In this weekend workshop, you will learn how to safely alter your consciousness through shamanic drumming to take the shaman's journey. The best way to learn about the class is to visit the Foundation for Shamanic Studies webiste. The link is on this page, but here are some of my thoughts on the workshop and what it can offer you. The journey is the shamanic practice, which differentiates shamanism from all other spiritual practices. When you journey, your spirit leaves your body to walk in the worlds of nonordinary reality. These are worlds that exist outside of time and space, the worlds known to shamans throughout millennia.

In these worlds of splendor and indescribable beauty, you meet with your unique compassionate helping spirits. These spirits know everything that is, was or ever will be. They can cure illness and answer seminal questions about your life.

Most importantly, the helping spirits are made of love and compassion. When you work with your helping spirits, you know you are being held, being cherished. Your learn that everything has a spirit, which can be honored and loved.

In the course of our time together over the weekend, you will have the chance to explore many aspects of the shamanic journey, and engage in classic core shamanic practices that can change the way you view yourself, your life and all of reality.

You will know how shamanism is affecting your life after the workshop when you return home. By applying the wisdom and teachings you have experienced and learned, your life begins to transform. Core shamanic work is not a belief or a faith in something; it is concrete, empirical.

And because the work in this class is designed to help you practice shamanism throughout your life, this is a ultimately a process that can both instantly alter the way you live and the ways in which you evolve over time.

In my life, core shamanism has taught me that life is a mystery to be danced, and not a destination to be sought. What can it teach you?