Guest Author - Elizabeth Bissette

Shamanism, (from the Tungusic, saman), is a tradition which focuses on the ability of the individual to communicate with the many forms conscious energy takes in nature. By doing this, the Shaman is able to effect, among many other things, the health, awareness and course of events in his or her own life and in the lives of others. The Shaman, through heightened awareness, is in touch with natural phenomena and entities; power animals, for example. In many cultures, the Shaman is their spiritual leader as well as healer.

Shamanism can be traced back to the Paleolithic era and is found throughout history all over the world. The traditions appear to have emerged at the same time as the earliest Goddess/fertility statues and cave paintings.
It is thought to have begun in the Mongol areas of Siberia. It spread from there across Eastern Europe, to India, Tibet and through the Americas. The practice of Shamanism continues today in many cultures. Wherever the tradition is found, the Shaman is a highly respected member of the society.

The relationship of human beings and nature is central to shamanism. A deep respect for nature and the power of seeing the true nature of things,beyond what is reflected by our eyes, are also core concepts of the tradition. As part of this, as pointed out above, some shamanistic practices involve the use of a power animal or a second soul.

This concept is found in Aztec cosmology, where you have a birth soul, or tonal. Your tonal contains your astrological destiny. To become a fully realized individual, one must also actualize a second soul, which manifests itself as a power animal, the nagual. The tonal represents the visible aspects of existence, the nagual the hidden aspects. These are not the same as good and evil; each contains both. In many traditions, the shamanistic realtionship with animals is used in a different way as well; to assist with hunting, a central part of many societies.

Trance states are intrinsic to shamanistic practice. These can be induced in a variety of ways, including drumming, dance, sensory or other deprivation, and even physical or mental illness. A variety of plant substances, including hallucinogens are also used. The above can be used singly or in combination. For example, Siberian shamans use both drumming and Amanita muchrooms to induce trance states. In all Shamanistic traditions, the use of hallucinagins is sacred, not recreational. The plants used give access to deeper level of consciousness and access to other worlds or dimensions. From the trance state, the Shaman gains knowledge for healing and divination, among other things.
Shamanic trance can also be attained through meditation and dreams. Phenomena encountered in these trances can also be experienced in a normal, waking state. Examples of this are interaction with wild animals and coincidental experiences/a heightened awareness of synchronicity. The goal is to become one with, not surpass, nature.

Danger, for example meditating on high cliffs, darkness and other forms of sensory or other deprevation are also used to induce shamanistic trance. These elements are often found in the vision quest,a shamanistic coming-of age ritual which takes many forms. In this quest, the shaman descends from this world into the abyss of the other world. The state can be induced by various forms of deprevation or other methods, as described above. The root idea is that the individual must experience a sort of ritual death in order to be fully awakened as a Shaman. This concept is found in many, many religious traditions; for example, we see it in the descents of Orpheus, Dionysus and Inanna.

Expanded mental ability, like clairvoyance, foreknowledge of events, including death, and visions of future and past events is also frequently found in Shamanism. These abilities can manifest in dreams, visions, or in a waking state. Sometimes plants are used to facilitate or enhance these abilities, as well as other trance-inducing methods listed above. Similar abilities are described in Indian mysticism and Tibetan Buddhism, which is founded on the shamanistic traditions of the Bön.

Shamanism can be seen as our most ancient science, facilitating awareness of the individuals interaction with the quantum realm, that awareness itself is subjective. From this vantage point, circumstance becomes a very maleable thing. The techniques of shamanic trance can also be viewed as ways to tune into the quantum-nonlocality of the individual. Multiple dimensions and journeys swithin these, are a core part of many traditions. It is a perpetual state of existence, where the awareness of the shaman is tuned into the flow of the universe and the true nature of things, our true, inner reality.

Inner reality is always there, of course but most people are not aware of it on a regular basis. For most people, it is experienced in dreams or when we are just falling asleep. It is also experienced in coincidence, particularly when we find ourselves in periods of time where we are surrounded by them. Paranormal experiences of all kinds are also a manifestation of inner reality. Most people have had at least one of these, usually centered around the death or serious injury of a loved one. Lucid dreaming, something many people do without trying to and that all people are able to do, is also a manifestation of this inner reality. In all of these, the infinite nature of our will is manifest.

Today, we live surrounded by things that distract rather than faciliate our awareness of reality. Television and other media are perpetually distracting, pharmecutical companies can't seem to come out with new things to alter our brain chemistry fast enough and more and more people are taking mood-altering medications, (I am not saying this is bad, or unneccessary for many, many people as a general rule. What seems negative to me is the switch from using tried and true medications, as healers have always done, to following trends of pharmecutical companies. A look at the many drug-related class-action suits should tell you something.)

The abyss of the nagual is not something that is really brought to our attention, nor is awareness of it fostered by the way most of us live our daily lives. Meditation and contemplation and napping, (a practice central in Sumerian tradition, believed to facilitate communication with inner reality an other dimensions), are all viewed, as a general rule, as luxuries for those who have the time. Scientific proof of lucid dreaming and psychic phenomenon is well known in scientific circles but not so much by the public. Psychedelic plants are generally viewed as recreational or negative. It is difficult, in such a world, to find and follow the path of the shaman.

We can, however, still follow shamanistic tradition and through it actualize our full potential as human beings. There is a great deal of information available about many shamanistic pathways on the internet. Because the tradition is still very much alive, there are teachers like Don Miguel Ruiz who have published wonderful books on the subject and whose lectures we can attend or watch on DVD, (turning the media-overflow into a positive). And we can simply make meditation, time in nature, attention to the habits of the wild animals around us, attention to coincidence and other practices included in shamanism part of our everyday life.