Shamanism represents a universal conceptual framework found
among indigenous tribal humans. It includes the belief that the natural world
has two aspects: ordinary everyday awareness, formed by our habitual behaviors,
patterns of belief, social norms, and cultural conditioning, and a second
non-ordinary awareness accessed through altered states, or ecstatic trance,
induced by shamanic practices such as repetitive drumming. The act of entering
an ecstatic trance state is called the soul flight or shamanic journey, and it
allows the journeyer to view life and life's problems from a detached,
spiritual perspective, not easily achieved in a state of ordinary
consciousness.
Basically, shamanic journeying is a way of communicating with
your inner or spirit self and retrieving information. Your inner self is in
constant communication with all aspects of your environment, seen and unseen.
You need only journey within to find answers to your questions. You should have
a question or objective in mind from the start. Shamanic journeying may be
undertaken for purposes of divination, for personal healing, to meet one's
power animal or spirit guide, or for any number of other reasons. After the
journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience.
Drumming is a simple and effective way to induce ecstatic
trance states. When a drum is played at an even tempo of three to four beats
per second for at least fifteen minutes, most novices report that they can
journey successfully even on their first attempt. Transported by the driving
beat of the drum; the shamanic traveler journeys to the inner planes of
consciousness.
