Each time Sage and I worked with people, we experience a personal healing for ourselves. Insights, physical sensations, extended periods of euphoria, and feelings of deep connection and love come through our experience of our work. I also find that the day following healing treatments, I am more creative and my writing just flows from me, almost without conscious thought.
Caitlin Matthews talks about the connection that shamans feel. She refers to this state of consciousness as sourcing. "Sourcing is a form of intentional consciousness, wherein delight, intense concentration and involuntary receptivity are simultaneously experienced. For, although the shaman may decide to visit one of the worlds to seek out a helper, she does not direct the journey. Her helpers will take her to different parts of the other worlds, showing her things of which she is previously unaware. While at the source, she may speak in languages unknown to her and access many forms of knowledge not in her personal database."
She goes on to say, "Shamanism requires a balance of relaxed awareness and concentrated perception; it is not a passive activity. The experience of these journeys inevitably changes the character of the walker between the worlds: interfacing with the cosmic web brings spiritual and emotional stability as well as a physical and mental steadfastness which totally refutes the notion that shamanism renders the practitioner crazy or other worldly."
I believe that it is very important during this time of
walking between the worlds to remain well-grounded in
the physical world. One of the ways I accomplish this
is to take in everything that I can with my physical senses.
I have become very good at paying attention to what is
going on around me. I notice the subtle changes at sunrise,
the texture of the fog in the treetops, the effervescent
color of the moss on trees in the filtered sunlight, the
smell of rain before it starts to fall, the song that
is created by the sound of the tires on the pavement,
a flute that is slightly out of tune, the way I identify
friends by their smell, the feel of velvet and silk, subtle
sensations from my body, the feel of my beloved's eyes
on me from across the room, the rapturous taste of a mango,
the feel of warm bread just out of the oven, and many
other sensual pleasures. I once wrote a poem called "The
Art of My Senses":
I am inspired by the art of my senses.
Sounds of silence
that compose symphonies of possibility.
Infinite shades of green
captured momentarily in the lens of my mind.
The touch of a hand
that writes sonnets on my heart.
Familiar smells
that sketch images in my memory.
A taste that transports me
through an alchemist’s magic.
Mysterious knowing
like that of a sculpture for his creation.
These are the elements that enchant my everyday life.
I like the idea of enchantment.
Webster's definition of enchantment is the act of influencing
through charms or incantations, or to attract and move
deeply; to awaken ecstatic admiration for something or
someone. According to Thomas Moore, author of, The Re-Enchantment
of Everyday Life, his definition of enchantment is, "a
spell that comes over us, an aura of fantasy and emotion
that can settle in the heart and either disturb it or
send it into rapture or reverie. An enchanted life is
overwhelmed by beauty and the imagination is electrified
by some haunting quality in the world or by a spirit or
voice speaking from deep within a thing, a place, or a
person. Enchantment may be a state of rapture and ecstasy
in which the soul comes to the foreground, and the literal
concerns of survival and daily preoccupation at least
momentarily fade into the background."
Enchantment to me is feeling fully connected with the divine while residing in our bodily unit. For many years I lived my life without feeling what was actually going on around me. For many reasons, including childhood abuse and very poor self-image, I learned to leave my body and walk around as a shell with a voice when I was in the presence of others. When I was alone, I was a different person. I would feel very much a part of the natural world while staying connected to the spirit world. I sought out times and places for myself alone spending long hours outside in nature. I found spaces in the woods that I imagined were cathedrals, and I was a monk or a nun. Sometimes I would pretend to chant just like I imagined I would do if I were actually in a cathedral in Europe. This was interesting since I was brought up in a very strict Protestant religion. But, there was a comfort and connection for me there in the sacred ritual of my imagination.
Our family had pets and other farm animals from the time I was five. These living creatures became sources of great comfort and nurturing for me. I learned about the sacred quality of unconditional love from the blessed animals. I am thankful for those experiences, because I know that even then I was being groomed for a gentle and grounded way of being in this world.
I have been told that I am too sensitive. This may be true; I don’t deny it. But, I would rather be too sensitive than untrue to my feelings as I once was. Feeling is the best feeling. To me the feeling nature allows me to sense the magic all around me. It is so great and so vast. All of creation is magic and mystery. Our task is to tune in and open our field of perception to it. The cosmos is infinite and undefineable. We think that we can create paradigms in order to understand nature. I believe that this way of thinking diminishes its magnificence.
