To be a shaman?

Shamanism does not always involve drugs although in the practice it usually does. To be a shaman is to practice the art of connecting with the spirit world...whatever that means...

 

A...haaa..h;

I am the Spirit World; like Pierre E. Trudeau, there it is all about the development of idealistic internationalist politics of the seventies. He is your dead man; besides he will also introduce you to the subject of bank withdrawal for the purpose of guilty deficits for the unproductive, and possibly industrially unfrugal.

 

the true shaman is everyone and no one, unfathomable

 

Shulgin

 

Ask any true shaman, and they will tell you the Limits and Labels one creates are for the ego and are big showy words used for "want-a-be" reflections that have WOW powers.

A shaman is One who is does not need, or desire to say they are. If their life does not speak for them.... then there is always the path of the proverbial fool waiting. Each path is important for experiences and lessons one draws to their own understanding. As much as smoke creates fire so does fire create smoke. The way you live your life is your calling card. Telling people will not change what you are.

One who walks in, and lives their own harmony without fear, thus using their powers as a place of becoming awareness for the all and the one, is where the thread of the shaman begins and ends. Here the purity of the path creates the shaman, just as the shaman creates the purity of the intent and path they walk.

I remember once sitting in the middle of a spiders web and forgot if I was the spider, or the fly. At the time this was important information for what the intent had created. Thunder rolled over head. Lightening struck the ground and a voice shouted out into the night and said, "Cheer up in a minute you both will be one anyway."

A shaman gets over themselves, and gets out of the way never forgetting power is the illusion one must not be attached to. The results will speak for themselves.

{on a side note} like a bright red cherry that sits on top of whipped cream covering the substance below....May you remember what you lived, not what you said you were, for where there is no substance and wellness, there is no wholeness. and the way things are going, soon we will all be one anyway. One will see others only as deeply as they see themselves in lies, fears, and, or truths from which they perceive the worlds around them.

 

The way I see it, Shamans use hallucinogenic drugs to go to other planes of existance and experience them... so anyone who uses those drugs is practicing shamanism.

 

shamans are everywhere. most don't call themselves such. all mystical traditions tend toward a common goal (access to the unseen) and stem from a common source (the mind). what comes between is an arbitrary distinction. Not everyone is particularly skilled at attaining it, though... but it's the OP's fault for not specifying "skilled" as a limiting criterion lol.

I mostly stumble into such spiritual access without consciously meaning to, but I always learn something. does that make me a shaman? I guess. does that make me a skilled one? probably not lol.

 

I know of one Medicine Man, but no "shamans", but I guess this doesn't really help...

Which culture are you attempting to refer to?

 

I don't think just taking psychedelic substances will make you a shaman.

Shaman's are supposed to be able to actually do stuff - healing, seeing the future, transformations, etc.

An excellent book on the topic (not a new agey 'how to' guide, but a serious study) is 'Shamanism -Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy' by Mircea Eliade.

 

this is a definition of a shaman in a book I am studying at the moment, I hope that it will help you all...
Shaman: A man or woman who has obtained knowledge of other dimensions as well as of the Earth, usually through periods of alter-state conciousness. This knowledge gives the shaman the power to change the world through magic. Once known derisively as "medicine men" and "witch doctors" shamans are once again respected as repositories of traditional healing, psychological, and magical knowledge.