ABSTRACT: Having grown up in the country, "roaming
the glades and forests like any primitive," the author found it easy to
accept the shamanic reality that humanity is but a small part of Nature.
Experience with altered states of consciousness (ASCs)—through the counterculture
and primal therapy—led to shamanic vision questing and opened direct access
of the spirit world. Shamanism is a democratic religion in which each person
has a direct relationship to the Great Mystery. In an ASC, a shaman connects
to the Great Mystery, gains Vision, retrieves information, gets help for
oneself or others with a problem, heals, prophesies, and so forth. By entering
the shamanic worldview, one sees that everything is holy and pregnant with
meaning, which creates inverse paranoids—people who think the universe
is out to do them good. There are four major parallels between shamanism
and primal therapy: the ASC, direct access, attempted dogmatic takeovers,
deep feelings, and clarity for right action. The major differences between
them are that in shamanism one enters the ASC more intentionally, for a
specific purpose, and is also more likely to connect with transpersonal
or ecopsychological feelings whereas there is a greater likelihood of connecting
with family-of-origin or psychological feelings in primal therapy. Shamanic
experience brings with it the possibility of experiencing a worldview with
reverence for the Earth, a sense of place and purpose, and a sense of beauty
and connectedness with the natural world, our true home.
Shamanic advising is an ancient and powerful form of information
retrieval and inner consultation that can be adapted by anyone for use
in the context of the modern world . . . . A set of techniques developed
over ages, it allows individuals to learn consciously to bridge the apparent
chasm between the physical world and the realms of imagination and spirit.
—Stevens & Stevens (1988, pp. 7-8)
Nature "Appareled in Celestial Light"
In this essay I will speak of my personal journey into shamanism, tell
you something of what it is, and point to significant areas I think shamanism
shares with primal therapy.
Having grown up not in the city but in the country, roaming the glades
and forests like any primitive, I resonate to the opening words of Wordsworth's
"Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood"
(1806):
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
That is the way it was for me as a child; the natural world was "appareled
in celestial light" and vividly in the foreground. The man-made world was
but a shadowy backdrop. Further, I was continually reminded of how impermanent
were humanity's excrescences upon the earth: As a barefoot boy I might
bruise my heel on a Powhatan's arrowhead or stumble upon the button from
a Confederate officer's coat. Of all their works and days, nothing beside
remained. Even a boy's "fort" built in the woods last fall was this spring
a poison-ivy-filled mass of rotting, mildewed boards garrisoned by a redolent
family of skunks. Nature triumphs quickly in the South.
It was therefore easy for me, later in life, to accept the shamanic
reality that humanity is but a small part of Nature and that poison ivy
and skunks are at least as important in the web of life as a president.
Accessing the Spirit World
Like so many of my contemporaries who came of age in the Sixties, I
found that my spiritual needs were not fully met either by the religion
I grew up in nor by my tendency to project them onto ethereal young people
of the opposite sex. I have written about the former experience in the
pages of this journal's predecessor, Aesthema (1991). You can find
an excellent psychosociological analysis of the latter in Robert Johnson's
(1983) book, We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love.
Suffice it to say that neither Episcopalianism nor gripping sexual passion
fed my spiritual appetite sufficiently.
I was drawn to the counterculture for many reasons, not least of
which was the promise of expanded consciousness and seeing different realities
in the ways Huxley and Leary and Ram Dass were talking and writing about.
I saw different realities (and probably lost some short-term memory banks),
opened the doors of perception, and had several vivid spiritual experiences
in altered states of consciousness (ASCs). However, I was interested in
finding a gentler, more holistic means of accessing the spirit world than
that provided by hallucinogens.
I was fortunate in having had experience in doing so through the
creative arts, particularly poetic expression. When I write with the imagination
singing, I frequently find myself in a mild ASC. Since I have written every
day for over thirty years, this neural groove flows well for me. So I knew
that ASCs were attainable without drugs.
