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to all that is. Einstein could have been a shaman, because he went into a place of stillness, what we call sacred space, and the information he needed came to him there,” she says. Perlmutter explains visceral experience as physically within the body, real and undeniable. Her own personal experience clarified this. “It was my near-death experience 25 years ago. My deceased grandfather came through so clearly that I could smell the nape of his neck as I did when I was a child. I heard him say, ‘You’re going to live.’ I recovered slowly,” she says, noting that this kind of experience leaves a deep sense of knowing that requires no intellectual interpretation. Shamanic work is empowering. “It showed me beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are connected to Peruvian shamans that Leize Perlmutter studied with everything and reinforced for me that we are unmistakably energy beings having a human experience. Our work as shamans is to clear an individual’s energetic field of imprinted information left by trauma and conflict. by Linda Sechrist These imprints are residual remains. arly in humanity’s evolution, relying on has provided the impetus for numerous They may have been generated by the the instinctive feeling of relationship new book releases on the subject. Two culture, family or other relationships; with a living Earth and a sense of kinship of the most recent, The Re-enchantment even by ancestors. These act as interwith all creation was the only way to of a Shaman: A Shamanic Path to a Life ferences, blinding us to perceiving the survive. In our modern world, this way of of Wonder, authored by Hank Wesselworld as it is. Clearing these empowers living is known as shamanism, which has man, Ph.D., and Encounters with Power: the individual,” says Perlmutter. existed in many parts of the world since Adventures and Misadventures on the Shamanism is a calling for some the beginning of civilization. Shamanic Path of Healing, written by individuals. Others come to it as a “Over countless thousands of years, Jose Luis Stevens, result of trauma or shamanic myths and rituals of connection Ph.D. Wesselman as Perlmutter Our work as shamans is illness, kept alive the awareness of the existence describes the magic did. “When people to clear an individual’s start seeing and feelof an invisible spirit-world or soul-world,” of connecting to the writes Ann Baring, in The Dream of the invisible world while ing things they can’t energetic field of Cosmos: A Quest for the Soul. Stevens writes about it explain and others imprinted information around them can’t The main feature of the shamanic from the perspective of way of knowing that Baring emphasizes acquiring the kind of comprehend, they beleft by trauma is that in all shamanic traditions, dualpower that teaches and gin to look for a way and conflict. ism does not exist—there is no other. nourishes us. to deal with their exNature is not split off from spirit; the periences. Shamanism ~Leize Perlmutter two are one. She muses that the lack of is often the answer,” Leize Perlmutter recognizing the existence of such a way For Leize Perlmutter, remarks Perlmutter. has led to the disconnect of humanwho studied shamanism with The Four ity’s collective soul from its roots. She Whale Maiden Winds Society, it is about magic and also proposes that this problem is the A suburban shaman living in Fort Myre-enchantment, as well as power realreason for why our culture has become ers, Whale Maiden encourages every ized from connecting with the web of dysfunctional and unable to respond to one to find the magic in the land, life and with source or divine energy. our deepest needs. A longing to return starting with the front yard. She’s also a “Our culture perceives ordinary reality to these roots may be why so many writer, teacher and photographer. in a very limited way, whereas a shaindividuals are turning to shamanism. “Shamanism came naturally to me man sees it from an expanded state of The growing interest in shamanism consciousness and connects viscerally while I was growing up in the suburbs of
The World Through the Eyes and Hearts of Three Local Shaman
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