Am I Making Up My Journeys?
an excerpt from the book & CD set
SHAMANIC JOURNEYING:
A Beginner's Guide
by Sandra Ingerman
INTRODUCTION
The excerpt, below, deals with a common barrier to successful travel in non-ordinary reality: the secret belief that your journey might just be a product of your imagination.
Sandra Ingerman is an ideal author for this gentle introduction to the world's oldest spiritual practice. As former director of education at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, she has taught shamanic journeying to thousands of novices. A licensed marriage and family therapist and mental health counselor, Ingerman is a board-certified expert on traumatic stress. She is the author of the classic text, Soul Retrieval: Healing the Fragmented Self (HarperSanFrancisco), among other books.
In Shamanic Journeying readers learn to use a fundamental technique practiced by shamans worldwide to connect with spiritual helpers, to access personal guidance and healing, to help others and the planet, and to reconnect with nature and its rhythms. Learn to:
Interpret dreams and omens
Communicate with weather spirits
Meet ancestors and deceased loved ones
Resolve conflict in relationships
More information about the book, Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide, and author Sandra Ingerman, follows the excerpt. Enjoy!
Am I Making Up My Journeys?
by Sandra Ingerman
The most common challenge that people new to the practice of shamanic journeying face is the fear that they are making up their journeys -- that it is all happening in their imaginations and is therefore irrelevant.
Most of you reading this have been raised in a society where you were taught that invisible realms do not exist. You were taught that only what you can see, feel, hear, taste, and smell is real, and the rest exists solely in your imagination. After all these years of basing your perception of reality on what is tangible, to hear someone tell you that you can travel to non-ordinary reality and ask invisible spirit beings for advice and guidance is confusing at best. This question comes up for almost everybody when they first begin the practice of shamanic journeying.
As children, many of us took great comfort in our ability to communicate with loving and caring beings in invisible worlds. However, as we grew up and became socialized into believing solely in physical reality, our relationship with the invisible world dissolved.
However, many of us yearn to rediscover the invisible world and our interconnectedness with all seen and unseen beings. On a profound level, we all know there is more to life than material possessions, what society tells us is true, or what we experience with out five senses.
Several years ago I was teaching an introductory workshop in journeying where the question of the imagination was very pronounced. Over and over again people asked me in different ways, "Am I making up my journey?" During a break, a Brazilian woman came up to me to tell me how surprised she was that so many people were plagued by this question. She had grown up in a culture where there is a strong belief in spirits, and for her there was no question as to whether spirits were "real." However, my parents certainly did not talk about power animals and helping spirits at the dinner table when I was growing up -- nor did most of the parents of the workshop participants!
My experience has shown me that the best way to evaluate the validity of your shamanic journeys is on the basis of your results. If you keep up the practice of shamanic journeying, you will begin to see useful and beneficial results arising from the guidance you receive. Remember, shamanism has traditionally been a results-oriented system, and it is important for you to evaluate your results on an ongoing basis. The important question to ask yourself is, "Do I get information that makes a positive difference in my life?"
When you begin to see significant results, your mind will begin to quiet down, and eventually you will find that you are no longer distracted by the question of whether or not it is all happening in your imagination. However, if you try to battle your mind or beliefs while you are journeying, you will spend much of your journey time in internal dialogue and be too distracted to receive any clear information. What I do when my analytical mind interferes when I am journeying is to simply agree with what it has to say, and then continue on my journey. And what I recommend to you is that you give journeying an opportunity to reveal its benefits to you over time, which will satisfy your discerning mind.
People in our culture often forget to "lighten up" when doing spiritual practice. We tend to take everything too seriously, putting too much pressure on ourselves. Traditional shamans and healers are always laughing. Being overly serious in our journeys and lives disconnects us from our own creative potential. Learn to laugh at yourself and have fun with your practice. You will find as you journey over time that your helping spirits have quite a sense of humor and are always trying to get you to lighten up.
When I first started journeying, my power animal would find humorous settings to teach me about asking appropriate questions. I remember in one journey I went to the Lower World to meet him. When I showed up in the pine forest where he lives, he was dressed in a fancy waiter's uniform, wearing spotless white gloves. He showed me to a small table that was decorated with a crisp white tablecloth and a small vase of flowers. He pulled out a chair for me and handed me a menu. I opened the menu, and was surprised to see what was inside. There were two columns containing different questions. My power animal announced that the question I was intending to ask was the wrong one. I had not even told him what my question was, so obviously he was tuned into my intention before I even spoke it. He then explained that the questions on the menu were appropriate to ask, and that I could choose one question from column A and one from column B to ask him during my journey. I think this is a wonderful example of how the spirits can teach us through humor and playfulness, which helps keeps the practice more lighthearted.
