I Can't Visualize, Can I Still Learn Shamanic Journeying

Over the past few years, I have taught many people to perform a shamanic journey. One thing I have noticed is that every single person’s experience in journey is completely unique. Some people experience full sensory immersion - sights, sounds, smells. Others see vague pictures or symbols. A few see nothing at all. In my experience, everybody can learn to journey.

Once in a while, I encounter someone who says that they can’t form any pictures in their imagination and they worry about being able to journey. There is a condition if you want to call it that, called aphantasia, which is the inability to form mental pictures. It’s somewhat rare, affecting around 2% of the population. MRI research shows that, when someone with aphantasia is asked to picture something, the visual cortex does not light up.

Aphantasia can present challenges for people in certain tasks - like recognizing faces. However, I do not believe it needs to be a barrier to journeying at all.

In my experience, complete aphantasia is rare. The majority of people I encounter who say they can’t visualize can visualize to some degree. Their pictures may be somewhat unclear, but this is fine. The ability to visualize vividly exists to differing degrees in different people. There is an online quiz called the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire which will give you an idea where you are.

People who can’t visualize at all usually find that they either adapt naturally to challenging tasks or find novel strategies to succeed. I know practitioners with complete aphantasia who are extremely successful at journeying. They get information through a knowing, or through other sensations like sound of feel.

When learning to journey, it is always good advice to let go of expectations. Get blocked or frustrated because the experience wasn’t what you’d thought it would be isn’t helpful. The best advice I can give is tot surrender to the experience, no matter what it is. Everything that happens is valuable.

Imagine a friend invites you to a concert. You thought she meant a rock concert, but when you get there it’s a classical orchestra. If you spend the whole concert angry or frustrated because it wasn’t what you expected, you’ll miss all of that beautiful music. But if you accept, surrender, let what is be just as it is, you can have an amazing experience.

How Does a Shaman See People?

Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes.

-Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

When a shaman looks at a person in nonordinary reality, or during a journey, they see much more than a physical body. For that matter, all sentient beings appear as wildly complex energetic constructs. Further, many beings who do not seem conscious to physical eyes are sentient when viewed through a shamanic lens.

I will start by saying that the following description is merely a model. Mere words cannot describe the totality of even a single being. I will also use words in ways that others may not - and that’s OK too. If I say the word “blue,” I might be thinking of sky blue, and you might be thinking of a dark blue. It’s just a difference, and neither is “wrong.”

Shamanism is animistic and sees spirit everywhere. The natural world is full of conscious spirits - of trees, wind, animals, the Earth itself.

I like to use the analogy of an onion. Sentient beings, such as humans, have layer upon layer of “stuff.”

Most spiritual systems recognize that the physical body is the surface “layer” and acknowledge at least one other part of the person. We might call that spirit or soul. There are words in every language for this part of a being.

To create a model with huge pieces that can be easily understood, I’ll talk about at least three parts or layers of a person. Each one of those layers is infinitely complex.

Take the physical body. The human body has approximately 30 trillion cells. Medicine recognizes dozens of individual organs. The chemistry of the body is incredibly complex and not fully understood. And there are differences between each particular body.

You can see that the concept of the body is a massive oversimplification of an uncountable number of things working in concert. But us useful to be able to refer to the physical body as a shortcut.

I will refer to the three simplified parts of a person as bodies.

Physical Body

We’ve already discussed the physical body. This is the part of the person that has mass and exists in ordinary reality. Most people strongly identify with their physical bodies, even though it is one small part of them. It’s a little like saying, “I am my toenail.”

Astral Body

The next, more subtle body is the astral body. This is what many shamans refer to as the soul. Some would call it your spirit or your ghost. The astral body is an energetic part of you - you may have heard of astral travel. This part of you can be split into pieces, and parts can travel in nonordinary reality—this is what shamans do when they journey.

The astral body is some blend of form and formlessness. It is much subtler than the physical body. Shapeshifting in the astral body is quite natural. In trance states, shamans may perceive spirits as having specific forms, even if they are physically disembodied. This is the way spirit can communicate with the minds of humans in ways we can understand.

Essences or parts of the soul can also become lost during trauma. A soul retrieval ceremony is shamanic healing intended to heal this type of spiritual injury.