The role of a shaman is to assist the person in visiting
this realm of magnificence so that they can get a greater
sense of their place in the totality. Science would tend
to label this as magic, supernatural, or unnatural because
they don't yet comprehend it. Often their thinking is
unilateral and unreasonable, since their understanding
is proven through limited, provable, analytical, systematic,
rational and logical means.
The pre-existentialist writer and novelist Dostoevski, said,
"The universe does not make sense. There are no underlying patterns
that can be perceived by everyone, on the basis of which everyone
agrees that this is what the world is all about. Life, and the world itself,
are often unpredictable and capricious.
All attempts to find or impose an order on the world must fail because
no single human mind--nor all human minds together--can adequately
perceive all possible facts, make sense of them, and put them into an
ordered scheme. If there were such an order or scheme, it would mean
that everything is determined as it is for the flower and the fish. Humans
would not have free choice but would be fated to whatever course their
lives take."
Michael Ripinsky-Naxon, author of, Shamanism: Religion or Rite? says, "In essence, magic is nothing more than natural philosophy, and natural philosophy is but an older name for the study of natural phenomena. Empirical knowledge that has been around for hundreds and even thousands of years is now, in this age of ignorance, being reinvented as a deeper form of mysticism and magic."
Shamans reside in this realm of the natural phenomena. They are equipped with a large collection of empirical knowledge, and a profound understanding of human behavior. Therefore, they fill a valuable role in the community, not only as healer of dis-ease in the physical body, but as harmonizer of the social and natural problems within the larger community. There is no mystery in this to the shaman. Their knowledge is not ego centered. This "work" is what they do in the other world. Shamans have utilized the practice of traveling to other dimensions for almost 60,000 years. In this other world they affect change that cannot be observed at its core in this dimension of the physical world. The outcomes can be seen and touched, but on this plane the healing still remains a mystery.
We can attempt to explain how this healing occurs. The key to healing on the earth plane is through vibration. Vibration is the motion of life. It is basic and cosmic, and is contained in everything. It is easy to see vibration in living organisms, but the subtleties of vibration can be also seen in the atoms of rocks, the molecules of water, and the electrons of atoms. Fundamental physics states that if the vibration stops, the object ceases to exist. Vibrations are seen as frequencies or wave patterns, and vibration is the physical manifestation of energy or life force. One of the most basic forms in nature is the spiral, and can be seen in the double helix of the DNA. There is an amazing synchronicity of patterns in ancient cultures from all over the world in depicting life as spirals.
The spirals or wave patterns resonate with each other in two ways: consonant and dissonant. Consonant resonance (in synch) allows the waves to interplay and strengthen each other. Dissonant resonance (out of synch) causes the waves to virtually annihilate each other. An example of this principle is seen in the military. Soldiers marching in step across a bridge can generate a consonant resonance so powerful that its vibrations can cause the bridge to collapse. This is why a regiment of soldiers deliberately march out of sync when crossing a bridge.
The out of synch or dissonant resonance can cause dis-ease in our bodies or war in the world. Shamans use sound through drumming or voice to bring the vibrational field back into resonance with the spirit essence of the person or situation with which they are working. The consonant resonant message is delivered directly to the structure of the cells, bringing the structure back into alignment.
To perform these functions, the shaman must enter the realm of the intuition and traverse the worlds between the waking state and the subconscious mind, that lies beyond intellectual reasoning. Messages are transmitted through the medium of the shaman to the situation that requires the healing.
Many of the shamanistic ceremonies throughout the world are marked by myths explaining the creations of such rites, together with constructs of cosmological paradigms, and the natural rhythms and cycles of life. The essence of social existence is centered around mythic imagery, which lends to life an existential dimension. Myths make up, in part, the fundamental responses to the basic human need for meaning. It is an inescapable condition of human existence, pervading all areas of interactions. "Myths are the 'masks of God'," wrote Joseph Campbell, one of the twentieth century’s foremost authorities on the comparative historical approach to mythology, religion, and literature. "[The masks] through which men everywhere have sought to relate themselves to the wonders of existence." The shock of recognition we receive from the timelessness of these images, from primal cultures to the most contemporary, he believed, was an illumination not only of our inward life but of the same deep spiritual ground from which all human life springs.
Michael Ripinsky-Naxon, renowned anthropologist, archaeologist, and ethnobotanist who founded the Center for Shamanism and Consciousness Studies, is concerned about the growing interest in shamanism in America. He feels that the "New-Age Pop Shamanism" is like many of the other cultural trends in our country, and can mis-used as a quick-fix for deep-seated problems of the modern age.
