Shamanism and Initation Symptoms

[Spiritchalist]

As a relatively green and young shaman, i come to ask the more experienced here. Are symptoms, such as energy healing happening sparodically throughout the day, sometimes lasting milliseconds, other times hours, normal? Or perhaps visual distortions, or non-external auditory stimulation?

I have been meditating upon my chakras and been getting more involved with energy work and shamanic studies for about 9 months now. I feel I was a shaman/light worker/whatever-you-call-it in a recent past life, and I am naturally drawn to it.

it is amazing the progress I have made, but now I come to one of the final challenges. Letting go. Not just releasing, but full out, over-the-edge, take-the-plunge let go.

Next time I get the chance, do I see how far the rabbit hole goes, and risk delving into becoming insane, literally, full-blown insane?? Do I keep a few fingers to pull myself back up, but possibly miss out on the most fulfilling experience of my life?

[CherokeeMist]

completely losing control is not something that happens in shamanism as far as i understand. the idea of shamanism isn't to be completely out of your mind insane, but rather, to be stable and to be able to communicate with energy and transfer that into something useful and workable.

but i'm really not someone who has much background in studying this so i may be wrong. but just thinking about it, it does make more sense that whatever road you go down, it should be something that you can learn from and draw from- there's not much true meaning to random energy and senselessness.

[BlackBillBlake]

completely losing control is not something that happens in shamanism as far as i understand. the idea of shamanism isn't to be completely out of your mind insane, but rather, to be stable and to be able to communicate with energy and transfer that into something useful and workable.

but i'm really not someone who has much background in studying this so i may be wrong. but just thinking about it, it does make more sense that whatever road you go down, it should be something that you can learn from and draw from- there's not much true meaning to random energy and senselessness.

You have to be able to be open, at least temporarily, to chaos, to the unknown. It's there that energy resides. It is on the other side of it that vision comes.
It's a question of getting out of one's mind, quite literally. Outside the whole set of definitions etc which we place on the universe.
It's only by letting go entirely the 'known' order that a new and spiritual one can arise.

But we don't like letting go. We fear chaos. Often we fear energy too. So I think you need a certain kind of resiliance, impeccability even.

If you try to go into chaos and still retain cherished beliefs,or if your energy is deployed in dubious areas, you may experience resistance because the mind is actually still putting up barriers to THAT which is seeking to gain control.
THAT though, you may eventually find is about your best friend. Closer even than your best friend.

Why do you fear insanity? What do you think you might see that would make you mad?

[CherokeeMist]

oh yeah i completely agree with you.

i guess what i was saying, probably poorly, is what you said about needing resilience and also about this state possibly being temporary. it isn't just a case of madness=wisdom or chaos=enlightenment.

despite the fact that it might be so far on the other side, it still needs to have something. that's just important to keep in mind.

[BlackBillBlake]

oh yeah i completely agree with you.

i guess what i was saying, probably poorly, is what you said about needing resilience and also about this state possibly being temporary. it isn't just a case of madness=wisdom or chaos=enlightenment.

despite the fact that it might be so far on the other side, it still needs to have something. that's just important to keep in mind.

You're right that it isn't a case of madness = wisdom. The aim is more to attain complete sanity!
My experience makes me think that a lot of what leads to mental imbalance is mainly personal stuff. So really it's necessary to work through issues that come up, areas of personal darkness, past trauma, rigid or wrong beliefs, and so on.
It's a process that takes time - years even I think. But as one makes gradual progress, one can become more and more clear. I guess this is part of what we call healing. Or psychic integration.

[Spiritchalist]

That's good to know. I've always felt a connection with the unknown, with chaos-magick, and the like.

I do have personal issues, which I now understand it is best and probably necessary to work through before I attempt to progress further along this road.