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We understand the breadth of depth of the self in many ways
through many types of experiences. The method of understanding our
experience as human beings is often that of directing or
projecting parts of ourselves either outward or inward. The self
at a soul level, operating through the language of images, reveals
what parts of ourselves are seeing understanding at ever-deepening
levels. In relationships with others, we project these parts
outward in the form of images. In dreams, we project these parts
inward in the form of images. The reflection we receive back gives
us information on which we base our sense of self.
The images projected inward in dreams and those projected outward
into external relationship both have the same source. That source
is the self at a soul level. It seeks to reveal all that is hidden
by projecting these images outward or inward. This is an effort to
allow the individual to integrate the experience and information
contained within those images and return to a sense of wholeness.
For many of us, this process takes place almost entirely
unconsciously. We feel that life just happens to us, that our
dreams are just fragmented recreations of our daily lives. Many of
us live our lives with a sense of emptiness, never imagining that
we could look within for guidance.
But, if we allow ourselves to begin to trace the images we create
in relationship while awake and in dreams while asleep, we begin
to perceive patterns. These patterns can be further elucidated
through conscious intention and explored through hypnotherapy and,
more intimately, the shamanic journey.
In this exploration, images open to reveal patterns. Patterns open
to reveal motivation. Motivation opens to reveal what is needed
for understanding. The need for understanding opens to reveal the
fulfillment of that need. And the fulfillment is the self at a
soul level. This path can be taken from many different starting
points to understand many different issues. And the shamanic
journey provides the compass and maps for any path, at starting at
any point, and leads always to the rediscovery of the self at a
soul level.
The journey into the self at this level is the journey which the
shamanic experience defines. It is taken in an altered state, very
similar to the hypnotic state, but this state is induced with
repetitive soundings, such as drums, rather than words. The
shamanic journey provides us with direct and controllable access
to the inner workings of our selves at a soul level. The images
which energy patterns take within the shamanic journey reveal the
nature of ourselves at a soul level. They even point to the
realities in which the soul is contained. Although our ability to
perceive the information available to us in non-ordinary reality
is ever-expanding, that ability can be severely tested at each
level of understanding which the shamanic journey unfolds for us.
Although the shamanic journey reveals ever more complex levels of
reality, the form which it takes is quite simple. The journey is
undertaken by lying down and closing and covering the eyes. A drum
or other repetitive percussive instrument is sounded at regular
intervals. In indigenous cultures where horses are common, a
shaman might say s/he is riding the drum like a horse to
non-ordinary reality.
What is this non-ordinary reality where so much is revealed about
the nature of the workings of the self at a soul level? The
existence and the general cosmography of non-ordinary reality has
been described in very similar fashion in cultures which are
vastly dissimilar in all other ways and which have arisen in
different corners of the globe. Before describing non-ordinary
reality, it is important to note that discovery and journeying in
non-ordinary reality is participation in a process, not an
establishment of a belief system.
The general description of non-ordinary reality where the journey
takes place is strikingly similar across cultures which have never
had contact with one another. This description, which has emerged
from cultures across time and space is as follows. There are three
worlds: the upper world, middle world and lower world. It is
understood that the upper world and the lower world are the realms
where compassionate spirits or energies can be contacted. The
middle world is understood to be made up of ordinary reality
(" the every day world" we experience when awake) as
well as a non-ordinary reality where other classes of spirits or
energies also dwell. Generally speaking, the spirits people come
across who are involved in spirit possession, hauntings, or other
anomalous encounters are understood to be confined more or less to
the middle world. Therefore, journeying to the upper world or
lower world does not involve the encounter with these classes of
spirits.
Access to the upper and lower worlds in non-ordinary reality is
generally undertaken from a known point in ordinary reality. This
is a place in nature in ordinary reality where the person making
the journey has been and knows well. The departure point for the
lower world is generally through a cave, hole in the ground, hole
in a tree or through a body of water. The departure point for the
upper world is generally through a high place such as the top of a
tree, mountain or hill. In many indigenous cultures, springs or
mountain tops are revered as testament to the understanding of
them as portals to non-ordinary reality.
In many indigenous cultures, the shaman has been charged with
interceding with the spirit world on the behalf of another person.
