Study Shamanic Healing
"By rediscovering the natural spirituality of our ancient past before we became splintered from the natural world; by remembering our intimate connection with the natural world with which we are inextricably connected; and by learning to listen and speak to the spiritual voices for which the human ear is naturally attuned and that have been begging for us to listen for thousands of years, we have the means to assist ourselves and each other to return to wellness." Steve Serr
Why Study Shamanic Healing?
Why are more and more people turning to shamanism,
and what makes studying at shamanism 101 unique?
I believe people are starting to study shamanism partly because they are discovering what it can do for their growth and development, and partly because many of us are feeling the need to reconnect with our Earth. These things are important. Shamanic healing training opens us up to change and personal development so we can regain our natural empowerment and step back into our full, true self. Shamanic practice and its understandings are our original spirituality, and it is already in our DNA.
Naturally, many come to study shamanism because they know themselves to be healers and want to learn shamanic healing techniques. Some people ask if by taking shamanic training, I am going to turn them into a shaman. I prefer the term shamanic practitioner because of all the associations over history that have gathered around that term. In any event, the title 'shaman' (or other such role-related linguistic term) is gained or lost by means of one's spirit helpers, clients, colleagues as well as by oneself. I have gathered the material you need to learn, guide and follow your progress through regular shamanic practices, experiences, personal communications and your homework responses, and help you determine when you are getting closer or veering away from the development for which you have aimed.
After comprehensive shamanic training I can certify you as a shamanic practitioner. There is no general association across different schools teaching shamanism to do this, and each school or instructor either does, or does not provide shamanic healing certification. With a clear and standardized curriculum, I am able to attest to students’ areas of study and practice, keep track of progress through required submissions, and verify that each practitioner has received and incorporated the proper training and demonstrated ability in shamanic healing techniques and personal character.
Since I am ‘signing off’ on your certification, I am stubborn when it comes to proper shamanic training. I believe this is the best program of its kind anywhere, and feel this solid, grounded, comprehensive and clear material is what is most needed at this point in our broadly renewed interest in shamanic practices. These are very professional certificates with an embossed seal, curriculum areas, signature, etc.
Steve Serr, preparing for a Vision Quest, New Mexico.
To truly learn shamanism, you need organized, in-depth training in effective shamanic practice. Having a broad base of knowledge and the use of the internet to access this is the 'new' part. In shamanic studies today, we have a wider scope of knowledge than any of our predecessors, with material not limited to just one 'school, tradition, or geographical area.
The complete shamanism course series involves 36 units and can take anywhere from nine months to a year and a half to complete. Shamanic healing certification begins at the beginning: you must learn a great deal, but it is more who you must become that is the deeper task. This is something that begins across the first level with Shamanic Healing Training: The Practitioner's Journey to the True Self. This is something you can't buy in a weekend, procure in a video, or achieve over a few months.
No new age stuff here, nor claims to a special spiritual authority of superior, mysterious wisdom passed down through a single culture, person, people or path. No special 'lineage' claims, nor is this work even remotely about me. I'm not the least bit different than any other human being except that I've been a good student with a great deal of passion, a very hard worker with a reasonably functioning brain who developed a strong course in shamanic studies.
Anyone is as inherently capable of shamanic practice as anyone else. Shamanic practice has nothing to do with race, skin color, teacher, culture, geography or lineage. The spirits that actually hold spiritual power will work with anyone who is willing to go the distance.
Your personal development - your grounding, compassion and empowerment - is the vehicle that carries shamanic knowledge. The practitioner must become adequately team with the spirits so that they can do their work. This shamanism course series finally makes available this important aspect of shamanic education and training.
Shamanism is not esoteric wisdom. It is your birthright and rightfully belongs to you, though it has not been as easily accessible as we have deserved. Even more discouraging have been the teachers who overpriced their shamanic classes. We are no longer dependent on these few sources: shamanism online has leveled the accessibility and availability of shamanic studies, and has proven to myself and my students its training effectiveness.
Shamanism speaks to me in a way other spiritual practices don't. Animism makes complete sense to me, while the hierarchy of established religions never did. And the concept of a spiritual discipline being in aid of the community is something that is very important to me. I've always had problems with the lack of outreach, and the emphasis on self, that many practices emphasize (i.e., redemption and the like). I also feel strongly that this is a time in our collective history when healing may be more important than ever before.
