Becoming a Shaman

A response in a forum to someone asking for help to become a shaman...

No one can help you undergo a shamanic initiation or death ritual. The spirits themselves will decide and it will not be by any ritual. First they will test you to see if you have any ability what so ever to perceive them. They can not tell you the secrets of life or the universe or the secrets of healing and the future if you can not see them, sense them or understand them. To be a traditional shaman of ancient time is to have one foot in both worlds. To be both dead and alive at the same time and at will. No person "wants" to be a shaman of this realm as to do so means risk of loss of life. The shamanic path is much safer. Practicing meditation, self deprivation (loss of ego) and service to the community. These are all things that Jesus did. 

If you wish to open yourself up to the world of spirits you must first remove yourself from the comforts of the flesh. Spending time completely alone, surrounded by nature and depriving one's self of certain things are roads that many Native American Shaman of past have walked down. These things make it easier to see the spiritual world, when all the noise around us no longer competes for there attention. Listen to the sound of the water in the brook, listen the trees in the wind. Look at the moon for a long time. 

Listen to your dreams. One of the ways's that the Spirits talk to us is through imagery. Pay attention to the pictures and images that pop up in your head. Pay attention to the symbols and messages in your dreams. These are the ways the spirits talk. They have no physical bodies to make sound with so it is only through charades and masquerades as archtypical figures that they can get through to us. This is a simplistic way to explain it but it is how it starts. If you are successful the initiation begins and you will literally see a parade of spirits one after the other teaching you and showing you. Hope this helps.

More...
http://shamanportal.org/forum/shamanic-help-f9/shamanic-initiation-death-baron-samedi-and-psychompomp-t837.html