This intercession generally involves a request for assistance in
healing on a physical, mental, emotional or spiritual level. In
order to act as an agent for healing, the shaman spends many hours
developing relationships with compassionate spirits which are
understood to be available in non-ordinary reality. The shaman
develops these relationships by journeying in non-ordinary
reality. The shaman also journeys in non-ordinary reality to seek
help from these spirits when s/he is asked to provide a healing.
In most indigenous cultures, it is not common for all the members
of the culture to have access to the knowledge contained in
non-ordinary reality. However, anyone with an interest and
dedication in understanding the nature of the shamanic journey and
non-ordinary reality can have this access. Anyone with strong
intent can develop a relationship to at least some of the
knowledge contained in non-ordinary reality.
So, it is simply a matter of focusing one's intention to journey
for understanding. We journey to create relationships with the
energies which dwell in non-ordinary reality within us. These
energies, which are traditionally called spirits, appear in many
different guises, usually in the form of a felt or seen image.
These guises are generally forms in nature, but can also be mythic
figures or beings which are close to our culturally-held notions
about reality. The guise these energies choose are the bridge they
make to contact us. The bridge we make is our attention and
intention to make contact. When both sets of intentions are
aligned we are able to interact with these images taking form
within us in non-ordinary reality. This allows us to gain insight
and understanding about the nature of our lives in ordinary
reality.
In my practice, I usually introduce the concept of the shamanic
journey once a space has been cleared in the psyche through the
resolution and understanding of (seemingly) externally-generated
imbalance. Within the context provided by Depth Hypnosis, the
knowledge gained in the shamanic journey demonstrates clearly how
a person's relationship to his issues shift through the process of
clearing.
Over the course of 6 to 10 sessions, the client is taught how to
journey in non-ordinary reality. He learns to establish
relationships with different points of inner power which appear as
forms of nature, and he learns how to interpret the information
which is received. The client is helped to connect the information
received in the shamanic journey to the larger context of his
relationship to himself at a soul level.
By the end of this cycle the client is able to function
independently in non-ordinary reality to gain insight on issues
which once seemed unknowable or unsolvable. He becomes able to
understand more clearly the influences which affect the future. He
becomes more able to make decisions based upon a sound
understanding of those influences.
I will often use the information gained through a shamanic journey
as I would the information gained through a dream. Information
from both experiences is generated in image form, which is rich
with nuance and possibilities. As in dreams, the much of the
information contained within the shamanic journey is
"coded" in such a way as to evade the defenses of the
conscious mind. Learning how to "read" these images is
an extension and elaboration of the "sixth sense"
mentioned earlier. Developing this skill in the decoding of
information provided in the journey is very helpful in situations
in ordinary reality which require deeper understanding than the
five senses provide.
To understand how this process works, the texts of two journeys,
taken by a person who had no previous experience with shamanic
journeying follow. This person had come to me with symptoms of
exhaustion and insomnia bordering on a chronic fatigue pattern.
She wanted to regain her energy through our work together.
Through our hypnotherapy sessions, she was able to identify
patterns in her external relationships which had been robbing her
of her energy. She found that she was able to trace the patterns
of energy behind her relationship interaction which were almost
contrary to the nature of the external interaction. In other
words, she began to see how she was actually being robbed of life
energy in relationships which thought were feeding her emotionally
and intellectually. She was stunned to find that these patterns,
which had been hidden from her when understood within the context
of conscious-mind reality, were so easy to perceive in an altered
state.
As she began to regain her physical energy by applying what she
had learned in hypnotherapy, she wanted to learn more about energy
patterns and the way energy is used. This is a subject I find very
hard to teach anyone about through the use of words alone. It is a
subject which must be understood experientially in order to begin
to fully comprehend the myriad of implications it contains. I
decided that the internal teachers found in the shamanic journey
would be much better than I in teaching her what she wanted to
know.
Michael Harner, to whom I am deeply grateful for making accessible
the complexities of shamanic reality, introduces people to
shamanic journeying with a journey to the lower world. I do the
same. This journey is designed to facilitate an encounter with a
power animal. The idea of having an inner teacher appear in the
familiar form of an animal allows for a broad communication of
emotional and mental qualities. This form generally makes it
easier to interact with the enormous energy and wisdom which is
brought to bear in such an encounter.
