How To Shapeshift - A Native American Technique For Transformation

Exercise: How to Shape-Shift 

1. Close your eyes and allow yourself to become deeply relaxed. As a suggestion, have a friend drum a very steady, continuous beat. (This is a traditional method to shape-shift.) Or play music designed for relaxation, which can help you enter into an altered state of consciousness.

2. Imagine that your body is metamorphosing into another form. It can be anything you choose. Take time to experience fully how that other being feels.

3. With your eyes closed, allow your body to move subtly, almost unperceptively while feeling yourself changing into another shape.

4. Really imagine that you’ve become that animal, plant, mineral, or even another person. Involve all your senses. Imagine what you would smell, taste, hear, and feel. For example, if you become a wolf, imagine having an acute ability to smell. If you become an eagle, imagine your eyesight to be very sharp and far-seeing.

5. Afterward, while it’s still fresh in your memory, make notes about your experience.

When you can see the world through the experience of something else, it deepens your compassion profoundly. For example, if you’ve had a terrible argument with your spouse and you shape-shift to view things through his or her eyes, you might find that your anger subsides. Or if you’re depressed because you were passed over for a job promotion, you might shape-shift to experience life through the eyes of a robin and ultimately realize that the universe is much more vast and wondrous than the arena of your job. Your depression pales in comparison to the joy of flight and the exhilaration of bursting into song.

Sometimes I imagine myself seeing through the eyes of another person. When I can see the world through his or her eyes, it allows me to have greater compassion and understanding. I’ve found this particularly helpful when I’ve been having a challenging time with others. When I view the world through their eyes, I’m usually less critical of them.

Activating the native spirit within you means that you recognize that we live in a mysterious, splendid universe. You know that Creation is filled with spirit beings, land spirits, little people, angels, and ancestors; and you know there are ways to travel into these realms through vision quests, storytelling, dreams, astral traveling, and shape-shifting.

Once you step into a native perception of reality, the universe becomes much richer and fuller. In a very practical way, this allows you to see the truth in life. Instead of believing what you hear and see, more often you believe and trust what you feel and know in your heart. You’ll find yourself being aware of the deeper truths in life and making decisions accordingly. This can positively transform your life.