gained the ability to send of their soul to the spirit world. In return for their soul flying off, a spirit from nature would enter their body and take over. Still other practitioners believed that a “shaman’s body can be concurrently occupied by several ghosts or spirits as well as by his own spirit or soul” (Ross, 1997, p. 211). The Native shamans grasped on to this type of notion and made it an important part of their life and culture. Every part of their daily life began to have a connection to the spirit world as it not only gave them a sense of meaning and purpose but a very magical and romantic explanation of their surroundings.
However, it must also be noted that the establishment of the trance state is not only a means to build a connection to the spirit world or communicate with the Gods. The achievement of a trance state was always important for the enjoyment of a heightened awareness, or ecstasy (Lewis, 2003, p. 43). It helped the Shaman achieve total peace and tranquility and be a part of nature. This then helps us understand the Shamanic Indian’s passion for “natural” highs. They have through time developed a complex understanding of nature’s trance-inducing drugs, especially the hallucinogens like Peyote and wild, or magic, mushrooms. They were an important part of the Native Indian’s religious rituals and ceremonies and helped them achieve a heightened awareness. As Schaefer describes in her book, People of the Peyote, “…the divine peyote cactus…stands at the center of the shaman’s universe…It functions as ally, protector, and facilitator of the ecstatic trance in which the specialists in the sacred interact directly with the gods and seek their advice” (Plotkin, 1990, p. 9). The natives found that the