As I mentioned, the journey is taken with the eyes closed, lying
down, and to the beat of a drum. At the end of the journey, the
drum changes beat, which is a signal for the journeyer to return
to the departure point in ordinary reality, along the same route
which was taken to arrive in the lower world.
The following is the text of her first journey to the lower world
to meet her power animal. It is presented with her permission:
I am going to a sinkhole or pond which is sunk down into the
ground near where I grew up. I am walking into the water. It is
very dark. I start to go down. I am just dropping into the
sinkhole. I see lots of tree roots and things sticking out. They
brush me a bit. Looking down, it is very dark. I have stopped
falling. I am sitting cross-legged. Looking up, I see a dark hole
above me, like a cave. I am in a place with narrow ceiling 4 feet
above the ground. There is a dirt floor. There are grass and
stones. I am on fours, I start crawling through the cave. It is
not so dark that I cannot see. There is some light. I don't know
where it is coming from. There is a windy tunnel. It opens to a
cavern. There is a lake at the bottom of the cavern. There is a
boat. There are murals, or hieroglyphs on the walls. I get into
the boat. It starts floating out into the lake. I put my hands in
the water. It is very dark. A dark navy blue. There is a creature
in the water. It looks like a seal. It is coming up to the boat.
It's got big dark eyes. It is floating around the boat. It is
greyish in color. This is my power animal. The seal is swimming
ahead of the boat. Somehow, the boat is following it. It is
swimming on top of the water. I am not sure what to think of it. I
am going towards what could be sunlight or moonlight. The lake is
narrowing. There is an archway, not a tunnel, which opens and the
water flows out through it like a river. It is moonlight and
forest. There are tall, tall trees, like cedars. The seal is
swimming around the boat and it pushes it over to the side. There
is a path. I walk along a path beside the river and leave the boat
behind. The seal follows me. We come to some kind of cliff. There
is a waterfall. I am standing on a cliff on a mountain overlooking
a city. It is nighttime, with lots of lights. It is not artificial
light, but candlelight and firelight. I stop. I sit down on a rock
and look at the city. The seal stays in the water and moves toward
to the edge and looks with me. I am not frightened. It is not
somewhere I have been. I get the feeling that someone was here
before me. But I have not seen them. I get up and walk along a
path. I get back into the boat. The seal leads the boat back
through an archway into a cavern and into the middle of the lake.
It swims up beside the boat and almost gets into the front of the
boat. It looks at me. It is a seal, but the face is almost more
human than seal. It is trying to tell me something. It gets back
into the water and swims circles around the boat. It disappears
into the dark, swimming half in, and half out, of the water. I go
back into the tunnel. Back into the hole. I am going back up and
coming out of the water. I am back on the ground and out of the
sinkhole. I am on the path, walking.
As you can see, the shamanic journey shares some characteristics
with dreams. In both realms, the image is the main form of
communication. Players in both realms understand what is asked of
them and how to communicate without necessarily resorting to
words. There is much more information contained within a simple
interaction than would appear if actions were taken only
literally. Forms can shift without logic but the form shift seems
utterly logical at the same time.
The fact that the seal's face seemed to be human part of the time
does not seem illogical in the context of the journey. This
shapeshifting or form-shifting is common in non-ordinary reality.
I am sure there are more reasons for this than I understand. But
some explanations lie in the fact that the spirits or energies
using the form or image to communicate with are not always in
complete control of the world of form. And, they tend to choose
forms which suit the moment and fill the need of communication in
the present without so much regard to future form as a basis of
communication. Also, more information can be conveyed in shape or
form shifting, so spirits or energies tend to use these changes to
add complexity and shading to the information they are trying to
convey.
Most important, in both the dream and the journey, information is
presented which completely circumvents the constructs and defenses
of the conscious mind. In dreams, the coding of this information
is often more intricate than in the journey. I suspect, however,
that the intricacy of the coding in dreams is due more to the lack
of intentionality than anything else.
Because the attention is so focused in the journey, the images are
more easily related to the intention of the journey. Most of us
tend to bumble, willy-nilly, through the issues of our lives.
Because of this, the messages our dreams contain often seem to be
scatter-shot, rather than carefully aimed. This is due to the lack
of corresponding target in conscious-mind reality rather than any
failure in communication in the dream itself.
