20 SECRETS OF SHAMANISM
your imagination to choose what question to ask or to decide
what your focus will be. You create vivid sense-based images
that help you see or feel what you are looking for. You then
act on those images.
Visualization or visioning is a technique that uses imagi-
nation to create mental pictures of exactly what is wanted.
For example, if you want a new car you create an image of
that car and concentrate on it over and over until you get
results. This method can be very effective and shamans
sometimes use it to help them to manifest an outcome they
wish to achieve. They manipulate thoughts and feelings to
create a visual or sense-oriented picture of their goal. This
helps them to formulate exactly what it is they want in the
first place. Here is how to do it:
- First create a mental picture of the exact item or experi-
ence that you wish to create in reality: perhaps a new
house, a successful family gathering, or a vacation in the
South Pacific.
- Describe it in great detail to yourself.
- Infuse it with all the excitement and enthusiasm you can
muster. Include all your senses in creating a full image.
- Let the image go. Repeat the exercise up to ten times.
The journey method is similar to visualization in that it is
interactive with the environment, action-oriented, and
power-based. In shamanic journeying you mobilize energy
through your thoughts and emotions and send it out to inter-
cede with the forces that exist in the world. If you have
stored enough power you will be able to realize results with
the hope of your allies. This emphasis on stored power is one
feature that makes journeying different from simple visual-
ization. A second difference between the two methods is the
nature of the outcome. Unlike planned visualizations, in the
shamanic journey process you don't always know what is
going to happen in your visions. You don't control the events
and situations that you experience but you can control how
you respond to them.
Being able to visualize is an important prerequisite to de-
veloping the ability to journey. The more active your imagi-
nation and the more skill you have in using it, the more
powerful you will be. The more powerful you are, the better
you will be able to do the kind of maneuvering necessary in
journeying, to meet challenges and obstacles in your path.
You will need to open that door between the world of ordi-
