The Magic of the Long Moment

Time travel, or the manipulation of time, has long been a shaman's tool for healing or research. For instance, a shaman might take a person back into a past life event so that person can understand what happened, or a shaman might travel into the future to explore possible what-ifs. For shamans and magicians time is elastic: it can be stretched like taffy, compressed like cotton, or frozen like ice.

One of the simplest ways to begin playing with time magically is to practice the art of the long moment. The art of the long moment is simply the ability to slow our perception of certain events so that we can really see what is happening in present time. It's also called the Cortothalamic Pause. Why do we need such a pause? Because we normally rush headlong through life events at the speed of sound, which doesn't give us optimum time to respond appropriately.

3 Steps to Instant Reaction
Here's the 3 step process that normally happens in any life event:

1. We receive an incoming perception: A person speaks loudly to us
2. The perception is immediately routed by our flow of associations to a certain place in our memory: In this or a past life, we have memories of loud voices and anger.
3. The perception is assigned a meaning: The person is angry with us.

These three steps happen in less than a second. Less than one second after we receive an incoming impression, we have assigned a meaning to the perception and are already beginning to react. We will assume that the person is angry with us regardless of what the person is actually feeling.

In the regular course of things, our time is compressed in this way. There's no time to really evaluate the incoming perception and respond appropriately. Do you ever overreact in the heat of the moment and wonder why? It's because you had no Cortothalamic Pause. You reacted based on memory. In other words, most of us are interacting with life using mechanical reactions from memory -- we are hardly ever in the "now."

The Magic of the Long Moment
This is where the long moment comes in. If you can slow yourself at the moment you receive an incoming piece of data then you can stretch time. In this long moment you give yourself the power to evaluate the information you have received and give a true response.

How can you practice the art of the long moment? It's not hard. Twice a day practice the Cortothalamic Pause. When someone asks you a question or asks you to do something, stop everything inside yourself for 2 seconds. Stop all thought and consideration. Get quiet. Then respond to the person. For a long time you won't actually be able to stop your internal thoughts, but you will be able to see all the mechanical reactions and thoughts that immediately spring up. You'll be truly surprised at the massive and often chaotic activity that happens inside yourself. It will give you true insight into the way you interact with life.

Flower Essences for the Long Moment
To enhance the probability of having a long moment, you can include these flower essences as part of your daily regimen:

- Lavender and Chamomile for calming
- White Chestnut for reducing repetitive thoughts
- Thyme for helping to manipulate Time

Explore the Long Moment and More
Want to explore more flower essence remedies and other techniques for self-healing and self-exploration? Check this out:

Energy Healing for Self and Others (ebook)

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

The Magic of the Long Moment

Time travel, or the manipulation of time, has long been a shaman's tool for healing or research. For instance, a shaman might take a person back into a past life event so that person can understand what happened, or a shaman might travel into the future to explore possible what-ifs. For shamans and magicians time is elastic: it can be stretched like taffy, compressed like cotton or frozen like ice.

One of the simplest ways to begin playing with time magically is to practice the art of the long moment. The art of the long moment is simply the ability to slow our perception of certain events so that we can really see what is happening in present time. It's called the Cortothalamic Pause. Why do we need such a pause? Because we normally rush headlong through life events at the speed of sound, which doesn't give us optimum time to respond appropriately.

Here's the 3 step process that normally happens in any life event:

1. We receive an incoming perception: A person speaks loudly to us

2. The perception is immediately routed by our flow of associations to a certain place in our memory: In this or a past life, we have memories of loud voices and anger.

3. The perception is assigned a meaning: The person is angry with us.

These three steps happen in less than a second. Less than one second after we receive an incoming impression, we have assigned a meaning to the perception and are already beginning to react. We will assume that the person is angry with us regardless of what the person is actually feeling.

In the regular course of things, our time is compressed in this way. There's no time to really evaluate the incoming perception and respond appropriately. Do you ever overreact in the heat of the moment and wonder why? It's because you had no Cortothalamic Pause. You reacted based on memory. In other words, most of us are interacting with life using mechanical reactions from memory - we are hardly ever in the "now."

That's where the long moment comes in. If you can slow yourself at the moment you receive an incoming piece of data then you can stretch time. In this long moment you give yourself the power to evaluate the information you have received and give a true response.

How can you practice the art of the long moment? It's not hard. Twice a day practice the Cortothalamic Pause. When someone asks you a question or asks you to do something, stop everything inside yourself for 2 seconds. Stop all thought and consideration. Get quiet. Then respond to the person. For a long time you won't actually be able to stop your internal thoughts, but you will be able to see all the mechanical reactions and thoughts that immediately spring up. You'll be truly surprised at the massive and often chaotic activity that happens inside yourself. It will give you true insight into the way you interact with life.