The nature of the focus or target is, in fact, the main difference
between dreams and shamanic journeying. The journey is intentional
and focused. The dreamer does not necessarily intend what he will
dream. (Although I would argue the same mechanism, the self
operating at a soul level, is directing both sets of content). The
person making the journey chooses when to enter and when to leave
the journey; the dreamer, unless he is lucid dreaming, typically
does not appear to have control over when the dream begins and
when the dream ends.
In any case, I use both the dream and the journey within the
context of hypnotherapy to help the client establish contact with
a greater sense of self. Once contact has been well established
between the images and forms contained in dreams and/or journeys,
we have an infinite amount of guidance and wisdom readily
available to us. This information can focus our attention on past
issues which need to be reviewed and re-integrated. Or, it can
guide us as we begin to form an expanded sense of self in
conscious-mind reality.
Once we begin to establish contact with guidance in the forms of
nature it takes within the shamanic context, we are in a position
to ask specific questions. Once the client mentioned above had
established a relationship with the seal, she could take a second
journey to ask her question about energy patterns. She took the
same path, leaving from the same place in ordinary reality and
returning to the same place in the lower world to find the seal.
The second journey was also a 15 minute journey.
Her questions was: How do I process other people's energies so I
remain safe without shutting other people out? This question was
born out of her perception that she had begun to shut herself off
from interaction with people in order to preserve her physical
energy. She was not happy with this solution and was looking to
find a new way of dealing with energy in her relationships with
others.
I am going back down into the sinkhole again. Through the
water. Down the hole. I am at the bottom now. I am in a narrow
tunnel, crawling through the tunnel. I am back in he cavern. There
are some stone steps down to the water. There is the boat. I get
back into the boat and sit down. There are two sets of hieroglyphs
on the wall. There are dark blue ones which were the ones which
were there before and there are same-sized bright red ones
underneath. I am floating into the middle of the lake. The seal
pops up in front of the bow of the boat. It is floating on its
back. I am glad to see it. It does not frighten me. It does not
want me to be frightened. It is playing so I won't be frightened.
I am actually frustrated. I want to be in the water, not in the
boat. The seal lets me know it is okay to go into the water. I
take off my clothes and jump into the water with the seal. It
swims around me, not circling, but just so I feel comfortable with
it. I swim over to a rock which is a series of rocks coming out
from the shore of the lake. They are smooth and rounded, I get
onto the very tip of one. The seals swims back and forth in front
of me. I ask the question. The seal swims further out into the
water. It starts swimming, with the top half of its body out of
the water. It is glowing. It is as though I can see an aura around
it. It is a white light, about 2 feet out from its body. Then it
dips under the water. It swims off to the left and floats on its
back. This time it's got a yellow light. There is a yellow,
doughnut-shaped ring around its body - about 1 1/2 feet away from
its belly. "What are you doing?" I think. It is trying
to teach me how to see the energy so I know what kind of energy it
is. It swims, still on its back. It floats up towards me. I am
supposed to touch the yellow light. I put my hand 6 inches into
the light. It makes me a bit agitated. But what I can do is use
the energy coming from my hands to push back on the aura from the
seal. When I push it back, I feel safe. I can see the energy which
comes off my hand when I do that. The seal comes out - again with
the top half of its body out of the water. There is a bluish white
light fully around it. I can't see under the water. It is too
dark. It comes closer. I push my hands onto it. It doesn't feel
threatening. I can feel where it begins. And the feeling is the
seal is trying to show how it can transfer beneficial energy to
me. I don't have to protect myself against this energy. It does
not deplete me. I put my hand through the aura and tough the
seal's skin with my hand to say thanks. I want to give it some of
my energy without feeling threatened by that. It feels very, very
good. A good, loving feeling is going back and forth between us.
The red hieroglyphs are doing something. It is more intense now. I
have noticed them again. The seal is swimming with its head out of
the water, looking at me moving away. It fades into the darkness.
I get up and go back toward a narrow tunnel and crawl along. I am
going up through the hole and up out of the water. I am on the
path walking out of the sinkhole.
The information she was given here by the seal was profound, to
say the least. She was so lucky to have been given the visceral
understanding, in almost an instant, of the futility of trying to
block negative energy with shields or walls. The lesson of drawing
on her life force, of reconnecting and revitalizing the life force
from within to push out negative energy is invaluable.
