The word shaman, originating from the Tungus tribe of Siberia, literally means "one who sees in the dark." Shamans are spiritual teachers and healers who are said to make journeys to non-ordinary reality while in an altered state of consciousness in order to remove, restore, transmute, or retrieve energy.
Shirl's fascination with shamans grew out of her exploration of alternative healing methods following the major illness of one of her children. My connection had developed through my fifteen years as a professional psychic and teacher. Together, we embarked on a spiritual worldwide quest, searching for others of like mind in Europe and Africa as well as North and South America. Our current trip to Ecuador was part of our unquenchable thirst for additional understanding regarding the metaphysical nature of things.
We were further motivated to seek this knowledge by the planetary age and time we'd both selected for our particular incarnations. Many authors have labeled the twentieth century as the so-called "new age,” a greatly overused and misunderstood term and one I have increasingly grown to dislike. Many diverse cultures have surprisingly similar legends relating to this era. Some have foretold of it, referring to people at the end of this century as travelers between two worlds.
These legends speak to. the anticipated expansion or quickening of planetary consciousness as we near the end of the millennium. Astrologically, it has been described as a shifting from the time of Pisces to Aquarius—from the "male" energy that began with the birth of Christ 2,000 years ago to an age of feminine and Goddess energy in which saving the planet and living in harmony with one another is the dominant ideology.
The consensus of this new age spiritual perspective suggests that our earth's human inhabitants are beginning to become aware of an energy shift—a time-warp sort of thing—wherein many are beginning to move into the next world, or four-dimensional reality. This event has been foretold by ancient civilizations such as the Hopi and Mayans as well as recognized psychics such as Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus. Our proof that these changes continue to occur is documented in numerous UFO sightings; geological changes such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and weather changes; and growing interest in the plethora of new age subjects.
Still, we as a culture are often unclear on how we can personally relate to these events. Who better to assist us in this transition than the "primitive" tribal spiritual leaders or shamans, who are in greatest harmony with nature and the natural order?
Although on one level I was being driven by some unnamed force to experience all that I could, I wasn't entirely sure that I was ready to complete this spiritual transformation. At age fifty-something, I was only recently getting a handle on this "ordinary reality" stuff. I was enjoying the fruits of retirement and the good life. For me, "roughing it" had long been defined as toughing it out when the air conditioning quit in my eight-year-old Porsche.
Life was good!
"But life is an illusion," claim various shamans, philosophers and tribal elders from differing spiritual walks of life. What they mean is that we do not discern reality as it truly is . . . or can be.
What Is Reality?
Spiritual leaders and philosophers point out that since each of us interprets individual events differently, based on personal past physical experiences, we often assume inconsistent viewpoints, seldom agreeing on the nature of what we have encountered or observed. However, when we dream or meditate, we touch higher-dimension reality, where lack and limitation do not exist and everything is exactly how we perceive or experience it.
Take a moment to reflect on what happens when we dream. All we need to do is focus on a specific thought and it immediately becomes our experience. There are fewer rules in this less limiting consciousness. We can fly, be a larger-than-life hero, eat an unlimited amount of fattening foods, and accomplish other tasks that are equally as impossible in three-dimensional physical reality, then blend that understanding with our individual awareness.
This higher spiritual dimension is the next step up in the progression of consciousness, and the only requirement to attain it is believing that it is possible. After all, doesn't the Bible tell us: "Seek and ye shall find?" If that is not sufficient authority, how about Peter Pan, who simply tells us to believe?
So here I was, sitting in what our Ecuadorian guide loosely referred to as a "lodge," waiting for my wife to return from a day hike in the jungle where she was forging rivers and climbing mountains, seeking her vision quest.
Our leader had described the physical requirements of the day's hike and it sounded a bit more dangerous than what had been presented in the brochure. The mere fact that I was in the jungle at all was evidence that I was confronting many of my basic fears, but I wasn't ready to take it that far. I decided to remain behind with others from our group of sixteen who had expressed similar variations on my theme.
What if I broke my leg or had a heart attack or something? How might I be able to survive, far removed from modern science and excessively expensive hospitals? Or worse, what if I was attacked by a giant anaconda? And how, in the first place, had I gotten talked into traveling on this scary venture into a foreign wilderness so many cultures removed from my own?
My vision quest had occurred several years prior when I—along with a group of equally out of shape, middle-aged male companions—spent three days alone in the California Sierra Nevada mountains. We were really "out there"—no refrigerator stocked with cold beer, no snack foods, no up-to-the-minute football scores. Following a communal sweat lodge ceremony during which we confessed our individual fears about being alone . . . in the wilds . . . in the dark . . . we created individual campsites at a distance of at least a half-hour journey from each other.
I insisted on sleeping in a tent rather than out in the open since I was operating under the assumption that if I couldn't see the scary things I knew were out to get me, they might not be there. Although we were fasting, we couldn't be sure that the collective wild kingdom had agreed to the same rules. So, even though we were each on our own, we agreed to create a designated clearing where we would leave daily evidence of our survival, assuring one another that no one had been devoured by some sort of man-eating forest creature.
The challenges of the Sierra trip paled by comparison to my current location in this remote part of the rain forest. We were visiting tribes who, until recently, settled their differences by removing their opponents' heads. John Perkins, the leader of our little expedition, repeatedly assured us that they don't do that anymore . . . or at least not often. In any case, I was more focused on potential encounters with snakes than the possibility of losing a portion of my body to the locals.
John had written a book, The World Is As You Dream It (Destiny Books, 1994), that had caught Shirl's eye six months before. Being a self-taught dream counselor, and always seeking a new adventure, she had somehow convinced me that this was the next exotic place we should visit in our pursuit of esoteric knowledge. Since John's credentials were impressive and his shaman contacts unique, I reluctantly agreed to go along.
Planetary Consciousness 101
John Perkins was a volunteer in the Peace Corps right out of business school, and then a management consultant to the United Nations and the World Bank. He had spent most of his time in the rain forests of South America, assisting and teaching the natives the advantages of the modern mechanized world. He helped them clear the forests and build factories and power plants in order to bring the primitive culture into step with the twentieth century.
Until he woke up to what he was doing.
John realized that he was not helping the indigenous culture. In fact, he realized that he was actually a part of the problem. Although the Corps did much that was