Greetings, all.

I don't think I've introduced myself before, but I've been visiting this board for some time. There are a lot of interesting people on here, from what I've seen.

Firstly, I don't call myself a shaman, or a shamanic practitioner or... anything, really. What I do doesn't really have a name. This is the closest name there is for what I do, since there are as many types of "shamanism" as there are shaman/wisewomen/sages/sorcerers/willworkers and everyone else! I am guided mostly by my own intuition, and the teachings I have received throughout my life from what some of you would call spirits, alongside flesh and blood teachers. The rest is in my blood, though painfully diluted (at least the parts that speak the strongest). It makes contact with those associated entities much more difficult, on top of centuries of neglect. But enough about that.

Despite not being able to name it, I can tell you when I came to whatever it is I do. I can tell you exactly. It was a cold winters night in the middle of a snowy field. Some friends and soon-to-be-fellow willworkers and I walked out to the middle of it. It was there in the silvery full moonlight that I made my first offering to the things in/of/on/coexistent with the earth and asked my first gifts and it was then, under the silent stillness of the snow came the deer- one for each of us- slowly across the field. They crossed in front of us, silhouettes. They remained for a time, watched us and then departed when we drew closer. I cannot express to you what I felt then. I asked for wisdom that night and this way is what I found. What was opened to me then is much more vast than I can possibly comprehend. It shocks me even to type it, but it's true. I see now why this vast, indescribable thing is often referred to as The Great Mystery. How can anyone hope to grasp it? At best we can roughly shape parts of it near ourselves temporarily. Like building a sandcastle with spacetime.

Well now I'm rambling. Yet, for the first time in my life, I find words inadequate. That's a shocking enough sentence to type, but it gets worse. Specifically, I find them inadequate to describe the beings I contact or the things I do. My question is this: How many of you have the same problem? Do you find it difficult to describe the things you do or the energies you work with? Do you know any other people that create non-normative reality (really stretching here!)? How do you explain what it is you do to them? What do they say about theirs?

Don't fret over nomenclature. Spirit could care less what you say about what you do - and neither should you. Simply do what you do with integrity and mindfulness.

oh - and one other thing.... don't use the "S" word around people who don't "get it" as they tend to freak or think you are

Thanks for the tip- I've learned to avoid alerting the normies for the most part. Most don't take the information well.

Still, the lack of any kind of shared terminology makes it difficult to communicate even with other, somewhat similar practitioners. I suppose that's how it goes!

Communication about the non-normal or as Harmen would call it, the SSC has been a long running anthropological problem. Classicly when Shaman would talk about their experiences they would do so very literally but the community which was used to having Shaman would accept the words as describing non-normal / SSC reality. Today other than prefacing your words with "When I was in non-normal reality" theres not much you can do.

Going on I'd also say that what you perceive in the SSC is also your own brain's way of trying to make some sort of logical sense about all those mysteries that surround us. Entering into the SSC is a conscious decision to stop listening to all that you know is around you and to peer into the "nothing" and "see" what is there. Your mind has no real foot-hold in this "non-space" and so as it takes in information it forms images and experience to try and best communicate to your consciousness what it is you are looking at.

Therefore you end up trying to communicate to others that which you are already only grasping to understand. It would be unfair to expect others to always "get it". haha. I think this is why many traditions let the spirits do most of the teaching!

Are you talking about the non-normal[perverted],or are you talking about the non-ordinary?These are two different topics.There is nothing abnormal about the mystical experience,but due to it`s nature, it can not be conveyed adequately though language.Language,in general,is a very limited tool compare to the vast mystery of life. We try to define and communicate the mystery of life...We invent titles and new words all the time.The word shaman itself, is new to the English language.We need to label ourselves and others,as a way of classifying ourselves and our experiences,so that we can organize the world into something sensible and predictable.But,no matter how hard we try to define the world,we always fail.It is bound to happen.We become prisoners of our definitions and labels,if we take them too seriously.I myself, don`t know whether I am Buddha,a shaman,or just an enlightened ass!And ,no matter how I define myself,people always argue with my labels!You can Google my blog:oracledreamhealer [as one word] The closest I have come to a language which does justice to the mystery of life,is in Carlos Castaneda`s books and in some poetry.Especially satisfying is the word NAGUAL,as it goes beyond reason and beyond language itself.Yes! I belong to The Nagual. P.S.:Words are just words.But they create realities.

Hello Twinbull

You have hit upon a foundational understanding; a wisdom of experience over knowledge so to speak. The awe and mystery of what is possible and what we as humans barely touch upon in mundane life. Human language, especially English, is such a bare bones system of communication, lacking adequate expressions to describe even the human aspect of interaction with the Divine and this is something well understood by pretty much every belief and religion around the world.

Dreams and visions are our biggest messages from the other worlds yet rarely do they use language, instead it is the language of metaphor which prevails and which allows every one of us to understand precisely at the level which we find ourselves, whether that is as a child or an old hand. The language of metaphor is as rich as the experiences of the individual and hence why story telling is often the best way to transfer knowledge from one generation to the next.

Explaining what we as individuals experience in other realities is almost impossible and usually I just say what I saw without trying to interpret it. My internal filter is very different from theirs so when I am shown something which makes no sense to me, they will often see a clear connection to the issue which I could have no idea was there.

I fully understand your comment and also find it beyond words sometimes to try any kind of explanation so I don't. With regard to speaking to others who don't usually have these sorts of experiences however, there is no longer any fear or worry about people thinking I am weird or strange, it doesn't matter what they think of me. What matters is whether there is a message they need to hear.

For example, a good friend and completely logical, non-believer in anything metaphysical, has recently lost his wife after years of cancer treatments. He knows very well that I see things and experience things which he doesn't believe in and no doubt thought I was pleasantly deluded. I offered (once) any help that they needed as the illness became more serious and it was clear that my kind of 'silly' help was not needed.

It has been 3 weeks since the funeral and he came to see me the other day. We sat and talked for 2 hours about how he is coping, friends and family, getting back to work and all the mundane things yet I could sense he really wanted to tell me something so I gently asked about the last few days of her life. Then it all came flooding out, the strange coincidences, what he and others had seen and felt, the odd happenings which could not be explained etc. Only because he knows that I believe in all this (because it was never hidden) could he finally allow himself to say this to someone without fear of ridicule and to hope that it was true; that his wife really was ok over there and that her spirit had survived death.

Sometimes we really do have to get over ourselves and who we think we are to let Spirit work through us for the benefit of others, it's not about us all the time, we need to be the hollow bone! So what if we look silly to someone? This is all part of walking that knife edge between ego and humility.

Twinbull, what you have written hits the nail on the head, there are no words, only experiences. Allowing those experiences to flow through us without our own crap getting in the way is a life long process of elimination and growth.