What makes a shaman different from other mystics and visionaries
is the intentional journey–or soul flight–into the spirit world.
In other words, unlike the common perception that mortals must
wait for spirits of nature or the dead to make contact–
an occurrence that happens more frequently than most people realize–
the shaman initiates contact by going directly into the spirits' world.
Rather than waiting for the spirits to visit us, the shaman becomes the visitor
into their invisible realms. Because they know the entry points,
shamans can cross the borders of ordinary and non-ordinary reality at will,
enter the spirits' reality, and develop the skill, understanding,
and competence for functioning in that dreamlike world.
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—Tom Cowan

wHat's a core shamanic practitioner?

Anthropologist Michael Harner was in South America studying native shamans and realized that human beings, in general, had abilities to connect with spirits and feel energy, and this could be helpful and healing. He noticed there were practices common to every culture, which he called core shamanism. He felt that we in the ‘Western’ modern world were missing this organic, deep way of connecting to our bodies, souls, the land, the spirits and the natural world. When he lectured and wrote on core shamanic practices, people all over were interested in knowing more, through experience. So he created a way of teaching core shamanism, and founded the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

My teacher instructed me in all the of the foundation's trainings, through the most advanced, over a seven year period. We are lasting friends and do work for each other periodically. One of the core practices is the shamanic journey, and it is central to a lot of the services I perform.

Core shamanism does not appropriate tribal ceremonies or customs. My particular practitioner medicine is a honed blend of the core shamanic practices I was taught, my own medicine gifts and abilities, and the energetic practices I do from Celtic, Toltec and Tibetan Bön shamanism.
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