Sacred Stream

Shamanism is a methodology that teaches the accessing of inner wisdom--an approach that is millennia old. The shamanic journey is a process of active meditation during which the journeyer connects with deeper parts of his or her self. Please read more about shamanism in the Applied Shamanism section of our website.

The shamanic model views most imbalances to be a result of power loss, soul loss, or energetic interference. Soul or power loss is usually due to some kind of trauma, including surgery, accidents and abusive situations. Modern day Shamans consider addiction, chronic fatigue, depression, and other illnesses to be a result of soul loss. In contemporary terms, soul loss is comparable to arrested development in parts of the psyche. It is also similar to the situations that are addressed with “inner child” therapy methods. Shamanic techniques have proven to be a powerful and effective way of dealing with issues of power loss at the heart of most mental, emotional, and physical ailments. In the Applied Shamanism workshops, students are taught to look at the energetic or spiritual aspects of imbalance through the shamanic lens of power loss, soul loss, and energetic interference, and also learn core shamanic methods to address these imbalances.

Many of our students are licensed psychotherapists or other types of healers who are looking for new tools to use in their practices. The shamanic counseling techniques that you will learn in these workshops do not interfere with other modalities. Instead, they inform and expand the possibilities for almost any type of therapeutic paradigm. The tools you learn in these workshops will help you take your healing practice, whatever it may be, to a new level of integration.

Many people have doubts about their ability to enter into an altered state but very few people are unable to do it. Entering an altered state through meditation, chanting, prayer, journeying or hypnosis will not involve losing your awareness of where you are or what you are doing. In fact you will be in control of you actions and able to communicate easily. Most of us experience light trances states, such as daydreaming or doing mundane tasks on “automatic pilot.”

Doubts about being able to enter into an altered state are addressed in the Introduction to the Shamanic Journey workshop.

Anybody who is interested in personal growth and healing for themselves or others, should take this course. Healing professionals such as therapists, social workers, acupuncturists, and body workers are often found in these workshops. Additionally, many people enter these workshops who have had anomalous experiences and are searching for an understanding of their experience, or tools to work with their experiences on a deeper level.

No. These workshops are compatible with any belief system and do not require conformity to any belief system.

The shamanic journey is a tool that has been used by shamans for millennia to access wisdom that is available by focusing inward. The turning of the attention inward is not a practice that is limited to shamans. There are many methods for focusing the attention inward. In the Buddhist Psychology Studies and Transpersonal Studies workshops, we explore other ways of focusing the attention inward and explore different ways of modulating that attention for different purposes and effects. However, the shamanic journey is, for most people, easier to access than other practices that focus the attention inward. For this reason, we use the journey as the primary method of focusing the student inward.