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This is an ongoing US and global project to help enthusiasts, scholars, practitioners, and curious parties learn more about shamanic living in a contemporary culture. The space here is devoted to sharing info, experiences and opinions about all forms of shamanic expression covering shamanism's multiple permutations. Among subjects explored are traditions, techniques, insights, definitions, events, artists, authors, and creativity. You are invited to draw from your own experiences and contribute.

What is a SHAMAN?

MAYAN: "a technichian of the Holy, a lover of the Sacred." CELTIC: "Empower the people...by changing the way we think." MEXICAN APACHE: "Someone who has simply learned to give freely of themselves..." AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL: "...a teacher or healer, a wisdom keeper of knowledge... (who) takes people to a door and encourages them to enter." W. AFRICAN DIAGRA: "views every event in life within a spiritual context." HAWAIIAN: "...human bridges to the spiritual world and its laws and the material world and its trials..." QUECHUA INDIAN: "embodies all experience." AMAZON: "...willing to engage the forces of the Universe...in a beneficial end for self, people, and for life in general."


-- from Travelers, Magicians and Shamans (Danny Paradise)

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Shapeshifting day by day hour by hour

I heard an interesting study the other day. We are all aware that our faces respond to our body’s emotional state. The muscles in out faces reflect our inner feelings without any conscious or deliberate effort by us.

A group of researchers spent years studying the muscles of the face and mapping the universal human emotional expressions. They then taught themselves to isolate individual mussels and then to then work them in combination with each other to produce these expressions. What they found was that after making an expression of say anger or disgust, they each experienced that same emotional response within their own bodies. The expression works both ways! It can reflect what is happening on the inside AND it can flow backwards, and produce the emotion within.

What this boils down to is that we all have the means to shapeshift our emotional state. It requires that we are aware and some practice :-)

2 comments:

ancientwindrunner said...

I recently attended a workshop by Rosalyn Bruyere, who is a world-renowned energy healer and is involved in ongoing energy/medicine research with major medical instituaitons and healing instituations throughout the country. She demonstrated this from the inside out, transforming her outward appearance via manipulating her internal feelings.
It was remarkable to witness this.
And as she made her point during her "shapeshift" from 40 to 60 years old...I got it.
We all have the ability (and do this) constantly...but on what level of conciousness??? How aware are we, and therefore, how connected and controled are we with our own internal/external energy??
As a shaman, I most certainly want to expand, improve, and rely on such a skill.

Allowing the light said...

That's so true. That's the main gift both shamanism and mindfulness meditation have given to me. Not being 'in control' but being increasingly aware, mindful, present as much as I can in every moment of my day of what's going on inside and outside of me. One of the consequences has been that I am even more aware than before when I don't feel 'well', when I feel unbalanced, not centered, not connected, and my tolerance to that state of mind/spirit/body seems to be considerably reduced. So... this is not always comfortable and it may sometimes even feel like I am going backward. Really not a pleasant feeling but it pushes me to work through that and remember to re-connect again and again, start again right here and be present, now, to whatever enfolds. I don't know if this would be technically called 'shapeshifting' but it is both an inner and outer transformation, I know it, I can feel it, sometimes even see it and others too apparently.