I started the search on Second Life by looking up the word “shaman”. Then looking into groups, I found the group “Shaman of SL” and I joined the group, but the members of the group weren’t online very often, which was the reason why I had minimal contact with them. Then I checked out the places with the name Shaman on it. There was only one and it was the “Shaman Woods”. Unfortunately there was nothing there, for it was only a small cube. Then I tried the place “Seoraksan” that has the description “to reflect and heal your spirit”, and that place too was a disappointment because there was nobody there.

From Seoraksan, I traveled to Songnisan which was relatively close-by to Seoraksan. In Seoraksan there was a group of Italian speaking avatars chatting and I talked to one of them, MicheleMatteo Dagostino, but he did not really have any leads to a shaman so I moved on to another place called “Sinuiju”. There I met an “Explorer” (as described by his SL group) and his name is Paladon Slade. After conversing for a bit, he referred to a place called “Tombstone”, a town that has a Native American village. He had met this medicine man during his visit there and so he gave me the landmark to Tombstone.

Tombstone is basically an American southwestern town with a “Wild West” setting. Because the Indian village that Paladon Slade mentioned was in the far corner of Tombstone, I could not find the village right away. A girl avatar, Cyndee Shepard, in town was nice enough to show me around and led me to the corner where the village was located. At the village, I met some of the SL Navajo Clan members. They were Matt Cummings and Emi Sinatra. I was trying to find out the whereabouts of the medicine man but I found out they also have a chief who hangs around. Unfortunately, in order to interact with them, I must fit into a Native American costume, and so I set off to find such clothing for my avatar through search

.I picked out a place called Notata. I actually visted Notata a couple times, there they sell many Native American products but at an expensive price. On my third visit, I met another native Indian avatar, Uncas Wise. I found out that he also traveled a lot in Second Life, and after conversing for a little bit, he gave me a Native outfit (pants and boots) and referenced a store in a place called “La Tribu”.

I moved the conversation to my search for shamans, and he said he also met one in La Tribu. He gave me the landmarks for La Tribu and “Eagle Falls”, another Native American landmark that is actually right across from Notata. After meeting Uncas Wise, I used his landmark to La Tribu. La Tribu is a forest with a network of tree houses and many French speaking Native American avatars hang around here. Feeling out of place, I took me a few more visits to La Tribu before I actually implemented myself into their circles. A few avatars (Stef Fawcett, Eve Coawlin, Yohanaan Loon) were nice enough to say hello and then converse with me in English. In the end, I found out from them that there is a shaman within La Tribu and they refer to him as “Seb”. I didn’t get to meet Seb, but everybody at La Tribu seems to know him.

Next I transported to Uncas Wise’s other landmark, “Eagle Falls”. Walking around, I saw Tala Dagger and decided to say hi. I could tell she became uneasy because I was asking too many questions, but after talking more about myself she became more comfortable. By conversing with her, I found out that the avatar who resides in Eagle Falls are actually Native American by blood and spirit, unlike the role playing Navajo Clan in Tombstone. It also turns out that Tala Dagger is the real life sister of Uncas Wise and there are also many members of their tribe/group, which is called “Anishnabe House”. Tala Dagger suggested I should meet up with Taya Greyskin. According to Tala Dagger, Taya Greyskin is quite knowledgable. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to meet up with Taya Greyskin.

Through Vivian’s avatar, we went to Mystic Academy, where we met up with tarot card reader, StarRose Merlin, and practicing shaman, Blackpath Rodenberger, among other Mystic Academy visitors and members. From our conversations, we found out that a guy named Dragon Shichiroji built Mystic Academy. We also learned that shamanism was originated in Tibet/East India before the advent of Buddhism. A shaman is like “a jack of all trades in metaphysics” according to StarRose Merlin and shamanism deals with medicine and bardic tradition. There are many types of shamanism and their regions distinguish them such as central Asian shamanism or North American shamanism.