Integral Options Cafe: Creative Spirituality: The Meta-Shaman

The special skill of the traditional shaman was the ability to enter into ecstatic trance and, within the trance state, to traverse the various "worlds" defined within the Meme in which s/he resides (an advanced state within a lower stage). Shamans were "technicians of ecstasy" according to Eliade. The trance-state, and its mastery, was the defining characteristic of the traditional shaman.

Meta-shamans are capable of selecting, through a conscious process, the Meme required at any given time. Within the selected Meme, whichever form of consciousness transformation is appropriate to that Meme is accessible, whether it's the trance state of the traditional shaman in Purple, or the nature mysticism of the Green Meme.