What is Fetishamanism?

A fetishaman is someone who uses the energy of his/her fetish as a catalyst or conduit - a "gateway" - to altered states of consciousness as a means to exploring the full depth and breadth of reality.

According to anthropologist Dr. Michael Harner, widely regarded as the world’s foremost authority on shamanism, traditional shamanism has roots that go back 30-40,000 years to the very dawn of humanity.  It is often described as the “oldest religion” although it may not actually be a religion in the modern sense of the term. When stripped of it’s more localized cultural baggage, what is left is a “technology” for attaining alternate states of consciousness or “ASC’s”. These include chanting, drumming, sensory deprivation, sensory overload, use of hallucinogenic or entheogenic drugs and gases, sweat lodges, fasting, dancing, lucid dream inducement, hypnotic trances, meditation, orgasm stimulation/denial and many other esoteric techniques which induce an ASC, usually by orchestrating subtle changes in neurochemistry and physiology. Harner refers to this stripped down version as “core shamanism”.

Mircea Eliade, another well-known expert on shamanism, refers to it as a “technology of ecstasy”, which he defines as a “slipping out of ordinary reality”.

"Slipping out" of ordinary reality is probably one of the most significant ways to explore who you really are and to expand your understanding of the universe. This quest to transcend yourself is a function of mysticism that is hard wired into your being and is one of the primary characteristics of humanity that separates us from all other animals.

It is all about waking up to who you really are. Most people are asleep in this respect. You are special... Something has stirred you to the quest!

It’s important to note that while many shaman use their abilities to promote healing in some way, this aspect is not specific to all cultures. Many shaman are not healers, such as Casteneda’s Don Juan Matus. Healing is not integral to the definition of shamanism.

If you integrate fetishism into shamanism you get a technology of alternate consciousness that is driven by the energy of sexuality. It is similar to neo-tantra in some ways.  It becomes a technology of alternate consciousness that includes a very strong motivational force pushing you to practice it. For example, if you develop a practice of meditating in total Rubber Enclosure, the thought of putting on your catsuit to go meditate at 3:00a.m. will suck you out of bed and onto your meditation cushion at an ungodly time when little else will. It motivates you to meditate! What other driving force will get you out of bed at the hour of the morning?

Fetishamanism is the practice of core shamanism utilizing a fetish as a catalyst and the primary focusing principle .  You might say that Fetishamanism is modern shamanism with fetish added as it’s cultural baggage.
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