Before St. Francis of Assisi became a Saint he was obviously a natural shaman. One knows this by the birds coming to him when he walked out on the roof in "Brother Sun Sister Moon". A natural shaman when I first read the definition I was about 23 and in Palomar College. At 21 I had "died". And accompanying that I had "died" many times during childhood blunt trauma epilepsy from age 10 to age 15 when my skull grew enough to take the pressure off my brain of the blunt trauma received about age 9.
So, when I took a course at Palomar College in San Marcos, California called Cultural Anthropology when I read the definition of a "natural shaman" I realized that was what I was. And just like the battle trauma that St. Francis received as a knight in battle and almost dying. Something like this tends to separate a soul from a body and so one can be both dead in one way but their body is still alive. In other words the body and soul have received such an extreme amount of trauma that the soul isn't connected to the body in the same way anymore. So, it could be said that even thought their body lives that they have died. So, just because one's body can move around doesn't mean they aren't also dead and so have become a natural shaman.
Down through the centuries Tribal Shamans have often also had some relationship with epilepsy. It was often called "The King's Disease" because prescient or precognitive people who wound up leaders often had "The King's Disease". Alexander the Great and Napoleon were two of these leaders.
But in order to be like this one cannot be taking prescription medications. I was lucky. My seizures stopped when I was 15.
But even if you are not epileptic but were in a car accident or a battle as a soldier or some other kind of traumatic experience where your soul and body no longer fully believe you are alive, and yet your body hasn't died and you can at least still come and visit and inhabit your body then you too are a Natural Shaman.
Something like this takes a lot of getting used to. Because literally everything is different about your life than most other people who are actually alive in a normal way. For example, once you get over whatever trauma turned you into a natural shaman, you can begin to explore what a natural shaman actually is.
Depending upon the spiritual or religious tradition you were raised in or even if you don't believe in anything beyond the 5 senses, you still will have to deal with experiencing ghosts and angels and spirits because you are de facto dead. You just have a body that is still walking around. But there are some advantages to this. For example, you will eventually be able to save the lives of anyone that will actually listen to you and take you seriously. But this also is hard. Even with members of my own family they get kind of "Oh Sure!" at times and won't listen. But when you are as accurate as I am all the time it is better when people listen to what you have to say if you feel it is above 80 to 90% accuracy in regard to something that is coming.
I will tell you this. I suffered a lot with all my gifts until I was about 30 to 32 and met my first Tibetan Lama and then other Lamas and Ani's(Tibetan Buddhist Nuns) and then many Native American Medicine Men and Women. But once I had embraced non-dualism I found everything came into order for me. I found being a natural shaman just isn't scientifically compatible with dualism.
The main problem with dualism is that it works with kids but not adults. I suppose it works for adults who are like kids but it doesn't work for adults that actually are adults. It's like this. If a two year old runs into the middle of a busy street you might spank them and say, "Don't you ever do that again. I don't want to see you die!" But the two year old might just get traumatized and think you are a bad person and not understand. So, though you have kept the kid alive you have also emotionally screwed them up possibly for life.
Note: The above example really doesn't do dualism justice. The main problem with dualism is it is actually impossible (unless you are an adult fool) to categorize everything into "Good" or "Bad". You might say that someone murdering someone else is bad and I might agree with that. But most things you might talk about with 100 average people being honest on the street, you wouldn't be able to come to a really firm agreement as to most things being ultimately bad or good. There was something in "Charlie Wilson's War: The Movie" that comes to mind. He told a story about a boy in an Asian Culture. First the boy was given a horse and the wise man of the town said, "We'll See" But everyone else said, "What a lucky boy!" But then the boy fell off the horse and broke his leg. And everyone in town said, "OH! This is bad." And the wise man said, "We'll See". Then a battle happened and because the boys leg was broken he didn't have to fight in it but all the other boys his age in town died. And they asked the Wise man if this was good and he said, "We'll See." So you can see how life even when seemingly bad things happen good things can come from that.
Another example, you all might say that this is a really bad thing for Maria and Arnold the Governator but this might be the best thing that ever happened in his 10 year old son's life and the mother of that boys life. And in the end Maria and Arnold might get back together because of their 4 other children and because they are both over 50. So is what happened ultimately good or bad? We'll See!
So, now let's look at non-dualism. In non-dualism you do not have ultimate good and bad in life. For example, was it good that the U.S. won World War II? If you are an American you likely can say "Hell. Yes" But if you are a Japanese or German in 1944 and 1945 what would be your answer? So, you begin to see that ultimate good or bad is relative to who you are and where you are and how you think and feel about the whole thing.
So, I explain non-dualism this way best. Think about the weather. Can you tell me that any weather event is only good or bad? No. You can't because no matter how bad a weather event is for one person, it might be good for another. For example, imagine a tornado accompanied by rain in a really droughted area. The tornado might knock down 10 or 20 houses but then fill up a lake so the community can survive. So was the entire storm good or bad? You would have to answer, 'Both'. Well this is how life actually is with infinite shades of grey. And here is the necessity for non-dualism if you are a natural shaman because a shaman naturally is a force of nature. Part of the experience of a natural shaman is to feel at one with all life in the physical and in spirit. The experience that all life is your family and that you never will be alone is a part of this experience. But for me, helping my family and friends as well as anyone that God shows me to in any way that I can is the real beauty of being a natural shaman.
My goal in my life is to try to help the human race survive whatever comes and become even more amazing than humans on Earth already are. So, will this happen? We'll See.
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