OHHHHH UMMMM AHHHHH
Ok. This was not anything like the Salford my healer lived in. Her house was very far away from Salford shopping centre
My head and heart pounding I tremble on through the hard paved and stony road. Having travelled miles to get here I realise I am here to meet my healer. The location is a place I have not been too before, the healer is someone shrouded in secrecy, due to a chance meeting. With the sun glaring and the prospect of an out of dimensional healing experience I find myself in ….. Salford.
At a time of great distress in my life during my many months of being medicated for an undiagnosed mood disorder I happened to meet a training shamanic healer who is the partner of a friend of mine at the Manchester Buddhist Centre. It seems most Buddhists are a healer or are co-habiting with a healer in some way. I was being trialed on Zoloft or Sertraline as it is more commonly known in the UK. Sertraline is an SSRI (anti-depressant) and at the time I had no idea how badly it was affecting my healing. Having trialed many different therapies up until meeting this wonderful healer I thought ‘what the heck?’. She was offering a free treatment to help her with updating her training log. This was a course she was undertaking from a master of healing in a remote place in Scotland. So mysterious. I love it. Her boyfriend was a good friend who was the first person who taught me how to meditate.
So what is it?
Definitely a stick with bird poo in the right hand. A huge mystical tortilla in the left
Well the classic image we must all have, is some peacock feathered brown person, with tattoos, waving a stick of burning bird poo over our faces. I imagined that my Shaman would be at the top of the highest mountain, with the strongest herbs, the strongest BO, and the best Ayahuasca and Cannabis to knock out a horse. Instead I find myself in a pleasant block of flats in Salford on a warm sunny day.
Shamanism is something that is quite difficult to describe. It’s something rather unique to humans and has been around for a very long time. Modern society with its clinical scientific secular view of the world have produced cultures where we no longer have what is known as a Shaman. In fact i’m certain 84% of Salford would think ‘Shaman’ was a local skunk dealer if you asked them.
The best description of shamanic healing is:
‘Through a change in consciousness, Shamans enter “non ordinary” reality to request healing and advice from compassionate animals, humans and other spirits. This in turn can be communicated back to the recipient to help them heal.’
What is a Shaman?
The Shaman is the person who actually goes into an altered state and helps you. They speak to spirits in another realm to facilitate direction or a change in processes to help achieve rest, peace and healing. Every culture throughout time has had Shamans. Whether they be known as medicine men, witches, healers, mediums etc. These are people that have a specific place in our society who take on the role of spiritual healer. Before conventional medicine came along and introduced wonderful drugs with their random double-blind placebo controlled trials, most of us would have had knowledge of treating minor ailments with food, diet, herbs. The Shaman was someone who took things to a higher level. Without sounding to patronising, a therapist of some sort. Maybe a bereavement, struggling with fertility, more rain for crops, you name it your Shaman would have been your local go to for everything. They would have involved some sort of ritual where spirits are spoken too. Herbs and advice would have been given. The whole process fascinates me and I feel unlucky to have been born in a world where Shamans are seen as ‘cuckoo’ or just ‘wackos’. I can not imagine anything more exciting than being in a small tribe in the jungle and having a local go to healer who lights a fire, dazzles me with seriousness and herbs before speaking to the gods or spirits to help me. I’m sure a random double-blind placebo controlled trial would have Shamans shitting themselves everywhere.
Definately not a modern day Shaman
The lady I was seeing was over a year into her course and was obviously very passionate about her training. I felt privileged she was offering me her time for nothing. In the UK a large organisation by the name ‘The Sacred Trust’ run workshops, retreats and practitioner training. I think my healer was doing a course with them.
