Ms. Reeves-Hampton
English 4
16 February 2016
What is Shamanic Drumming? My passion for all things drumming was sparked Christmas Day 2000, when I was a wide-eyed three-year-old boy. The living room was a complete mess with wrapping paper strewn in every direction and a mass of empty cardboard boxes stacked in the corner. There was one gift left sitting under the tree, a rectangular box, roughly the size of a basketball. Little did I know that what was concealed in that box was much more than a basketball; it was the object that was going to become the foundation of my entire life. As my mom handed me the gift, my mind was already racing with the countless items that it could possibly contain. A remote control …show more content…
It is a simple way of stopping the endless wandering and chattering of the mind. It induces an altered state of consciousness. The experiences one encounters in this altered state of mind are referred to as the journey. This journey is unique for every individual meaning it varies greatly from person to person. Once one has entered the trance world, the sound of the drum to his or her ears begins to change. The speed of the drum beat may seem to increase or decrease while the volume of it may get louder, softer, or even disappear. One may also experience a change in his or her internal body temperature, as well as feeling energy flow throughout his or her body. One’s body may also begin to twitch, sway, or rock back and forth. Hearing different sounds and voices is not uncommon while journeying. One may even smell specific aromas or see visions such as colorful patterns, symbolic images, or dreamlike visions (Drake …show more content…
Extraction involves removing a spiritual intrusion. Some shamans say spiritual intrusions are the equivalent of infections in reality. It is not as if an “evil” spirit has entered one’s soul. It is more along the lines of termites infesting a wooden house. They aren’t evil but one would simply want them removed. They are more of a burden or bother than anything else. The Shaman works to remove these burdens from interfering with the health of the human body. This is not done through journeying but rather working in the middle world in an altered state of consciousness. This procedure, like journeying, is done in the dark. This is in order to cut out as much stimuli of ordinary reality as possible, such as light and sound. “The shaman learns to look in the body with "x-ray vision" and see the illness and its location, and then to extract that illness.” (Ingerman