The Shamanic Experience

I think the best way to approach this might be to say that everything man has built, homes, buildings, cars, planes, motorcycles, ships etc. came after the Shamanic experience. To make sense of it you might have to think in terms of having been a human that might be starving some or a lot of the time and being either healthier or less healthy because of this experience (either one).

The real purpose of the Shamanic experience has always been to survive anything that comes in your life with as many of your friends and relatives as possible (usually in  your  family or tribe). This predated formal philosophy and science. The Shamanic process eventually led to Philosophy and Religions and all the Sciences. But, that was much later.

So today, how is the shamanic process relevant? It is relevant if you need to survive in the wilds. It is useful to know this even if you are trying to survive in a city. But it is better learned in the wilds camping and hiking or on a survival or outward bound trek or hike of some sort.

However, to really get good at this sort of thing you need to slow down your mind and stop using all electronic devices for a weekend or more. Some of you will be okay with this and some will not.

While you are free from radio, TV, Ipods, Iphones, smartphones, cellphones, Ipads, laptops or desktop computers or whatever else is electronic that you might use watch what your mind is doing. Observe carefully where your mind goes. Because shamanism more than anything else is about observing what you are feeling and thinking about everything all the time in your lives.

The reason all this is important is that most people these days are not in touch with their emotions and thoughts and what they are feeling or thinking and what their body is experiencing as much as people were in the past before radios and TVs and computers and cell phones.

So, what is the value of all this trouble? The value is that you might survive your lives without electronics and without all the things you are used to now and you will have a better chance of surviving wherever you are put on earth on purpose or by accident.

Some people are inclined to enjoy this out of doors experience and to understand themselves and others likely less so. But, the more you understand about your 1000s of senses that no one ever usually tells you about the more likely you will survive anything that comes in your life. And not only that the more likely your friends and family will survive anything that comes too.

Part 2:

This likely would be for people okay alone in the woods without any cell phones, GPS or anything else electronic and who have good night vision. IN 1983 I did a vision quest with no water and no food for 96 hours (4 days and nights). So, the purpose for doing something like this is to be shown by God what the purpose of your life is. (IN other words what did God send you to earth to do?). If you are sincere and mentally and physically healthy enough for this you will know more about what you should be doing after doing this likely than before.

However, 96 hours is a really big commitment and my own experience in 1983 was at times terrifying in a way I cannot describe usefully with words. However, at the same time it likely was the single most physically empowering experience of my life as a man here on earth.

For example, by not eating or drinking anything for the first two days your mind will start to change how it operates because of no water and no food. So, unless you are both mentally and physically healthy enough to do this you shouldn't attempt it.

I didn't try this until I was 35 in 1983. I was young enough to have good enough health to do this and I was comfortable being 4 miles from the nearest dirt road on the side of the Trinity River (South Fork) in Northern California in a Bear Wallow.

The first 2 days my mind screamed at me: "You're going to die! You can't survive this! What are you doing?" And I had to be very disciplined to continue this Vision Quest of no water and no food. However, the visions told me things about my path and my life that I likely might not have found out in any other way. As more and more of my ANCIENT senses opened that people who lived in the wilds centuries ago still had the use of I found myself slowing down to the pace of the creatures in the forest. And I felt them accept me there with them when I slowed down enough to hear their minds and feelings and become a part of the forest and the forest creatures myself.

Since this is where we all really came from this is extremely powerful stuff and about as empowering as anything you might ever experience in life. In fact, I would say it has taken me since 1983 to try to understand more what really happened to me and I am still discovering new aspects to the whole thing even now. But, like I said you really have to have your act together to attempt something like this. So, be sure you are capable of surviving this kind of experience before you attempt it.