My Astral Experience With a Tribal Shaman
August 15th, 2007 by John Wolfe
My last post introduced a small portion of information about shamanic practices. In always striving for there to be a method to my madness, throughout all of my blog posts, I like to lay some initial groundwork prior to getting a little weird… and so, it’s once again time for the weird. 
About three years ago, while experiencing a major influx of intentional and unintentional out of body experiences (OBE), I had one of my most fascinating encounters. It occurred prior to drifting off to sleep, as I slowly entered into the state I like to call the twilight zone. Its technical name is the hypnagogic state, but the twilight zone sounds a lot cooler.
This is where we tiptoe between the waking world and the dreamscape. At certain times I have been able to enter this state while retaining full consciousness, without falling victim to the unconscious sleep state, and that’s what was occurring on this particular occasion. It’s slightly similar to becoming fully lucid, in the midst of a dream, minus all the amazing dream landscapes and scenarios.
After spending an indeterminate amount of time suspended within the twilight zone (without once falling asleep), I felt the familiar sensations and symptoms of an astral projection coming on. Upon fully projecting, I found myself immediately experiencing inner motion and a rush of energy, as if something was drawing me to a very specific location.
Within an instant I was viewing landscape that appeared (to me) to be the American Great Plains (I live in the desert southwest), just as bright and vivid as if I was standing there, seeing it with my physical eyes and body. Again there was a feeling of inner motion and I found myself “pulled” inside a hut, which was seated on the same plains.
The inner portion of the hut looked like a movie set from a very high budget Hollywood western- the type where no expense has been spared to convince the audience of its authenticity, only I didn’t see any cameras, sound men, or directors. The hut was decked out in hides, skins, drums, rattles, and all sorts of paraphernalia and tools involving elements of nature. As I felt myself scanning the room and absorbing the feel and essence of my intense surroundings, I noticed a Native American woman- actually her sex was difficult to determine by appearance, I was only able to feel and intuitively know she was female- sitting with her eyes closed.
In front of her an extremely low fire burned; while a combination of light and dark smoke wafted before her face, then exited up through a raggedy opening in the dwelling. It was obvious the fire was not for warmth, but for a mystical process she was in the midst of conducting. I glanced toward the entrance of the hut and was amazed at the continued clarity of what I was witnessing- the afternoon sun was streaming through the half opened doorway and I could see particles of dust flitting in and out of its light.
Next, she began to rhythmically go to work on one of her instruments, as a combination of drumming and haunting chants filled the hut. I “stood there” completely mesmerized by her process. At this point in time, I had become fairly accustomed to having OBEs, but I had yet to have an encounter, of this magnitude, during an experience. The sights, sounds, and scenery were as authentic as anything I have ever seen, heard or experienced with my physical senses, if not more so.
As I became more and more mesmerized by her process, I felt myself growing lighter and more off balance, until I “fell” against the wall of the hut, passing right on through to the other side. I then dropped into an endless void until I hit, with what seemed like a thud, against my bed- it was at that moment that I again merged with my physical awareness and the experience was over- save for one thing: her chanting was now echoing through my ears and its sound was deeply etched into my mind. To this day I can still hear it.
I opened my eyes, completely blown away by what I had just witnessed. In fact, there are no words that can express how awesome this experience was. As I laid there, strong impressions began washing over me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was responsible for drawing me to her location, considering I found her, upon my arrival, in the midst of meditating.
OBEs usually unfold in a way that reflect what is dominant in our thoughts and emotions, yet I had no conscious awareness of anything that would make me a match to an environment, which contained this woman’s experiences. So, it seemed that her trance like state, which was occurring simultaneously (there really is no such thing as time) to my own, drew me to her. But the strongest of feelings and sensations, I received, was that she was actually an aspect of myself- whether you want to call it a past life, parallel reality or simultaneous interdimensional existence, she was me and I was her. I just knew it.
A few weeks later, I was relating the experience to a friend of mine (who is pretty sensitive and intuitive) but before I could give her my feelings and impressions about why the encounter occurred, she immediately stated there was a strong connection and bond between this tribal shaman and myself, indicating that we were indeed the same person. I also did a little research, after the experience, because I didn’t even believe women were shamans among most native tribes- thinking this may throw a monkey wrench into my whole experience. It turned out that women actually played a very prominent role in shamanistic type work, among some tribes, on the American Great Plains.
I haven’t reconnected with her since my last experience, but I’ll never forget how amazing and vibrant my initial encounter was. It’s phenomenal experiences like these that keep me hungry to continue exploring the metaphysical.
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Related Posts
Podcast #2: Astral Projection
Experiences Out of the Body – Part 1
Experiences Out of the Body – Part 2
Recent Out of Body Experiences
Astral Projection & the Big Bang
Techniques For Achieving an OBE
Releasing fear of Astral Projection
Q & A: Out of Body Noises & Sensations
