"The Shamanic Drum" Audiobook Release

I am excited to announce the release of the audiobook version of my bestselling books The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming and Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits. The Shamanic Drum is my definitive guide to shamanic drumming, a form of repetitive rhythmic drumming. Its purpose is to induce ecstatic trance states in order to access innate wisdom and guidance. The essence of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation from within. Shamanism is about remembering, exploring and developing the true self. Shamanic practice heightens the ability of perception and enables you to see into the deeper realms of the self. Once connected with your inner self, you can find help, healing and a continual source of guidance. To practice shamanism is to reconnect with your deepest core values and your highest vision of who you are and why you are here.

Drawing from 30 years of shamanic practice and teaching, I present the first practical guide to applying this ancient healing art to our modern lives. Through a series of simple exercises and lessons, I teach the basic shamanic methods of drumming. The focus is on creating sacred space, journeying, power practice, power animals, drum circles and the therapeutic effects of drumming. There are no prerequisites to learning shamanic drumming. Whether you are an accomplished percussionist or a total beginner, this user-friendly book will help you harness the power of drumming. Listen to a sample of The Shamanic Drum.

In my book Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits, I recount my journey into shamanic practice and explore what someone should do if they feel the call to become a shaman. Many people in today's world are being called by spirit to become shamans. A yearning exists deep within many of us to reconnect to the natural world. It is a call to a life lived in balance with awareness of nature, of spirit, and of self. Following up on my book, The Shamanic Drum, I provide a new series of exercises and lessons that allow for a deeper understanding and utilization of this core shamanic practice. I have written a guide to becoming a shamanic healer that encompasses the power of the drum, of community, and of the accountability inherent in authentic shamanic practice.

This empowering book is a call to build relationships with helping spirits. Spirit helpers are the caretakers in the unseen world who want to support the earth and her inhabitants at this time. They are here to teach us how to gather wisdom from the spiritual realms, the natural world, the past, the present and the future in order to give birth to new ways of being. The shamanic relationship between humans and helping spirits supports our spirit's quest for self-realization. Helping spirits, if engaged regularly and skillfully, offer flexibility, creativity and perseverance in fulfilling our own unique path. The spirits are here to assist us in doing the principal, unique thing we have come here to do in a way that benefits all living things. Listen to a sample of Shamanic Drumming.

Virtual Voice Narration

These audiobooks use Virtual Voice narration. Virtual Voice is a computer-generated speech technology designed explicitly to create Audible audiobooks. Audible is an Amazon-owned company renowned for its vast library of audiobooks. Audible's Virtual Voice is a cutting-edge technology that utilizes advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to generate lifelike voice narrations for audiobooks. Unlike traditional methods that require human narrators, Virtual Voice can create high-quality narrations using synthesized voices. This technology leverages deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) to produce voices that sound remarkably human.  

One of the significant advantages of Virtual Voice is the consistency it offers. Human narrators, while talented, can introduce variability in their performances due to factors like mood, health, or fatigue. Virtual Voice eliminates these inconsistencies, ensuring that every chapter of a book is narrated with the same level of quality and energy. I was hesitant to publish any of my books using Virtual Voice, however the quality of the narration is much better than I could have ever imagined it would be. 

The Rise of Audiobooks 

In the fast-paced digital age, the way we consume content has significantly evolved. Audiobooks, once considered a niche market, have surged in popularity, providing a convenient and engaging way for people to enjoy literature. Audiobooks have grown exponentially over the past decade, thanks in part to the proliferation of smartphones and the increasing popularity of multitasking. People can now listen to books while commuting, exercising, or performing household chores. This convenience has turned audiobooks into a preferred medium for many readers. Audible has been at the forefront of this transformation, offering a vast selection of titles across various genres. 

For those who listen to audiobooks, the arrival of Virtual Voice will be seamless to the existing customer experience. Audible users will be able to easily discover and enjoy audiobooks featuring virtual voices, and audiobooks created with Virtual Voice will be clearly marked to avoid any confusion with traditional, human-narrated audiobooks. Customers will be able to listen to samples prior to purchase, just like with any other audiobook, and decide for themselves whether they want to give this new technology a chance. Whether you're a long-time audiobook enthusiast or a newcomer to the format, Virtual Voice promises to enhance your listening experience in ways you never imagined.

The Key Aspects of Shamanic Drumming

Shamanic drumming is a traditional practice used in various Indigenous and shamanic cultures around the world. It involves rhythmic drumming to achieve a range of ecstatic trance states in order to promote healing, gain insight, and communicate with the spiritual dimension of reality. Ecstasy is defined as a mystic, prophetic, or poetic trance. It is a trance-like state of exaltation in which the mind is fixed on what it contemplates or conceives. The drum serves as a concentration device, enhancing one's capacity to focus attention inward. It stills the incessant chatter of the mind, enabling one to enter a subtle or light-trance state. One of the core beliefs of shamanism is that innate wisdom and guidance can be accessed through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. Practitioners enter altered states of consciousness to experience direct revelation from within. Here are some key aspects of shamanic drumming:
 

1. Purpose: The primary purpose of shamanic drumming is to facilitate communication with the inner self and the spiritual realm. It is often used in rituals, ceremonies, and healing practices. A key objective of shamanic ritual is to engage the spirit world to effect specific changes in the physical world. The material and spiritual worlds interact continuously, and a shamanic practitioner can gain knowledge about how to alter physical reality by taking direct action in the spiritual aspect of the world. From a shamanic perspective, all human experience is self-generated because the entire universe exists within human consciousness. Each human being is a hologram of the universe. Essentially, we are the universe experiencing itself in human form.
 