While you are physically alive, your soul is somewhat attached to your body. This connection is severed when you die physically. If you were to lose ALL of your soul, your body would not survive. I will talk more about this in a bit when I discuss how the bodies interact.

Causal Body

The causal body is entirely subtle; it has no form. I refer to this layer as the spirit. It is unchanging, whole, complete, and incorruptible. It cannot be injured or harmed.

The causal body is your spark of divinity. If you think of the creator (God or whatever name you have) as an ocean, this is like a drop in that ocean. Inseparable from divinity, yet still an individual.

At this level, time and space break down, so no form can exist. There are shamanic practices to access this level of Self (capital S here). It can be experienced as a center point of pure light that radiates infinitely in all directions. Even that is a mental construct to help our physical minds.

You can also think of the causal body as a field of pure consciousness in which everything you experience arises. It is the container for your consciousness and your cradle of creation.

How does this relate to shamanic healing

Shamans work primarily at the astral or soul level. You might see a doctor to work on a strictly physical issue, and a shamanic practitioner to help with the spiritual aspects of an issue that is reflected physically.

The astral body and physical body are close together; they are overlapping layers. Issues in one can affect another. For example, long-term physical illness may result in soul loss. Likewise, soul loss may result in physical problems.

There is a practice called transfiguration, where a healer journeys to identify with their pure soul essence, and this can provide needed healing energy to the spirits of others.

Since the causal body cannot be injured, there is no need and no technique for healing this aspect of another person or being.

Again, I would remind you that these descriptions are just pointers, like a map of a large territory. They aren’t meant to be exhaustive, and no map is 100% accurate.

What is a Shamanic Journey?

When you hear of a shamanic journey, what exactly is that?

In core shamanism, the main “thing” a practitioner does to access healing, power, and information is called a shamanic journey. When a shaman journeys, he or she does a number of things:

1. Enters into an altered state of consciousness

2. Accesses nonordinary reality

3. Works with helping spirits

If any of these three elements are missing, the person is doing something other than core shamanism.

Let me break each of these things down:

Entering into an altered state of consciousness

Our ancestors discovered, without the benefit of modern medical equipment, that there were multiple states of consciousness. Some states of consciousness were useful for ordinary day-to-day tasks, like planting crops or gathering water. Other states led to transpersonal experiences. Experiences where the practitioner was able to transcend normal human capabilities for gathering information, influencing the environment, and healing.

While some cultures relied on hallucinogenic plants, called entheogens, many others discovered that trance states could be achieved by performing or listening to certain rhythmic sounds. Across the world, shamans use drums, rattles, clacking sticks, bells, even wind instruments to induce trance.

With modern technology, we can actually measure changes in people’s brainwaves when they journey. We know that around the world, for thousands of years, people have been inducing what are called Theta brainwaves to enter a spiritual transpersonal state. This is a state that you naturally enter during sleep, but rarely during waking hours.

The trance state is important to be able to set aside the perception of ordinary day-to-day reality (just called ordinary reality or OR) and see the underlying spiritual reality on which our material world is layered. We call the spiritual world entered during a journey of nonordinary reality (or NOR).

Accessing Nonordinary Reality

Once a shamanic practitioner enters into the proper altered state, he or she then accesses nonordinary reality.

Nonordinary reality can be described as the spiritual realms which underly our physical reality. In core shamanism, we recognize and travel in an upper world, middle world, and lower world. The reality is that there seem to be infinite worlds, think of parallel spiritual universes.

These worlds are where the actual journey happens.

The shaman has been trained to send part of his or her soul into these spiritual realms to do whatever spiritual tasks are required.

Working with Helping Spirits

A shaman is always in relationship with his or her helping spirits. Helping spirits include power animals as well as ancestor spirits, weather spirits, spirits of nature, teacher spirits, and others.

All spiritual work in core shamanism is done with the help of one or more helping spirits. The practitioner acts as a conduit for the helping spirit. The work itself varies greatly depending on what is to be done.

During a shamanic journey, the practitioner meets with helping spirits in nonordinary reality to work with them to accomplish the intent of the work

How do you Become a Shaman?

I’d like to talk about how one becomes a shaman, but I have to clarify something first. In my tradition, one does not call oneself a shaman. When I refer to myself, I mostly use the phrase “shamanic practitioner” as I truthfully am a person who practices shamanic spiritual techniques.

