Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation - Sandra Ingerman MA, Hank Wesselman Ph.D. 2010

Notes

Preface

1. Some of these dreamlike revelations form the beginning of Hank Wesselman’s first book Spiritwalker: Messages from the Future (New York: Bantam Books, 1995).

2. See Jean Clottes and David Lewis-Williams, The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996). See also David Lewis-Williams, The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 2002), in which light is shed upon the rock art of Europe through the interpretations of some of the most recent makers of rock art—the !Kung San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.

3. See, for example, Richard Katz, Boiling Energy: Community Healing among the Kalahari !Kung (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982).

Chapter 1

1. Alberto Villoldo and Erik Jendresen, Island of the Sun: Mastering the Inca Medicine Wheel (Destiny Books, 1994).

Chapter 2

1. “Instructions for the Shamanic Journey” is a shortened version from Sandra Ingerman, The Shamanic Journey: A Beginner’s Guide (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2004). If you would like expanded explanations of shamanic journeying with more questions answered, consider reading The Shamanic Journey, which includes a drumming CD.

2. For those interested in the “garden journey,” see Hank Wesselman’s The Journey to the Sacred Garden (Hay House, 2003).

Chapter 3

1. Malidoma Somé, The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life Purpose through Nature, Ritual, and Community (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1998).

2. Note from Hank Wesselman: I received this information in an email from someone unknown to me—an unexpected letter that contained these words of an Australian Aboriginal elder. As I read through Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann’s brief statement, I realized that her narrative was filled with power in its simplicity and directness. Miriam Rose’s message is clearly for all of us, and it is with gratitude to her, as well as to the sender of the letter, that I share it with you in this book.

Chapter 4

1. The Druids are best known through their association with the conglomeration of tribal peoples collectively known as the Celts, who dominated northern Europe, Ireland, and the British Isles for more than a thousand years. The two primary sources of information that we have about this priestly fellowship are the writings of the Roman general Julius Caesar about the Gauls, and those of a Greek philosopher named Posidonius who made an extended ethnographic field trip into the tribal regions of Gaul early in the first century BC. Virtually everything else written about the Druids is fanciful or from second-hand sources (such as Tacitus, who drew heavily from Posidonius’s original writings—only fragments of which remain today). For information, read Philip Freeman, The Philosopher and the Druids: A Journey among the Ancient Celts (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006).

2. See the writings of James Lovelock, especially Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (London: Oxford University Press, 2000). See also John Lamb Lash’s Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology and the Future of Belief (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2006).

Chapter 6

1. Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, edited by Patrick Gaffney and Andrew Harvey (San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 1994).

2. See Hank Wesselman, The Journey to the Sacred Garden: A Guide to Traveling in the Spiritual Realms (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2003).

3. See Stanislav Grof, The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988). See also Grof, Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000).

4. See Tom Cowan, Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993).

5. For a similar experience, see Jeremy Taylor, “The Healing Spirit of Lucid Dreaming” in Shaman’s Drum (Spring 1992), 55—62.

6. Hank Wesselman, Spiritwalker: Messages from the Future (New York: Bantam Books, 1995).

Chapter 7

1. See Jean Clottes and David Lewis-Williams, The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996). See also David Lewis-Williams, The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 2002), in which light is shed upon the rock art of Europe through the interpretations of some of the most recent makers of rock art—the !Kung San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.

2. Luis Eduardo Luna and Pablo Ameringo, Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1993).

3. Hank Wesselman, Visionseeker: Shared Wisdom from the Place of Refuge (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2001).

Chapter 8

1. Barry Bittman, MD, et al., “Composite Effects of Group Drumming Music Therapy on Modulation of Neuroendocrine-Immune Parameters,” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, vol. 7, no. 1 (2001): 38—47. Visit the Remo Drum Web site (go to remo.com and click on “HealthRhythms”) to access this and other studies about the positive health implications of drumming.

2. For an overview of indigenous initiatory experiences, read Joan Halifax, Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979).

3. For one artist’s perception of the oversoul, see Alex Grey’s painting of the Universal Mind Lattice in his book Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1990). Hank Wesselman has discussed the nature of this painting with the artist.

Chapter 9

1. Jeremy Naydler, Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2005).

2. Tom Harpur, The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light (New York: Walker and Company, 2005).

3. Raymond Moody, MD, with a foreword by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily Death (New York: HarperOne, 2001). See also Moody’s book with Paul Perry, Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones (New York: Ivy Books, 1994).

4. See Robert A. Monroe’s extraordinary books: Journeys Out of the Body (New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1977); Far Journeys (New York: Broadway Books, 1985); and Ultimate Journey (New York: Broadway Books, 1994).

Chapter 10

1. Nicholas Black Elk with Joseph Epes Brown (editor), The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953, 1989).

Chapter 12

1. Hank Wesselman, The Journey to the Sacred Garden has short chapters that children will understand and enjoy. See also his Little Ruth Reddingford and the Wolf (with Raquel Abreu) (Bellevue, WA: Illumination Arts, 2004).

Chapter 13

1. Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (New York: Harmony Books, 2000).

Chapter 14

1. John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (New York: Washington Square Press, 1932, 1959).

2. Nicholas Black Elk with Joseph Epes Brown (editor), The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953, 1989), 9.

3. Richard Sellin, The Spiritual Gyre: Recurring Phases of Western History (Fort Bragg, CA: Lost Coast Press, 1997).

Chapter 15

1. Graham Townsley, “Kamaroa: A Shamanic Revival in the Western Amazon,” in Shamanism, vol. 14, no. 2: 49—52, (2001).