About the Author
Sandra Ingerman, MA, is the author of Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self, Welcome Home: Following Your Soul's Journey Home, A Fall to Grace, Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins, and Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide. She is the author of The Soul Retrieval Journey, The Beginner's Guide to Shamanic Journeying and Miracles for the Earth lecture programs produced by Sounds True, Inc.
Sandra teaches workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. She has trained and founded an international alliance of Medicine for the Earth teachers and shamanic teachers. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture addressing the needs of our times.
Sandra is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist and Professional Mental Health Counselor. She is also a board certified expert on traumatic stress as well as certified in acute traumatic stress management.
To read a monthly column written by Sandra called The Transmutation News, please visit the website http://www.shamanicvisions.com/ingerman.html
About the Book
SHAMANIC JOURNEYING:
A Beginner's Guide
by Sandra Ingerman
Published by Sounds True, Inc.
ISBN 1-59179-151-0, 80 pages, hardcover, audio CD, $19.95
Available through this site or directly from the publisher:
http://store.yahoo.com/soundstruestore/ingermans.html
Shamanic journeying is the inner art of traveling to the "invisible worlds" beyond ordinary reality to retrieve information for change in every area of our lives -- from spirituality and health to work and relationships. With Shamanic Journeying, readers join world-renowned teacher Sandra Ingerman to learn the core teachings of this ancient practice and apply these skills in their own journey.
In Shamanic Journeying, readers learn how to use a fundamental technique practiced by shamans worldwide to connect with spiritual helpers, to access personal guidance and healing, to help others and the planet, and to reconnect with nature and its rhythms. Learn to:
Interpret dreams and omens
Communicate with weather spirits
Meet ancestors and deceased loved ones
Resolve conflict in relationships
Restore harmony and balance in your life
Meet the spirit of your home, workplace, or city
Shamanic Journeying is a practical guidebook and gives you advice on the best time of day to journey, how to get comfortable, lighting, using the audio CD, and simple techniques of guided meditation to start you on a path to the Upper World, the Lower World, or the Middle World. You will learn how to identify power animals and other teachers and the best way to approach them for advice.
Shamanic Journeying is a gorgeous hardcover book, lovingly produced with colorful endpapers and elegant type. It includes an audio CD containing drum rhythms for three shamanic journeys. This book & CD make a wonderful gift for the spiritual traveler who likes to visit the exotic places all around us. Thank you for considering it.
Copyright (c)2006 by Sandra Ingerman. All Rights Reserved. Please feel free to duplicate or distribute this file as long as the contents have not been changed and this copyright notice is intact. Thank You.
SHAMANIC JOURNEYING:
A Beginner's Guide
by Sandra Ingerman
INTRODUCTION
The excerpt, below, deals with a common barrier to successful travel in non-ordinary reality: the secret belief that your journey might just be a product of your imagination.
Sandra Ingerman is an ideal author for this gentle introduction to the world's oldest spiritual practice. As former director of education at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, she has taught shamanic journeying to thousands of novices. A licensed marriage and family therapist and mental health counselor, Ingerman is a board-certified expert on traumatic stress. She is the author of the classic text, Soul Retrieval: Healing the Fragmented Self (HarperSanFrancisco), among other books.
In Shamanic Journeying readers learn to use a fundamental technique practiced by shamans worldwide to connect with spiritual helpers, to access personal guidance and healing, to help others and the planet, and to reconnect with nature and its rhythms. Learn to:
Interpret dreams and omens
Communicate with weather spirits
Meet ancestors and deceased loved ones
Resolve conflict in relationships
More information about the book, Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide, and author Sandra Ingerman, follows the excerpt. Enjoy!
Am I Making Up My Journeys?
by Sandra Ingerman
The most common challenge that people new to the practice of shamanic journeying face is the fear that they are making up their journeys -- that it is all happening in their imaginations and is therefore irrelevant.
Most of you reading this have been raised in a society where you were taught that invisible realms do not exist. You were taught that only what you can see, feel, hear, taste, and smell is real, and the rest exists solely in your imagination. After all these years of basing your perception of reality on what is tangible, to hear someone tell you that you can travel to non-ordinary reality and ask invisible spirit beings for advice and guidance is confusing at best. This question comes up for almost everybody when they first begin the practice of shamanic journeying.
As children, many of us took great comfort in our ability to communicate with loving and caring beings in invisible worlds. However, as we grew up and became socialized into believing solely in physical reality, our relationship with the invisible world dissolved.
However, many of us yearn to rediscover the invisible world and our interconnectedness with all seen and unseen beings. On a profound level, we all know there is more to life than material possessions, what society tells us is true, or what we experience with out five senses.
Several years ago I was teaching an introductory workshop in journeying where the question of the imagination was very pronounced. Over and over again people asked me in different ways, "Am I making up my journey?" During a break, a Brazilian woman came up to me to tell me how surprised she was that so many people were plagued by this question. She had grown up in a culture where there is a strong belief in spirits, and for her there was no question as to whether spirits were "real." However, my parents certainly did not talk about power animals and helping spirits at the dinner table when I was growing up -- nor did most of the parents of the workshop participants!