Naxon said, "Few of them grasp or even realize the agons of physical deprivations, the prolonged ordeals, inner personal crises, and near-death encounters connected with genuine shamanic callings. To learn the techniques employed by a shaman does not make one a shaman. True, shamanism can sometimes be defined by certain techniques, as well as by a characteristic state of consciousness. However, it becomes meaningful only if the definition encompasses the appropriate cultural context and behavior. One can attend school to acquire knowledge, but to acquire wisdom is quite another matter. By the same token, one can learn shamanistic methods in an effort to shamanize, but one cannot matriculate as a shaman. To become a shaman is altogether different. It calls for a serious psychological and spiritual transformation on the part of the individual."
I never have thought of myself as a composer; at best, a singer of other’s songs. But through this powerful time of growth, a beautiful chant came through me recently. These are the words, and without the melody, some of the magic is lacking, but nonetheless, the words are meaningful.
Mother Earth I hear you calling
Father Sky I know your strength.
Brother Sun I see your passion
Sister Moon I feel your love.
Messages are all around
And they make their sacred sound.
All of life singss me its story
I will listen with my heart.
It is my intention that this
story will give inspiration to anyone who is struggling
with any type of "dis-ease" (lack of ease) in
any area of life. If this article has inspired you, or
if you would like to schedule an intensive healing retreat
with me, please feel free to email
me.
Namaste!
Reading List:
Carey, Ken, Return of the Bird Tribes, San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991
Collins, Judy, Singing Lessons: A Memoir, of Love, Loss, Hope and Healing, New York, New York: Pocket Books, 1999
Dillard, Annie, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Harperperennial Library, 1998
Beaulieu, John Ph.D., Music and Sounds in the Healing Arts, Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Press, 1987
Gaynor, Mitchell L., Sounds of Healing: A Physician Reveals the Therapeutic Power of Sound and Music, Broadway Books, 1999
Goldman, Jonathan, Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics, Shaftesbury, Dorset, England: Element Books, Ltd., 1992
Gordon, Richard, Quantum-Touch : The Power to Heal, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 1999
Maman, Fabien, The Role of Music in the Twenty-First Century, Tama-Do Press, 1997
Matthews,
Caitlin, Singing the Soul Back Home: Shamanism in Everyday Life, Shaftesbury, Dorset, England: Element Books, Ltd., 1995
Myss, Carolyn, Energy Anatomy: The Science of Personal Power, Spirituality, and Health, Louisville, Colorado: Sounds True, Inc., 1997
,
Myss, Caroline, Why People Don't Heal and How They Can, New York, New York: Harmony Books, 1997
“When Kundalini Rises”, Snake Power: A Journal of Contemporary Female Shamanism, Vicki Noble, Volume, 1, Issue 2, Fall, 1990, 29
Roth, Gabrielle, Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman, Novato, California: Nataraj Publishing, 1989
Trafford, Angelea Passidomo, The Heroic Path, Grass Valley, California: Blue Dolphin Publishing, 1993
Wilder, Laura Ingalls, On the Banks of Plum Creek, Harper & Row, New York, 1937
In May, 1999, Amrita was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in two years. She knew that "conventional treatment" was not the journey she wanted to take again. Amrita entered a shamanic journey into the spirit realm, trusting her own process as teacher and healer. With no handbook or physician to guide her, she entered an unknown world of intuition and trust. She followed her own spirit essence and inner knowing to an astonishing experience of eradicating the cancer within two months by using the sound of her own voice, breath, and emotional release.
Amrita uses sound and music in a private and group healing practice throughout the San Francisco Bay area. She is the founder and director of The Healing Music Organization in Santa Cruz, California and is on the faculty at California Institute of Psychoacoustics in San Francisco and Vox Mundi School in Emeryville, California.
Article Use Policy: Please contact Amrita for permission to quote or reproduce this article.
Music without words means leaving behind the mind. And leaving behind the mind is meditation.
Meditation returns you to the source. And the source of all is sound. — Kabir
The Healing Music Organization and The Healing Music Foundation
P.O. Box 3731, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 - 831.588.7498
Any questions, problems or suggestions please contact
us.
Healingmusic.org and "A Really Good HMO" are trademarks of The Healing Music Organization.
All other products and services mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective organizations.
Copyright
2000-2009, Amrita Cottrell and The Healing Music Organization. All rights
reserved.
Go
to feedback form
JOIN OUR NETWORK
