouldn't recommend it myself, as it means actively opening yourself up to "spirit guides".

Surrounding the activities of this belief system & ritual way of life are some rather respectful ways towards the earth and towards each other. So within the midst of the spirits are truths. But of course there is often a turd in the mix when it comes to most world religions. Here the turds are the spirit guides. Some would reason these guides appear as a result of taking potent amounts of hallucinogens and the end result being manifestations born out of a chemical trip. I am not so sure though.

David Icke last year took a trip on the Shaman's Chariot and wound up writing an entire book as a spin off with his experience with "the great universal spirit".

False prophets pop up everywhere nowadays and often find inspiration from the other side.

darkuncle29

Interesting subject.

I am learing a practice that is non pharmacological. I can only describe it as havinga conversation in a crowded noisy room, and where to put your focus. I want to travel to Arizona or the Dakotas and see if I couldfind a Medicine man who would help me on a vision quest, or even educate me as an aprentice.

Have you ever been to www.astralpulse.com ?

That is a forum much like this one, where the topic of discusion id OBEs and other spiritual growth. I do not think of myself as a shaman, anymore than a person driving on the interstate thinks they are a race car driver.

GentlyFeral

darkuncle said:

I do not think of myself as a shaman, anymore than a person driving on the interstate thinks they are a race car driver.

Bravo. I feel the same way.

For the past couple years I've been "going Out There," as I call it, seeing strange sights and meeting strange people. It isn't any stranger than Dante's guided tour of Heaven and Hell, otherwise known as The Divine Comedy. Well, ok, it is stranger, but then I grew up in Berkeley during the sixties, and read a lot of science fiction, so my imaginary friends know they can let down their hair with me.

I've worked both with and without herbal assistance. The scenery is much more impressive with herbs, but the conversation is sometimes more instructive without.

Here's an adventure that I offer for its possible consoling value:

Once my ~~imaginary friend~~ guide and I found ourselves in a golden hall with malachite pillars. But what caught our attention was a little burnt hole in the floor. I knew (from reading Michael Harner's The Way of the Shaman) that when you see a hole in a vision, you should go down it for further instruction. So I tried, but I couldn't get more than my toes into it. The guide tried also, with no better luck. We puzzled over it for a long time.

"Oh!" he said, "I know what that is! That's death, after you've been through it." We drifted away, suitably impressed.

GentlyFeral

El blanko

imaginary friends

Dear dear - be very careful out there - they know you a lot better than you know yourself.

Sirona

I've read about shamanism and its very interesting indeed. I couldn't say I was a shaman at all, although I do find that animal totems and other shamanistic things are fairly prominent for me.

Blanko

Here the turds are the spirit guides.

With respect, you don't know what you are talking about.

Sirona

Sunnygal41

Sirona! LOL! Thank you for saying that to El Blanko.................Blanko, I'm not sure where you are coming from with that information, but, from everything I've heard and read and discussed with others, who ARE involved with this on a regular basis, caution is necessary, but, for the most part, as long as you have your personal guide(s) along with you, to protect you, you are okay. There are "entities" that you can sometimes encounter that you need to be very firm about talking with or accepting help from. I started going to classes with a Shamanic Healer, and we did journeys that were more like guided imagery trips or lucid dreaming............I stopped going after a while because of personal reasons, but, she had many students who had been with her for many years. Drumming is another "non-herbal" way of setting off on a journey........you ride the drum beat into the other realm. Some people seem to be born with a natural ability to have OBE's without any effort............I haven't been so fortunate, but, my mom has................alot of it has to do with your ability to let go of attachment mentally and emotionally to this "material" realm and remain open to the other realms. Gently Feral, very very interesting experience..............I'm kind of jealous, if you understand what I mean? As I said earlier, when I was attending the classes, I had some cool experiences..............one of my guides is a Raven..........in one journey, there was a campfire and she rose up out of the smoke like a large column, turned white and her eyes were silver....................but, most of the time, she was black..............I know that much of what is experienced is meant to be absorbed for it's subtler meanings later on.............I find talking about it with other dreamers and journeyers helps! Uncle, thanks for the website..........I'll check that out for sure! Anyone here heard of Lynn Andrews or checked her site out? I've read all her books, in fact, a friend recommended them to me and that's where I first started getting interested in the subject. I know that in indiginous tribes the mantle of Medicine Man/Shamanic Healer was usually passed thru a family line. I know that it is a practice that is found all over the world.........Russia has it's Shamans, the Amazonian rain forest tribes have theirs, and they use herbals such as Ayahuesca to facilitate their journeys and healings............then we have the native americans of the US continent.........with their Heyoka Medicine Men and Women...........I know in the UK they have the Druidic and Wiccan groups who practice this type of thing too..............not as familiar with how their ceremonies go..............any sharing or experiences would be great!

Terri

Sirona

I know in the UK they have the Druidic and Wiccan groups who practice this type of thing too..............not as familiar with how their ceremonies go..............any sharing or experiences would be great!

I can only talk about the coven I'm in, I don't know how other groups do things. Mostly the OBE's happen in private practice, but sometimes the coven does a group meditation or the like in which OBEs are possible. We have guided meditations with various themes aswell.

Most of the group work we do isn't about meeting spirit guides or whatever, its usually doing some form of magickal working at coven meetings, and purely ritual and celebration at Sabbats.

I don't choose to travel astrally, for my own reasons. I do meditate and I too have a Raven guide, aswell as a black panther and Spider. They are always around and honestly I've never seen my guides in human form. I did have a visit from a "guide" in a very profound dream, but now I suspect they were someone I've known in many lifetimes because when they left I told them that I'd see them in a few years when I die (I knew they couldn't always be with me like a guide is).

Spider gave me a very useful message recently - up until then she had been bugging (ha excuse the pun) me until I asked what the message was.

I'm currently reading a book called Shaman Healer Sage which is very useful, but a little bit too focused on possible negative impact of things. It states catagorically that you can't use the healing methods described until fully trained. How do you view this? Can you be a Shaman without having to spend years and years learning?

Sirona

Abaddon

Shaman? Hmmm... all I know is that it's wonderful to wind-up Roman Catholics (or any dressed-up Priesthood religion) by calling their priest Shaman. Winding backwards I think a healthy attitude towards getting off your head on local plants and a fear of the dark/lightning et.al. can very easily lead to a belief structure in itself.

As for OBEs; maybe we need to use OBEs to find WoMD? Of course, not finding WoMD by using OBEs would not mean that WoMD didn't exist. They might exist and OBEs might not. Or the WoMD might not exist but you'd be unable to prove that OBEs did as you'd be looking for something that wasn't there. Or that neither existed in our standard objectively determinable reality... or that there were WoMD and they were found by OBEs. Obviously anyone who does have OBEs must be scruplulously honest, as it would be an easy way to get obscenely rich.

Okay, I'll go away now... red flag to bull, sorry.

Yours

The incorrigible skeptic...

Shamanism........................

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