I also want to make clear that indigenous shamanic cultures are extremely varied. How they select and/or train people who take the role of the shaman is different culture by culture. While I have extensive training, I am not an anthropologist and don’t want to speak about cultures I am not familiar with.

I will do my best here to draw out some commonalities.

Choosing Who is a Shaman

In some cultures, the role of the shaman is hereditary. A person is selected and trained by parents or grandparents. In other cultures, a shaman is born with certain signs, perhaps a birth defect of some sort. In others, one has to have passed through a traumatic ordeal, like being struck by lightning.

Ultimately, I believe that spirit chooses. Whether you are born into a certain family, or struck by lightning, or born with birth defects in the cultures that use these selection criteria, spirit is nudging those it chooses onto the path.

Today, almost anyone can sign up for a basic course in shamanism. However, those who do not have a spiritual predisposition for the path, do not wind up sticking to it. I’ll talk about why in the next section on initiation.

A Shaman’s Initiation

Shamanic initiation is no easy ride. I have referred to it as putting your whole life into a snow globe and then putting that snow globe into one of those paint mixers at Home Depot. It’s going to shake things up.

It’s important for me to draw a distinction between initiation and an initiation ceremony here. I have participated in many different initiation ceremonies, all of them are very powerful. Some of them were intense and even frightening. But these were ceremonies that all had set beginning and ending points. They were also led and supervised by advanced practitioners - so there is a measure of safety.

But initiation on the shamanic path is an ongoing process conducted by spirit. It never gets easy. My take is that it is spirit breaking down old parts of you that are no longer useful so that you can become the proverbial “hollow bone”. Think of the way indigenous people traditionally made canoes by burning and scooping out the centers of logs.

For me, initiation involves facing parts of myself hidden away in the shadow, having my life turned upside down from time to time, and reexamining my relationship to everything.

There’s a scene in Empire Strikes Back where Luke fights Darth Vader in the swamp of Dagobah. Luke tells Yoda, “I am not afraid.” Yoda responds knowingly, “you will be.” When Darth’s helmet is struck open it reveals Luke’s face underneath. This is a great representation of the shadow aspect of the self, experienced during shamanic journeys.

Ultimately, just as spirit chooses the shaman, spirit initiates the shaman. Even if outward ceremony is involved, spirit is doing the real work.

Shamanic Training

I think I have laid out a good case of why someone can’t just take a class or read a book and be a shaman. However, training is necessary to practice shamanic healing.

Indigenous shamanic cultures will each have their own way of conducting training. Some have an apprentice model, some training is conducted by elders or family members.

My own path involves extensive training. I have completed a year-long apprenticeship in shamanism, a two-year initiatory program, specialized topic training, and am about to start two years of advanced teacher training. For me, the learning never stops.

For my own students, I recommend they don’t take on clients without completing a year of apprenticeship, and training in soul retrieval. Even then, a practitioner may run into things he or she hasn’t trained for and would need to refer to another practitioner

If you’re interested in shamanism and feel called to the path, I recommend starting with an Intro to Shamanism and Journeying class. This is normally an in-person class given over a weekend that will give you a taste of shamanic practice and teach the basic skill of journeying. It’s also a prerequisite for an apprenticeship and some other classes.

Is Shamanism a Native American Religious Practice?

Recently someone asked me if I had consulted with any indigenous people in regards to teaching shamanism. It’s a valid question meant to respect sacred spiritual practices which are sometimes co-opted by unscrupulous practitioners.

Let me begin by saying that I am no expert in Native American religion or spirituality. I am not Native American myself.

Core Shamanism isn’t a Native American Religion or Sacred Practice

I do not practice, teach, claim to teach, or try to imitate Native American or other indigenous ceremonies. I have participated in ceremonies from a number of cultures as an invited guest, and always do so with as much reverence and respect as I can gather.

I think there is some confusion about modern practitioners of core shamanism. In a way, their role as a healer and teacher does overlap what might have been traditional tribal roles. We might call those people “medicine people” but each language would have their own term. Because core shamanism includes practices which appear in every shamanic culture, some methods might appear to be the same.

I think there is also a bias at work for those in the US. For example, many shamanic practitioners use drums. I sometimes use a hide drum I made under the guidance of a Native American teacher.

When someone who grew up in the US sees a person drumming with a hide drum it might be natural to associate that with Native Americans. That’s our cultural reference. But hide drums are used by cultures all over the world, from the Americas to Scandinavia, to Eastern Europe, to Africa.

