To be a shaman?

In all your guyses minds what does it mean to be shaman? Who today is still a shaman?

In my opinion albert Hoffman was the last great shaman, and one could say a great nnumber of drug dealers are the last manifest of this dying art, mind you not all drug dealers it depends upon their motives.

 

Drug dealers? Ummm... What about the many indigenous peoples with shamanistic practices?

 

yes of course, I speak of those who would be shaman in our society today, and not in others who are already identified as, My bad I should've been more specific

 

I don't know then, I guess just individual people, but I wouldn't really consider most drug dealers shamans..

 

a shaman is simply one who walks between teh worlds. i dont know of any recognizable names in our society who are shaman...shaman tend to isolate themselfs away from society and live closer to nature. i did meet a man in the jungle of kauai though who was a shaman....strange fellow, but one could learn alot from him.

our society dosent produce many shaman...because we're led to believe that the mentally ill are completely out of it, and have no place here, or no understanding of reality. so we put them on mind numbing chemicals or lock them up and beat it into their head that they are crazy. which is damn near impossible to work your way out of and still be able to trust your reality. the shaman and the schizophrenic are quite similar...only the shaman is the healed madman. somtimes it is nessesary for a man to travel through hell to get to heaven...it is a natural initiation guided by teh gaian logos. this is somthing our society fails to understand.

i wouldnt really consider hoffman to be a shaman...but i have never met him personally so i dont know for sure.

 

I agree that most are not but I speak of those who are motivated by spreading the experience of another state by presenting another path, yet I acknowledge the fact that most are probably just after some easy cash and recognition.

I like your point about our societies probable interpretaion of one with the will of a shaman, look at the Albert Hoffmann foundation and their goals as to why I said he was a shaman.

 

There are two accepted definitions of shaman.


The first is a Siberian witchdoctor.

The second more commonly appriciated version is that they are the latest edition to a lineage which has been passed down since the teachings were first passed on to our race.

Blessings

Sebbi

 

Interesting that you mention Siberian 'Witchdoctors'.

I'm currently reading a book by a Russian Psychiatrist, Olga Kharitidi, called 'Master of Lucid Dreams'. She has previously published 'Entering the Circle'.
Both books deal with Doc. Kharitidi's meetings with Shamanic practitioners in the Altai mountains, and in central Asia, in the Smarkand region. There is a ring of authenticity about theses books, and the teachings and experiences Olga received from the shamans, which are very interesting.
She has sought to incorporate what she learned into her own practice of psychiatry, so in a sense, there's an example of ancient shamanic teachings and practices entering back into contemporary culture and knowledge.

 

Why not visit some American Indian reservations? Or attend a meet at the Big Medicine Wheel in Wyoming, meet the Lakota in S. Dakota, etc.?

 

Id say a Shaman is a practitioner of perceiveing states of non ordinary reality.. And i feel there are many a shaman about in our world today, they are not highly publisized, but we live in a large, and strange (to a certain extent) world, encounters with these people come when the energy is right for it to be brought together.

My soulmate says im a shaman, and i dig the label. Though the spirit is boundless. Ahhhhhhh, the art of energetic living.

 

True the Native Americans do practice what in "Shamanism for Beginners" books is called Shamanism but as far as I know Shamanic circles and Native Americans don't consider this "Shamanism".

As far as I know the healers there are simply known as healers.

Blessings

Sebbi

 

A Shaman can intuitively understand and communicate with higher forces on other planes, leading him or her to be more at home "there" than "here". So a shaman may not be the most social of humans....

 

My teacher is a Caddo 'Medicine Man' or "Healer' raised as such. Went out from there to discover other methods as well through various cultures and has such become a 'Shaman' for all intensive purpouses. I aspire to be able to focus the ecstatic experience, the crossing of worlds, the retrieval of knowledge from such places, etc... But, once that line is crossed, the world is not the same, the true nature of reality begins to presen itself and life becomes very different and it can be somewhat difficult to communicate with others who can't see it.

 

I'm going man

 

yes!

 

So if one was schizophrenic, it is an inner battle to befriend the other voices and eventually mold them into one?

Or something to the extent...right?

 

I don't know, ask a schizophrenic.

 

I am a Shaman for my "tribe" at my school. I have a wide sprectrum of metaphysical knowledge, and if I don't know it, I can look it up and perform rituals in order to help whatever it is that I need to do. I carry herbs, oils, candles, knives, animal parts (found or taken from dead animals with spiritual consent) and I engage in meditation, contemplation, and also hallucinogenic states of mind that allow me to open the "doors of perception" in order to see the other side of reality... The only real thing that is out there... the only permanent thing, is the idea..... the spiritual, the unchangable idea, or will, or intention... whatever you want to call it. It was through opening such doors that my late best friend and spiritual brother discovered that everything is simply will unfolding unto will... they have srtuggles, but the stronger and more "pure" will shall always prevail.... Jeffrey was a GREAT Shaman, and a Doctor of Metaphysics who ranked up there with Crowley and Regardie... those were his idols, as well as Hunter S. Thompson and Snake, from Metal Gear Solid. There ARE real Shamans out there.... and people DO go to them when Jesus or whoever, is not cooperating in a manner that they desire.... Shamans have a duty to only do that which is Just, but unfortunately some are unjust and that is the problem. Anyways, I am going to bed, my friends, but perhaps I shall complete this post later.... good night!

 

In my eyes, becoming a shaman, is being enlightened and being able to manipulate reality. The road to becoming a shaman is a long, slow one. And many probley start learning the art when they were babies. I wish I could have. But I'm on the path, and my intentions are to make it to the end. Wanting to be a shaman, to me, requires the desire to want to help beings and situations and everything for the better. Love is a feeling. Goodness is a feeling. Thoughts are vibrations. Emotions are vibrations. And once EVERYTHING is understood, and everything is precieved and embedded, to my beliefs, they become their own creator. Only someone who is physically well, can make someone else physically well. Only someone who is spiritually well, can make someone else spiritually well. And so there are many things that have to be "in-check", to be a true shaman. Something that always ends up being reiterated in my mind, is how everything ends up corehelating(sp?) together and making complete sense. Really everything is just flowed/flowing together, and becoming a shaman, is precisely fine-tuning your preception of the reality around you. Because there is SO much going on. And only once someone realizes IT ALL, are they truly a shaman. The Lord stays with me and you all!

 

whatever you mean by shaman, this isn't something you pick up as a belief or a hobbyist.
the real thing needs education by those among indigenous elders who have also studied and learned the qualifications to pass it on. a lot of people call themselves this and that. i shape dreams sometimes. but i don't have that kind of education.