Shapeshifting, Transmutation, and Transfiguration… What are these things?  All of them are spiritual techniques of changing one thing into something else.  Transmutation changes substances, shapeshifting changes living forms.  Transfiguration is a state you can achieve through shapeshifting which allows you to perform transmutation.  The belief that you can do these things at all, comes out of what you believe about the nature of reality.

Everything is made of energy.  This could be a scientific statement, or it could be a mystical one.  If you have a chemical there are balls of energy jumping from one level or another, creating connections with other chemicals which then form the greater structures that make up your body.  A shaman would say, that behind reality there is a web of life, that is a network of invisible linkages that interconnect things and people in inexplicable ways.

When I perform a healing I am working on a level of reality that is a little less solid, and more responsive to changes.  The energy is woven into a fabric that then becomes the matter and shape of reality.   I look to the place where the energy first becomes woven and by making changes there hope to effect the structure and nature of the matter that is created by this weave.

At the lowest level, energy is not differentiated, it has no identity.  At the next “level” structure is given to the energy which gives it an identity.  That structure is the building blocks for larger structures which eventually create matter, or your physical body. It is hard to make changes to the physical world, to matter, because the structure of the energy has become so complicated its hard to effect it.  Once you get to the level of matter, you have to bake it, mix it, machine it to make a change.  But what if you could effect the world at the level where it is first woven?

Once you believe this is possible, that there is a level of reality that can be changed easily because it is not yet fully formed, this opens a world of possibilities.  Mystics and shamans for centuries have believed it is possible to change reality through unseen methods, and even Jesus himself might be said to have agreed:

Seeing a fig tree by the road, he (Jesus) went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.” Mathew 21:19-21:21

In essence Jesus is saying that you can cause a mountain to move if you truly believe you can.  Jesus’s statement bears a remarkable similarity to what shamans say about shapeshifting.  If you talk to a shaman who knows how, he or she will tell you they can change themselves into another animal.  Explaining further, the shaman will say that if you believe you are a hawk, then you will become a hawk.

Defining Belief

The words belief or faith can be a little misleading for what I am explaining, because of how we define those words.  Shapeshifting or changing something is not a situation where, if you believe and wish hard enough, it will happen.  It requires a type of belief that has no doubt in it.  It may be better to call it a knowing.  You have to know that you can change the thing in question.

If you have ever had an instance where you knew something was going to happen, you can understand the difference I’m talking about.  Some runners will talk about how they knew they were going to win a race before even claiming the lead.  I had this instance once when I was late catching a train.  The train pulled up to a platform, and I was about a block away.  There was no real way I should have been able to catch the train, but I looked at it and knew that I would.  Somehow, I ran the distance and up the stairs and caught the train easily.  You have to understand the distinction here, I did not think I could make it, I knew that I could without any doubt.

The ideas behind shapeshifting and transmutation are that if you know you are a hawk then you become a hawk – shapeshifting.  If you know that a toxic substance is water it becomes water – transmutation.  In essence you are what you know yourself to be, and knowing something is different changes that thing.

This comes back to how you understand the nature of reality.  For someone who believes in transmutation or shapeshifting, a given item in reality has an identity.  Hawk is an identity in the level of energy, the energy was given a structure which equals the identity of hawk.  If that energy were given another identity, such as squirrel, the hawk would instantly become a squirrel.

This is really hard for people in our society to even grasp.  We don’t really believe its possible for a physical item to simply change forms.  Even if we can open our minds to the possibility, we certainly would have trouble getting to the point where we could believe it absolutely, with the knowing I talked about earlier.  I think the closest we come to in our society to being able to believe such a thing can be found in the “laws of attraction.”

The law of attraction is, in some ways, a very similar belief system to the ones of shapeshifting.  The key difference here is that, for the law of attraction, we believe we can influence events by what we believe, rather than change physical forms.  If I have the right consciousness, if I know and believe I will make money, then I will make money.  If I only kind of believe I will make money, but actually doubt it or still carry the belief that I will not make money, then I will not make money.

In the most extraordinary stories, people will explain that they only had to think of something they wanted and it came into their life almost instantly.  In theory, the same would be true with changing forms.  I would decide I am a hawk and it would happen almost instantly.  I would know that an organ was healed and it would be so.

You might notice that this type of instant manifestation is similar to the way that Jesus healed.  He wouldn’t necessarily touch a person, or even be in the same location as the person, but he would say “he is healed” or “now you can see.”  He would simply state the fact of the new state, and it would be so.  You may know stories of other mystics or healers who worked in this way as well.

Changing Forms

A shapeshift does not always have to involve something as radical as a human becoming a hawk.  A shapeshifter can change their own energy slightly, for instance to blend in to their environment.  In this case, a shapeshifter would not become invisible so much as their energy would so closely match their surroundings.  Anyone looking would fail to notice them.  A shapeshifter could shift the energy of a crowd, from being one that is violent into one that is more peaceful.  A shapeshifter could turn an unhealthy organ into a healthy one.

Transmutation is similar, but involves substances.  In theory you could change something completely, like turning water into wine.  Or you could shift something enough to make it less harmful.  All of these things involve an ability to have the knowing that allows you to induce the item to change.  This knowing is a type of consciousness.

