Jeff Takes a Jouney

8/8/2019 Jeff Takes a Jouney

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Jeff Takes a Journey.

Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul,May keep the path, but will not reach the goal;

While he who walks in love may wander far,Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.

Henry van Dyke, The Story of the Other Wise Man

In the minutes before reporting his meeting with Scott, Jeff had set the stage by

explaining the basic principles at work in shamanic healing practices, and describing in

full detail one of his early journeys. Although our culture has been stripped of thisancient wisdom and thus lost a central source of spiritual power, he explained, the ideas

nevertheless remain with us, diluted to story. The adventures of Alice in Wonderland, hepointed out, illustrate the basics of a classic shamanic journey. First the traveler relaxes

and prepares to enter an altered state, like Alice did as she nodded off listening to her

sister read by the river. If youre gonna travel, he emphasized, youve got to be willing

to let yourself go and start with an open mind.

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Then, to gain entry to the spiritual underworld, the realm of spirit, one must descend

through some sort of tunnel. He explained that the archetype of the mandala, a series of

infinitely decreasing concentric circles, is believed by some to symbolize this primalexperience of descent.

Spiral. Look into this image for a moment or two and see if you dont perceive motion,

or maybe bits of color.

Courtesy of Jessica http://www.myspace.com/mindgrapes

Alice started her journey, he continued, by falling through the rabbit hole, fallingdeeper, deeper, deeper. Then, she found herself experiencing a new world, accompaniedin her journey by the spirit animals of a talking rabbit, a wise old caterpillar, and a series

of other animal and human guides.

In that realm Alice came to realize that anything could happen. Things solid and

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relatively unchanging in this world, such as size or shape, suddenly became completelyfluid.

Just like in a dream, the old rules had been left by the wayside. And, he continued,

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she experienced a dramatic series of lessons in that surreal world, all of which she

brought back with her to this side when she woke up. She came back wiser than whenshe left, and Id bet nothing was ever quite the same.

Quite interesting, I thought as he spoke. Like millions of others I had always loved the

quirky story, but accepted it as simply a fanciful exercise in creativity. Could Charles

Dodgson, writing as Lewis Carroll and living his days in Victorian England, havesomehow come into contact with the shamanic tradition? Whether or not he had been

aware, the tale fit perfectly into this world view. My mind wandered, ambling back overthe years Id spent with Jeff. Wasnt it just like him to start on a wild new journey, and todrag me along with him?

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Having educated me as to the basics, Jeff proceeded to tell me the tale of a healingjourney he had undertaken on behalf of a friend, a man well call Sean in order to protecthis privacy. Ive taken a couple of workshops and read up on it, he explained, but

dont have a lot of experience yet with unsupervised journeys. But I wanted to tell you

about one I did make for my friend Sean. As I looked at him expectantly, he paused for

a minute, gazing down upon the city. He knew Id been exploring this work, and askedme if Id learned anything that I might be able to put to use for him. He said that he

needed a little help, that he was experiencing some distortion in his eyesight hed never

had before. He was also dealing with some emotional blocks. It bothered him that hefelt like he was unable to grieve the loss of his dead mother, and that he had a distant, sort

of adversarial relationship with his father.

I agreed to give it a try. I explained to him that it was important that we both approach

the situation with an open mind, to avoid any preconceptions that might limit theexperience. Neither of us had any idea what would happen, if anything. I went over to

his place, and we started preparing for the journey by purifying a space. What does

that mean?, I asked. Well, he answered, its a series of small rituals that help put youinto the trance state, a mindset open to receiving from the spirit. Literally, its like

preparing a space that is neat and organized, marking it out physically by sort of

rhythmically pacing around its borders, defining it as a sacred space. Prayers are madein each of the four directions, and assistance is requested from the Mother and Father

spirits.

Its important to the trance state to have some rhythm going on in the background,

usually a steady drumbeat. That day I brought with me a c.d. of Native Americandrumming, and we put that on. We lit a candle, and I asked Sean to lie down on the floor

within the space and to make himself comfortable. I told him that it was important that

he stay present, try and keep attuned to what we were doing. Then, after saying a shortprayer, asking the spirits to help me help this man, I took my route into the underworld.This is some wild stuff, I thought to myself. What do you mean, I asked him, your

route into the underworld?

In response, he asked Have you ever seen Blue Springs? I nodded in affirmation,recalling the beautiful site in the spring country of North Central Florida. Through

impossibly clear water, in which fish seemed to hang suspended as if in air, their shadows

darting across the green and aqua field of grass far below, one could easily spot the

bubbling sources of the spring. That area had inspired Quaker traveler William Bartramduring his explorations there in the Eighteenth century, and his published journal entries

had in turn captured the opium-fueled imagination of his contemporary, EnglishmanSamuel Taylor Coleridge, who penned the following words into his magnificent poemfragment,Kubla Khan:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

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Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

A North Florida spring fed by the same aquifer as Jeffs internal leaping off point, into the deeper and

more golden realm of the underworld. View of main spring at Seven Springs ranch near Marion Oaks,

FL, from dock.

I remember going there when I was a little kid, Jeff continued, and looking way, way

down deep into this hole, that seemed to go all the way down into the center of the Earth.Even then, it fascinated me. He paused for a moment, recalling. Thats how I go

down, he said softly. I feel myself standing in the water, I feel the cold around my

ankles, and then I dive in. All the way down.