There are many forms of magic and energy dynamics which specialize
in creating walls and shields or breaking down walls and shields
on an energetic level. I believe this is not only a misuse of
energy, it can be quite dangerous. Many forms of black magic
indulge in this block formation or dissolution and create all
kinds of havoc with it.
Even when black magic is not involved, the use of energy to create
blocks contains many dangers. The blocks may not work. Or, the
life energy may get frozen, and sometimes forgotten in the block.
And the life energy involved in keeping the block in place is lost
for more dynamic uses. These types of blocks of frozen life energy
are one of the main problems I encounter in helping people heal on
an energetic level. We create shields, walls, fences, fortresses
around us in our energy field with our life force without being
consciously aware of it. And then we wonder why we have no life
energy to live our lives fully and completely. It took me years to
map the anatomy of these types of energy blocks so I could help my
clients negotiate them. And the seal simply offered an alternative
to her as a matter of course.
The visceral experience of life essence filled with love pumping
between two beings is an experience many of us die without ever
knowing. And yet, she was able to drop all defenses and experience
this life-changing exchange simply and easily within the context
of the shamanic journey.
Again, I emphasize that she had no previous experience with energy
patterns or energy healing. The information she received in this
fifteen minute journey was profound and complex. It took me years
of study of the subject of energy healing to learn what she
learned here in 15 minutes. I was humbled to be in the presence of
such profound teaching taking place so simply.
This is all information she could not have obtained as easily,
clearly, and profoundly in any other way. She was able to take
these learnings and change the way she used her life energy. She
began to sleep better, to have more rewarding interactions with
her colleagues and family. She began to feel full of energy on a
regular basis as she used her energy based on the information she
gained in this journey. Naturally, she had to be disciplined
enough to keep her attention focused on the energetic nature of
her exchanges with others. She had to commit to her life force
each day. But this is what we must all do to live our lives fully
and consciously.
The power of the shamanic journey to reveal one's inner
relationships to balance or imbalance is well demonstrated in
another case. John came to me because he was experiencing panic
attacks. Within a few hypnotherapy sessions, the panic attacks
subsided, but he decided to spend more time exploring the roots of
the panic for further self-understanding.
After exploring his external relationships and discharging hidden
fears held in them through hypnotherapy, he was ready to turn
inward to examine how fear affected his relationship with himself.
He was reluctant to do this and kept looking outside of himself to
find the source of a type of low-grade depression which remained,
even after all the work he had done.
I thought it would be helpful if he developed a relationship with
an inner teacher through shamanic journeying to help him focus
inward. This would help him focus inward long enough to see the
role he was playing in maintaining the depression. On his second
journey, he asked the question: What is the source of this
depression?
His power animal had an interesting experience planned for him to
answer this question. It led him through high grass to a clearing.
There John saw the fur or body of an animal in a heart shape. Then
he saw the head of the animal come off and roll into a hole. John
was afraid of what he saw in this clearing.
When he emerged, he did not have a full understanding of the
message contained in this experience. Through our discussion, he
came to see the following answer:
The source of his depression lay in the way he separated the
knowledge and experience of his heart from that of his head - and
he realized that fear was a major reason why he maintained this
separation. He admitted that he had a habit of using his intellect
to understand his experience and that it had never occurred to him
to listen to his heart to understand his experience.
But he had trouble admitting that he was responsible for the
depression through his maintenance of this separation. Through
later hypnotherapy sessions, we were able to explore this
separation and the fear which engendered it. By doing this, he was
able to begin to allow an integration of the experience of his
head and heart. And, most important, he began to listen to his
heart and process his life experience through his heart as well as
his mind. As this occurred, his depression began to lift.
It is doubtful that he would have been able to step into full
accountability for this depression without the tool of shamanic
journeying. It was difficult for him to admit that his actions,
not someone else's, were responsible his depression. The
combination of hypnotherapy and the shamanic journey allowed him
to take on that responsibility and resolve the depression in a
gradual and profound way.
Many, many people have been helped in similar ways through the
insights they have gained through the shamanic journey. And these
types of insights are just the beginning of the definition of an
ever-deepening relationship with the self at a soul level.
----
©2005 Anam·Cara Foundation used by permission
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