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www.shamansociety.org 23 You can also probe the clients experi- ences for correspondences with your own. During one journey I saw my spirit helper sitting at my clients left. Right afterwards he pointed to his left and with wide-eyed amazement exclaimed I saw a spirit right there Personal Feelings Imaginal journeys can be highly emo- tional. One of my best tests is the depth of feeling during and right after the journey. The true journey can be deeply moving extremely intense at times prompting copious tears and guffaws prolonged sobbing and bellylaughs. Imaginal journeys can feel hyper- realistic far more real than OR. You conclude that it has to be real because it feels so deeply right. You feel condent that you were there in NOR having gone home having arrived at your authentic self. The imagery rings true and you hardly have to ask yourself if it was real because it feels so genuine. The experience is profoundly real rather than shallowly so. The imagery is captivating. You feel locked in to a more powerful reality. You feel in the ow as if in an ath- letes zone.4 You feel totally engaged absorbed non-alienated one with the world. At the end of very deep journeys you sense that a dissociation from OR spacetime has occurred for example a temporal loss time ew by and spatial disorientation where was I and where am I now. You may nd it hard to re- turn to OR. For example you may nd it initially difcult to focus on material objects. Your OR consciousness may feel totally blitzed. Follow-up After the journey you can reality- test the results. Whereas modernity often considers shamans unstable or at least New Age Flaky in fact they are eminently practical. Shamanic teachers indeed stress the production of useful results.5 By their fruits in other words you will know the shamans. Whenever feasible then I do follow-ups summon- ing the courage to face the possibility of being totally wrong. The only failures are the ones we fail to learn from. When journeying in a group on a joint task check for duplication of your information with that garnered by your fellow travelers paying special atten- tion to the most powerful ones. I once journeyed along with another shaman for a client suffering from a serious injury. We both got images of continued problems and we both were told that the injury had happened for the sake of the clients spiritual developmenta helpful conrmation. A good sign is that the gifts we bring back turn out helpful for all concerned. The spirits work from a holistic point of view so when helping you or a client they are at the same time help- ing everyone involved including other species. Of course the best test of all is what seems to be a miracle for example the long-distance healing of animals or infants or unconscious patients. When results so far beyond the pale of OR oc- cur we simply have to surrender to the Mystery. Bon Voyage Shamanique You can put the above items into a checklist for lling out after your journeys and be brave here throw your logical mind a bone by asking it to calcu- late your scoresit will love you for it. If you still have trouble with making it up then if you are just journeying for yourself you can do what I heard well- known Peruvian shaman Oscar Miro- Quesada once say completely without cynicism Fake it till you make it6 Eventually youll see the mirror mirror on the wall become a window after all. References 1 Brown T. Jr. Way of the shaman. Workshop Tracker School St. Petersburg FL 2007. For useful journeying methods see his Awaken- ing spirits. New York Berkley Trade 1994. 2 Black Elk W. Lakota shamanism. Workshop Rowe Conference Center Rowe MA 1996. 3 Brennan B. Light emerging. New York Bantam 1993. 4 Csikszentmihalyi M. Flow The psychology of optimal experience. San Francisco Harper Row 1990. 5 E.g. Villoldo A. Soul retrieval inten- sive Inca shamanism. Workshop Omega Institute Rhinebeck NY 1996. 6 Miro-Quesada O. Flight of the con- dor The heart of Peruvian shaman- ism. Workshop Rowe Conference Center Rowe MA 2000. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. David Kowalewski has taught university courses in philosophy psychology vision questing deep ecology and related topics. His articles have appeared in Journal of Psychohistory Journal for the Scientic Study of Religion International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Review of Religious Research and elsewhere. He is a graduate of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies Three-Year Program in Advanced Shamanic Initiation. He thanks Tom Nault for helpful comments on the article. David Kowalewski PhD Professor Emeritus Alfred University fkowalewskialfred.edu