Primal therapy likewise took me into ASCs in which I had profound
spiritual experiences, but primal access was unpredictable. As most of
my readers will know, one does not enter a primal like a tourist boarding
a plane with a specific destination in mind. Because primal therapy was
an uncertain route into the spirit world, I wanted to find a natural
way into ASCs that offered both primal depth and the easy regularity that
I found through creative writing.
Shamanism
About this time I met the man who would open and demystify shamanism
for me. How that occurred will show something of the shamanic worldview—part
of which is that there are no accidents but that everything happens intentionally
for a larger purpose. But first let me tell you what my pre-experiential
view of shamanism was.
Like many modern Americans, I thought shamanism was a cultish combination
of voodoo doll-prickers and peyote-puking Apaches cavorting around a fire.
It seemed to me the worst kind of superstition and black magic, not worthy
of study by any scientifically trained psychologist. I am afraid that I
had swallowed the standard Christian prejudice, for it was Christianity
that stamped out shamanism in Europe long before it massacred it
in the Americas. Far from being a Native American exclusive, shamanism
was the dominant world religion on every continent for at least forty-thousand
years. Furthermore, it was a naturally occurring people's religion, not
imposed by threat of death or torture (as were Christianity and Islam).
Newer religions feared its power; to this day the Lutheran church forbids
the Lapps the use of the shaman's drum.
Later, I discovered that shamanism is a democratic religion in which
each person has a direct relationship to the Great Mystery, with
no need for a priest or guru to mediate the experience, no need for dogma,
and no need for any one human being to be "superior" to mere mortals. Of
course this spiritual perspective would be terribly threatening to a religion
of dogma and priesthood which wished to exert authority and control over
people. Dostoevsky has the Grand Inquisitor point out this truth to the
returning Christ in a central chapter of The Brothers Karamazov:
If a couple guys with a drum can see God, they sure ain't likely to buy
indulgences from Rome.
How the Great Mystery Led Me to the Shaman
Having experienced the power of being alone with my inner work during
my primal intensive, I began spending a week alone every summer backpacking
in the High Sierra. In order to be alone, I had to forge off the trails
into unpeopled wilderness. The sense of connection with Mother Earth and
the letting go of fear that I experienced during these quests was so profoundly
moving to me that I decided to lead selected clients on a similar kind
of wilderness journey, for it was clear to me that therapy limited by four
walls is severely truncated. This workshop, which I have been leading for
twenty years now, I called Contacting Mother Earth (CME).
I was exploring a new route for my CME workshop when I came into
a lovely lake basin and ran into a shaman who was there leading a vision
quest. We fell to talking and discovered many commonalities, including
our separate creations of a wilderness workshop experience for our therapy
clients. I went on Tomas's Vision Quest the next year and learned much
from him of the Native American techniques for questing. More, I learned
from his model, for he is a man who lives from the shamanic perspective.
I still sing many of his songs, some of which he learned from other shamans
handed down from time immemorial.
Tomas opened for me direct access of the spirit world. His principal
tools were sage, the drum, and song. The drum has been used for millennia
to access ASCs and thereby to open people to Vision. Michael Harner (1980)
points out that the 205 to 220 beat-per-minute rhythm of the drum triggers
brain-wave changes that can lead the hearers into ASCs.
Tomas and I also had a special experience with a bear on that first
quest together that bonded us in that animal's essence. Since that time,
Tomas and I call each other "Bear Brother." "Coincidentally," it came to
at least one other questor, years later and independently, to call me the
same name after she had witnessed me "talk" a bear out of a tree in which
hung our food.
In shamanic reality these things are not coincidences but manifestations
of the workings of the Great Mystery. What are the chances that I would
meet a shaman from the Bronx at an isolated lake high in the Sierra? That
another questor would "know" my spiritual name? That my wife and I would
hand each other the same poem written by a Thirteenth-century Sufi mystic
on our first date? A shaman sees such connections as divinely inspired
parts of the web of meaning that fills the universe with bonding strands
of light. Once we know our path for this Earthwalk, we will receive help
from all manner of beings; we need only be open to the meetings and the
help. Within shamanic reality I am never alienated or alone or friendless.