My experience has shown me that the best way to evaluate the validity of your shamanic journeys is on the basis of your results. If you keep up the practice of shamanic journeying, you will begin to see useful and beneficial results arising from the guidance you receive. Remember, shamanism has traditionally been a results-oriented system, and it is important for you to evaluate your results on an ongoing basis. The important question to ask yourself is, "Do I get information that makes a positive difference in my life?"
When you begin to see significant results, your mind will begin to quiet down, and eventually you will find that you are no longer distracted by the question of whether or not it is all happening in your imagination. However, if you try to battle your mind or beliefs while you are journeying, you will spend much of your journey time in internal dialogue and be too distracted to receive any clear information. What I do when my analytical mind interferes when I am journeying is to simply agree with what it has to say, and then continue on my journey. And what I recommend to you is that you give journeying an opportunity to reveal its benefits to you over time, which will satisfy your discerning mind.
People in our culture often forget to "lighten up" when doing spiritual practice. We tend to take everything too seriously, putting too much pressure on ourselves. Traditional shamans and healers are always laughing. Being overly serious in our journeys and lives disconnects us from our own creative potential. Learn to laugh at yourself and have fun with your practice. You will find as you journey over time that your helping spirits have quite a sense of humor and are always trying to get you to lighten up.
When I first started journeying, my power animal would find humorous settings to teach me about asking appropriate questions. I remember in one journey I went to the Lower World to meet him. When I showed up in the pine forest where he lives, he was dressed in a fancy waiter's uniform, wearing spotless white gloves. He showed me to a small table that was decorated with a crisp white tablecloth and a small vase of flowers. He pulled out a chair for me and handed me a menu. I opened the menu, and was surprised to see what was inside. There were two columns containing different questions. My power animal announced that the question I was intending to ask was the wrong one. I had not even told him what my question was, so obviously he was tuned into my intention before I even spoke it. He then explained that the questions on the menu were appropriate to ask, and that I could choose one question from column A and one from column B to ask him during my journey. I think this is a wonderful example of how the spirits can teach us through humor and playfulness, which helps keeps the practice more lighthearted.
About the Author
Sandra Ingerman, MA, is the author of Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self, Welcome Home: Following Your Soul's Journey Home, A Fall to Grace, Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins, and Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide. She is the author of The Soul Retrieval Journey, The Beginner's Guide to Shamanic Journeying and Miracles for the Earth lecture programs produced by Sounds True, Inc.
Sandra teaches workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. She has trained and founded an international alliance of Medicine for the Earth teachers and shamanic teachers. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture addressing the needs of our times.
Sandra is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist and Professional Mental Health Counselor. She is also a board certified expert on traumatic stress as well as certified in acute traumatic stress management.
To read a monthly column written by Sandra called The Transmutation News, please visit the website http://www.shamanicvisions.com/ingerman.html
About the Book
SHAMANIC JOURNEYING:
A Beginner's Guide
by Sandra Ingerman
Published by Sounds True, Inc.
ISBN 1-59179-151-0, 80 pages, hardcover, audio CD, $19.95
Available through this site or directly from the publisher:
http://store.yahoo.com/soundstruestore/ingermans.html
Shamanic journeying is the inner art of traveling to the "invisible worlds" beyond ordinary reality to retrieve information for change in every area of our lives -- from spirituality and health to work and relationships. With Shamanic Journeying, readers join world-renowned teacher Sandra Ingerman to learn the core teachings of this ancient practice and apply these skills in their own journey.
In Shamanic Journeying, readers learn how to use a fundamental technique practiced by shamans worldwide to connect with spiritual helpers, to access personal guidance and healing, to help others and the planet, and to reconnect with nature and its rhythms. Learn to:
Interpret dreams and omens
Communicate with weather spirits
Meet ancestors and deceased loved ones
Resolve conflict in relationships
Restore harmony and balance in your life
Meet the spirit of your home, workplace, or city
Shamanic Journeying is a practical guidebook and gives you advice on the best time of day to journey, how to get comfortable, lighting, using the audio CD, and simple techniques of guided meditation to start you on a path to the Upper World, the Lower World, or the Middle World. You will learn how to identify power animals and other teachers and the best way to approach them for advice.
Shamanic Journeying is a gorgeous hardcover book, lovingly produced with colorful endpapers and elegant type. It includes an audio CD containing drum rhythms for three shamanic journeys. This book & CD make a wonderful gift for the spiritual traveler who likes to visit the exotic places all around us. Thank you for considering it.
Copyright (c)2006 by Sandra Ingerman. All Rights Reserved. Please feel free to duplicate or distribute this file as long as the contents have not been changed and this copyright notice is intact. Thank You.
posted by Toby Christensen at 4:12 PM
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