Susan, Boston, Massachusetts
Curiously, we have slipped so far away from shamanic mentorship that people are often surprised to hear that they need it! However, real training in shamanic healing has always demanded oversight. The relatively stable, connected community has been widely lost throughout the world. This meant the loss of time-honored one-on-one, sustained shamanic training. In the excitement of bringing back shamanism, the lack of this relationship was simply accepted as unfortunate, and then forgotten.
We are intuitively aware of shamanism's deep human value. Unfortunately, this was quickly recognized as a money-maker, and the 'weekend workshop' jumped at the opportunity.
The more innocent '60s left a huge carbon footprint and we are rightfully less willing now to fly or drive distances for courses of any kind. Furthermore, unless you are a part of the top narrow percentage of the population, it’s no longer an expanding, booming economy and we must manage personal expenses with far more care. Ecology and economy helped nudge us to rethink.
Then, we became connected to global education in a way the world had never known. Internet-based study enabled a return to the historically recognized sustained and personal oversight of a mentor. Now, communication, understanding and guidance can be found just as easily - if not more so - over the internet than it could ever be in a large classroom.
It is time to reconsider.
Sometime, I encourage you to listen to this short talk including word for word reports on shamanic experiences by students. Entirely unsolicited, these personal experiences accurately demonstrate the intense shamanic potential in all of us.
To Dance Around the Fire
(mp3 format, about 17 minutes)
I teach from a deep commitment to ethics and compassion. As Antone de Saint-Exupery wrote in The Little Prince, "it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye". I do not have time or patience with the idea that any one person's or group's information and experience is more valuable than any other. One or another particular person, culture, geographical location or path simply does not contain superior wisdom.
This is why I lean towards what is called core shamanism. What is shamanism? Shamanism is a pan-human psychospiritual phenomenon and a relationship with our sacred Earth is not owned. Culture is learned, not transmitted through blood lines. We are all kin and from the same human family, just that we grew up in different parts of the world. Despite recent history's attempt at 'political correctness', spirituality cannot be privatized and otherwise 'owned' by any person, group, culture or geography. Shamanism comes from the Earth. Shamanism 'sprouted' in the soil of human nature throughout the globe. There is no 'spiritual copyright' anywhere, and to declare in the face of our real human and planetary need is small and mean spirited.
In my shamanism classes, I teach with drum and rattle. More than 90 percent of shamanic cultures across time concluded that percussion was the preferred way to reach a shamanic state of consciousness, and recent research in brain wave entrainment along with the experience of many thousands of practitioners has validated this. Some wonderful practitioners maintain the entheogen path, but my goal is for you to find your own power. There is no 'fast track' to wisdom, shamanic or otherwise. I want you to develop your relationship with the spirits without having to lean on something else.
In this age of separation from each other, from our planet, and from ourselves, we have become splintered and fragmented from the Whole. We have largely forgotten our original connection with our true self, our human community, and even the planet upon which we live. So, we suffer: as individuals, as societies, and as a biosphere.
There is no justification for patriarchy which cripples everyone's spirituality, not to mention the shredding of the economics, education, health and total wellbeing of the larger half of our human population. Neither can we retain racist and xenophobic 'great man' or 'great path' ideas purporting a spiritually chosen bloodline, geographical area or culture. Nor do we have room for redemptive religions that turn our focus away from the Earth and our vision towards otherworldly heavens. These things, even if unwittingly, have inflicted deep psychological, social and ecological wounds on human beings, entire cultures, and on the Earth herself.
In a time of fragmentation and loss of intimacy, let us restore our essential, natural ways of understanding, and let us do so as widely and as readily as possible. Shamanic practice can help us recover the ancient awareness of our intimate connection with the world, and return to our whole and vital wellness.
I look forward to hearing from you. I urge you to take a look at Level 1, Shamanic Healing Training: the Practitioner's Journey to the True Self.
Much love!
Steve
P.S. There are no short cuts. Each unit generally requires at least a week to complete, and that's working diligently. However, with thousands of years of shamanic resources behind you, the effort is worth it. This is heart-centered, soul-centered work that takes dedication. No hype, just earthy, real practice. No gloss, just solid training. You can begin at any time because you work with me. Personally.
shamanism education...
remembering,
gathering and training in
humankind's original ways of healing
and celebrating our relationship with the Earth.
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