Journeys Into The Spirit World
Contemporary shamanism borrows from earliest times for ventures into supernatural

By Gordon Legge - Herald Religious Editor
Published in Calgary Herald
Dec. 12, 1992

During a 24-hour solitary vision quest in the mountain wilderness, Laureen Rama encountered the spirit of a person close to her.

"I went through this whole process of communicating with her. . . This person was like my heart anchor," recalls Rama, who requested the woman's identity remain anonymous.

During the vision Rama learned that the woman was dying. "The spirit of this person asked me to clean up the loose ends in her life so she could die in peace."

Rama, who is a Calgary organizational consultant, proceeded to honor the woman's life in a manner utilized by shamans down through the ages.

She paid tribute by performing rituals and singing songs about significant events in the woman's life. "I was so joyful. I experienced all the highlights of her life."

In everyday terms, Rama's experience earlier this year is unusual. But for a growing number of Westerners, it is becoming commonplace.

Rama is among several hundred Calgarians - counsellors, educators, doctors, lawyers, business people - and several thousand North Americans with a growing interest in contemporary shamanism, a modern day assemblage of spiritual practices that date back to earliest times and which assist people in journeying into what has been traditionally considered another realm of reality, the supernatural.

And Rama's venture into the spirit realm resembles that of many practitioners across the continent.

Her interest started in undergraduate years but her current involvement began a year and a half ago when she joined a group of business people and educational consultants at a conference on spirituality in the workplace. Attending a workshop on power animals or spirit helpers, Rama came away both amazed and intrigued by what she experienced.

"It was the most empowering work I've ever experienced with people. I knew it worked."

Since then Rama has participated in workshops in Calgary and elsewhere. And now she instructs others in the practical art of shamanism, including a workshop on grief and dying.

Among her instructors is Michael Harner, an anthropologist who is considered the originator of the neoshamanic movement. He studied traditional shamanism in the Upper Amazon in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Traditional shamanism is common to tribal cultures around the world. It is not a religion but rather a collection of spiritual practices that generally, from culture to culture, have common characteristics. It predates organized religion but is still practiced by groups as diverse as native Americans and Nepalese tribesman.

Traditional shamans have direct contact with the spirit world. They voluntarily enter into a trance-like state and go into alternate or non-ordinary reality either to heal or to find an answer to a question posed in their community. For instance, an Inuit shaman, at a time of famine, might have journeyed into the spirit world to locate a herd of seals for the community's hunters.

Harner returned from the Amazon and developed his own personal practice of shamanism and shamanic healing in the United States. He distilled the essence of shamanic practices around the world to develop a form that ordinary individuals would find relatively easy to learn.

In his classic book, The Way of the Shaman, Harner writes that his pioneering work occurred at a time when the children of the Age of Science were seeking to draw their own conclusions, based on personal experiences, about the nature and limits of reality.

"Shamanism provides a way to conduct these personal experiments, for it is a methodology, not a religion," he writes. (Finishing a new book, Harner declined to be interviewed. Staff at his Connecticut-based Foundation for Shamanic Studies referred the caller to his book and published interviews for information.)

Experiments with LSD, fascination with the fictionalized accounts of Carlos Castaneda, and intrigue with stories about near-death experiences have all fuelled a new enthusiasm for journeys into the spirit world. Interest in holistic health approaches, including the use of mind to help healing, has spawned further interest.

Finally, Harner says, interest in "spiritual ecology" or reverence for the planet and everything on it has furthered the neo-shamanic movement.

"In this time of worldwide environmental crisis, shamanism provides something largely lacking in the anthropocentric "great" religions; reverence for and spiritual communication with the other beings of the Earth and with the planet itself."

Contemporary shamans use a variety of simple techniques to transcend the normal boundaries of space and time. "Shamanic methods require a relaxed discipline with concentration and purpose," says Harner.

"Contemporary shamanism, like that in most tribal cultures, utilizes monotonous percussion sound (such as drumming) to enter an altered state of consciousness."

Contemporary shamans are not "playing Indian" or stealing native religion, he says. Rather they are simply tapping into the same revelatory spiritual sources that tribal shamans have tapped into since time immemorial.

"The shamanic work is the same, the human mind, heart, and body are the same; only the cultures are different."

Maintaining that with proper instruction, shamanism is safe, most initiates come away awed by what they experience.

People like Nova Scotia psychotherapist Armand Huet Degrenier, who has done a couple of Calgary workshops, went to his first drumming session skeptical and cautious.

Afterwards, he said, "I was probably the most surprised I have ever been in my life."It transformed his whole approach to living. He now uses shamanism in counselling, for healing and in personal decision-making.

"I really believe the universe is benign," says Rama, in the wake of her experiences. "The spirit world wants to help us. You only receive the help you are ready for. You only get what you can handle."

But others urge some caution. University of Manitoba anthropologist, Joan Townsend, who has studied with Harner as well as in tribal cultures, says people need to be aware that there are very powerful, negative spirits out there.

"You must go in with good intent and use good spirits for your helpers. Don't leave yourself open to contact with bad spirits. Real shamans know this."   *

Many contemporary practitioners do their work in secret fearing persecution from zealous Christians who believe shamanism is the work of the devil.

Shamanism is confused with Satanism, says Leslie Conton, an anthropologist from the state of Washington who has trained a couple of hundred Calgarians in recent years, including more than 40 people at a Calgary workshop last weekend.

Contemporary shamanism is simply getting in touch with civilization's prehistoric spiritual roots, be it Gaelic or Celtic or whatever, and working with the spirits of nature, not the demonic, she says.

Preferring not to draw attention to Calgarians involved with shamanism, she says, "they're doing a lot of good healing work."

Likewise, University of Calgary religious studies professor Irving Hexham says that to some conservative Christians, who don't know much about it, shamanism sounds bad.

But in fact, some shamanic experiences such as dreams and visions are common to all religious traditions.

"There are certain religious experiences out there in the world that are universal," he says. "Many things associated with the charismatic movement (a movement within Christianity) are shamanic in origin."

Contemporary shamans may be dealing with a spiritual reality that is common to all mankind, he says.

"They may be dealing with spirits; they may be dealing with God."

* Note from Laureen Rama: I agree with Joan that one needs to be cautious when venturing into non-ordinary reality - this is where good training can teach one how to journey safely.   back

Laureen Rama is available to lead retreats and workshops for private groups. She also teaches advanced shamanic healing techniques and offers shamanic healings in person or by distance.

Laureen can be reached at info@soulrestore.com or 1-403-851-1198.