Exploring Our Perception of Reality

Commanding Our Consciousness

by Scott Silverston

We experience Spirit Reality in a state of consciousness that is distinctly different from ordinary waking consciousness.  Our perception of reality is determined by the state of consciousness in which we perceive the worlds around us. What I call “Flesh Reality” is where you are right now, reading this article in your physical body.  Flesh Reality is sometimes called “ordinary reality” because it is the reality that we experience in the physical world on a day-to-day basis. When we're in normal waking consciousness, when we're awake, walking around, we are experiencing physical flesh reality. Our experiences in physical flesh reality are governed by the laws of Newtonian physics. In other words, you drop your keys, they're going to fall to the ground. Gravity is in play. If you try to fly without an airplane or some other mechanical device your physical body is going to crash.  Your spirit body can fly, but your physical body cannot.

The Dreamtime, or Spirit Reality, sometimes called “non-ordinary reality”, is an aspect of reality not bound by the constraints of the physical world. In the Spirit World, we can fly, breathe underwater, do all sorts of stuff that we can’t do in physical, flesh reality.  Spirit Reality is as real as day-to-day flesh reality, but it is a non-physical level of experience.  

If you use your Dreamtime awareness to travel in the Spirit World, your physical body will remain exactly where it was before you attuned your awareness to Spirit Reality.  The experience is like lying down in bed and having a dream. 

Many of us have had dreams where we've flown. We're flying over the land or riding on a bird and then we wake up.  This ability to travel in the Spirit World is like a Shamanic Journey, except in a Shamanic Journey, we have voluntary control over our own actions in The Dreamtime and enter the Spirit World with clear intention rather than slipping into it accidentally through sleep.

There are many ways to access Spirit Reality, but not all of them are sustainable, beneficial or healthy for us.  Intuitive awareness, dreams, hallucinations, psychosis are all examples of experiencing Spirit Reality.  When you see somebody who has unfortunately not received the mental health care that they need, and they're in a bad state and talking to things that you and I can’t and don’t want to perceive, this is a very unhealthy state of accessing Spirit Reality. Someone like that is obviously in a high state of need and not able to manage their day-to-day physical reality. That is not shamanism, that is psychosis.  A person living that type of experience has gone too far over to the Spirit World and they're unable to come back. They're unable to close the door between the worlds and therefore they are unable to function in physical, day-to-day reality.  

A Shaman knows how to enter the Spirit World at will and return to Physical Reality at will.  The experiences the Shaman has in the Spirit World are meant to complement and enhance the experience of day-to-day life in the material world.  That is empowering.  That is how we use shamanism to optimize our functioning and unlock our full potential as humans. 

If we want to be truly effective in both helping others and caring for ourselves, we must maintain the balance between the worlds of flesh and spirit.   Our well-being depends on staying grounded in daily life as we engage with the Spirit World.  This is how we unlock our full potential and live our day-to-day life in a high-functioning way. We don’t want to go to extremes.  We want to take the middle road.  We want to open in a safe way to the spiritual awareness that is available to us. This involves mastering the ability to shift between different states of consciousness at will, which is exactly what we train ourselves to do with Shamanic Spirit Medicine.  

If we want to be truly free and in command of our personal dreaming, we must not become dependent on ingesting substances to move between the worlds of spirit and flesh.   We start by learning to journey with the drum, and as we continue to develop, we often don’t even need the drum to access the Spirit World; we can drop in at will by accessing that place of sacred silence within us that allows us to relax and downcycle our brainwaves into Theta State and open the doorway between the worlds.  This is how we expand our perception of reality in a safe and balanced way.