To enhance the probability of having a long moment, you can include these flower essences as part of your daily regimen:

• Lavender and Chamomile for calming
• White Chestnut for reducing repetitive thoughts
• Thyme for helping to manipulate Time

For more study on living consciously with magic and escaping your mechanical reactions to life, check out our Witchcraft Spell Book: The Complete Guide of Witchcraft Rituals & Spells for Beginners Kindle book.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or, visit our website for more great resources.

Shamanism And Medical Science - Mutually Exclusive Disciplines?

contributed by reader, Jenni Greaves

Shamanism is, sadly, viewed by many as a dubious quack-practice grounded in bygone superstition. The minds of such people are closed to the potential of shamanic healing, and they have no wish to discuss the matter. However, some who may not quite believe in the more mystical aspects of shamanism are perfectly willing to accept it as a practice which can be of immense help to the psyche. Indeed, many have likened psychologists to modern shamans, their jobs essentially being to conduct people through the sometimes perilous realm of their souls (or psyches) and resolve conflicts therein. Though the ideological theories of the two doctrines may differ in some ways, the essential aim and, often modus operandi, bear marked similarities. This is increasingly becoming a matter of interest to modern science. Vanderbilt University points out that "Shamanic methods of working with dreams and being conscious and awake while dreaming open new doors in psychological research into the nature and history of consciousness" [1].  While some may be doubtful about the magical aspects of shamanism, modern medicine is growing to accept its psychological and even physical value. Even disbelievers can therefore benefit from shamanism without feeling that they are compromising their scientific principles.

The Psychoanalyst As Shaman
The idea of shamanic soul-flights as psychological healing tools have been present ever since the fathers of psychiatry began to appreciate the presence of and delve into the human subconscious. Freud and Jung, the undisputed fathers of modern psychiatry, were incredibly interested in the myths, symbols and archetypes with which shamans work. Both saw such things as representative of deep cultural mores which are both embedded within and representative of the human mind. Though couching his theories in scientific language, the exploration of the psyche which Freud published in "The Interpretation of Dreams" [2] would have been recognizable to any shaman. The way Freud saw it, mythic frameworks, symbols, and tale-formulae were a way in which humans could interpret and engage with their psychological states (and the demons inherent therein). The shamanic view is something more mysterious, spiritual, and magical, but the idea of healing through a mythic 'soul-journey' is common to both disciplines.

Mind, Body, Soul - Full Integration
Recently, medical science has begun to turn its attention to the spiritual and emotional aspects of healing. Initially this trend began (understandably enough) within the spheres of mental health and psychiatry. However, the medical establishment is now tentatively beginning to explore the connection between mind and body in an enhanced manner, focusing on the emotional aspects of pain and disease, and the physical effects of psychological trauma. This field of study began where physical illness and mental trauma self-evidently overlap – with addiction and substance disorders. The popularity and apparent success of recovery programs which focused on a degree of spirituality gave medical authorities – accustomed to dealing with disorders purely on a physical or chemical basis, pause for thought. The Betty Ford Institute and the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment investigated the phenomenon in 2007, concluding that "spirituality, however hard to define in operational terms, likely constitutes an important motivator for recovery for some (perhaps many) substance-dependent people." [3]. From a shamanic point of view, an addiction is an affliction of the soul caused by the absence or damage of some aspect of the self. Retrieval of the errant part and spiritual re-integration causes the person to become whole again, whereupon they will not need the actions of drugs or alcohol to fill the 'gap'. While unwilling or unable to accept this precise reasoning, medical practitioners are now accepting that addiction is a psychological problem which can be greatly aided by psychoanalytical and spiritual techniques which aid psychological wellness and wholeness. Rehabs.com state that many treatment centers now employ semi-spiritual methods designed to promote mental wholeness and wellness, including "massage and acupuncture services"  [4].

Shamanism and Pain
Shamanism and shamanistic techniques are also being explored in relation to pain and the person's ability to cope with it. In 1949, anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss published "Structural Anthropology" [5] – a book which delved into anthropological theory, practice and conclusions. Within this book was a paper entitled "The Effectiveness of Symbols", in which Levi-Strauss described and analyzed a shamanic ritual of the Cuna people from Panama. The purpose of the ritual was to aid a woman with a difficult childbirth. The shaman, through an elaborate blend of tale-telling and ritual, pulled the woman into a mythic yet deeply personal world which Levi-Strauss perceived to belong to the cultural subconscious. The shaman and his patient believed themselves to be drawing positive spiritual energies to their side and embarking upon a mythic journey through which the woman's soul would be rendered whole and she would gain the strength needed to get through the birth. Levi-Strauss saw it in less mystical terms, but was in no way immune to the psychological potential of the ritual. Indeed, he compared the shaman to a psychoanalyst and drew strong parallels between the ultimate aim and results of the ritual and that of a psychoanalytic session. Neither was he too closed-minded to appreciate the real, physical healing potential of the shamanic ritual. Even though he did not believe in magic or the religion of the Cuna, he did believe in the potential within the mind to heal and aid the body. According to Levi-Strauss, the shaman was "making explicit a situation originally existing on the emotional level and...rendering acceptable to the mind pains which the body refuses to tolerate".  Medical science increasingly accepts that the volume of pain is less important than the mind's ability to cope with it. Naturally every person has their breaking point, but it is truly astounding what the human can bear when they have the right mentality. The British Journal of Anesthesia points out that a person's beliefs about and understanding of the pain which they are experiencing can form "part of the psychosocial context, known to be the largest indicator in predicting the extent of pain-associated disability" [6], and go on to recommend cognitive behavioral therapy for sufferers of chronic pain, in order to diminish their suffering and enable them to cope. In just such a manner does the shaman build up the psychological strength of the patient, bolstering them, unlocking the resources hidden deep within their souls, and enabling them to draw upon those resources to aid them in their pain.

