Keys to Shamanism
Carolina Warter,

There are three keys to doing shamanism:

  1. Achieving the altered state of consciousness that allows you access to non-ordinary reality.

  2. Maintaining a purpose or intention for your journey.

  3. Achieving an altered state of consciousness.

The state of consciousness that allows you to access non-ordinary reality is one in which the waking mind is distracted or tuned out. There are many ways to achieve this: repetitious sound or movement, hypnosis, heat, sensory deprivation, psychotropic drugs, maintaining a specific posture, lucid dreaming.

The method I use most frequently is repetitious musical sound.

Maintaining an intention

Shamanism is really a system of healing or obtaining knowledge, and it seems to work best when used for that purpose. Journeying tends to work best if it's undertaken on behalf of another person. In some cases, however, one can journey on one's own behalf, especially if one has a specific intention in mind. Journeying just for the purpose of "poking around in non-ordinary reality" doesn't seem to work as well for most people.
The best way we have found to maintain an intention is to write down or otherwise keep in mind a specific question or purpose as you begin your journey.

How to ask a question in a journey

For many people it's important to word the question precisely. This helps maintain your intention. Use positive language. Keep the question simple. Ask only one question at a time. Some people use a question in the form of an image.

Although everyone's journeys are different, in general I have found that a question of the form "What can I do to achieve this goal?" will receive the most specific and useful answer. Asking a question of the form "why does this situation exist?" may provide interesting information, but may not help you resolve a problem.

If you don't know what question to ask, you might try journeying with the question "What question should I ask?" or "Show me something I need to know right now."

Recovery of the Sacred: lessons in Soul Awareness
Dr. Carlos Warter writes about his history with many shamans and spiritual teachers in
 Recovery of the Sacred: Lessons in Soul Awareness 

Purchase the book

Want to find out more? Go to the next page

Other pages: 

Introduction to Shamanics

What is Shamanism

Shamanic View of Health

Shamanic Techniques

Modern Day Applications

Find out how to contact
one soulonejourney@yahoo.com with Carolina Warter for a Shamanic Healing

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