Editor advocates shamanism

By Connor de Bruler
debrulerc@mytjnow.com

More people need to go on shamanic journeys. 

Shamanism isn’t a religion. It’s the oldest spiritual, investigatory practice in human history. Many early, as well as modern, religions incorporated the practice in their daily rituals and appointed select members of the community to the title of shaman. Russian, Finnish, American Indian, Tibetan, Indian, African and Australian cultures practiced basically the same form of shamanism. 

What exactly am I talking about? Well, it’s tough to say. 

Shamanic journeying is essentially a form of meditation that includes drum music in order to explore the insular world of the human mind. This exploration invariably leads to out-of-body experiences, religious hallucinations, journeys to alternate universes, time travel, epiphanies, conversations with ghosts and alien abductions. 

Yeah, I said alien abductions. 

There are different theories about how it works or why it works at all. Many people use psychedelics on shamanic journey’s, markedly changing the course and severity of the journey. I’ve gone on shamanic journeys with and without psychedelics, and it never changed the clarity or the importance of the trip.   

I just want to clarify that it is possible and even encouraged to do this without drugs. You don’t have to smoke weed or pop mushrooms to go on a shamanic journey. It certainly helps catalyze the experience, but anyone can get there on their own with enough practice and focus.  

By now, I’ve probably lost a good amount of readership for my “zany” beliefs. It may be difficult to accept that anyone can walk out on campus and enter a different universe or get abducted by aliens. 

These ideas can’t be quantified or validated in normal sense, because they’re taking place within the realm of thought. But the mind is extremely powerful, and many people become convinced that what they see is real. I’m one of those people on the fence about it. I’m not sure if I believe the ancient Hindu principle that thought is a form of reality and matter in it purest form. The debate on human perception is a rich and extensive area of human inquiry, and perhaps the most important. 

Alright, so here’s how it’s done. Find a dark room with virtually no noise. I would suggest going to the bottom floors of Tillman or a basement somewhere on campus or at your home. Bring a drum or a iPod with drumming music on it. An upturned trashcan works fine too. The hardest thing to do is abandon your logical thinking and just believe that you’re going to do it. Running for a long time helps prepare the body and clears your mind. Get out of breath, seriously. Then bang on the drum or have someone else do it. Envision that you’re actually going somewhere, and you’ll experience one of the most bizarre sensations of all time. 

You’ll also find that the meditation aspect of it will lower your blood pressure and keep your stress levels in check. Hopefully, you’ll get something important out of the journey.