The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue. ~ Carlos Castaneda

The shaman or nagual resides in each of us. While some may be more advanced, the realm of shamanism encompasses levels of heightened awareness that are available to anyone. Shaman are the walkers on the wind, those who live on the precarious edge of existence, able to access knowledge at will and enter into dream, altered states, parallel realities by connecting with intent. They are healers, dreamers, creators, manifestors, teachers, communicators, mediators, record keepers, and more.

They hold vast amounts of knowledge because they were trained to know and continue to immerse themselves into levels of heightened awareness or because they have chosen a path that allows them to turn off their mind and connect to the realm of spirit, of energy, free of the foreign installation, the dominant paradigm and the mold of man.

Current culture is suffering immeasurably as a result of no longer having the guidance of shaman. Children and young adults do not have any guidance as it pertains to knowing their “status in the tribe” or milestones to look forward to, namely rites of passage. They are instead all placed in one “basket” with the same goal of graduating high school and moving on to college without any training or support for developing personal skills or cultivating specific talents. Being on the soccer team or cheerleading squad hones skills in competitive behavior focused on the ego and does nothing as it pertains to self-awareness within an aware universe.

Children rarely play outside anymore choosing, instead, to remain indoors and connected to the television, internet, cell phone or video games. The amount of homework that they are given has increased significantly and there is little time for them to exercise their imaginations or know their world. Many parents, likewise, are technologically connected 24/7 and do not make time to instill any sense of wisdom into their children, perhaps lacking in wisdom themselves.

It is a known fact that the human brain is an underutilized bio-computer, containing billions of unaccessed neurons. The normal consciousness that we deal with every day is only one drop in an ocean of intelligence. The long held belief that there is an Almighty and All Knowing God has made people rely on a savior instead of utilizing their own unlimited potential fully. Timothy Leary attempted to introduce hallucinogens as a means of causing a cultural revolution that would have people question many rigid perceptions of reality. All entheogens have become a controlled substance for the simple fact that they do open the doorways of perception that ultimately provide people with the necessary tools to navigate the cosmos, tap into levels of higher consciousness or simply connect directly to knowledge and natural abilities such as healing and manifesting.

Entheogens literally translates to “that which causes God to be within an individual”. So, before there was an “identified” God one would imagine that it simply meant to connect to the totality of oneself within the realm of consciousness. How fortunate for certain few tribes, like the Huichol of Mexico, who ceremonialize with entheogens in a sacred manner, honoring the earth for providing the entheogens in the first place and including their children in this beautiful and natural process of awareness, beauty and self-empowerment.

Humans must, as a species, begin to evolve from imposed and self-created limitations that would have one believe that they are mere or insignificant beings that rely solely on a god to swoop down and save them, answer their “prayers”, heal or provide for them. The time is now to begin balancing an existence of technological advancement and utilization of the totality of oneself to move beyond limited perceptions and reconnect, once again, to the deepest and most primal parts of our existence, the intricate web of life, our earth and each other.

It is time to reconnect to the transcendence that occurs through sacred or ecstatic dance, connecting deeply to the rhythmic pulse of the earth through drumming, chanting and singing. We must collectively collaborate in supporting each other in realizing a harmonious and unified vision devoid of war, greed, and mind-control. Children must be honored, once again, for milestones in their lives through rites of passage to celebrate their growth from one phase or stage into the next. It will provide for them a sense of purpose and accomplishment and something to look forward to instead of just throwing a bunch of challenges at them expecting that they will, somehow, find their place in a huge and often confusing world.

A radical inner transformation and rise to a new level of consciousness might be the only real hope we have in the current global crisis brought on by the dominance of the Western mechanistic paradigm. ~ Stanislav Grof