Categories
Diana's Spirit Care Blog Articles

Meditation, Guided Meditation, The Shamanic Journey #1

 

 

 

 

Meditation, Guided Meditation and the Shamanic Journey

By Bob

I’ll write many articles about meditation, guided meditation and the shamanic journey, but this first one is to provide you with a quick overview.

Few people can agree on what constitutes a state of mind different from either the waking or sleeping states. Generally though, I’ll use the term “altered state of consciousness (ASC),” which indicates a state of awareness different from the normal waking state. (More on Wikipedia) And that’s where meditation and the shamanic journey can both be loosely classified. Anthropologist Michael Harner further delineates a “shamanic state of consciousness” in his classic book, Way of the Shaman.

Both practices can be quite beneficial to one’s well being. Research on positive gains resulting from meditation are widespread, while results from more and more studies are currently being reported on the benefits of shamanic-like practices, including drumming. These include the powerful production of helpful endorphins and other naturally-produced body chemicals that boost the immune system.

Generally, meditation induces relaxation, peace of mind and a sense of well being, and is undertaken as a service to one’s self, where healing, understanding and wisdom can grow. This, of course, will eventually influence those around you in positive ways, so your practice is a service to others, in one way of considering it.

The shamanic meditation / journey is undertaken to broaden one’s awareness beyond ordinary reality in order to actively be of service to one’s self or to someone else through healing procedures or ceremonies, and to discover knowledge or to otherwise connect with archetypal beings or energies which shamans have identified for thousands of years. Often, in seeking healing for someone, a shaman will encounter spiritual beings who agree to return with the shaman in order to be of service to the shaman’s patient. In other instances, the shaman may seek to recover a patient’s soul part that splintered away during a traumatic experience in the person’s past. This is called “soul retrieval.” And in still other cases, the shaman may, while in the altered state of consciousness, attempt to remove through a ceremony known as “extraction” an illness, disease or other energy matrix which may be harming the patient.

These practices, while potentially seeming odd to some people in modern America and other Western cultures, have successfully served humankind since the beginning of its collective consciousness. And now, thanks to Harner and others in indigenous and traditional cultures who are willing to share their knowledge, these practices are making a comeback.

Though I don’t see meditation or shamanism as complete alternatives to modern medicine, they are certainly effective aids in any healing process, and can be seen as complimentary approaches in a rather recent trend in medicine to incorporate treatment for the “whole person,” mind, body and spirit. This “integrative medicine” approach is certainly well overdue, and is bringing civilization full circle to the roots of healing.

 

Categories
Diana's Spirit Care Blog Articles

Stepping Above Guided Meditation: 5 Steps to a Daily Spiritual Practice

Okay, guided meditation is a cool thing, no doubt. It’s used for all kinds of reasons, with good results.

But what about the spiritual aspect of our lives? What about getting familiar with who we really are, without needing a CD or technology to try to do that? What about…just you, and Life…becoming one, moving together smoothly the way a dolphin is one with the sea or a rainbow trout is one with the river? Becoming one with Life and all things is the most ancient spiritual wisdom; shamans from the dawn of history have known and taught the greatest of all truths that everything is interconnected.

Once you learn how to relax and let go, once you learn that imagination is NOT “imaginary,” it may be time to just be with yourself and the silence. Why? Because when it gets right down to it, guided meditation is a beginning for some, but then what? To mature spiritually we will have to sometime surrender the training wheels.

Most people want to be spiritually connected. Those on the spiritual path want to ascend, for crying out loud! We tell ourselves we “should” meditate, we “should” pray, we “should” and “should”…and (sigh) let’s change the subject! So, how’s work coming along?

Yep, for many people on the spiritual path that’s about the size of it. We don’t have a spiritual practice once a week, let alone once a day. I bet some of you felt a twinge of guilt when you read the title to this article. (Some of your friends may have skipped it altogether.) See! I can read your mind!

Actually, if you don’t have a dedicated spiritual practice you would be in the majority and so my guess is merely “playing the odds.” Most people just don’t make the time to connect spiritually. Many people don’t even think about it, or even dare to hope it’s possible. Others don’t find it at all important and even more people leave this up to churches and clergy to “do it” for them!

But all of the above probably isn’t you, either. This is a spiritual site and you’re here for a reason, so for those who are open to the path to enlightenment but can’t get in the groove, maybe it’s time to make it happen for yourself.

In order to get motivated, it helps to understand how an intimate, living spiritual practice can make a difference in your life, and what that entails, exactly.

A personal, dedicated spiritual practice will lead to a sense of connection to the Divine, and to an inner strength that comes from knowing your life has a unique purpose. You will develop your own psychic awareness. You will gain clarity, wisdom, knowledge, foresight…and if you are truly successful, you will become a more loving being.

Here are a few short suggestions on how to get started:

Want to make the connection: you have to want to know what you are all about, under your skin. People with a Christian background will recall that Jesus taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is within. To advance spiritually, we must first know ourselves.

How you decide to have a spiritual connection is completely individual. There are no rules, only guidelines. Find a personal system, or a composite of modalities, that work best for you. So here are 5 steps to get you past “I should” to “I do!”

  • Remember, you have to want to improve your life and be willing to explore for greater truth.
  • Turn off the phone, and eliminate external distractions. Put a “do not disturb” sign on your door if others in the house are used to summoning you at their fancy. Let others know this is YOUR private time.
  • Set aside 15 uninterrupted minutes, the same time each day. Why the same time? …A little discipline is needed to develop good habits, and setting the same time establishes a basis for sacred ritual, which enriches the experience over time. (If you should miss your appointment with the Divine, don’t skip that day. Find the 15 minutes somewhere else in your day before you go to bed and give that spiritual time your full, surrendered attention.)
  • Prepare to share. A relationship with the Divine, whether the Creator of All-That-Is or your own Higher Self, is a two-way street that involves expression of your feelings or intention and the reception of insight or guidance.
  • Listen. Don’t run out on yourself…allow time to just listen in quiet for the guidance from within.

Try not to think of this as work…it’s not. It’s joyful self-development! It’s an awesome experience to be on the right track, gaining solid inner guidance. Higher insight, or personal psychic connectedness, is worth more than anything in this world that money can buy.

Don’t be surprised if you realize, during your spiritual connections, that you are not alone in this world. Opening your heart in this way is to go through that “straight and narrow” Gate to Infinite Consciousness, which is your true and perfect Home. Heaven, you will find, is in your own heart and is with you all the time, right where you are, right now. 🙂