People in the US are also very sensitive to cultural appropriation. This can be a good thing to address when other cultures are actually being exploited, denigrated, or lessened. But talking with people who have studied with shamans in Nepal, Mongolia, and Africa, I know that there are cultures that are proud to share their spiritual traditions with those who would respect them.

However, it’s not up to people outside of a culture to decide what’s OK to disseminate. For example, I was led through a Saami ceremony once by someone taught directly by Saami shamans to lead it. I wouldn’t then turn around and “make that ceremony my own.”

Core shamanism includes practices which are common to cultures around the world and belong to everyone.

The word shaman

The word shaman itself can drive a lot of confusion. It is Like so much of the English language, it is a borrowed or loanword. It is not, however, borrowed from any language indigenous to the Americas.

As near as we can tell, the word came into English in the 17th century from the German word Schamane,. It came into German from Russian. From Russian it originated with the Tungus people of Siberia. Before that, linguists are unclear but it may have roots in China originally from India. In Sanskrit, the word for ascetic monk is śramaṇa.

I know other practitioners who will not use the word “shaman” because it is “not our word".” But the word belongs in English as much as any word that came into use during the period of Early Modern English (1500-1800).

We use thousands of words every day like lemon, tattoo, avatar, yoga, kowtow, mosquito, which are loanwords without questioning the ethics of their use.

Perhaps if there were another word coined for shamanism to describe the practice of shamanism in English, we might use it. Regardless, the word is not Native American in origin.

Most Non-Native Shamanic Practitioners are Allies

I cannot think of a shamanic practitioner I know who does not consider him or herself and ally of indigenous people.I know many who travelled to Standing Rock, for example, tp support the people there.

I consider myself an ally,

And I hope to clarify and draw a line so that there isn’t even the appearance that I am irreverently stealing sacred things from cultures to which I have no link.

Was Santa Claus a Shaman?

Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas all names for an archetypal character almost synonymous with Christmas. As the winter holidays approach, I thought it might be interested in taking a historical look at the shamanic origins of the Santa Claus legend.

First, I believe that the character of Santa, as he is understood in the U.S,, has been shaped by an amalgam of influences including folklore and media. Most of us are at least familiar with the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas written in 1823 by Clement Moore. You know, the one that begins, “Twas the night before Christmas.”Our images of Santa come mostly from modern advertising. Coca-Cola has been using images of St. Nick since the 1920 and helped solidify our modern image of the fellow. Before then Santa was sometimes depicted as an elf, in religious garb, or even in Norse hunter’s skins.

Flying Reindeer

Santa has been so associated with flying reindeer, that they have been the subjects of songs, TV specials, and movies for many years. We even know their names - Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen. But think about how strange that is. What do flying reindeer have to do with Christmas or a sainted Greek bishop?

Well, nothing.

However, both the Tungus shamans of Siberia as well as the Sami shamans from Scandinavia give us a tantalizing clue to the origin of this part of the legend. These shamans fed magic mushrooms to their reindeer. Amanita muscaria mushrooms are red and white and are hallucinogenic.

These shamans collect the urine of the drugged reindeer and drink it. They have discovered that the hallucinogenic properties are enhanced. They go into an altered state and even urinate into bowls which are then consumed by others. It’s been found that the hallucinogenic urine can pass through 7 people without losing potency.

They then perceive that they are flying in a shamanic journey. Returning with spiritual gifts through the smoke-hole (chimney) of the yurt.

Link to Odin and Norse Myths

Odin is a fascinating character from Norse myth. Not only is he the god of war, but he’s also a trickster, traveler, and giver of gifts. He’s often described as a traveler with a long beard in a wide-brimmed, floppy hat. Think of our traditional images of wizards like Merlin or Gandalf or Dumbledore. These are not coincidentally linked to images of Odin.

Odin and Freya, are two Norse gods closely associated with shamanism. The sagas even talk about Odin scandalously dressing as a woman to practice a form of magic closely resembling shamanism.

Yule

The words Yule and Yuletide have come to be synonymous with Christmas in Christianized Western culture, but Yule or Jul was the traditional celebration of the winter solstice. Yule is from the Anglo-Saxon word “geola”, meaning yoke. Yuletide was a 12 day celebration (12 days of Christmas anyone?) starting on the shortest day of the year, welcoming the return of the sun.

