Noticing we have almost nothing in common with other shamanic practitioners

I have been noticing that we find ourselves less and less in agreement with other shamanic practitioners we encounter on the web. (We encounter few in ordinary reality these days.) We persist in using the term shamanic(s) practice to refer to what we do because the shamanic journeying, dreaming, and shifting processes are key and central and take up most of it. We are aware of all the word problems around shaman and shamanism but we found these s-words widely in use already when we came upon the contemporary shamanism scenes. Inventing new words to use instead would likely cause just as many other confusions and I haven't come up with any likely ones yet anyhow.

We find ourselves diverging from most tradition-based and New Age shamanic and shamanistic ways. By our definitions, shamanic ways are tools of direct experience of Spirit and Spirits for reality shifting on purpose and shamanistic ways emphasise other activities more, though there may be shamanic features in them.

Also...we are loosing interest in complementary and alternative (CAM) techniques we used to like, most all of which have been used as tools by other names by shamans somewhere sometimes. We are turning our attentions away from most CAM because so many of these so-called (or truely) natural and spiritual healing or transforming methods seem to be settling into dogmatic, jargon-laden, set-in-stone, unscientific, cultish belief-systems that may actually contribute to psychological or even physical harm. Yes, now I see that has been happening for quite a while but I wasn't paying attention until the last year or so. I used to practice some of these ways myself and Alan practiced some of the same ones and others. Between us we have tested quite a few CAM techniques, methods, and systems in the context of practicing new shamanics and found most of them useless at best, except as ways to stir up creative dreaming and imaginating. (So the mysticism around these practices is superfluous and distracting, I find.)

The link-roll here is being pruned as our quest seems to lead down roads that are paradoxically narrower yet broader. Our quest is more narrowly focused upon new shamanics yet more broadly sweeping over a wider array of topics and fields. I understand that a usual main purpose of keeping a weblog is writing up the details of such changes of mind and heart yet so far my habit of studying matters and ruminating then writing little or nothing after coming to conclusions persists.

Un-linking...We started out linking to all kinds of intentional communities including mainstream and alternative religious orders so we could visit their websites easily for further studies and comparisons and for future reference as models. In the spirit of 'take what you like and leave the rest' we linked up a lot that only interested one of us a little bit. But many of these approaches now seem more and more aside from our questing for new (original or radical) ways of living in community. Another interest area is reality shifting through different kinds of prayer-treatments and some of the processes we were investigating now seem too religion- or superstition- based or New-Age-Fundamentalist to enthuse us anymore. We are both still facinated with Jewish, Hawaiian, and N. European shamanisms even though neither of us has any direct connection the first two and only loose connections with third.

So here is a progress report, in case anyone was wondering!
~ Sharon

Review - shamanic book HOW TO HEAL TOXIC THOUGHTS by Sandra Ingerman

HOW TO HEAL TOXIC THOUGHTS
by Sandra Ingerman

Here is the short review I promised:

Sandra Ingerman's latest shamanic 'how to' book is a short and sweet challenge to shamanic practitioners to keep growing...and going deeper with shamanic healing and transforming. I practice similar techniques already - given to me by Spirit and Spirits along my own shamanic life quest - so I know her's will work.

I keep reading shamanic books to get more new slightly different slants, twists, and spins on shamanic ways that can be used by Spirit and Spirits to communicate with me in answer to my prayers through my experiences in shamanic dreams and journeywork. Many in our circle study shamanic books this way. I do recommend this book to any shamanic practitioner who can read a book written by an acclaimed expert without putting the author on a pedastal or taking everything she writes literally.

The chapter about projection covers key concepts the grasp of which - in my view - could make the difference between practicing new-agey 'light' (but darkness avoiding) ways and practicing essentially shamanic ways. If I were to write a shamanic book I would express most of the main points of Sandra Ingerman's book quite differently - but my words might not be as digestable and understandable as Sandra Ingerman's in HOW TO HEAL TOXIC THOUGHTS.

~ Sharon

Another new shamanic book...HOW TO HEAL TOXIC THOUGHTS

ANNOUNCEMENT:

We have been asked to post an announcement about Sandra Ingerman's new book, HOW TO HEAL TOXIC THOUGHTS.

An excerpt from the book is available at:

http://www.authorviews.com/authors/ingerman3/excerpt.php

It's called "Words as Seeds" and contains a brief history of the power of words and a visualization exercise for growing a verbal garden of love.