Learning to journey can be quick: many people manage it within a few hours, and others within a few days, a few weeks or sometimes a few months; most people can learn it. Becoming a deeply skilled shamanic practitioner is a long road with no short cuts, needing years of practice, a lot of unlearning as well as learning, and humility rather than ego. It is also quickly rewarding, because the shamanic realms open up and start to heal from very early on.
How long did it take in traditional cultures? #
A lifetime. In tribal cultures the training to become a shaman was long and arduous and generally began in early life, and a shaman then spent their whole life living shamanically, in a culture which wholly supported them.1 A child with the aptitude was usually spotted early and nurtured, and was often excused much of the hunting and gathering that others had to share in, because the training took so much time and dedication. It is really hard work, and it is fair to ask who on earth would want to be the shaman. See How were shamans traditionally trained?
Most people in the West come to shamanism much later in life, alongside work, family and everything else, and for them it is usually at best a part-time practice.1 That is one reason the word ‘shamanic practitioner’ is used instead of ‘shaman’. See Can I call myself a shaman?
How quickly can someone learn to journey? #
Often very quickly. Teaching hundreds of beginners over the years, Paul Francis found that out of every ten people about five found journeying easy and natural, four found it fairly easy with a bit of practice, and one found it difficult or impossible. Learning from that one in ten changed the teaching, and these days it is rare to meet anyone who cannot journey at all. What made the difference was not rushing into it, but taking it one step at a time, with a little help over the common stumbling blocks.2
So most people can learn: some within a few hours, some over a few days or weeks, a few over some months. The step-by-step way in is set out in The Shamanic Journey and taught on the First-Steps course. See What is shamanic journeying?
Why are there no short cuts? #
Because shamanism is far more than journeying, and what it asks of a person cannot be hurried. Shamanism can only be learnt by doing it, through one’s own direct experience, which neither a book nor a human teacher can replace.3 Its knowledge is not the kind that only needs to be heard once: it takes time to sink in, and its truth reveals itself bit by bit and layer by layer, so that learning it is a process and not a one-off event.4 Even something as basic as hollowing-outHollowing-out. The core, lifelong discipline of setting aside the middle-world self, its stories, agendas and preconceptions, so the Guides can work through us. The image: the shaman as hollow bone. Read the full answer, the clearing of one’s own thoughts and agendas that authentic journeying rests on, is a skill needing life-long practice, a process rather than a destination.5
The road also asks a lot of self-reflection, and the willingness to face one’s own demons. So courses claiming to turn someone into a shaman in six weeks or three months misunderstand the depth and breadth of the work. It is a long road, deeply and richly rewarding, sometimes tough and challenging, and there are no short cuts on it. See What is hollowing-out?
Why is there so much unlearning? #
Because we start from such a different place from the original animists. To really understand shamanism we have to unlearn a lot of Taker thinking and replace it with a healthier way of seeing the world, including what it means to be a human being amongst the other Peoples.6 Our near-continuous immersion in the human-made middle-worldMiddle-world. Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world.” Read the full answer also gets into journeys themselves: beginners’ journeys to the Lower-WorldLower-World. The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is a reliable sign of not having reached it. Read the full answer are often full of fences, hedges, roads and domesticated animals, and reaching past them to wild, undomesticated nature takes a certain amount of retraining.7
Alongside the shamanic skills to be learnt, then, there are all the wonky stories of contemporary and hierarchical spirituality to be unlearnt, and that is a large part of why the road is long. See What is deprogramming?
Who does well at it? #
The humble ones. Paul often hears from people who want to become a shaman, or a shamanic practitioner, as quickly as possible and ask for the fastest route. In his experience, when such people start training, there usually comes a point when they drop away, because the work is longer and more demanding than they expected. The students who go on to become fine shamanic practitioners, whose journeys become remarkable, tend to start off very humble, sure they will never get far with it. What it takes is not ego but humility, and doing the work.
Does that make it a slow slog? #
No. Of all the things a person might learn, shamanism is one of the most quickly rewarding. From very early on it opens up a new world, a set of realities that can be entered at will, with extraordinary experiences and profound healing to be had there; it is a richly rewarding thing to do. Journeying is an immensely important part of shamanism, and yet, after years of practice, it proves to have been a means to an end, as a whole other way of being, shamanically, opens up.
The balance is the point. How wonderful and effective it is from the outset is real, and it is no sign that there is not a lot more to it. See Is shamanic journeying safe? and How much time does a course take each week?
