Shamanic Journeying

Shamanic drum journeying was and still is utilized extensively by shamans from indigenous cultures all over the world. The sound of the drum carries them to other realms of existence where they can do healing work that affects this so-called ordinary realm of existence. The journey often involves relating to power animals who help to bring back parts of a person’s soul that were lost in the course of that individual’s life, or get rid of negative energies that are making someone sick.

Whether or not one subscribes to a belief in other realms of existence, this method of healing is frequently effective, and the same kind of journeying can be used by individuals who are looking for answers to questions that come up in our ordinary reality. The journey is similar to the kind of dreaming we do when we are asleep. Just as you can ask for an answer to a question before you go to sleep, and then find the answer supplied either in a dream or simply as a knowing that is with you when you wake up, so you can ask a question and then go on a drum journey to find the answer.

Traditionally, people would go to one of three places when they journeyed: the upper world, the lower world, or the middle world, which is simply present reality. In other words, when you go to the middle world, you stay right here, and that means this is right where you need to be. The upper world is a landscape where you are high up, and often flying; the lower world is one where you are down underneath, often underwater or under the ground. None of the three are any better than another. In reality, my journeys are frequently a mix of the upper and lower worlds. They often involve going to some fantastic kind of landscape where I meet interesting beings. Usually I can address these beings with my questions and receive profound answers, either in words or in symbolic actions. Once, as I was swimming underwater — where I found I could breathe easily — a swordfish sliced me open (painlessly) up the middle. This action was repeated four times during the journey. Clearly I was being told I needed to open up.

People journey to other sounds as well: rattles, didjeridoos, and even singing. Tapes of drumming and rattling specifically for journeying are available, although it is often easier to take off when a live person is right there making the sound. A journey into another state of consciousness can be induced by other means than sound—our sleeping dreams, some daydreams, past life regression, hypnotic trances, and guided visualizations are kinds of journeying. A picture, a word, a smell—anything can suddenly transport us to another reality if we have the propensity to go there. I was once catapulted into another reality—or perhaps more accurately, another place and time—by the sound of a Tibetan bowl. I became the sound of the bowl, which was quite an astounding sensation, and then the sound came with me, as an instrument of healing, to a place that needed that healing.

It’s best to start a journey with a specific intention or question. You can always control your journey — if you don’t like the place where you find yourself, you can decide to go somewhere else, and you never have to hang out with any being that you don’t like. It can be a great way to access a power animal or a totem. It’s fine to let your imagination go; it doesn’t matter if you think that everything that occurs on your journey is simply the result of a vivid imagination. It can still be useful.

I recommend journeying in a group, where you all get to talk about your experiences afterwards, since no group comes together by accident, and what others have to say may be very useful for you. I have drummed many times for groups, and I usually do it for twenty minutes. I’ve also drummed for people who are journeying to retrieve soul parts for others, which is sometimes a lot longer than twenty minutes. The first five minutes of drumming is often really hard and I can’t imagine how I will keep it up — then something else takes over, and it’s easy.

Where are these journeys taking us? Most humans believe that this physical world we call Earth is reality. We don’t have the language to explain things that don’t fit into it. Are these really different worlds we are visiting, perhaps different planets—or planes of consciousness? Are they different realms of awareness? Are we time-traveling? Are we going through shifts of consciousness that allow us suddenly to become sentient of other times and places? Are they parallel realities, existing in different dimensions? Are other planes of reality, normally invisible to us, intertwined with this one? And what on Earth (or anywhere else) does all that mean, anyway?

I don’t pretend to know the answers to these questions. My physical brain cannot compute what occurs on these kinds of journeys. I only know that they are a wonderfully empowering source of information, and I delight in taking others on them as much as I do in taking them myself. If you are interested in doing a journey, you can contact me through my website, www.mikayaheart.org