cammie

Hi Esthetic11, It might be worth trying the basic recap anyway, even if it doesn’t feel like that’s where you want to start. The reason I say this is that you’ll likely notice where the energy goes by recapping the mundane. Try it in the evening and go through your day, people you spoke to, things you did, food you ate, and then follow those threads where and when the energy shifts and takes you away from the present moment. I guess you could think of the basic recap as a spring board that catapults you into other areas of your energy and it might even show you what triggers those non ordinary shifts in the first place. Try it for a couple of weeks and see what you see. Hope this helps!

Hey Arcanehuman, I think you’re right that Quicksilver is somehow MIA. It’s in the list of available classes for the next session but hasn’t been added to the Tier one classes (yet). https://www.shamanscave.com/courses?course_type=featured&filtered=1

Hi Sylvy, I think it can be really easy to be judgmental and a lot harder to meet people where they’re at with compassion. My first post was to encourage you to feel like you had options. The world isn’t an “either or” kind of place. You don’t have to be a victim of circumstance. But being passive aggressive and doling out judgement about who or what is good or bad doesn’t really help anyone either. Have you ever talked to him? Usually when you get to know someone it’s easier to be empathetic where they’re at in life. I realize you might not want to get to know this particular person, but it actually might make you feel better if you did. Or at least easier to live next to them for the time being. Unfortunately, I can tell you this, no one is going to wave a magic wand and make your life perfect for you. Life doesn’t owe us shit and if we want it to look a certain way we have to work to understand why we’re where we are. We have to work to understand ourselves, and in turn to see the world just a little more clearly. Things and people that bother you, that push your buttons, are golden opportunities to learn more about yourself if you’re willing. -C

Hi Sylvy, I sympathize with your situation, we all want to feel comfortable and safe when we’re at home, so my following perspective is based on the assumption that you don’t actually feel threatened by this individual, and that he just has some baggage. Obviously don’t ignore your gut instincts if something is seriously off. Moving is *always* an option. Otherwise, it sounds to me like you’re an empath and are unintentionally picking up on this dude’s stuff. A lot of empaths don’t know how to *not* do that. We feel like it’s expected of us, that it’s our role in the universe but that is really not the case. In some ways dealing with this not only requires you to become very clear on what belongs to you and what belongs to your neighbor, but also why you agree to let his energy affect you in the first place. Why aren’t you the one affecting his energy? You shouldn’t have to feel like you’re being backed into a corner energetically just because this guy lives next door. To no small extent this world really wants us to feel powerless. You don’t have to agree to that. Without knowing much of anything about you or your neighbour the only real advice I can give is to remember you’re not powerless in this situation, and whatever you need to do to feel better is not only possible but probable as long as you’re willing to take action. That could mean a variety of things such as self-healing to understand why this person bothers you so much (besides the obvious), learning how not to let his energy affect you or let it into your home, or even by just moving homes. Finding appropriate intents for this situation is a good starting point, like “I intend to deflect his energy” and then finding the power behind that intent and moving to where it works. Sometimes when I find myself in overwhelming situations where a lot of people are present (like crowded malls or shopping centers) I’ll put up an energetic mirror to deflect the energy around me. Not really ideal to do all the time, but it’s somewhere to start and might give you some space and clarity to see what is going on. Again, as long as there isn’t an actual threat present, you can approach this as a learning opportunity to harness your sensitivity to be a tool to use when you want instead of letting it control how you feel. -c

I find it interesting that your last sentence pretty much describes recapping. Recap is a form of stalking yourself. Breaking up habits is also a form of stalking yourself. I guess doing random things can break up habitual ways of behaving too. When the new behavior becomes habit then you change it up again. Stalking can be applied to any intent. You have an intent to heal so you stalk the position of health and what that means for you, and what it would take for you to become healthy. Or say you want or intend to learn a new language, you would perhaps look for someone who speaks that language or find a class or program that teaches that language. You’re stalking the position of learning, of being a language student, in order to fulfill your intent of being able to speak that language. I think you have the right idea with the physicality of stalking though, because stalking is about taking action and realizing or being the goal/intent not just understanding it. oh, and this might help too: https://www.shamanscave.com/practices/stalking-practices/

Hey AH! In regards to the first part of your first question, yes totally do as many passes as it takes you. There isn’t a set limit -it’s how well you feel those energetic connections releasing/untangling. Sometimes it can take a bit depending on how well you focus on the movement and where you find those connections leading you. If you’re not sure about it, go back to the memory a few days later and see if there is still an emotional “sting”. If there is, no problem, just needs a little more digging. Like you already noticed there can be a lot of layers to certain emotions. You can post your intent questions to the student forums or the spirals 1 forum and I’m sure the teacher or other fellow students will answer those!

