ShamanismWritten by Jeremiah P. Huck
Shamanism Update of an article I published many times. March 20, 2004 Shamanism is an ancient form of mysticism. Although there are many localized variations, basic tenet is that all things are sacred and alive. Shamans are experts in this perspective and act as priests, holy persons, guides, researchers, explorers or professionals. Most have ability to enter trance or altered states to access information related to their work. The shaman acts as a bridge. While in contact with life in other dimensions of universe, they also use what is available in local environment as an aid in returning a person, place or situation back into balance. The historical paths to becomming a shaman are many and varied. Before we had instant mass communication, and global travel, a would be shaman lived in a small village like all our ancestors. These small tribal settings were located in different ecosystems, some tropical, some cold, mountainous, valley, desert, forest, etc. Each place had it's own unique energy, with different plants and animals. You won't find a whale in desert, so each potential shaman had very different life experiences and local resources to work with. Also, mythological systems vary a great deal. Individuals were called to become shamans for varied reasons. Some were simply born sensitive. Some individuals had a near-death experience, mental break, disease or accident which caused them to search for a method for their personal recovery. Through trial and error they found a mineral, plant, location, ceremony or something to help cure them. Apon their recovery, them became shamans specialized to that problem. People came to them for their secret knowledge when in a similiar situation. Thus, a new shaman was born into community.
| | Modalities and Psychic AbilitiesWritten by Avalon De Witt
There are three basic modalities of perception. They are visual (through eyes), auditory (through ears) and kinesthetic (through bodily sensation, including smell and taste). Most of us are dominant in one or two of these modalities. Your dominant modality will greatly affect how you perceive things psychically. Visual people are more clairvoyant, auditory people more clairaudient and kinesthetic people more empathic. Have you ever attempted to increase your psychic ability, but felt blocked and couldn't figure out why? Perhaps you've tried using a particular tool or technique and found that you could not seem to "connect." It could be that you were just working with one of your weaker modalities. If you want to know which psychic modality is your dominant one, simply take a look at your creative interests. What kind of art have you enjoyed making most? Do you prefer to create things that involve sight? Hearing? Touch or movement? The activities that are most enjoyable to you are ones that come from your dominant modality. You can stimulate your psychic modalities through pursuit of creative activities. Pursuing a creative activity that is geared for a certain modality can improve psychic ability that corresponds with it. To make yourself more clairvoyant, take photographs, draw and paint. To make yourself more clairaudient, sing, play music and write poetry. And to make yourself more empathic, take a pottery class, a dance class or even a cooking class.
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