The Last Post
This is the last post on this blog. I have spent over 5 years looking into what has become a "trendy" spiritual path for the unenlightened and curious. Although this is the "last post", I will be updating and adding stuff from time to time. Latest update February 2025. As I have said elsewhere - no urban Westerner is ever going to become a Shaman (unless you get as lucky as Carlos Castaneda). Despite many "experts" criticism of Castaneda, I cannot recommend his books enough - to me, they are essential reading. Don Juan Matus, Castanedas' mentor, was a shaman in the Toltec tradition. These days this tradition is continued by don Miguel Ruiz , don Jose Ruiz and don Miguel Ruiz jnr and can be learned online on their Four Agreements website. These guys won't turn you into a magical shaman or sorcerer but they can help you to become happier and healthier and more aware of your true Self. The past 5 years of exploration have changed my view on what to e...
I found this on YouTube and thought people might find it interesting.
ReplyDeleteMichael Harner, Founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies
Over tens of thousands of years, our ancient ancestors all over the world discovered how to maximize human abilities of mind and spirit for healing and problem-solving. The remarkable system of methods they developed is today known as shamanism. Shamans are especially distinguished by the use of journeys to hidden worlds otherwise mainly known through myth, dream, and near-death experiences. A core feature of shamanism is that the Universe is divisible into three worlds: the Upper, Middle, and Lower. The Middle World, in which we live, has both its ordinary and non-ordinary (or non-spiritual and spiritual) aspects, and belongs only to this immediate moment in time. The Upper and Lower Worlds, in contrast, are purely spiritual and are found only in nonordinary reality, where they exist outside of time. The trained shaman can make "out of body" journeys to these worlds, moving back and forth with discipline and purpose in order to help and heal others. In these journeys, the shaman transcends time, going back to look at the past or traveling into the future to seek assistance on behalf of others from compassionate beings found there. In these worlds, there is no separation between the shaman and everything else. He or she knows, as ancient Siberian shamans knew that, "Everything that is, is alive." The Universe is experienced as a unified whole, and the shaman partakes of the love and the ecstasy of this transcendent reality.