Shamanism

I have been reading and studying Shamanism ever since I was a child and I have used much of what I have learned to help my clients.

I am a 39 year old professional hypnotist and counselor and I help many people to change habits, unwanted behaviors and to feel better about themselves though private sessions, group sessions and through articles, e-books and recordings.

I like many of the lessons in the 20 week course on Master in Shamanism.

I think my favorite lessons were the first week and the last week with a few others in between. Much of this course was a review and that is always helpful and some of the information may have been unique to this course and added to my overall knowledge and skill to which I am grateful :)

The thing I liked least about the course was that sometimes the next week would not be in my mail box or there would be sections missing and I thank you for helping me, Amy. I was more interested in the techniques of shaman and how there were similaritities throughout cultures and less interested in some of the historical aspects, yet this also was useful information and worth knowing.

Lesson 20 was especially interesting because it touched on how being a Shaman fits into my other practices and reviews how one becomes a Shaman. I have studied other courses and even trained with people in person and yet I am always wanting to learn more and I like the idea of having a reward of a degree after completing the course. Learning is much more important to me than a piece of paper or degree yet it is a nice touch that adds momentum to study and practice.  My main focus is on hypnotic story telling and hypnotic techniques and shamanic rituals such as saging, smudging to cleanse  clients and their homes or offices, etc. I use sage, herbs and shamanic rituals for clients who are open to this or who ask for

this specifically.

Lucid Dreaming is another important part of being a shaman and I like how the course compared

mediums and shamans. How the shaman has practiced control over their states so that they can achieve a level of "heightened awareness" ( I also use a wide spread vision technique which I have anchored through NLP and Hypnosis so all I have to do is trigger the anchor and I am in that state )

On my intake form I ask about a persons spiritual beliefs and how open they are to alternative therapies.

For clients who write or say that they are more science and main stream I give them a more standard, clinical hypnotherapy session, where as with those who are more spiritual I incorporate more shamanic healing and alternatice ideas including medicinal herbs and techniques from chi gung and energy medicine and eft ( emotial freedom technique )

Some clients will get what they need by doing "regression" "forgiveness" "chair therapy" and "parts therapy"

where as someone who comes looking for more of a spiritual based path will get similar powerful benefits from finding their "spirit guide" "power animal" and experiencing "soul retrieval and integration"

Either way they get what they came for and what they most need to feel better about themselves and either way I was a guide that helped them to help themselves. I am very happy to be able to help myself and others and I am looking into more ways to improve my marketing so that I can help even more people.

Overall, I was pleased with most of the 20 lessons and I am looking forward to being an even better shaman and helping my loved ones and clients even more now that I learned more and reviewed many important aspects of shamanism.

By Rev. Michael Twomey

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.