Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
The Shamanic Journey
Use monotonous drumming to shift consciousness and travel in inner reality to meet helping spirits, framed through Wesselman’s Hawaiian-kahuna map of three worlds and three souls.
Wesselman’s journey: Set one clear intention. In a dim room, lie down and play fast, monotonous drumming. Choose a world — go down to the Lower World, up to the Upper, or into the dreamlike Middle — cross the threshold, and meet your power animal or teacher. Watch and receive as a witness, thank them, and return on the call-back. Ground and journal. The drum induces a light trance; the three worlds and three souls are a map of your own depths, not a proven external geography.
What it is
The shamanic journey is the cross-cultural practice of using steady, monotonous drumming to shift awareness into a light trance and travel in inner reality to meet helping spirits for guidance and healing imagery.
What is distinctive here is Hank Wesselman’s framing of that journey. A trained anthropologist who reported spontaneous visionary experiences (the Spiritwalker trilogy), Wesselman taught the journey not just as a technique but inside a specific map: a three-tiered cosmos (Lower, Middle, Upper Worlds) and the Hawaiian kahuna model of three souls — the “lower” or animal-body self, the “middle” or conscious mind, and the immortal “Higher Self.” For Wesselman the journey is a way the conscious self learns to re-establish relationship with these inner allies and levels.
He shared the method most accessibly in Awakening to the Spirit World (2010), co-authored with Sandra Ingerman. (The basic drumming-journey mechanics overlap heavily with Harner and Ingerman; this entry centres on Wesselman’s own emphases and map.)
The Method
A faithful representative protocol in Wesselman’s teaching:
- Form a clear intention. Name one focused question or aim before you begin (The Inner Creates the Outer), e.g. “Show me my power animal,” or a specific question for a teacher.
- Prepare the space and body. Dim the room, lie down, close and optionally cover your eyes, and relax. Wesselman, the scientist, encourages an attitude of the observing witness — notice what arises rather than authoring it.
- Begin the drumming. Use a live drum/rattle or one of his recorded drumming tracks; the monotonous, rapid beat is the engine that shifts consciousness.
- Choose your world and entry point. Picture a real place in nature you know. To reach the Lower World, descend through an opening in the earth (cave, root, spring); for the Upper World, ascend (a tree, mountain, column of light); the Middle World is the dreamlike inner aspect of ordinary reality.
- Cross the threshold and let it unfold. State your intention as you enter, then follow the imagery and meet your power animal, spirit teacher, or guide. Greet them and ask your question.
- Receive. Take in the answer in whatever form it comes — image, word, sensation, knowing — without forcing or analysing mid-journey.
- Thank and return on the call-back drumbeat, retracing your path.
- Ground and record. Re-orient to your body, then write the journey down immediately and reflect on its meaning and how to act on it. (Sourcing note: a faithful generalised description of Wesselman’s teaching in Awakening to the Spirit World and his drumming-journey courses; the honest mechanism is examined in Section 4.)
Source & Lineage
Wesselman stood in the Core Shamanism lineage of Michael Harner, while weaving in the Hawaiian kahuna wisdom he encountered in Hawaii (notably through the teacher Hale Makua).
His most practical journeying instruction appears in Awakening to the Spirit World (2010, co-written with Sandra Ingerman), with the cosmology and soul-model developed across the Spiritwalker trilogy and The Bowl of Light (2011). → Voice node.
He differs from Harner (who deliberately stripped culture-specific framing to isolate the bare technique) by keeping a rich cosmological map, and from Ingerman (whose beginner form foregrounds soul-retrieval’s boundaries) by foregrounding the three-souls relationship and the scientist-as-witness stance.
Common refinements
Forcing the imagery. The state arrives through relaxed attention; let the drum carry you and observe.
- Analysing mid-journey. Witness first; interpret later in your journal — consistent with Wesselman’s observer stance.
- Vague intention. Name one clear question; murky aims give murky journeys.
- Wrong drumming. A casual or slow beat won’t drive the state — use a proper fast, monotonous track.
- Over-literalising the map. Holding the three worlds and three souls as literal external fact (rather than meaningful inner structure) invites magical thinking.
- Skipping return and grounding. Always come back on the call-back and re-enter your body.