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What Is Shamanism?

By Lissa
Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

Im writing this blog from Pisac, Peru, where Im meeting with shamans as research for an upcoming
book Sacred Medicine, an exploration of anomalous healing. My spiritual love affair with shamanism
began on my wedding day at Post Ranch Inn in 2005. I was browsing through the posh resorts list of
activities. I read through ityoga, group meditation . . . shamanic journey. Now that sounded
interesting! With no idea what a shamanic journey actually was, I thought it would make for a good
story. A shamanic journey on my wedding day? Why not?
Now mind you, I had no idea what a shaman actually was. And this was long before I had left my job in
conventional medicine. I was not the woo woo New Age type at all, and I tended to be cynical and
even mocking of things that didnt fit neatly into my rational little box. But it was my wedding day, and I
was happy, and I was feeling a little . . . I dont know . . . unusually willing to explore outside of my
comfort zone.
I showed up in the yurt in the middle of a meadow, expecting to encounter a long-bearded Inca
decked out in tribal robes, maybe smoking a peace pipe. I didnt expect what I founda handsome
Kiefer Sutherland look alike sitting cross-legged in blue jeans. Ten of us crowded into the yurt and
formed a circle, while the shaman, who I later learned was named Jon Rasmussen began chanting to
the four winds, invoking the spirits of nature and honoring Pachamama (Mother Earth). Inhaling a floral
essence from a bottle, he exhaled misty puffs of fragrance to the north, east, south, and west, calling
in the ancestors and the totem animals, before asking us to lie on our backs on padded mats. We
listened and closed our eyes, while he beat a drum like a collective heartbeat. His voice intoned over
the drumbeat, lulling us into a sort of tribal trance.
The Shamanic Journey
Begin by drawing your attention to your sixth chakra, your third eye, right between your eyebrows,
deep inside, where your intuition lies. Now focus on your fourth chakra, the heart chakra, where youll
find your compassion and love. Now allow yourself to flow through your bloodstream, down to the tips
of your fingers and toes, then down into your mat, through the pebbles and grass and rocky Big Sur
terrain, all the way down to the earths core. Here, in the molten earth, we will walk through four
chambers. Now we are here, at the first chamber, where you will meet yourself at a time in your life
when you were your most joyful.
In my minds eye, I saw the Squirrel Girl, the healer, long before medical school and residency did
their number on me. Jon instructed me to take hold of this Lissas hand.
Now, holding hands with your joyful self, walk with me into the second chamber. Recall a time in your
past when you were broken. How has that brokenness changed you? Have you created patterns in
your current life as a result of this time of brokenness? What contracts have you made with yourself
that no longer serve you?
I thought about the night I had to deliver four dead babies, when I was shamed for grieving over the
loss. I thought of the professors who had sexually harassed me, who had degraded me for being
female. I heard all the voices telling me I wasnt good enough, voices that stabbed like daggers, raised
voices that said, I didnt even go to my own fathers funeral, and Buck up, Rankin. Youll never
amount to anything in this business unless you can stop feeling so damn much. Next thing I knew, I
was weeping.
Now Id like to invite you to release those contracts that no longer serve you. Let them go to the four
winds. Release them. You dont need them anymore.
I imagined knives and sandpaper and razorblades, flying out of my body into the four winds.
Now were entering the third chamber. Here, Id like you to envision the passion in your life that helps
you return to the joyful state of your past self.
Visions of my painting flooded me. Amorphous egg shapes, interlaced with swirling lines of color and
geometry and spontaneity, in cobalt yellow and cadmium red and Paynes grey. A feeling of gratitude
rushed over me. How lucky that I had been given this gift of my art.
Now I want you to allow yourself to be filled with this passion that returns you to your joyful being. Let it
flow into you. Take it in, and hold it there, while we approach the fourth chamber. Here, you will
receive a gift. Imagine an object, the first one that comes to mind. This will be your gift.
I saw a stethoscope with a pink paintbrush embellishing the stethoscopes diaphragm.
Now Id like you to reflect on this gift. Why was it given to you? What does it mean? How might this gift
