By Bill Russell

Shamanism has been called “the technology of miracle-making”. Long, long ago, shamans, in indigenous cultures around the world, learned to play the game of life by different rules. They learned that what we call reality is flexible, fluid and can be influenced by the mind to manifest experiences that, from our western point of view, are impossible. Among these experiences are the ability to walk in fire without injury, controlling the weather, and instant healing. How these men and women have been able to accomplish their feats has been a mystery, and even treated with disbelief, by scientists…until relatively recently.

First and foremost, in all cultures where they have existed, the job of the shamans is to heal. They exist to create beneficial changes for their community and the world at large. They are bringers of health, harmony, peace, love and joy to persons, places things and circumstance. To accomplish their work, they utilize the forces of nature that become accessible through altered states of awareness. In essence, they are distinguished from other healers by the way they use their minds. They believe, for example, that experience is a product of expectation and belief, that all is alive and aware, that all is connected at deep levels of awareness, and that the power of the mind is unlimited.

A fundamental aspect of the power of, for example, the Kahuna shaman of Hawaii is a clear understanding of the relationship between the universe and (what we in the west call) the subconscious mind. Their perceptions of this aspect of mentality are vastly broader and deeper than our modern scientific concepts about it. Their shamanic powers derive from the belief that the unfolding and manifestation of our entire life experience relates to energy/thought patterns held in these deeper levels of mind. To influence reality experience, they learn how to enter these levels and manipulate these imbedded patterns. Through this manipulation, they believe that any aspect of reality – even what we call the laws of nature – can be altered.

In the Kahuna inner cosmology, the ordinary, daily reality, as we perceive it, is simply the tip of giant iceberg. Beneath this level, in deeper waters, are other equally valid, and clearly delineated, platforms of perceptions of experience that involve all of us. From these depths, unconscious processes create our experience of daily reality. Shamans of all traditions long ago developed many means to enter and influence these levels that reflect back as beneficial changes in our level of daily experience. Examples of just a few of the tools that are used to alter the contents of these deeper levels are dreams, prayer, life force energy work, and ritual.

Even a brief exposure to the awareness, entry and involvement in these various levels of inner awareness can be a life-changing experience. Many participants come away from such an experience with a new realization of their great personal power, confidence and fresh hope that positive changes in their lives are possible and a new understanding of humanity’s relationship with the universe.