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22 The Journal of Shamanic Practice VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2 FALL 2012 Truth Tests But how specically might we know if the images of our intended journey are our own or those of the spirits What are the criteria The following are some tests. If you experience several of these during your practice keep on journey- ing if not you can hit the Delete key on your consciousness and re-start your journey or journey another time. Physical Responses The ASC is occasionally associated with strange bodily responses such as swaying for example the Holy Rollers trembling the Shakers and levitating. Fairly common are inexplicable heat or cold tingling skin buzzing feeling a current surging through the body spasms paralysis or rigidity or stiffness and strange touches aromas and sounds. You may have the sensation of falling or ying. Informational Style The way images appear and their content can be clues to their origin. In NOR information ows in directly without any effort as in the wu wei of the Dao. It tends to come in a ash ood quantum bursts or packets fol- lowed by longer periods of quiescence. The imagery wells up emerging out of darkness and is not pushed out. It just pops in. I nd NOR imagery amorphous un- like the cardboard cut-outs of OR. The following contrasts Ive found personally helpful NOR OR light heavy oating static swirling xed owing rigid foggy clear wavy straightlined fuzzy sharp eeting permanent translucent solid mysterious commonplace I rst noted these differences when trying to gure out why a student was always completely wrong in his remote viewing Middle World journeys. He drew incredibly detailed sharp and wooden images whereas students with hits drew the opposite. When I told him to wait for less dened imagery he started getting hits. Now in my own journeys when I see an elaborate static solid image I hit Delete. Yet shaman- ism dees the very notion of iron laws. Ive heard especially skilled shamans for example describe their imaging as like watching TV. 2 NOR imagery takes on a life of its own. The images are acting as it were completely beyond your control. This is a very good sign because OR the world of the logical mind is all about control for the sake of physical survival whereas NOR the world of mystery is all about surrender for the sake of spiritual growth. Informational Content The content of the information is also instructive. My favorite clue is surprise. If you say to yourself You cant make this stuff up you probably didnt. The received imagery is often unpredicted and even unpredictable since it springs from the NOR of creativity not the OR of routine. Too it can be totally out of character for you. Especially if it seems illogical at the time but later proves wise you have an excellent sign it came from the spirits and not the logical mind. Once I journeyed for a client Id never met before to whom my spirit helper offered a martini. Upon hearing this she said her favorite drink was martinis. I was sure this information came from NOR since as I told her I would never have come up with that myself. So when cli- ents say You couldnt have known that they are right but the spirits did. Another good clue is nonliteral and nonrealistic content. Alphanumerics it should be said do occur in true journeys. But symbols metaphors myths and al- legories are more common coming in the form of especially meaningful pictures sounds colors gestures and the like. For example when I do soul retriev- als I often hear loudly in my ears the specic age of the clients when their soul-loss occurred. But symbolic infor- mation is much more evident. On one occasion while journeying for a client to learn about his destiny I was taken to outer space where I was drawn to a lone star shining in the darkness. In popular speech as I later remembered the pur- suit of destiny is called following your star. There I was told that his destiny was to shine the light of his sacred soli- tude out to the world. Later he told me he was a loner and liked being so. And the kicker He lived in Texas the Lone Star State and especially liked Lone Star beer. Shortly thereafter I read about the ability of Barbara Brennan the well- known healer to see in the auric eld of clients a core star manifesting their destiny.3 As Ive told my students Too many coincidences are no coincidence theyre a synchronicityanother good sign of true journeys. The spirits according to ancient wisdom give us what we need but not necessarily want. A good test that the information came from them and not yourself is that you certainly do not want to hear it so it cannot be the wishful thinking of the logical mind. The information may not make sense at all such that by journeys end you are bafed. It may even seem completely illogicalinformation from NOR does not have to be logical which is why Native-Americans call NOR the Big Mystery and Australian aborigines call it the Dreaming. Whereas the spirits do give us immediate insights much can remain mysterious for some time. The meaning often comes later in the form of sudden realizations Aha so thats what it meant I remember stopping cold in my tracks one day when I suddenly realized what my mysterious experience during a vision quest 10 years earlier in fact meant. This is why journaling your experiences is so useful.