The journey of a Shaman - Ancient Healing art

The journey of a Shaman

To be able to understand what  the power of a shaman is, we have to look into his capacity to enter an altered state of consciousness  at will, in order to communicate with a parallel or hidden reality  and retrieve knowledge, power and” healing medicine” to help other persons.

 Mircea Eliade (shamanism – archaic techniques of ecstasy) says:” Hence any ecstatic practitioner cannot be considered a shaman; the shaman specializes in a trance during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld”.

In this altered state of consciousness the shaman works to restore and increase the patient´s power, but also to extract negative or intrusive energy that is interfering in the person´s mental and emotional wellbeing.

This capacity of travelling in the parallel universe is not taken lightly. Most shamans go through a very strict and sometimes cruel training period, which can last for several decades. During the training he will aquire  spiritual guides and helpers called power animals (animal totems) that protects and leads him through his journey.

The shaman never enters the non ordinary reality for play but always for a serious purpose, which means that he always has a specific mission to accomplish. If he, for example, wants to retrieve a persons  lost soul, he must know the technique of entering the “upper or lower world”, know where to go, convince the soul to come back, and know how to bring it back safely. He is a master in maintaining conscious control  over the direction of his journeys, but he never knows beforehand what he will discover.

 His art of journeying in the non ordinary reality while maintaining control over both realities and retrieve medicine, is what really distinguish a shaman from any other energy -  worker or healer.