It’s important to remember Shamans in the UK following this course are obviously very different to the Shamans of the past, or of different cultures. Each society will have demands, acceptable levels of trust, communication and uses of material, herbs or apparatus to access the other dimension. For example, the use of natural organic plants that produce a hallucinogenic effect were not that uncommon in some cultures. Peyote, Cannabis, Salvia, Opium and Ayahuasca have and are still being used by some Shamans around the world to enter the spirit world. Peru is usually a hot spot for Ayahuasca/DMT lovers. In the UK most of these drugs are illegal or difficult to source (wow, thank you government for banning plants) and i’m sure most qualified practitioners have no knowledge or are even allowed to source and use them. Most people these days are on many synthetic drugs anyway making their use very unpredictable if a Shaman somehow managed to use it and not get sued.
So what happened?
Well I was welcomed into her home. Offered some herbal tea and biscuits, just having a general catch up after our chance meeting at the Buddhist centre. We spent a while discussing my issues. Many of them mental health related, depression, mood swings, fatigue, acne, insomnia, the list was endless. She then described how she was going to ask me to lie down on the floor with a blanket and blind-fold my eyes. She would turn on some hypnotic drum beat music and then lie down next to me. After lying down and putting on the mask I was ready to be healed. I was somewhat nervous and obviously sceptical about what was going to happen. But I didn’t care, i’ve done, seen and heard crazier things and I firmly believe I need all the help I can get. So on went the music. It sounded just like how you would imagine a Shaman would bang his drum to enter another world. It was very hypnotic and I found myself drifting off quite quickly during these first few minutes. It was as if my mind just got a little bit more relaxed. So there I was for half an hour just lying there, eyes covered, happily day dreaming in a kind of deep meditation. The type of consciousness you achieve before sleep. Then the healer grabbed my hand until the music faded.
Let the healing begin
She then took out what I think was some sort of stick with multiple ends attached to it?? (terrible description I know, but this was almost a year ago now) and shook it over my body and blew onto my chest/stomach. It was then over.
We then spent 15 – 20 minutes discussing any messages she had received from the spirits she contacted. ‘Not being afraid’ was the biggest message. Something I still remember to this day. I remember the look on her face when she said it.
Did it work?
In a way, yes, it did work. Ok so I have no idea who or what it was she spoke too. I have no print out or lab report containing the profile and spec of the particular spirit, but I really couldn’t care less. I enjoyed my time in her flat and I completely loved what happened. I left with more questions than answers but I soon realised in the car on the way home that I just needed to be kind to myself and keep searching for answers to my problems. Never be afraid. Always keep searching. It was a much more eventful trip seeing her than it was going to my GP for another round of meds to cure my soul.
Smack my bitch up. The words of a famous Prodigy
My views on how it worked in this set-up are based on the similar feelings I have had through deep meditation and binaural beats. Both affect the brainwaves in our heads. These in turn change our thought processes and indeed the very structure of our brain changes with brain frequency changes. Shamanic healing is a bit different in that you have a healer who is obviously contacting another world for your benefit. The process seems more intense and individual. I imagine repeated visits to build up trust and kindness with your Shaman would help tremendously.
For a more intense and ultimately mind altering experience I would recommend a trip to Peru for a nice bowl of Ayahuasca. You will be talking to the little green fairy spirits yourself during that experience.
Conclusion
A truly bizarre, amazing and complex therapy that I imagine is on the bottom of the NHS list of alternative therapies to consider. I knew that it would not ‘cure’ me, I knew it might not do anything to me. But i’m glad I did it, I feel great to have helped someone on their journey of understanding Shamanism which in turn will mean more people can use her services. I know of many online accounts of people claiming modern day Shamans and old-school ones cure them of everything. So, although it is definitely in the realm of alternative therapy, I hope it flourishes and gives people a different edge on their healing process. If you have no underlying chemical imbalances and your spirit is wailing then give this a go. You have nothing to lose. For me it is something I would love to do again when I have more money and other treatments are not at the top of my agenda. I was very ill with many unresolved problems at the time, but I feel happy it has been part of my journey. Hopefully Shamans are here to stay and organisations and people like my healer will bring it more mainstream. The more therapy the better I say!
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