The Beginner's Guide to Shamanic Journeying (The Beginner's Guides)

Rating:
Summary: good overview and practice for beginners and westerners
Review: and what i mean by that is: if you are unfamiliar with shamanism or know it only from a technical, readerly aspect, this would certainly be a good choice. if you already have her SEEING IN THE DARK cassettes, there will be some repetition. and then if you have some of her books, again, it will be info you are familiar with. this CD though does have a 12-minute drumming track...of course, you may rather get a drumming-only cd or tape from harner or martin duffy (ireland) and then get sandra's cassettes. so, that's the deal. fish around. but for the price amazon has this, it is a worthy gift for someone you think would get something from this practice. another thing is sandra's voice. it is earthy, natural and calming but in a grounding, not flighty way. and her drumming/rattling is nice. it works. ok, one other thing. other fine scholar-practitioners of cultural (and not "core") shamanism like christian ratsch (Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas) believe that this fundamentally recent wave of Core journeying is NOT effective. he is not too fond of harner and co. but i think what sandra is offering IS genuine...and she obviously HAS the gift...but many perhaps DO need entheogenic propulsion in addition to drumming etc. to each his own. some of us can function in both of those dynamics. i think too many shy away from the psychoactively charged realms...and TOO MANY spend too much time and rely on peyote/DMT/nutmeg/etc too much. so there. find YOUR balance. all said, this is a fine CD and intro. like it says, this IS "The Beginner's Guide"...

Rating:
Summary: INSIGHTFUL GUIDANCE FOR BEGINNERS
Review: I was highly impressed with insights and suggestions on this recording. One can put only so much information on one CD and for what you can learn and experience as a newcomer to Shamanic journeying in a little bit more than ONE HOUR, I have found this CD awesome.

I particularly liked suggestions relating how to ask good questions and set an intent for a journey. One particular suggestion would apply to any form of divination.

For example, if you ask your spirit helper (power animal, etc.) "Should I marry so and so?", the spirit helper may say "Sure, go ahead". Then when you get married to that person, you find out that the marriage was a complete disaster and start to wonder about the effectiveness of Shamanic journeying.

Sandra points out that spirit helpers view everything as a "learning experience", so the most appropriate question would be "What will I learn if I marry so and so?" The answer may be "betrayal" and you may decide that you don't really care much to learn about betrayal, to which your spirit helper answers, "OK, then, don't marry that person".

The quality of the questions we ask greatly influences the quality of helpful information we get.

This CD has contains about one hour of information consisting of introduction to shamanic journeying and a lot of good key points for successful journeying and then about 10 minutes or drumming and rattling for the actual journeying experience. I think it is a wonderful gift for someone who wants to get a taste of shamanic journeying.

Rating:
Summary: INSIGHTFUL GUIDANCE FOR BEGINNERS
Review: I was highly impressed with insights and suggestions on this recording. One can put only so much information on one CD and for what you can learn and experience as a newcomer to Shamanic journeying in a little bit more than ONE HOUR, I have found this CD awesome.

I particularly liked suggestions relating how to ask good questions and set an intent for a journey. One particular suggestion would apply to any form of divination.

For example, if you ask your spirit helper (power animal, etc.) "Should I marry so and so?", the spirit helper may say "Sure, go ahead". Then when you get married to that person, you find out that the marriage was a complete disaster and start to wonder about the effectiveness of Shamanic journeying.

Sandra points out that spirit helpers view everything as a "learning experience", so the most appropriate question would be "What will I learn if I marry so and so?" The answer may be "betrayal" and you may decide that you don't really care much to learn about betrayal, to which your spirit helper answers, "OK, then, don't marry that person".

The quality of the questions we ask greatly influences the quality of helpful information we get.

This CD has contains about one hour of information consisting of introduction to shamanic journeying and a lot of good key points for successful journeying and then about 10 minutes or drumming and rattling for the actual journeying experience. I think it is a wonderful gift for someone who wants to get a taste of shamanic journeying.