Better United
It seems, therefore, that shamanistic techniques and medical techniques - particularly those of the psychiatrist - can be successfully combined to bring about healing even for those who do not believe in mystical shamanism. The ancient shamans knew a good deal more about the depths of our minds and the relations between mind and body than western science has, until recently, cared to admit-  and their techniques can still be used to bring about unity and healing for suffering people.

[1] Vanderbilt University, "What is Shamanistic Healing?"
[2] Sigmund Freud, "The Interpretation of Dreams", Sterling Publishing
[3] Marc Galanter, Helen Dermatis, Gregory Bunt, Caroline Williams, Manuel Trujillo, Paul Steinke, "Assessment of spirituality and its relevance to addiction treatment", Betty Ford Institute and Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 2007
[4] Rehabs, "Advantages and disadvantages of various methods"
[5] Claude Levi-Strauss, "Structural Anthropology", Basic Books Publishing
[6] C.Eccleston, "Role of psychology in pain management", BJA, 2001

Shamanic Journey – The Way of the Shaman

I still remember many years ago both the excitement and the trepidation I had upon enrolling in the Beginning Shamanism class at the Esoteric School. I had completed all the magic classes offered and was a bit scared of my perception of shamanism. I couldn't resist going down this path after all the life changing discoveries I experienced in the magic classes, but I admit now that I was somewhat intimidated and a bit skeptical that I could perform such shamanistic feats as going out of body, conversing with spirits and exploring other realms. It all sounded so mysterious.

I look back now and see that this class was a beginning, a Shamanic journey that started me on the road to following the way of the shaman. I did learn the lessons and techniques, but that class was the springboard for a lifestyle change. A shaman is an original researcher working in the Sciences of Religion and Magic. The shaman has meaningful direct communication with higher beings (and possibly lower level entities) to advance man's knowledge. The information obtained can be used just to increase the body of knowledge, for healing, divination, and many other things. Following the way of the shaman means that information is obtained from all sorts of physical and non-physical beings.

By learning techniques to interview and communicate with a wide spectrum of beings and expanding my spirit perceptics way beyond the 5 senses most of us use, I have found new meaning in Metaquiason (we are all one). Following the way of the shaman is a pathway of developing spiritually and embarking on personal inner growth. It also leads us to developing our inborn abilities, perceptic powers and seek power and help from all that is around us. In these present times where we are surrounded by electromagnetic fields of white noise and ruled by technology, many of us don't have a sense of the spiritual insights, powers and abilities that we were born with. The way of the shaman takes us back to a time when the abilities and powers we had were understood and not seen as something extraordinary, something to be feared or something that society shunned. It also leads us to discover who we really are, develop an awareness of how we are connected to everything and everyone else and find our places in the Universe.

If all this sounds intriguing, following the way of the shaman may be for you too. Developing your spirit perceptics is a place you can start exploring. Through the spirit perceptics shamans are able to gather much more information than is available to the 5 senses of the physical body. It takes time to develop these senses so don't be discouraged if you don't get the results you want in the beginning. Just keep practicing. An easy way to start is to learn to expand on a sense that you are already familiar with and use like hearing.

Exercise:

• Sit in a comfortable, quiet location
• Close your eyes and relax (maybe do some deep breathing)
• Draw an imaginary circle about a foot in diameter around you
• Listen to the sounds you hear within this circle and identify each
• Start with the common sounds, ie – children laughing, leaves rustling, someone walking by. Then move on to more obscure sounds that we usually wouldn't notice, ie – the wind blowing softly, an ant walking
• Then you can move on to widening your circle and doing the same thing.
• See how big your circle can become. A block, 5 blocks, a mile?

The more you practice, the more you will stop listening with your physical ears and start listening with your spirit ears. This could be your first step on your shamanic journey, the path to following the way of the shaman.

If you find this is a path for you, check out the Basic Shamanism Homestudy course at the Esoteric School.

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Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaman2477/2717869545/