W
Shamanism and Reality
Shamanic reality is discerned differently than that reality which is viewed by many others. ‘Consensual reality’ is is actually the usual reality most people see, the often unchallenged and primarily unconscious agreement between one’s personal construction of reality and that shared with others.
Breaking stride with the crowd, the shamanic practitioner challenges and then deepens his or her understanding of what is real. Today, the predominant world view so differs from a shamanic one that contemporary practitioners must necessarily confront and respond to these differences as they mature. However, in different ways and to varying degrees, this was always the case for how the shaman ‘saw’ reality has always been different from most everyone else.
In fact, that was their expertise!
We serve as a kind of interface between worlds. The shaman's brain is a kind of nexus, a place of intersection between the worlds. There is no such thing as 'its only my imagination.' Quite to the contrary: it is precisely because of your ability to form images that you are able to see, hear and learn.
Now, I know that the skeptics tend to narrow their eyes and purse their lips when I start talking about alternative realities, such as the shamanism upper world or the shamanism lower world. I often get the question “But what if I am only imagining…?” This is a very telling question.
In the contemporary world, there is a serious tendency to discount our imaging power, as if we are somehow ‘forcing’ the work and thus invalidating it. Need I re-'mind' you that the mind is an extraordinary instrument? It is a ‘screen’ upon which the images, sounds, and entire experience of the shamanic journey takes place.
When you start taking classes in shamanic practice, be sure to cut yourself a little 'slack' when it comes to using your brain. Rather than fear that you might be 'forcing an imagination' (in other words, not having a 'real' journey!), I always encourage new students to imagine wildly! Allow yourself to open your mind’s eye to peer even more closely at what begins to take form.
And remember, this whole idea of 'mind' and 'matter' is also a construction of reality. This too is something that begins to deconstruct as our work deepens. After awhile, it is as though we have started from such concepts, and then leave them behind. For not only are they no longer necessary, they may in fact, impede us.