Jesus embodied this consciousness, a type of super human or divine consciousness.   Jesus knew that there was no separation between himself and the divine, and that the interconnection allowed him to perform miracles and to heal.  This consciousness is available to other people, but you have to make a shift if you are to embody or vibrate with this type of consciousness.

Shapeshifting allows for the type of shift that invokes divine energy and puts us into a state of knowing.  I mention before that you don’t always have to change your physical appearance to be shapeshifting.  Whenever you shift the energy your body is emitting, that is a type of shapeshift.  When you shapeshift into a state of divine consciousness, that is called transfiguration.

Sandra Ingerman researched extensively to see how ancient cultures performed miracles.  She found that the common element in spiritual systems such as alchemy and others was this shifting of one’s state of consciousness.  While it was not always referred to as transfiguration it always involved these common elements: You shift into a state of knowing, in that state you see clearly the change you wish to make as if it already exists, if you can do this without doubt the change occurs.

Lauren Torres – Lansing, IL
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Do not reproduce with out express written permission.

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Comments

Shape-Shifting, Transmutation, and Transfiguration — 13 Comments

  1. Note from Author. The comments for this page were lost in a recent website glitch. Your comments were appreciated, and would appear here if this issue had not occurred.

    • If you look on ShamanicTeachers.com, the teachers there will teach this in classes called “Medicine for the Earth” or “Healing with Spiritual Light.” The teachers listed in Canada, may be willing to schedule something if they don’t have anything available.

  2. Transfiguration is beyond achieving divine consciousness. Many of the prophets of the Bible had divine consciousness but only Elijah attained transfiguration. It is the physical act of transforming the material body into a body of light emanated from the pure energy of molecular transformation thus enabling the
    transfigured one to ascend thus becoming a light form, lighter than air, reaching the ethers and beyond
    to where Christ ascended into the Presence of Our Father, AVI, who resides above the dome of the sky.

    • The body is very much involved in transfiguration, although I did not focus on that point too greatly in this article. This article was focused on allowing people to understand the general principles of shapeshifting and transfiguration. As you say its not just a matter of knowing something, the knowing must embodied. In the case of transfiguration, the shapeshift is a transformation of the physical body to embody the divine light. However, whether others would see it could be a matter of their spiritual eyes. When Jesus Transfigured before Peter, James and John, the light was described as being very great, and they were almost overcome by the experience. However, I’m not sure that every witness would have had the spiritual perception to see such light. Had other been there, some may have only felt it.

      I personally believe that everyone is capable of achieving some degree of transfiguration. That state is extremely healing, even if it isn’t one where a physical body is entirely transformed. Any union with the divine is extremely healing to ones body and the world around us. The divine light is so potent that even a small portion of it is extremely healing. A minor experience of transfiguration could be extremely transformative for the individual who experiences it.

    • Shape shifting in to a wolf is what a shamanic shape shifting into an animal would be. I do not have much experience with this type of shape shifting that involves visible changes to the physical body. I’m not sure that I can give you any solid advice on how that would really work. There are other shamanic cultures that would report knowing how to do this, and could be better at explaining how it works.

      I mainly use shape shifting for transfiguration, and for shifting states of group conscious when it makes sense to do so, and when that is keeping with honoring other people’s choices. For instance, I sometimes use shape shifting to change the state of traffic jams on an expressways. To do this, I look for a strand that represents a consciousness of harmonious participation in the traffic for this time and place. Many potentials can exist for how a given place and time manifest, and if the potential for harmony exists, the shapeshift is one of calling that potential into being. If however, everyone in the traffic is focused on how bad and slow the traffic is, they are by that conscious focus, anchoring the reality of unmoving traffic into being. In that case, there is no way to actualize a different form of traffic. The shapeshift happens, when the reality of something moves from one potential manifestation, to a different one.

      I don’t think that changing traffic patterns should be a goal of a healer, but as I spend a lot of time travelling it seemed to be me a good way to practice the work of shape shifting. I’m not sure that I would agree with using the skill if it were only for the personal gain of getting to my destination more quickly. Being that I am an engineer, as well as a shamanic healer, I know that I cannot say with 100% certainty that what I do is what changes the traffic. I am sharing this mainly as a potential example of how shape shifting can work, in case that is helpful to you. I cannot explain how I perceive the “potential strand” I describe. It may be a perception that is unique to how I see the structure of reality. I call the strand into being by motions of my hands that I perceive as a type of energetic song. For me, it is the song that calls a different strand into being. The song embodies the energy of this other state of being, and the body of the traffic can begin to embody this as well.

  3. This is such an informative article! Thank you so much for writing it! I have the same views about energy and reality and am glad to know there are others who can explain this so clearly.

  4. Thank you for assisting to bring resolution to my consciousness regarding this subject. Powerful insight and I can feel the energetic movement woven throughout. Your words, image, and vibration can be felt as a reverberation cloaked within your work. It is an honor to meet you.

    • Thank you Lonnie, I’m glad you found this helpful. Transfiguration is in fact about embodying a particular type of energy every day, and that is ultimately what will change the world. Its an honor that you took the time to share your thanks with me.

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