2. Technique: Practiced in diverse cultures around the planet, this drum method is strikingly similar the world over. Shamanic drumming uses a repetitive rhythm that begins slowly and then gradually builds in intensity to a tempo of three to seven beats per second. The ascending tempo will induce light to deep trance states, and facilitate the shamanic techniques of journeying, shapeshifting, and soul retrieval. Practitioners may progress through a series of trance states until they reach the level that is necessary for healing to occur. When ready to exit the trance state, the practitioner simply slows the tempo of drumming, drawing consciousness back to normal.
 

3. Instruments: One of the most useful drums for shamanic work is the hand or frame drum. Its resonance and versatility make it my drum of preference. Such drums are portable, affordable, and easy to play. They can easily be held in one hand, leaving the other hand free to stroke the drum. Though I highly recommend frame drums, any type of drum may be used in shamanic drumming. There is a myriad of styles and drum types to choose from. Congas, doumbeks, djembes, ashikos, tablas, and timbales are but a few of the drum types readily available. In selecting a suitable drum, play several and listen for the drum that calls to you. You will know it by its voice. It will strike a deep chord within you.
 

4. Experience: During shamanic drumming, practitioners often report experiencing visions, connecting with spirit guides or power animals, and gaining insight or guidance. Ecstatic trance is not always what many people anticipate it to be, and sometimes there may be doubt that anything at all takes place. There are, however, some key indicators that confirm a transcendent state of consciousness. Once you enter a trance state, the rhythm or sound of the drum tends to change. The drumbeat may appear to speed up or slow down while the sound may grow louder, softer or disappear. You may experience a change in body temperature, feel energy flowing through your body, or find yourself twitching, swaying or rocking. It is not uncommon to hear sounds or voices. You may even smell specific aromas. You may see colorful patterns, symbolic images or dreamlike visions. Some people may find that they have a highly developed inner vision, whereas others may rely more on an inner voice of insight or an inner feeling of certainty. Be prepared to experience ecstatic trance with any of your senses. The key is to observe whatever happens without trying to analyze the experience.
 

5. Cultural Significance: Shamanic drums have a rich historical and cultural significance, evidenced by their use in archaeological sites worldwide. The rituals of the earliest known religions evolved around the beat of the frame drum, which originated in Siberia, together with shamanism itself thousands of years ago. Shamanic drumming is an integral part of many Indigenous cultures around the world, including those of Siberian, Mongolian and European peoples. The history of shamanic drumming in Europe is rich and varied, spanning back thousands of years. Various European cultures, such as the Celtic, Viking, Germanic, and Sami people practiced shamanism, which involved connecting with the spiritual realms through drumming, chanting, and other rituals. Shamans in diverse cultures around the world used drums as a tool for trance induction and journeying to commune with spirits, seek guidance, and perform healing ceremonies to accompany life and death.
 

6. Modern Use: Today, shamanic drumming is also used in various contemporary spiritual and therapeutic practices to promote relaxation, self-discovery, and personal growth. Practitioners have found innovative ways to incorporate shamanic drumming into various healing modalities, while still honoring the traditional techniques. One notable adaptation is the use of shamanic drumming in sound therapy. This application harnesses the sound vibrations of the drum to induce deep relaxation and promote healing on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. Another modern interpretation involves integrating shamanic drumming into mindfulness practices. Here, the drum serves as a tool for grounding, focusing attention, and achieving a meditative state of nonjudgmental awareness of what's happening in the present moment. Mindfulness has gained widespread popularity as a means to reduce stress, increase self-awareness, and enhance mental well-being. Shamanic drumming continues to offer today what it has offered for thousands of years: namely, a simple and effective technique for affecting states of mind.

Peyote, Time and the I Ching

Terence McKenna was an American ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated for the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including plant based entheogens, shamanism, divination, metaphysics, alchemy, philosophy, culture, technology, environmentalism and the I Ching. He was called the "Timothy Leary of the 1990s" and "one of the leading authorities on the ontological foundations of shamanism."
 

I discovered the 1994 edition of Terence and Dennis McKenna's 1975 book The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching while researching my book, I Ching: The Tao of Drumming. McKenna's book explores shamanism, altered states of consciousness and the organic unity of the King Wen sequence of the I Ching. I was fascinated by Terence McKenna's theory that the King Wen sequence of the 64 hexagrams represents a wave model of time. Much of what he learned about the theory is alleged to have come to him during shamanic visionary states while he was living in the Amazon jungle. Many reputable scientists and physicists have embraced it. It has broken the barriers between esoteric philosophy and pragmatism. I spent days trying to decipher the complexities of the time wave theory in order to write about it in my own book.
 

