I went to hear Hank Wesselman speak recently on his new book, Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation, that he co-wrote with Sandra Ingerman, one of my heroes in the world of modern shamanism.

I often tell my clients, “It doesn’t matter to me what you believe in, I’m interested in what you experience.”

Wesselman clarified this idea when he talked about how “direct experience is above belief, beyond faith.  Direct experience equals personal transformation.”

He spoke about the role of the shaman as one who restores power to those who have lost it.  In some ways, this is how I approach coaching, except I don’t think of it as restoring power, so much as reminding people of their own power and offering a re-connection with what may have been forgotten:  the strength within, a source of personal power.  It’s the essence of all that is beyond your physical self, yet accessible by your physical self.

He also touched on how nature mysticism is the doorway to authentic deity mysticism.  It begins “out of doors, where the juice is,” in nature.  And it’s not like this is new.  Everyone who’s had anything to say about the evolution of consciousness “got it”… that nature is one of the truest references of that power – that life force – that energy – that flows through us.  It is our blood, and cells and aura and vibrational being that is, and emits, this stuff…

I have yet to read their book, but based on his talk, I’m looking forward to learning more from him.  It was refreshing to see the reverence for such an ancient tradition, as Wesselman, Ingerman, and their colleague Michael Harner all maintain.