help you resolve the conflict in your life that separates you from your joyful self? How might it return
you to your purest state of being?
When the shaman asked us to consider the meaning of the gift we had given ourselves, I thought of
the stethoscope with the pink paintbrush on it. What was that supposed to mean? Was I supposed to
paint my patients? Was I supposed to teach my patients to paint? Was I supposed to practice
medicine on artists?
It took me years to realize what the gift meant, but Jon had warned us not to worry about it, that the
meaning of our gift would make itself known to us when we were ready.
Now Id like you to rise up, from deep within the earths core, up through the layers of rock and soil,
through the grass and the California poppies and the lupine, through the floor and up into your mat
and back into your body. From your fingertips and toes, into your bloodstream, back to your heart
chakra. Rest here for a moment. Feel the peace.
The drumbeat slowed, and the shaman, once again, blew the misty fragrance to the four winds.
Now draw your attention to your third eye, right between your eyebrows. Live there for a moment. Now
take with you your gift, and when youre ready, open your eyes.
Our shamanic journey was complete.
When I opened my eyes, they were bloodshot and puffy from tears. I felt like someone had just flipped
me upside down, changed the axis of my earth, and unwound me. What had just happened?
Shamanism + Western Medicine = The Potential For
Miracles
That all happened in 2005, and shaman Jon Rasmussen and I have been friends and colleagues for
almost ten years now. (He still does private sessions via phone and Skype, and he also takes people
on trips to Peru.) I HIGHLY recommend working with Jon if youre curious what its like to do a session
with a shaman. Learn more about Jons work here.
Im now in Peru, being guided in this first phase of my Sacred Medicine journey with Jons help,
meeting the people he senses Im supposed to meet. Jon spent years training with indigenous
shamans here, and last night I interviewed two young indigenous shamansVilma and Wilsonwho
come from lineages of shamans on both sides of their families. What I learned from them is worthy of
a whole other blog post!
What I found most intriguing about the shamanic approach to health and well-being is that they
practice EXACTLY the kind of whole health I wrote about in Mind Over Medicine. When they assess
a patient, theyre not just looking at the physical signs and symptoms, theyre both asking about and
intuiting the state of the patients spiritual connection, their relationships, their work life, their financial
situation, and how they fit into the community. Theyre assessing for signs of soul sickness as a
predisposing factor to physical illness and mental illness, and their treatments take all of these factors
into account. By their own description, Vilma and Wilson are at once the villages doctors, priests,
psychologists, life coaches, and spiritual advisors. These are the roles physicians have traditionally
played in the past, and its only lately that modern medicine has decided that illness lies only in the
domain of the biochemical and material.
Vilma and Wilson told me they were willing to share their knowledge with me because now is the time.
I told them we need the wisdom of ancient cultures now more than ever. They said, And we need
you.The marriage of ancient wisdom with modern technology is where true healing lies, and when
were willing to combine the tools I learned in medical school with the tools Vilma and Wilson learned
from their ancestors, we have a recipe for miracles that can benefit us all. . . .
The Prophecy Of The Condor & The Eagle
One Peruvian named Alberto told me the ancient Amazon prophecy of the Condor and the Eagle. The
path of the Condor (represented, he said, by South American indigenous cultures, such as the Qeros
of Peru) is the path of heart, of intuition, and of the feminine. The path of the Eagle (represented by
the Northern Hemisphere, and particularly cultures such as the US) is the path of the mind, of
technology, and of the masculine.
The prophecy says that the 1500s would begin a 500 year period during which Eagle people would
rise to power and dominate Condor people, driving the Condor people to virtual extinction. After that
500 year period of destruction of heart, intuition, and the feminine, a new 500 year period would begin,
when the Eagle and the Condor would come together and fly in the same sky, birthing a new
consciousness for humanity and Pachamama (Mother Earth).
Now is the time for the Condors and Eagles to join hands and uplift the ancient and the modern, the
feminine and the masculine, in perfect harmony. Are you on board to help make this happen?

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