So many of our Christmas traditions, from caroling to Christmas trees, to mistletoe are taken directly from European pagan cultures like the Norse and the Celts.

Odin goes by many names in Norse myths, but one that sticks out is jólfaðr. This is an old Norse for (Yule Father) - very close to “Father Christmas” in my book. It’s also telling that he is associated with The Wild Hunt, which was a spectral hunt that flew through the air during Yule. Odin rides on an 8-legged horse, Sleipnir. One leg for each of Santa’s reindeer perhaps?

For me, it is fun to read about and speculate how all of these cultural forces came together to shape one of the most recognized characters in our culture. I’d like to think that one of our most beloved folk characters as, in fact, a shaman.

Is shamanism cultural appropriation?

Sometimes a question of cultural appropriation arises in talking about shamanism.

Cultural appropriation is an idea that comes from sociology and is when a dominant culture takes items from a minority culture and incorporates them. This is seen as a negative when items from the minority culture are reduced in meaning - like when they are made into toys or mascots

I do not believe that the vast majority of people practicing shamanism today are, in any way, participating in cultural appropriation.

Let's start with the word shaman. In English, "shaman" was borrowed from the German, which was borrowed from the Russian, which was borrowed from the Tungus people of Siberia. But the word has origins beyond the Tungus as well. We don't know if it was borrowed originally from Chinese or Pali. It may have come from Sanskrit before that, and who knows beyond that?

It has come to mean, in the West, a set of spiritual practices that have been practiced by nearly every culture on the planet at some point.

Core Shamanism bridges cultures

Most People practicing a form shamanism that hasn't been inherited from their own indigenous culture, practice something referred to as Core Shamanism. Core Shamanism is a set of spiritual practices, assembled by people doing anthropological and ethnographic research.

What these researchers found is that cultures around the world did a number of the exact practices. For example - shamans in every culture use sound - such as percussive rhythm - to drive trance. Shamans travel to spiritual worlds and form relationships with spiritual allies.

Cave art, thousands of years old, depicts shamanic states and practices. No one culture in existence today is the source of Core Shamanism.

Shamanism is everyone's birthright

The practices we know as shamanic appear to have been practiced in some form in every culture. From ancient Egypt to the Norse, to African, Celtic, Native American, and Asian cultures. No matter what your Ancestry.com DNA test tells you-you came from a shamanic culture. Perhaps you came from numerous shamanic cultures.

The spiritual technologies of shamanism are inherent in your makeup.

Some cultural practices and tools are universal

Think of the bow and arrow and the drum. They exist in different forms across almost all cultures. From the most isolated tribes of the Amazon to the Greeks and Romans to the Japanese - almost everybody has these same tools.

Trance is a tool of mind/body/spirit practiced across cultures as well. It can take different forms - from Buddhist meditation to Ayahuasca journeys in Peru. But altering the state of mind for spiritual practice is universal.

It's easy, in the US, to see people gathered in a drum circle, beating hide drums, and think that they are stealing a Native American ceremony. This is an image you may have been exposed to and linked with Native American culture. But, again, drumming and drum circles cross many cultures.

Shamanism is done with a sense of honor towards the sacred

The main argument about cultural appropriation centers on reducing the value of cultural items. Shamanism, as I have witnessed it, holds every practice sacred. 

I have practiced a Japanese martial art for decades. When we train, we wear kimono and obi. We bow in a traditional way, Japanese terms of respect are used, instructions are sometimes given. Before and after practice we bow to the kamiza - seat of the spirits. All of these practices are done with honor for the culture they come from.

Many years ago, I had the pleasure of training with and observing a number of masters who traveled from the Budokon in Japan for an exhibition. One very senior teacher was very excited to see that I held a practice sword correctly. Some of the archers gave arrows they had shot as gifts to visitors. These teachers were so happy to share a bit of their culture with those who respect it.

I think, when it's done with knowledge, permission, guidance, and honor, there are sacred practices that can be adopted. There are indigenous teachers out there who are happy to share their practices. And, I think, this makes the world better. 

Likewise, I will always honor taboos about sharing certain things with outsiders.

I will end with the first principle of Huna, as elucidated by Serge Kahili King:
A'ohe pau ka 'ike i ka halau ho'okahi ,
"All knowledge is not taught in one school,"