98 SECRETS OF SHAMANISM
earphones and a tape recording of shamanic drumming.
He explained that John was to relax, close his eyes, and
allow the image of a cave to form in his mind's eye. At the
cave entrance, he was to meet an animal who would be
his guide. He was to ask that animal for help with his
problem.
Within five minutes, John was relaxed and entering
the entrance to his cave. He was met there by a large
golden lion who greeted him in English. Since the lion
was a cat and not a dog, John had no problem with it. He
explained his fear and the lion told him to climb on his
back and hang on. With a tremendous leap, the lion flew
into the ribbed tunnel at the back of the cave. The narrow
tunnel wound this way and that, until they emerged into
the middle world in a place that looked familiar to John. It
was like the countryside where John had grown up. He
looked across the field and saw a very little boy, running
from two large dogs who were jumping up on him. As
John watched with mounting anxiety, the boy ran into a
barbed wire fence in his efforts to escape and began to
flail, tearing his clothes. In a single bound, the lion sprang
to the boy, warding off the dogs. John sprang off the lion's
back to untangle the boy from the barbed wire. With a
shock John saw that the boy was he himself, many years
before. The boy was senseless with fear, and it took John
some time to calm him down. He smoothed his hair and
wrapped a gash with his handkerchief. Then he called the
dogs over and lectured them. "I know you guys were just
roughhousing, but you are big and scary to this little boy
and he could have been badly hurt. When you approach
children, you have to be more gentle." The dogs were
chagrined, but soon they wagged their tails and came
over to lick the boy's scrapes. The boy, with the invisible
lion standing guard and John holding him, began to
stroke the dogs' backs. Soon he was laughing and play-
ing with them. "Come on, John," the Lion called, "time to
go." John leaned down and snuggled the boy that was
himself. "Just think, if we hadn't come along you might
have gotten stuck on that fence for hours. I know how
scary that can be. That actually happened to me long
ago. Anytime you need some help, just call me and I'll be
glad to help. I've got some powerful friends." With that, he
hopped on the lion's back for the speedy trip home.
John awoke with a jolt in Fred's office. "Boy, you must
have had a real powerful trip," Fred said, grinning. "You
were out for almost half an hour." John remained silent for