For those completing the Basic Workshop, advanced study is available with Dana. This includes four Foundation for Shamanic Studies' weekend advanced workshops and Dana and Shana's own Next Step Program. The Next Step is a series of workshops emphasizing study and a sense of community along with the experiential. Dana and Shana have developed The Next Step Program to help those committed to shamanic practice in three ways. The fist is to present additional techniques to help others in their healing process. The second is to provide a sacred space for personal review and refreshment. The third is to enhance the individual's relationship to power.

***The First Set: The Spirit Mate, Depossession, Journey into Power***

The Spirit Mate Workshop

The phenomenon of the spirit mate is present in myths, stories and shamanic experience the world over.  The term spirit mate describes the intimate relationship a human has with a spirit.  The purpose of this workshop is to help people better understand love and relationship; to discover the implications of having spiritual support at the most intimate level; and ultimately to help participants open their hearts to the boundless love of the Universe.

Depossession

This work builds on the work introduced in the Extraction Healing Workshop.  The focus in this session will move beyond the removal of intrusions causing fear or pain to the removal of spirits in human form causing fear or pain.  The model for the weekend will be the group methods of the Brazilian Spiritists who are renowned for depossession.

Journey into Power

The Journey Into Power is a journey into the power of community.  Working as a shamanic community, we will use the drum and rattle to usher in power for healing.  The community of honeybees will lend their assistance during the Altai melted wax extraction technique.  Our personal communities of helping spirits - Power Animals, Teachers and Ancestors - will step up the power as we perform the Ulchi offering ceremony.  Through the Journey Into Power we will more closely experience the power that comes from recognizing our union in the web of all life.

***The Second Set:  Soul Restoration, Rites of Rebirth, Ancestor Time***

Soul Restoration

Soul restoration along with depossession are fundamental and essential shamanic strategies. In this training, participants will explore the "other side" of possession (obsesio) which is personal trauma and illness resulting in partial soul loss. Techniques will be presented to find and return a patient’s lost/fragmented soul parts while emphasizing the traditional uses of the soul restoration strategy. Many who have experienced soul restoration report profound, positive changes. This is a training designed for people who wish to learn in order to help others, not for people seeking personal healing for themselves in the course of the workshop.

Rites of Rebirth

All societies exhibit certain rites of passage for individuals to mark the transition from one phase of life to another. This workshop proposes a new demarcation point in our adult lives: a time for reawakening the senses, regeneration, renewal, for considering the possibilities that await us. Through a series of experiential shamanic exercises and working with the labyrinth, participants will be encouraged to awaken to the opportunities for transformation that lie within each of us and to use the weekend to dedicate themselves to a new start. 

Ancestor Time

By using movement and the shamanic journey, we will go beyond time to recover lost knowledge from the ancestors through visionary experience.  By tapping into what some have called the "river of blood," we can focus on the recovery of lost rituals for healing, bring balance into our lineages and gain new understandings –traditional objectives of this work.   

***The Third Set: The Way of the Spiral, Walking in the Footsteps of the Spirits, Journeys to the Impossible***

The Way of the Spiral 

The spiral is a powerful symbol, one that has spoken to humans through the ages. For some, it suggests expansion and the sense that we can become than we are now; we can become happier, we can derive more pleasure from life, we can give more love, we can be more.  For others, the spiral suggests contraction because it also sweeps inward, driving our introspection into ever deepening realms where our hidden nature can be explored and considered for expression.  

By connecting with the form of the spiral, we connect with our support for inward and outward growth. We are reminded that we are supported by nature in many ways.  Like the spiral in its outward flow, we can venture into new territory knowing we are supported in our movements. The Big Bang sent out infinite spirals into the universe and each one of us is a part of that spiraling out: the expansion of the physical universe.  In the spiral flow of a shell, our inward movement is reflected. We sink into new territories of our internal universe. Both processes of the spiral - expansion and contraction - support us in our exploration of new territories.

Walking in the Footsteps of the Spirits
 

As one navigates the non-ordinary world of the shaman, one acquires relationships and alliances with Power.  Most often this comes in the form of an animal spirit that assists in healing, divination, extraction, soul restoration and depossession – the skills under the purview of the shaman.  All of these practices rely to one degree or another on the ability of the shaman to merge with the spirits to perform a given task.  Wise and unwise merging will be examined and various strategies to enhance the experience of merging will be explored.

Journeys to the Impossible

What is the nature of the miracle?  What does it mean to approach the impossible and suddenly see it as possible?  The shaman is known for his or her ability to perform miracles.  If it is the shaman’s belief in what he or she does that counts more than the patient’s, where does the shaman focus attention to gain that clarity of thought and knowledge to find and use Power for miracles?  This module is an exploration of these questions and a time to reach out beyond current limited thinking to invite the experience of the impossible.

Dana has also created an introductory program called Shamanic Stirrings.  This one-day workshop provides an experiential look at shamanism and was created as a presentation to college students, especially those studying varied ways of knowing.