I went out into the wilderness to be alone, and I discovered that I was
at home with many friends. Shamanism creates inverse paranoids—people who
think the universe is out to do them good.
And so whereas a flat tire used to mean supreme frustration to me,
now I can accept it as part of the Great Mystery and wonder who I will
meet because of it and what great adventure will now unfold.
To gain access to the Great Mystery, a shaman (who is anyone who
enters ASCs for the purposes of gaining Vision, encouraging personal growth,
and helping others) uses a variety of means to enter an ASC. Plant helpers,
such as sage, are employed, as is the drum, and, by some shamans on some
occasions, hallucinogenic plants. In the ASC the shaman connects to the
Great Mystery, gains Vision, retrieves information, gets help for oneself
or others with a problem, heals, prophesies, and so forth. I will take
one example, gaining Vision, to give you some sense of how shamanism works.
Gaining Vision
From a shamanic perspective—which is very different from that of most
Twentieth-Century Americans—one needs to know where one is going before
one starts going there. Shamanic peoples discover their path on this Earthwalk
through the vision quest. The vision quest is an initiatory ritual,
designed to move children into adulthood with a sense of direction and
purpose in their lives. Most modern Americans, uninitiated and feeling
purposeless, could use this experience.
Traditionally, the questor passed a test to demonstrate his or her
readiness, a test usually of that person's courage and perseverance. Then
the questor went away from the tribe into the wilderness to fast and to
pray for Vision—sometimes for many days.
A vision is not necessarily a hallucination, although it can be.
Part of the shamanic perspective is that anything—the appearance
of an animal, a shape in a cloud, a synchronistic meeting such as mine
with Tomas—is a way of Vision. Yesterday, in the middle of writing this
article, I saw a golden eagle sitting in the snag in the forest to the
East. Although I had never seen a golden in the lower forty-eight states,
I was unsurprised to see this mighty shamanic symbol of Vision coming to
me as I write this essay to you. It comes to you on the wings of that eagle.
By entering the shamanic worldview one sees everything that is, as
holy (as Blake puts it) and pregnant with meaning. If the meaning is not
immediately clear to one's left brain, entering an ASC will make it clear
to the right.
So shamanism is a spiritual perspective, a means of connecting with
one's purpose in life, and a variety of techniques for effectively achieving
that purpose and whatever secondary purposes help us function successfully.
Vision enables us to know and to align with that purpose—and with
our own essence—rather than fighting either and thereby making ourselves
sick, physically or psychologically.
Suppose that being a better athlete in your chosen sport is in harmony
with your larger purpose. (If it is not in harmony, you will never get
much better at it.) Here is how you might use a simple shamanic visionary
tool to improve your performance:
1. Lie down in a quiet, darkened place.
2. Breathe deeply and fully, opening yourself to the scent
of the Mother and feeling Her supporting your back.
3. Envision yourself doing your sport in great detail and
really well. (Feel the bat in your hands, see the stitches on the ball
as the pitcher releases it, feel your body move smoothly through the swing,
watch the ball drop in for a single.)
4. Repeat this vision over and again until you feel at one
with the bat, the ball, the playing field.
Sound familiar? It is. All great athletes use this "imagery" technique
to promote their performances, because it works. When the former Soviets
and East Germans were using it to prepare their athletes for the Olympics
before the rest of the world caught on, they were beating the tar out of
everyone else. Yet this is no modern psychological tool but an ancient
shamanic one, practiced by all our ancestors for thousands of years, perhaps
even with the paintings in the famous caves at Lascaux and Altamira.
Most athletes do not realize they are using a shamanic technique
when they "visualize." Even though these tools have been separated from
the larger shamanic worldview they often still work quite effectively.
The Drum Journey
A primary shamanic means of gaining Vision is the drum journey.1
A shaman believes he "rides" the drumbeat up or down the World Tree into
actually existing other worlds. A modern psychologist would say that the
drumbeat opens the mind to vivid imagings. Whichever model you choose to
believe, you might try a drum journey and see what happens for you.
