I don't know how many of you have been interested in the different kinds of shaman and healers and witches. Supposedly, there are in fact healing and dark shaman. Some wanting to use plants to heal and help people and others wanting to hurt and in some cases kill people. These shaman will "battle" in order to see who the better shaman is. When they do this, I have heard, a magical dart is shot at another shaman in order to show the shooter of the darts power over the other.

Has anyone heard of anything like this? Is it literal?

This makes me curious.

Yes to them it is very literal. Beyond that you are going to get basically every answer you can think of from it's all bs to it's all real. You will also find people within the modern alien/illuminati community talking about illuminati psychic spies who can attack you with psychic weapons etc..I dunno if that is true but it does sound much like amazonian stories of virotes to me. Who knows..it's a weird world. I tend to think that it is possible that all of these things are possible.

In Traditional Witchcraft there is an old saying.."how can you learn to heal if you never learn to curse"?

I like ther terms "service to self" and "service to others" more than light vs dark etc..Dark or "black" magick actaully refers to the alchemy of the Black Lands..which was Eqypt. It was the alchemical magick of egypt. Egypt in that area had very dark black sandy earth. So next time someone uses the term "black magick" in a negative way you can politely inform them that they are using the term out of context

Yes, it's common amongst traditional 'shamans' in South America (and other places). I don't take it literally; however, this type of good/evil nonsense is precisely why I work with the medicine myself in the safety of my home. No dark forces entering this protective bubble of light.

To me it's all mumbo-jumbo. But, the mind is a powerful thing. If one is in the Amazon far away from home and a shaman tells them there is dark brujo magic acting against them then it is highly likely the person will believe it. See: the power of suggestion.

Others here will disagree with me... but I'm of the belief we all have a little shaman inside of us and there is no reason to travel to the deep forest to find spiritual enlightenment or revelation. To each his own I suppose.

Interesting. I love learning about the psychology of shaman.

A1pha, you wouldn't even recommend going once to learn as much as possible then coming back and tuning their teachings in a personal way?

I had an anthropology prof once who would spend a few months each year living with the Iskut peoples of Northern BC. He got so used to burrying his fingernails when he cut them that he said he felt odd not doing it at home. The people in the Iskut village were very cautious not to leave that kind of stuff around for "sorcerors"(for lack of a better term, that is a realy bad term and not from their culture) to take and use against them in spells etc.

This sort of thing is common in most magickal traditions. I think people are generally very naive about the whole thing and assume it's all love and light. It most certainly is not.

Do you happen to know a good good that deals with traditions and perception of the battle of good/evil or the stuff we are discussing? I would love to read some on it.

Also, I watched the video in your signature! Very cool concept! Adventure!

Each person needs to make their own decision on these things. Person A might get benefit from going and learning from the natives. Person B might not. Personally, there's nothing they have to offer that I can't learn from the medicine directly. I prefer to forge my own path...

This might change in the future, who knows. But for now there's still plenty to learn without the need of a shaman.

..there are individuals who may care about your healing, and have altruistic feelings towards culture and others..

then there are individuals who want your money, and want to control/influence your experience to their own ends..

shamans are people giving medicine..of course there are good, bad and ugly..
.

Fair enough A1pha!

Nen, I suppose I am more interested in the mystical side of it.

..yes, but there are individuals who call themselves or are called 'shamans' who are probably less interested in the 'mystical' side than you..just because they do 'mystical' sounding chants doesn't mean anything other than they're rehearsed..
such unconscious people are, as far as i'm concerned, 'on the dark side'..
the dark side is extreme individualism at the expense of other life (imo)

dodgy 'shamans' have really screwed up the ayahuasca 'tourism' scene in sth am..
.

..to put it another way..

how many people actually say: 'yes, i'm a dark sorcerer' or similar?

would a real 'dark sorcerer' (allowing that they may exist) let this be well known..

think about it..
.

I understand. It can be intimidating.

^..just go with your intuition and heart..

all i mean is don't just trust some fancy feathers and a big show..feel things out..

spirit will guide you more than any 'shaman'..

Interesting. :]