Right, I understand completely. The thing about it is that you kind of have to peel the layers off and gather your resources. A big tangled knot of string isn’t going to be untangled by yanking really hard on it. You have to finesse and tease the outermost parts first, and be patient. It take time to get to those core wounds. The more energy you retrieve on day to day things, little reactions to events, that persistent shoulder pain, or whatever, the more energy you have to tackle the big stuff. ❤️

Hey Arcanehuman, I also knew about Recapping long before I was able to make a practice of it. I was introduced to it years ago through the Carlos Castaneda books, but it wasn’t something I could seem to really find time for. I don’t think I even understood how to actually go about it. I realized I needed some structure and that’s how I found Shamanscave, by looking up recapping classes. I knew myself well enough to know I would stick with something in a class structure but on my own i might suck at it, lol. But now that it’s a practice it’s one of those things I just do, like brushing my teeth. It’s a really good place to start and it’s one of those tools for life. this is a good place to start: https://www.shamanscave.com/self-healing/the-recapitulation

Hi Kelly, I don’t see how your current practice would infringe upon your potential future recapping, so don’t worry about that I do just want to mention, however, that recapping has the intention of many, many others before you, so in essence, when working with the recapping practice, you are riding that already existent wave of intention (intent of healing, of clarity, of taking back what is yours and letting go what isn’t, etc..). It’s an old practice and has a lot of omph behind it already. Despite knowing about the recapping process years before coming to the cave I couldn’t seem to get into it either until I took the recap class. Once I did it enough to see the changes I was hooked And yes, in order to be effective with a lot of the exercises here you’re going to have to get your energy back and recap is a really gentle and at-your-own-pace way to do it. I hope this helps! cami

While not always avoidable (hitting a creature on the rd) if I’m travelling at a time I know there is going to be a lot of animal activity, or if it seems like there are lots of animals popping out into the road, I use my intent/will to create a different outcome ...like *not* hitting them, or “clearing the way”. We get a lot of birds hanging around the rd in the mornings and they usually do these kamikaze moves, and I got really tired of stomping on my brakes all the time, so I tried using my intent instead, and it tends to work.

Hi Dreamer123, I would say if you really want to be proficient at dreaming the place to start is with the recapitulation practice. Recapping your sexual history is immensely beneficial for reclaiming your energy as well as understanding yourself better. For me, personally, recapping was/is the cornerstone to my dreaming, where I could dream more powerfully, and if you think about it, it makes sense. Once you start getting your energy back, whether it’s tied up in sexual encounters, emotional patterns, or habits, etc. you can then use it to explore different realms of perception. good luck, cammie

I think when you look at the physiological aspect of sleep and what purpose it serves you will see that it basically helps repair the physical body. For instance REM sleep has been linked to cleaning out the “plaque” in the brain leading to better cognitive functioning. I’ve heard/read that deep mediation puts brain activity into the same state as REM so that is probably why if you’re mediating for a few hours a day you may need less sleep. Taking care of your physical body by eating well, not drinking alcohol, exercising, etc..as well as taking care of your mental and emotional state all promote better sleep and then probably the need for less of it. So how much your physical body needs to sleep is really dependent on how healthy it is and your personal internal clock. I’m not exactly sure why you are looking at shamanism to decrease your hours of sleep but yes there are practices that promote wakefulness and personally I’ve had experiences of being very energized during waking hours after I’ve had dreaming body experiences. The catch is I’ve had to sleep to have the experiences in the first place On another more practical note if there is something you particularly love doing you will find that it energizes you, whether that is writing, art, gardening, theoretical math equations, whatev.... Not sure if you’ve had any classes at the cave but the first place most people generally start is recapitulation. The technique is described here: https://www.shamanscave.com/self-healing/the-recapitulation You can quite easily recap pretty much anything, even feelings of fatigue or sleepiness. You can use the technique to recap when you’ve felt tired and when you’ve felt energized/wakeful and see what you come up for you. Personally I think that’s the best place to start to know your own energy. Recap also brings back your energy from places and people that you’ve left it so in that sense you will have more energy for the things you want to spend it on. Good luck! -c

