What is Shamanism? Interview with Shamanic Journey-ing Teacher Sandra Ingerman

So, What is Shamanism? What does a Shaman do?

What I gathered from the conversation, is that there are some key practices and ways of being that shamans are.

What does a Shaman do? A common practice for shamanism is that shamans (men or women) get themselves into an altered state of consciousness in order to transcend the ego and the thinking mind to connect with inner wisdom and higher guidance from the spirit world.

This altered state of consciousness is typically entered into via a variety of means, through drumming, percussion, rattles, and bells are a common thread for getting into this altered state.

Another means is through song and dance.

What is Shamanism? It’s a practice. Shamanism is the oldest practice of humankind, dating back over 100,000 years. And practiced all over the world in all cultures.

It’s a spiritual practice that Sandra likens to being “gardeners of the energies”. They “see” where the energies are disharmonious, whether that be in an individual, a community, your home and yard, or in today’s modern world, your office, co-workers, teammates or businesses.

What is a Shaman? Shamans have also been considered healers, knowers, seers of the dark and wisdom sharers.

The shaman is a Master or Mistress of entering the altered states and journeying into higher spiritual realms to help bring through higher wisdom, grace and guidance.

Spiritual guidance from higher realms, it is believed, comes into many forms including, that of animals, plants, trees, ancestors, teachers or religious figures like Mother Mary or Jesus, to be able to help us and bring guidance into our lives.

Non-physical Spiritual guides or guardian angels are not in the thick of our world and can take an Eagle’s eye view of the picture of the whole. They can see many perspectives on the human condition and see how we, as a community, can come together as a whole, or as an individual. They are guided by higher wisdom and understanding and offer a more holistic perspective and guidance for the Shaman to share with their community, individual or other forms of entities or communities, like a workplace.

The Shamanism definition from the anthropological point of view is a man or woman who travels into unseen realms to work with helping spirits for higher wisdom and guidance.

Another essential aspect of what the Shaman does is harmonizing the human community with nature. And when the community is in harmony with nature, there’s a beautiful balance, honoring and respect for all of life. In fact, Sandra describes it beautifully as making all of your surroundings your family.

What is Shamanism?

It is also the practice of ceremony and ritual. For every conceivable event in life, there is an opportunity to celebrate, bless and be grateful for the continued abundance in all aspects of life. It is also the opportunity to continually celebrate our connection to nature and all living things while engaged in ceremonies and celebrating specific events and blessings.

Sandra’s Online Courses

Shamanism Training with Sandra Ingerman

Sandra has an evergreen course for beginners called:

Shamanic Journeying for Guidance & Healing with Sandra Ingerman

Sandra describes a little bit more about this course in her interview above, and that portion of the interview starts at 28:42 minutes.

But here’s a short intro to the FREE Online Shaman Class you can take before signing up for her full online course What if you could enter a parallel world to receive accurate guidance on the life situations you’re facing?

Well, if you have the skills for accessing a higher form of consciousness… you can! Through a practice called shamanic journeying, you can seek and receive this type of guidance and healing for yourself and others.

If you’re interested in learning this powerful skill, you won’t want to miss a free, virtual event with Sandra Ingerman, world-renowned teacher of shamanism, called: The Healing Power of Shamanic Journeying: How to Access Inner Guidance from Helping Spirits.

You can reserve your free space here for the FREE shaman classes online with Sandra Ingerman

About Sandra Ingerman

Sandra Ingerman, MA, is an award-winning author of 12 books, including Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self... Medicine for the Earth… Walking in Light... and The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred in Everyday Life. She is the presenter of eight audio programs produced by Sounds True, and is the creator of the Transmutation App. Sandra, a world-renowned teacher of shamanism, has been teaching for more than 30 years. She has taught workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture in ways that address the needs of our times.

Sandra is known for gathering the global spiritual community together to perform powerful transformative ceremonies, and for inspiring us to stand strong in unity so we can do our own spiritual and social activism work while maintaining a vision of hope and serving as a light in the world.

She is passionate about helping people reconnect with nature. Since the 1980s, thousands of people have healed from past and present traumas through Soul Retrieval, the classic cross-cultural shamanic healing method Sandra teaches.

Sandra is a licensed marriage and family therapist and professional mental health counselor. She is also a board-certified expert on traumatic stress. She was awarded the 2007 Peace Award from the Global Foundation for Integrative Medicine. Sandra was chosen as one of the Top 10 Spiritual Leaders of 2013 by Spirituality and Health magazine.

Sandra had two new books released in 2018. The Hidden Worlds, co-written with Katherine Wood, is a novel written for young adults to help them navigate the changing world. And The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred in Everyday Life was written for a shamanic and general audience on how to bring the sacred into daily life by performing shamanic ceremonies designed for our times and the challenges we’re facing.

Sandra joined in partnership with Renee Baribeau to do a weekly 30-minute podcast, The Shamans Cave

Discover all of our curated shamanic teachers here.

Here’s Just 3 of the 12 Books Sandra Ingerman Has Written!