There is nothing to believe.What shamanism is, what the terms mean, and where the honest limit lies.

Hardly any word gets so much claimed and so little explained. Whoever looks for shamanic training first stumbles over terms nobody defines. Here are the terms you'll meet in courses, books and circles, in clear sentences. From someone who learned from indigenous shamans for many years. And who isn't a shaman.

By Andy DittrichAs of 17 September 20269 minutes

Definition

Shamanism isn't a religion and not a belief system. There's nothing to believe, there's something to do. It's a way of dealing with what is there: with what you see, and with what you don't see.

It works with three abilities you've had since birth: awareness, perception and intention. They aren't stages. They're abilities. You say a word. You practise an ability.

Why it needs no place.

Almost everything people believe in needs a place. The yoga class needs the yoga studio, the mass the church, the seminar the room with the flipchart. All built places. And in each one, someone stands at the front.

An Aboriginal man once told me the most beautiful sentence I know about it.

«Our church is nature.»

Our church is nature. Shamanism needs no more place than that. A fire, a tree, the night. And nobody stands at the front. That's why shamanic work gets by without a creed. You don't have to accept anything you can't check yourself. That's exactly what I mean when I say pragmatic shamanism.

Remember

Nothing to believe. Something to practise. Whoever tells you that you first have to accept something for it to work is selling you a membership. Not a craft.

The terms, in clear sentences.Glossary

These words come up in almost every course. They're rarely explained, and even more rarely meant the same way. This is how I use them, here and in the books. The same everywhere.

Term
What it means
Awareness (Awareness)
Knowing, directly, that you are and where you are. The base sense without which there would be no perception and no intention. Image: a searchlight in the dark. It never leaves the body and can expand. The question that goes with it: where are you?
Perception (Perception)
The sense that reads reality. Always filtered by what you believe and have lived. Image: a lens that shapes what you see. It can focus and get stuck. The question that goes with it: what do you see?
Intention
Direct seeing, with nothing in between. It never stops and sits in the heart. Image: an arrow flying its path. In the stories it's simply called the line. The question that goes with it: where does your line go?
Intention from the head
Not the same as intention from the heart. The head makes this kind, a hundred a day, and when you get tired, it falls over. The line you don't make, you find it. It was there first.
Totality
There is more of you than fits into a body. All of you together is your totality. The body is the part of it that needs shoes.
Reality
Something you feel to be true. That's all it takes. That you're not good enough is a reality. Realities don't ask whether they're right. They're there, and you live in them.
The material world
What you can grasp with the senses: body, earth, things. The ground under your feet.
The non-material world
What is there without being graspable: thoughts, feelings, energy, lines. The air you don't see and still feel.
Manifestation
The way from the non-material into the material world. Without intention there would be no material world.
Lineage
The chain of teachers through which something was passed on. A river of knowledge running through generations. Whoever can't name one doesn't have one.
Great Spirit
In many indigenous traditions the name for that from which everything comes. Not a god who rewards and punishes. More like the wind that moves everything.

Awareness, perception and intention are explained in detail on their own page: the three abilities.

What isn't claimed here.

The three abilities appear in many traditions, under other names. Among the Toltecs, in Buddhism, in yoga, in Taoism, in Christian mysticism, in Sufism. That's remarkable. And it isn't proof. It only shows that people in different places observed the same thing and named it differently.

That awareness, perception and intention are three different processes in you is something you can check on yourself. Tonight, without any equipment. For the big cosmic claims, there's nothing like that. Whoever tells you science has measured the lines of the world is telling you a story.

Showing resonance, yes. Claiming proof, no.

And a second limit: shamanic work doesn't replace a doctor or therapy. Whoever promises you healing promises too much. Whoever diagnoses you without being a doctor does you no good. Even if they mean well.

There is nothing to believe. There is something to do.

Common questions.

What is shamanism?
Not a religion, not a belief system. There's nothing to believe, there's something to do. A way of dealing with what is there: with what you see, and with what you don't see. It works with three abilities you've had since birth: awareness, perception, intention.
Is shamanism a religion?
No. A religion has a place, a scripture, and someone standing at the front. Shamanism has none of that. An Aboriginal man put it to me like this: "Our church is nature." It needs no more place than that.
Do I have to believe in anything?
No. What you can't check yourself you don't have to accept. That's what I mean by pragmatic shamanism: only things you can do and check on yourself.
What is a dream journey?
A guided practice, usually with a drum. You move your awareness deliberately to where you want to go, expand it and stay there, longer than your head allows. It isn't the body that travels. Your awareness doesn't leave the body, it expands.
Does it take substances or plant medicine?
No. You train the abilities this is about sober. A substance can shift your perception. It doesn't replace training, and it doesn't give you a direction.
Can you become a shaman?
You're born a shaman. Not made one by a weekend seminar, not by a certificate. What you can learn is the craft: listening, perceiving, holding your own line. That's a lot. And it's enough for a lifetime.
Are there stages or levels?
No. There are steps, and they're yours. Stages only exist in comparison with others, and comparison has no place in a ritual.
How does shamanic training work?
That depends on the path. Year-long trainings work with fixed modules, weekend seminars give a way in, indigenous lineages pass things on over years and rarely as a course. What all good paths have in common: you practise between meetings, someone watches you while you do, and nobody promises you a result. Mentoring is the form I offer: six months, one to one, two hours in person every month.
What's the difference from coaching or therapy?
Coaching works with the head and with goals. Therapy works with what was, and belongs in trained hands. Shamanic work starts with perception and with the direction you're going in. It replaces neither doctor nor therapy. Whoever promises you otherwise promises too much.
Is it dangerous?
Rituals aren't dangerous. They work. That's a difference. Whoever goes in without a direction of their own comes out changed, and then someone else has decided the direction. That's why there are three questions before you go.
Where does this knowledge come from?
From many years with indigenous shamans in North America and Mongolia and with a teacher in the Moroccan desert, always as a student. The teachers' names stay unnamed. That was the agreement.

Who writes this.

Andy Dittrich
Andy Dittrich

Many years of shamanic training, always as a student: with two indigenous shamans in North America and Mongolia, and with a teacher in the Moroccan desert. Since then he has guided around two thousand people through rituals, safely in and safely back out. He writes the SHAMANIC WAYS book series and lives in Switzerland.

He isn't a shaman. You're born a shaman, not made one by a weekend seminar or a mail-order drum.

My intention with these pages: I share my knowledge so you can find the difference yourself. Between shamanic bullshit and something truly special.

Before you go

Rituals work.The question is in which direction.

Three questions expose more than any research. They have their own page, to take with you.

See the mentoring

Goes with it.

Shamanic?Look closely. Ask. Five questions for any leader. Shamanic trainingFour paths. No oversight. How to recognise the serious ones. Secret knowledgeIf it's secret, why is it being shared? The three abilitiesAwareness, perception, intention. You were born with them.