If you do not have a partner to beat the drum for you, you can record
a steady 205 to 220 beats-per-minute rhythm on tape or you can buy a pre-made
tape from The Center for Shamanic Studies, Box 673, Belden Station, Norwalk,
Connecticut 06852. If you lack a drum, you can beat on a book with a wooden
spoon. When you make a drumming tape, begin with four distinct beats to
honor the four directions and place four more beats about a minute from
the end of the tape to signal you to return from your journey. Beat rapidly
for the last minute to pave the return.
Again lying down in a darkened place, breathe deeply and feel your
connection to Mother Earth. As the drumbeat carries you, imagine that you
are slipping into the warm embrace of her arms, going down through the
grass and the humus and the rock into a warm cavern that is filled with
a pinkish-golden light.2 Here
you will find an ally awaiting you. Perhaps it will be your power animal.
Perhaps it will be a person. Or a ball of light or energy. Simply open
yourself to this presence and go with him or her to see what he or she
has to show you.
Be open to being shown a whole world that parallels this one and
from which you can derive strength and information. Be open to hearing
or seeing words, or metaphoric actions. Be open to accepting gifts, with
appropriate thanks. When you hear the four distinct beats signaling it
is time to return to this world, give thanks to your guide(s), ask if there
is anything that they would like of you, say farewell for now, and come
back up through the earth into your body. What you have learned might be
instantly clear to you, or it might take some further work to elucidate.
A Bounding Mountain Lion
My wife Yashi and I did a drum journey some years ago early in our relationship
when we were still dating and wished to consider the question, "Is it time
to move in together and to blend our families?"
On this journey, Yashi got a vision of a mountain lion bounding toward
her and taking her for an exciting ride on her back. This vision puzzled
us, seeming to have nothing to do with the question.
Somewhat frustrated, we decided to look at what rentals were even
available that might suit us. There was nothing in the paper. Yashi came
home discouraged from the rental agency, saying that the only possibility
for my rather complex needs (bedrooms for three children and a separate
office) was far too expensive. She was beginning to think that we were
being told that now was not the time to move in together.
I asked to see the ad she had mentioned. It was three-hundred dollars
over our budget but otherwise sounded good. It was when, at the bottom
of the ad, I read the address that I got goosebumps:
Mt. Lion Road, Chicago Park
Yashi had not connected the address with her vision on the drum journey.
We visited the property, found it lovely (a wrap-around view, a swimming
pond, privacy, a bedroom for everyone, and a big office in a separate building
for us), and told the owner what we could pay. He accepted, saying he had
meant to get full price but that there was something urging him to rent
to us. We moved in, blended families, and got married the next summer.
A coincidence? Possibly. But what the "civilized" person calls coincidence
the shaman sees as a manifestation of the Great Mystery guiding our lives.
The mountain lion has continued to be very helpful to us. In shamanic reality,
animals, plants, minerals, and other two-leggeds all help us once we are
aligned with our purpose. We need only align and open and act.
A shaman would say that the mountain lion helped us past our fears
of commitment and onto our proper course. Within a psychological paradigm
I have trouble explaining this occurrence of Mt. Lion Road, though I could
stretch a bit and say that we really wanted to live together, despite the
pragmatic considerations, and the "coincidence" of the hallucinatory experience
and the rental agency ad provided an opening.
Who knows? Certainly we had done considerable preparatory primal
work processing our fears about making the leap of commitment. Our channels
were open. I think the two modalities—primal therapy and shamanism—work
well together.
Some Parallels with Primal Therapy
I see at least four major parallels between shamanism and primal therapy:
the ASC, direct access, attempted dogmatic takeovers, deep feelings, and
clarity for right action.
Both shamanism and primal therapy access altered states of consciousness
(ASCs), marked by specific changes in brain-wave activity. Whereas primal
therapy accesses the ASC through the "primal," shamanism accesses it primarily
through the drum journey. In either case, the person in the ASC is likely
to experience a vivid vision of a non-present reality which can have a
life-changing impact upon him or her.
