Therapeutic Shamanism has no special teaching about autism, and it is open to question whether even the word “neurodiverse” still treats difference as illness. What shamanic work can offer is a practice that does not depend on seeing pictures in the mind, ways of journeying that can be suited to the person, a tradition in which the shaman stood a little apart from the rest of society, and relationships beyond the human world, including a 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 tribe. It is not a treatment for autism, and every autistic person is different.
Does Therapeutic Shamanism have a teaching about autism? #
Not a separate one. Therapeutic Shamanism’s view of neurodiversity asks whether our culture’s idea of normal is itself a product of domesticationDomestication. The process by which, in domesticating other species, we domesticated ourselves. When dated precisely, Domestication begins with the Neolithic era, before the Fall proper, which begins with the first city-state cultures around 4000 BCE. What rewilding works to undo. More about this. Maybe the term neurodiverse is still pathologising, and still incorrectly sees neurotypical as normal. See What is neurodiversity, and how does Therapeutic Shamanism see it? and Is neurotypical the same as the Domesticated Mind?
Autism is also very varied. What helps one autistic person may not suit another at all, and the person themselves is the expert on their own experience. So this answer describes what shamanic work offers, not what it will mean for any particular person. See Will the courses suit me if I am neurodivergent?
Do I have to see things in a journey? #
No. Many people who found journeying hard “were expecting it to be visual.”1 For some people a journey “will still be quite visual. But (and this is important!) not for everybody.” Many who thought they could not journey “were in fact journeying, but just not realising it because they were dismissing the non-visual things that were happening, and not paying attention to them.” “It is important to learn to pay attention to the non-visual.” When a journey seems stuck, turn to the other senses and ask, ‘What can I smell, or hear, or taste, sense or intuit?’2
So a person whose inner world works more through sound, smell, body sensation or intuition than through pictures is not at a disadvantage. See What state of consciousness is used in journeying, and do journeys have to be visual?
What if a drum recording does not suit me? #
Try others, since “Different people have different styles, and use different-sounding drums”. As well as single drums, there are recordings using “double drums, drums with rattles, just rattles, didgeridoos, singing bowls”, and “Each tends to add a different flavour and mood to the journeying experience, so it is good to experiment and find what works for you.”3 See What role do drumming, movement and other methods play in journeying?
Did shamans stand apart from their communities? #
To some extent, yes. The shaman is “often an ‘outsider’ figure who lives, to some extent, on the edge of society”, someone “less bound and constrained by the rules and customs of normal society.” The point of this is not to abandon society but “about being able to help society and be of service by being able to see society more clearly and objectively.”4
This is about the shaman’s role, not about autism, and it does not mean that autistic people are shamans or should become one. See What do tribe and belonging mean, and what is the shaman’s role in a community?
Can shamanic work help with not belonging? #
It offers another place to belong, for anyone who has struggled to. In Therapeutic Shamanism, each of us has a tribe in the Lower-World, our Ancestral Kin: “Maybe you have never felt really welcome in the human 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, or that you have a place here. By going to your Ancestral Kin, you can experience what it is like to be part of a tribe where you really belong, and are loved, valued, accepted, and truly treasured.”5
Shamanic work also opens relationships beyond the human altogether: with a Power AnimalPower Animal. The Oversoul of a wild species, met as a single Lower-World being and bonded with in a deep, committed, usually lifelong soul-bond of unconditional love. The practitioner’s first and foremost Guide: Panther, not “my panther”. Read the full answer, and with the Animal, Plant and Stone PeopleStone People. All physical matter: mountains, sea, rivers, clouds, sun and stars: the oldest and widest of the Peoples. As some animist cultures put it, ‘we are just the Stone People, dancing for a while’. Read the full answer. See What is the difference between an ancestor and an Ancestor? and Who are the Animal, Plant and Stone People?
What does masking cost? #
Research suggests the costs can be high. Researchers use the word camouflaging for the ways autistic people hide or compensate for autistic traits in order to fit in. A review of the research describes its consequences as including “physical and emotional exhaustion, often requiring time alone to recover”, and problems of identity that led some people to “lose track of who I really am”.6 Therapeutic Shamanism’s approach to every person is about finding, and living from, the real self underneath the persona. See Is neurotypical the same as the Domesticated Mind?
Is shamanic work a treatment for autism? #
No. It does not offer to change anyone’s neurology. Shamanic work is aimed at what life in this culture can do to any of us, such as soul-loss and Power-loss, and it can sit alongside other kinds of support. Journeying for yourself “can often be of great help and benefit if you suffer with things like depression, anxiety, addictions, procrastination, low self-esteem etc., as long as you still have a reasonably good grip on this ordinary reality too.” For some conditions, though, journeying alone could make matters worse, and Rewilding Yourself names them.7 See Is shamanic work safe if I have a mental health condition?