Prior to writing about the time wave theory, I ingested peyote for the first time. Known for its psychoactive properties when ingested, peyote has a long history of divination and medicinal use. The peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii) has been used in its native Mexico for healing, divination and magic since pre-Hispanic times. During the late nineteenth century, peyote was adopted by Native American tribes of the southern plains as a medicine and sacrament. Within the Native American Church, the "divine cactus" is used for healing and to facilitate communication with the spirits.
 

The peyote buttons I ingested were gifted to me by a fellow member of the Native American Church, which fuses Christian doctrine with peyote-eating tribal ritual. Though illegal to sell, possess or ingest, U.S. law exempts members of the Native American Church, who revere peyote as a sacred medicine. The use of peyote is said to produce a mental state that allows celebrants to feel closer to their ancestors and their Creator. Peyote contains the hallucinogen mescaline. The effects last about 10 to 12 hours.
 

Insights into the King Wen Sequence
 

On the Winter Solstice, December 22, 1995, I ingested 12 dried peyote buttons, seeking guidance and insight into the time wave theory. Within thirty minutes of ingestion, I experienced some physical discomfort, including nausea and chills. These unpleasant effects subsided within an hour and transitioned into feelings of peace and euphoria. After about two hours around dusk, I began to see colorful visions. Everything in the darkened room was glowing faintly. It was so subtle that it was almost imperceptible. I saw whirly, spirally geometric patterns called form constants. Mescaline and other psychedelics boost the random discharge of neurons in the visual cortex. This neural excitation is thought to induce form constants, the dynamic patterns I saw when I closed my eyes. These shapes may appear on their own or with eyes shut in the form of phosphenes.
 

Three hours into my peyote journey, I closed my eyes and saw the King Wen sequence of the 64 hexagrams. The entire sequence was illustrated in bright iridescent colors. I had an "aha" moment giving me insight into the underlying basis for the sequence. The King Wen order is the most ancient way of arranging the hexagrams and all of the standard editions use it. This sequence consists of 32 binary pairs in which each hexagram is the polar opposite of its mate. In other words, each odd-numbered hexagram is followed by its opposite or its inverse. The rationale for this arrangement has long been a mystery. Scholars thus far have been unable to crack the code which generates this sequence.
 

The answer may lie in the cycled order of development that the 64 hexagrams represent. The I Ching hexagrams represent the sequence of development for everything that evolves from the void into a three-dimensional reality. The I Ching functions much like a computer. It's a binary mathematical program of all events, processes and developments of nature as well as a program of the fate of every living thing.
 

Systems of binary progression underlie the structure of reality. Binary systems develop from two numbers or polar elements. The DNA code, for example, represents a binary progression of two to the sixth power, yielding the 64 codons or six-part structures that constitute the genetic code. The bilateral symmetry of the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule consists of a double helix with plus and minus strands which contain the genetic script. Each strand is the inverse of the opposite in terms of polarity and direction of rotation, and each strand is capable of replicating the other. Both strands interconnect at regular intervals, forming binary pairs of molecular building blocks.
 

The King Wen sequence easily serves to model the structure of DNA and its transformations. The 64 hexagrams, each with its six variants (lines), illustrate a pattern of development that mirrors DNA. Each odd numbered hexagram and its subsequent opposite or inverse represent binary pairs. Each stage of change or development is the result of interaction between conjugate pairs. A given situation would remain forever unchanging were it not for this dynamic interplay that spurs the static hexagram into motion.
 

More than the symbolic counterpart of DNA, the King Wen sequence is a wave model of time. Some 3000 years ago, the Chinese sages and philosophers looked into the physics of time and discovered that time is actually composed of a repeating pattern of fractals. The 64 hexagrams are the basic fractal patterns in the cyclic structure of time. Hence, the King Wen sequence is a symbolic blueprint of the unfolding continuum of time in which events and situations recur on many different scales of duration. Each hexagram represents a unique yet integral wave cycle within the continuum. As each pattern repeats, it carries the same conditions of previous cycles--fractal patterns that can be known, measured and predicted.
 

The temporal cycle of time is seen as a vibratory ebb and flow of two opposite kinds of energy. Each cycle within the continuum is the inverse of the one preceding it. This alternating polarity is the moving force of the continuum of time. This energy continuum is regulated and maintained by neural DNA. According to Terence McKenna, "It is this flow of energy that is experienced by organisms as the phenomenon of time itself. Organisms evolved in and became patterned in response to this flow."(1) The flow of time (and consciousness itself) arises from physical neural processes and hence is affected by them. We are not separate from time. Rather time is an integral part of our perceptual experience. It is the vehicle of change, and change ultimately begins within each of us. To change the world, we must first change ourselves.

 

1. Dennis McKenna and Terence McKenna, The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens and the I Ching. (HarperCollins Publishers, 1994), p. 151.