Hey Brandon, Like Alex said there are practices within this tradition that deal specifically with the dreaming body/dreaming energy, and working with them can definitely change your sleeping patterns or the way you dream. How much energy you expend on any of these shamanic practices can also affect your overall energy, sometimes it can be energizing sometimes it can be draining. Recapitulation can oftentimes help resolve disruptive sleeping patterns like insomnia, nightmares, or recurring dreams. In general my sleeping patterns still fluctuate depending on what I’m working on from day to day, how much my physical body needs to recuperate, and whether I’m bringing specific intents to my sleeping or dreaming. Sleep is the natural doorway to dreaming energy which in itself has a lot of potential. Alex gave you good answers to the rest of your question. Everyone is different so there won’t be any rules to what you will or won’t experience.

Hi TonyaJo, I would encourage you to find your own meaning in the energy of your experience. It’s really easy nowadays to find information on the internet (about pretty much anything!) but i think that it can short-change us and our potential to draw from our own innate knowing. -cammie

Hi Sphinxy, thanks for your thoughtful reply. Yes - all of what you said rings true. Luckily I do know a few individuals who I'm closely connected to that are, in many ways, walking a similar path. Its good to be in good company! I found Pema Chodron's article fascinating because it had an interesting take on loneliness; as something that really can't be avoided, though it seems like many people do everything they can to do so! It seems to be a fundamental truth about our existence but one that is rarely acknowledged (except maybe near death). I actually find the feeling beautiful and sad and, paradoxically, very connected. -C

Hi all, in my recapping I've been coming across some pretty raw emotions which has left me feeling a bit lonely. Perhaps it's something from my past that is still yet unresolved and continues to need the layers peeled off, but I also feel this healing path to be a bit lonely as well. I came across this article by the Buddhist nun Pema Chodron and felt it had a lot of merit from a "shamanistic" perspective. Here's a quick snipet and the full link below, "In the middle way, there is no reference point. The mind with no reference point does not resolve itself, does not fixate or grasp. How could we possibly have no reference point? To have no reference point would be to change a deep-seated habitual response to the world: wanting to make it work out one way or the other. If I can’t go left or right, I will die! When we don’t go left or right, we feel like we are in a detox center. We’re alone, cold turkey with all the edginess that we’ve been trying to avoid by going left or right. That edginess can feel pretty heavy." "When we draw a line down the center of a page, we know who we are if we’re on the right side and who we are if we’re on the left side. But we don’t know who we are when we don’t put ourselves on either side. Then we just don’t know what to do. We just don’t know. We have no reference point, no hand to hold. At that point we can either freak out or settle in. Contentment is a synonym for loneliness, cool loneliness, settling down with cool loneliness. We give up believing that being able to escape our loneliness is going to bring any lasting happiness or joy or sense of well-being or courage or strength. Usually we have to give up this belief about a billion times, again and again making friends with our jumpiness and dread, doing the same old thing a billion times with awareness. Then without our even noticing, something begins to shift. We can just be lonely with no alternatives, content to be right here with the mood and texture of what’s happening." https://www.lionsroar.com/six-kinds-of-loneliness/

Mandy, yes, there is limitation in defining something as "X" or "Y", when ultimately, as you said "energy is energy". I love drawing parallels between teachings from different backgrounds but see the shortcomings of thinking of concepts in concrete terms...after all experience is a world apart from thinking. It seems then, that pizza should really be called yummy yummy triangle slice. And ice cream: clouds of bliss.

So, this question/comment has been burning a hole in my pocket for weeks! And I just have to wonder (and maybe never get an answer to ) why the Maker tradition is so closely related, at least in language, to ancient Toltec traditions as outlined not just by Carlos Castaneda, but also Ken Eagle Feather, Don Miguel Ruiz, etc.... "Intent", "personal power", "recapitulation", are words I've only heard of - until recently - in reference to the ancient mexican/toltec tradition. It got me thinking about what we *think* we know about our world history and it makes me wonder about ancient mystery schools and human evolution and pizza. It's more than fascinating. What are the chances that this knowledge is coming to us when we need it most....or most apt to transform? And what if this knowledge was shared worldwide in the distant past .....but, like, secretly?