I've been researching #shamanism for my #historicalfiction. I've taken influences from as many sources as I can find with relevance. I recommend #thenorseshaman by Evelyn C. Rysdyk, it's very well researched. . #shamans are experts at entering altered states of consciousness called #trance, they believe that trance allows their souls to travel outside of their bodies throughout the human and spirit worlds while remaining under their strict control. . During #trance, shamans have been known to fly thousands of miles through the human world, across oceans and all over the spirit world, from the darkness of the #underworld to the unthinkable heights of the #upperworld . #Shamanic peoples believe that the true causes of everything that happens in the human world are actually the actions of spirits within the spirit world. . Some Shamans describe their visits to the spirit world as terrifying. In many shamanic traditions, the spirit world is full of fatal obstacles like soaring heights, monsters and animals, even cannibals. . In order to gain entrance to the land of the dead, an #Altai shaman from Siberia has to dodge underneath the sky as it flaps like an enormous windblown blanket against a mountain-top, then, balancing on a bridge the width of a human hair, cross an underground sea littered with the bones of other shamans. . Novice shamans from the Warao of Venezuala describe swinging on vine across an abyss filled with jaguars, alligators, and sharks and running past demons with spears and an enormous man-eating hawk. . Even Indian #Sora shamans with their relatively peaceful soul flights face serious dangers when soul flying to the spirit world. When she travels to the underworld, she must not eat any or play with any children there, no matter how tempting. If she does, her soul will be trapped there forever. . #SWORDOFTHEWARGOD #historicalfictionnovel #writer #books #bookseries #evelynrysdyk #shamanic #pagan #paganism #pagans #soulflight https://www.instagram.com/p/COKniCDHeH6/?igshid=1172fbbw5iqwk