By "direct access" I mean that both modalities lead to the ASC without
the necessity for anyone else to either "engineer" the experience or to
withhold it. While it may be helpful to have a therapist sitting for you
or a shaman beating the drum, you can achieve access to the ASC in either
modality on your own. Further, the meaning of the ASC in either case is
referenced to the experiencer rather than to someone else (for instance,
an interpreting therapist or priest). Just as you know what your
primal experience means when you get up off the mat, you will know what
a shamanic experience means to you, sooner or later. You do not have to
go to an "authority" for an interpretation.
Of course in both modalities dogmatists have attempted to assert
control, with varying degrees of success. The early Christian priests maintained
that they were needed to mediate between God and man and that it was dangerous
to explore other means to God than the ones they decreed. And just as the
Catholic Church believes it has the corner on the God-market, so Art Janov
has tried to grasp the primal therapy market.3
Similarly, any movement has its anal-compulsives; there are pseudo-shamanic
dogmatists who will tell you that you must offer only tobacco
in such-and-such manner, just as there are pseudo–primal therapists who
think that a primal must have a particular-sounding scream (or tears,
or an arc du cercle, or whatever).
Fourth, both modalities, primal and shamanic, can connect to deep
feelings. While the primal mode will tend to connect with family-of-origin
feelings and the shamanic mode with person/planet/spiritual feelings, either
mode can shift into the other—from psychology to ecopsychology and transpersonal
psychology, and vice-versa.
Finally, both modes can give clarity for right action. Coming out
of the deep feelings of a primal concerned with my past I often have lucidity
about what I need to do in the present. Similarly, journeying in the shamanic
mode often gives me the vision I need to see what I must do here and now.
Paradoxically, both modes give clarity for right action by removing us
from the present for a time. It is as if they each, in their own way, provide
a mountaintop from which one can look out across the forest of our lives
and see the larger pattern in the whole.
Our True Home
I hope that this overview will at least stimulate your interest in exploring
shamanism further on your own, with friends, or with people who are adept
at journeying. What I can hold out for you is the promise of an interesting
experience and the possibility that you will discover a worldview arrived
at experientially that tends to bring with it reverence for the Earth,
a sense of place and purpose, and a sense of connectedness. As you proceed
on your Earthwalk, I wish you awareness of the beauty around you in the
natural world which is our true home. As the Navaho say, "May you walk
in beauty."
Notes
1. While most shamanic cultures use the drum,
the Australian aborigines use the click sticks and the Cape Bushmen women
set up the entrancing rhythm by clapping their hands. [return
to text]
2. Those who have re-experienced their births
will note that the drum journey into the Mother echoes parts of that experience.
[return to text]
3. It is as if the Primal Institute is the
Catholic Church with Janov as the self-proclaimed pope and the International
Primal Association is the umbrella organization for the Protestant Reformation.
[return to text]
References
Harner, Michael. (1980). The Way of the Shaman. New York: Harper
and Row.
Johnson, Belden. (1991). A primal religion. Aesthema: The Journal
of the International Primal Association, No. 10 [February 1991], 51-58.
Johnson, Robert. (1983). We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic
Love. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Stevens, José, and Stevens, Lena. (1988). Secrets of Shamanism.
New York: Avon Publishers.
Copyright © 1995 by Belden Johnson
*
This article was originally published in Primal
Renaissance: The Journal of Primal Psychology, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring
1995, pp. 8-16. Reprinted with permission. [return
to text]
Biographical Note
BELDEN JOHNSON was a third-generation college lecturer at the University
of Maryland until he did primal therapy in 1973, when he switched to learning
from four- and five-year-olds at a preschool. He retooled as a primal therapist
and founded The Primal Center in Berkeley with Stephen Khamsi in 1979.
Professional interests include the religion/psychology interface and human
relationship. His recently-completed The Lover's Guidebook: Essential
Tools for Building the Path of Relationship is seeking a compatible
publisher. He lives in Nevada City, California, with his wife and two great,
strapping sons. He can be contacted at johnson@gv.net
Related Book: Go to Primal
Renaissance: The Emerging Millennial Return by Michael
D. Adzema.
Return to Primal
Renaissance: The Journal of Primal Psychology
