Sandra Ingerman - Walking in Light

To my helping spirits who light my way and to the Earth, which is my home. In honor of my parents, Aaron and Lee Ingerman, and to my husband, Woods.

Contents

Preface

ALTHOUGH I FELT SUPPORT FROM my family and teachers when I was growing up, I felt like I never received an operating manual for how to live in the ordinary world. I had a good childhood. I had loving parents, and although my brother and I fought a lot, we had a great relationship. I loved going to school and learning new things. Even as a child I had a deep spiritual life and was comfortable in the spiritual realms. But while I had spiritual experiences, I had no path to follow.

This was the 1960s, a very wild time as people my age were looking to birth a new consciousness into the world. I searched for ways to feel connected with life, but found myself floundering and at a loss for how to live a meaningful life. As a teenager I was involved in protesting the Vietnam War. I felt so disempowered as I felt so strongly that the war was unjust. No matter how I felt, I had no power to create change.

That is why when I was introduced to the practice of shamanic journeying in 1980, I received a great gift. I met my helping spirit, a guardian spirit who over the years answered my questions about how to bring joy, meaning, and health into my life. Shamanism provided me with a path and structure to follow to deepen my spiritual path. I found the empowerment I needed by engaging in the practice of shamanism as a way of life.

As I continued to work with my guardian spirit and a variety of other helping spirits, I learned that the practice of shamanism is more than just performing journeys into the invisible realms to access information. Shamanism is a way of life. So I started teaching shamanism as a way to change our lives and the world around us.

The study used a variety of standard physical and mental benchmarks to track the success of the program. The Medicine for the Earth group had an immediate 50 percent reduction on their depression score using the Beck Depression Inventory. The Medicine for the Earth group also showed a marked improvement on a test measuring hope. This improvement with their depression and levels of hope remained six months later.

This was a randomized study, and I had no control over who participated in my group. The majority of the group members were conservative Christians. The people in the group were extraordinary and all a joy to work with, and I learned from working with these wonderful people that I could teach shamanic principles that created healing and a state of hope to people of all religious faiths. The conclusion of the published pilot research study was that a spiritual retreat such as Medicine for the Earth could be used to increase hope while reducing depression in persons with acute coronary depression.

In todays world, being able to maintain a state of hope is critical to staying emotionally and physically healthy. When we move into prolonged states of despair, we are drained of the vitality we need to imagine the creative solutions needed to shift our life in a new direction, which will ultimately help us evolve and live a deeper and more meaningful life. As long as we have hope, we have a foundation upon which positive change and healing can occur.

My own life story is a journey of healing from severe depression. I chose to follow a spiritual path for my healing. On some deep level I understood that my depression was an initiation into shamanism and the path of the wounded healer. Every practice I share in Walking in Light has been woven into my daily life. These practices have truly been my healing balm. I have learned through my journeys and the spiritual practices that I share how to ride the waves of depression, which has led me to a rich, deep, and meaningful life.

As I stay in touch with participants from the courses I teach all over the world, as well as the readers of my monthly column, it is clear that those who continue to apply what I teach and practice a shamanic way of life reap great benefits. But this work is not always easy to follow. As my own path has revealed, it does require a great deal of discipline and persistence. Sometimes it just feels easier to fall back into a way of life that does not call us to stay focused on our behavior throughout the day. This work asks us to make a firm choice to be diligent with the practices.

I am excited to share with you what I have learned over my years of teaching how to incorporate shamanic practices into everyday life and hence be in service to all life on the planet. For all of life is connected; every shift in consciousness that you are empowered to make each and every moment ripples throughout the entire web of life.

Introduction

ALTHOUGH SHAMANISM IS AN ANCIENT PRACTICE, it is relevant to all of us today who are seeking ways to live a life filled with harmony, good health, and returning balance and peace back to our lives and to the planet. As a licensed psychotherapist, my passion in teaching shamanism has been how to bridge such an ancient way of working into the Western world to deal with the current challenges that we face. Shamanism is a practice that continues to evolve to meet the needs of the times and the cultural needs of the people. The ability of the practice of shamanism to evolve is why it continues to be so relevant today: thousands of people are embracing unity consciousness and the use of light and sound for healing. I feel strongly that shamanic practitioners must continue to evolve their work in order to stay current and keep the practice of shamanism relevant to todays world.

In this regard Walking in Light is not just a beginning course on shamanic journeying. Rather, this book will take you into your inner realms, where you will learn how to live a shamanic way of life that embraces a state of joy that bubbles up from a deep place within. You will learn how to center yourself in the midst of change and be able to stay focused and filled with hope no matter what is going on in the outer world. You will acquire tools to help you wake up each day being present to what life brings to and for you, for life always brings us situations and experiences to help us grow, deepen who we are, and evolve. We need to learn how to change our perception to see how lifes challenges are all part of the life adventure we signed up for.

You will experience more confidence about how to better flow through the river of life, not just the smooth waters but also through turbulent ones. It is important to recognize that life is filled with cycles that change. And it is important to learn how to cooperate with change rather than resisting or fighting changes that occur in our lives.

In Walking in Light, I share a variety of practices that will help to better cultivate your inner life, which leads to a better outer world. You need to regain a state of health and well-being within, as everything that you experience within is reflected back to you in the outer world. As you learn how to be peaceful, balanced, joyful, and grateful, the world will reflect back that state to you. The ultimate goal is to create a healthy inner landscape. You will grow from within. Before we can fully express ourselves in the world, we need to grow from the inside out. When you cultivate a rich inner landscape, you step into a new, beautiful dimension of life.

When people travel to learn from shamans in indigenous cultures, one of the qualities they are struck by is how shamans exude and radiate a light that uplifts everybody who comes into their presence. Its their presence that heals, not so much the methods they perform or what they do. It is the energy behind the method that heals. In our culture we tend to be addicted to methods, forgetting that ultimately being a vessel of love is the greatest form of healing.