At this point my eyes are closed, so Im seeing with my minds eye. Floating there in

the darkness, I requested contact from my two helper spirits. What are they?, I asked,

full of curiosity about this bizarre realm of experience. One of them is my spirit

animal, he told me. Does everyone have a spirit animal? Yes, he replied. Whatkind of animal is it? He vaguely frowned at me, explaining that that is sacred

information, not open for casual discussion. O.K., I said, I respect that. I was just

asking. I smiled to myself, noting that all of a sudden I was filled with intense curiosityabout this question now that its answer was hidden from me as behind a shield.

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The helpers then took me on a journey, Jeff continued, deep into these mountains, up

to the entrance to a cave. Then they left me there. They said Go on, well be waiting for

you when you come back. I found myself full of questions. Now, you werent underthe influence of any drugs during this experience? No, he laughed. When you were

in this state, I asked, with Sean laying on the floor beside you, did you narrate the

things you were seeing? Did he have any idea what was going on? Usually Im prettygood about that, Jeff explained, but its more important to me to have the experience. I

can always share the details when I get back.

He looked at me somewhat impatiently, as if hoping I had run out of questions so he

could get on with the story. I shut up. So I went into the cave, and found this kind ofcrazy-looking holy man there. He looked like one of the saddhus, the ascetic holy men

you see pictures of wandering India. His hair was kind of rastafari, going everywhere, he

was real thin and dressed in rags, and his eyes were bulging. He thought for a moment.He looked crazy, but I knew he had this terrible kind of wisdom. I wasnt afraid. So I

asked him Are you going to help me help Sean? He didnt say anything, but simply

pointed with his long, thin arm in one direction.

At that point, the wall of the cave became mist, and his arm went right through it. Ifollowed in the direction he pointed, and suddenly found myself on the roof of an old

fashioned kind-of skyscraper, looking down on this bustling city.

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It was so vivid, I could feel the warmth of the sun and the wind on my face and the roof

sturdy beneath my feet. I mean,solid. I knew that it was the 1920s, because there wereall these beautiful old buildings, like the ones here in Seattle. It was like I was seeing the

city from the perspective of being on top of a five or six story building, the kind theyused to consider a skyscraper. I saw a streetcar passing below, and the streets were

jammed with great old-style black cars. And these were definitely the Roaring Twenties.Even from above it was obvious that something special was going on, that the city was

bustling with energy and commotion.

From where I stood, beyond the buildings, I could see a huge blue body of water that

looked like a lake. I then realized that This must be Chicago.

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All of a sudden my perspective shifted, and I was down on street level walking among

the excited crowds. A lot of the men were wearing those old-fashioned flat-top straw

hats with the wide brims, with those red, white and blue bands around them. I figuredsome kind of political event must be going on. Even I got kind of caught up in the

excitement. I was having a great time, observing the really cool dresses the women wore,

drinking in the scene.

Republican National Convention, Chicago 1920

Suddenly, from out of the crowd, this man walked toward me.

First he looked kind of above me, then he stopped right in front of me and looked at me.It was like no one else there could see me, so I figured this meeting was no accident. In

my conscious mind, I was wondering whats going on here?, but surrendered my

disbelief to see where the journey might lead me.

I asked him Do you have something for Sean? He was this really handsome man, and

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he just looked at me and smiled very beautifully. It was like I could hear his thoughts,

and he was thinking about a woman he had had sex with. All I could feel was this

absorbing sensation of deep love. Suddenly, I knew that the woman he was thinkingabout was Seans fathers mother, and that this was Seans grandfather. He only smiled,

and said Tell Sean that I love him.

For a minute it was like I just stood there, absorbing his energy, the two of us among thecrowd as if we were alone. Then, I asked him Is that all? Is there anything else? Then

he said something else, something else about the grandmother. He was so full of love,

but seemed to smile sadly. She really was wonderful. I should have married her. At

that point, I sensed that it was time, so I gathered my energy and turned to go. Thesaddhu was back, and he guided me back toward the mist, pointing me back out of the

cave. My spirit helpers were there waiting for me, and I asked them if there was anything

else. They said, Give this to Sean.

So I brought myself back up, and woke up holding my midsection, almost doubled

over. I felt this incredible energy running through me, almost like an electric current. It

came to me to breathe this energy into Sean, so I blew a breath into his chest, and then

one into the back of his head. He started crying, and said that something had justhappened to his eyes. He said I felt like energy coming through my eyes, and then

passing through. I just sat there with him for a few minutes, being there with him, as he

went through this emotional experience and sort of settled back down.

Then we talked, Jeff continued, and I told him about what Id seen in more detail. I

can never be sure exactly how much Ive gotten across while in the trance state, sincemore of the communication there than not is probably nonverbal. He told me that hisfather had been born in Chicago, which I hadnt known, and that his father had never

really known his own. Sean felt that that loss had become part of his problem with his

father, his coldness, distance, etc. Maybe Seans father didnt feel able to give somethinghe had never really been able to receive himself.

Im still not exactly sure about what it meant, Jeff concluded, but it had something to

do with healing the sense of continuity that had been broken in the male relationships in

Seans family, between generations of fathers and sons. Anyway, it seemed to do greatthings for Sean.

A moment later, he spoke again. But I really need to tell you about my meeting with

Scott.

To: Chapter 36

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Jeff Takes a Jouney