Interview with Miss C. Kelly

Shinju - First of all, thank you very much for doing this. I really appreciate it. Could tell for the tape, who you are and what you do?
Catriona - My name is Catriona, I don't do anything because I am registered as a schizophrenic, which means that that's what modern medicine designates me as.
Shinju -Right, OK, first question. What do you think counts as a shaman? Do feel free to take s much time as you need.
Catriona - I think that anyone who goes into an unseen realm of a person or a world and changes or even just observes part of that, is a shamen. I also think that anyone who uses a totem or magic is a shamen.
Shinju -What do you mean by a totem?
Catriona - I mean a physical object that has power. So a herb. If you were to use a herb and do an incantation it would be a form of shamanism. So a magic spell is a form of shamanism.
Shinju -Now that quite a wide description. Certainly a lot wider than a lot of the other people who I've interviewed, but it does include people such as doctors.
Catriona - Yeah, I definitely think that doctors use shamanism.
Shinju -Physicists?
Catriona - Yes.
Shinju -So you are quite happy with how wide your definition is?
Catriona - I think that there is a difference between shamanism and being a shaman. I think that shamanism is something that everybody does all the time and I think that a shaman is someone who knows that they're doing it and does it with conscious intent.
Shinju -Do you consider yourself to be a shaman?
Catriona - Yes, I don't consider myself to be a particularly experienced or trained or impressive shaman but it's certainly something that I do. It's something that I have a natural skill, and its something that I have experienced but its not something that I'm brilliant at.
Shinju -Could you tell me a bit about the other shaman that you have met?
Catriona - Do I need to talk about more than one?
Shinju -You can do, if more than one spring out at you. What do you think about different methods of working?
Catriona - I've never met anyone who advertises themselves as a shamen and is a

shaman. I've met a medicine woman.
Shinju -Right, and what is she like?
Catriona - She's really nice and she does the tarot, but I've never experienced her shamanism. It's really her tarot, which by my definition is a form of shamanism i suppose. Maybe I should change my definition? Anyway, her name is BJ and she's very reassuring. She is, I suppose, what you would classically define as a clairvoyant. I know that she is a medicine woman and so I know that she practices shamanism aside from the stuff that she did for me. Another good example would be the Native American people living up in Otterburn, they do sweat lodges and reenact creation. However I don't feel that they've any particularly innate knowledge. I feel that a lot of their knowledge has been passed on by someone else. It's very traditional, but when they actually speak they don't say many wise things there's a lot of dogma there and a lot of opinionated speech and in my definition in my head of what a shaman would be like, they'd be wise and reticent and open minded and not judgemental.
Shinju -You think the wisdom would come from intuition not from the books that they've read?
Catriona - Yes. I don't think they would say things like "all Scottish people are rubbish".
Shinju -They said that?
Catriona - Yeah I think they would say that every tribe has innate knowledge.
Shinju -OK, what tools might a shaman use?
Catriona - A shaman might use a feather to cleanse an aura. The feather would remove any dark spirits from a person by breaking up any energy blockages with its fan.
Shinju -So cleansing tools.
Catriona - Shamen sometimes use mind altering drugs, such as tobacco because it enables them to see and get in touch with their intuition better. Partly, in my opinion, I've never read this, but I feel this to be true, partly because when you use a mind-altering drug you move closer to death. When your body goes into death mode you are closer to seeing what is behind the veil of life, which isn't necessarily death. Some shamen use little statues to call spirits, icons, Manu I think they are called. Some use symbols, to journey to a particular mental state. I think that, again this is my own knowledge but, when you make certain thoughts, certain thoughts run in a certain pattern. When you have a thought, and you then have a logical thought from it you have a line, if you then make a roundabout thought you have