Does anyone consider themselves a shaman or has anyone seen a real shaman? I have also always dreamed of sitting in a tepee, with a deep red fire in the middle, thick smoke in the air, and the sweet scent of incense burning, everyone trying to achieve deep meditation and a greater understanding of everything. It seems like somethings that people smoke these days for it's effects, should be burned as incense and not smoked. I am just compiling many thoughts into this. sorry.
I am not a shaman, perse. I am white, and I've never taken peyote. however, I truelly find holliness in nature, and lets say I've been close to catharsis on acid (and other substances that I don't want to list). I have never 'met" a shaman, like actually conversed, but one time visiting SD, I saw a lot of Native AMericans. They are good people, and it is sad what "the white man" did to their eligion, people, land and way of life. PEACE
Yeah man, I am strange. But, like there were plenty of native AMericans in the west. You prolly see indigenous AUstralians where you are too. PEACE
Actually there is quite the new age consumerist economy grown up around claims of shamanism. People travel across international boarders to participate in the rituals of shamans. People do this because the shamans have advertised themselves.
i respect the whole "shamans not being called shamans" thing. i understand what you're saying, but it is just my ignorance of the true name or language. but i think shaman helps us all understand what im trying to say.
Shamans are part of the forest economy of many indigenous South American groups. You seem to have a definite idea of what a shaman should be. What would be that definition for you?
I don't have a definite idea of what a shaman should be. I have a definite idea of what a shaman isn't.
Yeah I'm even friends with one. Please don't pretend you have cultural insight just because you have seen a native American, that's stupid.
I have worked closely with 9 different shamans over the years. The whole "teepee, deep meditation with incense and thick smoke" image is pretty romanticized, though. A shaman is very simply an individual with the capacity to act as an intermediary between "ordinary" reality and "nonordinary" reality. They perform divinations, negative energy extractions, and soul retrievals, as well as other practices intended to facilitate the spiritual growth of themselves and others. Though some shamans rely upon psychoactive substances to achieve the altered states of consicousness necessary for this type of work, the more experienced ones can slip in and out of these different states at will. Some shamans approach their work from a professional standpoint while others supplement their income with shamanic work. Still others work pro bono. In my experience, the most reputable and gifted shamans are the ones who openly identify as such and rely upon shamanic work as their primary source of income. They will often have websites, yellow page listings, and stategically posted flyers -- all of the accoutrements that one would normally associate with the promotion of a conventional business.
I know a few native americans who play with traditional dance/dress (through BSA/OA) peyote and other traditional psychoactives, and who are generally spiritual and superstitious in a manner most wouldn't be. But they don't consider themselves shaman, their tribes have people that have spent their whole lives being a tribal healer/medicine man/shaman. As for me, I can certanially be spiritual... because i'm not the sort of white boy who dresses up in native attire and pretends to have spiritual journeys doesn't mean I'm not My use of drugs, meditation, set/setting, and whatever else really depends on my mood, I could go all shamanic, or all Hunter S Thompson... depends what day you get me on.
I think shamans are cool, anyhow. They live naturally, and heal people in a spiritual, as opposed to pill way. PEACE
