The Seven Shaman Principles

1. The World is What You Think It Is
   Positive thoughts attract positive people and events, and negative thoughts attract negative people and events.

Corollary: Everything is a dream

Dreams are real and reality is a dream. The only test we use for a reality check is whether or not someone else experiences it. Hallucination means "your dream doesn’t match my dream." "Reality" to a shaman is a mass hallucination, or a shared dream. If this life is a dream and if we can wake up fully within it, then we can change the dream by changing our dreaming.

Corollary: All systems are arbitrary

All meanings are made up and the Absolute Truth is whatever you decide it is. What matters is how well the system works for you, not how true it is (which is an arbitrary concept).

2. There are No Limits
   We experience two kinds of limitations: creative and filtered.

Creative limitation assumes the purposeful establishment of limits within an infinite universe in order to create particular experiences, made by God or our own Higher Selves. These enable us to experience life as humans on Earth (to play by that particular set of rules - breaking the rules changes to another game).

Filtered limitations are imposed by ideas and beliefs that inhibit creativity rather than enhance it, like beliefs that engender hopelessness, helplessness, revenge and cruelty. They generate focus without the potential for positive action.

Corollary: Everything is connected

The usual metaphor is a web of interdependence.

Corollary: Anything is possible

All you have to do is believe. However, because you are not alone in the Universe, the degree to which something can be shared depends on the beliefs of others around you.

Corollary: Separation is a useful illusion

Pure empathy makes you as helpless as the one suffering. Fear make you lose sight of your role as dreamweaver.

3. Energy Flows Where Attention Goes
   Meditation and hypnosis are simply different techniques for doing the same thing - refocusing your attention toward more positive beliefs and expectations. As states, both are identical conditions of sustained focused attention.

Those aspects of your present experience which seem enduring are the effect of habitual sustained focused attention carried on by your subconscious.

Corollary: Attention goes where energy flows

Attention is attracted to all kinds of high energy intensity.

Corollary: Everything is energy

Thought is energy and one kind of energy can be converted into another kind of energy.

4. Now is the Moment of Power
   Karma exists and operates only in the present moment. It is your beliefs, decisions, and actions today about yourself and the world around you that give you what you have and make you what you are.

Thanks to memory we may carry over habits of body and mind from day to day, but each day is a new creation and any habit can be changed at any present moment - even if it isn’t easy.

You select out of the immense resources of your gene pool those characteristics that best reflect your present beliefs and intentions. Your parents/social background have nothing to do with your present, but what you believe about them now and how you react to those beliefs does.

Corollary: Everything is relative

You define "now" based on your focus (second, hour, year, lifetime).

Corollary: Power increases with sensory attention

Many people living today aren’t even here - most of their attention is focused on the past or the future. To the degree they diminish their awareness of the present moment, their power and effectiveness in the present also decreases.

5. To Love is to Be Happy With
   Love exists to the degree that you are happy with the object of your love. The unhappy part comes from fear, anger and doubt. To be deeply in love means to be deeply connected, and the depth and clarity of the connection increases as fear, anger and doubt are removed.

Corollary: Love increases as judgment decreases

Criticism kills relationships; praise builds and rebuilds them. When you give praise you reinforce the good and it grows. When you criticize you reinforce the bad and it grows.

Corollary: Everything is alive, aware and responsive

You subconscious takes any praise or criticisms it hears to heart, even if it’s directed elsewhere, even if you’re saying it. Each criticism separates you from and decreases your awareness of what you criticize, until you end up responding to a secondary creation of your own that may no longer resemble the original. When someone criticizes you, praise yourself to counteract it.

6. All Power Comes From Within
   For every event that you experience you creatively attract it through your beliefs, desires, fears and expectations, and then react to it habitually or respond to it consciously. This does not mean that you are to blame for your abuse or injury, because you were probably not conscious of your negative beliefs, attitudes and expectations. It also does not mean the other person is innocent.

Corollary: Everything has power

You do not have ALL the power in the world - everyone has the same power. The good news - you can work with these powers.

Corollary: Power comes from authority

Confident authority is the key to conscious creation.

7. Effectiveness is the Measure of Truth
   The means determine the end, not the ends justify the means. What is really important is what works.

Corollary: There is always another way to do anything

Every problem has more than one solution. If the goal is important, you should never give up, just change your approach.

Basic Format for a Ritual

1. Preparation
   Get all your props and clothing together, arrange furnishings, set up music, plan the steps, and designate the special area.
2. Opening
   A dramatic gesture, words of prayer or greeting, a musical attention getter, or a get-acquainted process.
3. Content
   Doing whatever is involved with the purpose of the ritual. Generally, the shorter the content, the more formal it is (wedding vs. Olympic Games).
4. Closing
   This is where you get everyone’s attention back and make a definite end to the ritual. Often overlooked.

1. It must have a strong beginning and ending.
   Start by doing something to get everyone’s attention. At the end, get everyone’s attention again and clearly end the ritual.
2. It must have strong sensory input.
   The more senses the better -- vision, hearing, scent are common - try adding taste and touch.
3. It must have a familiar or predictable form.
   Include familiar sensory elements and patterns in every ritual, even though every ritual on every occasion might be different.
4. The meaning of every part of the ritual must be understood.
   To whatever degree a part of the ritual is not understood, its effectiveness is lost. Explain before or during the ritual.
5. It must be special.
   Make ritual times into occasions of positive reinforcement of your groups shared values.