A look at real shaman's

[Valerian]

 Hola all, I just read Koth's post on how to link video's so I thought I'd link a documentary about a shamanic workshop I attend that I made and posted on my Youtube channel. Perhaps you will find it interesting

 Documentary is in four parts, about 35 min long in total.

part 1 [youtube=425,350]VVIXOb23sKU[/youtube]
part 2 [youtube=425,350]SWe549UR3UY[/youtube]
part 3 [youtube=425,350]oVJcBCUKXgQ[/youtube]
part 4 [youtube=425,350]hnKCiBjsFE4[/youtube]

[Kothnok]

Thanks for sharing, that trip looked quite interesting and the vistas from up there were breathtaking.  Though, I don't think I would have such a pleasant rapport with those spiders (though I don't kill them on sight anymore like I used to, hehe).

[Valerian]

 But koth..........spiders are our friends

[Kothnok]

I used to be semi-phobic of them... until I moved into an apt where I would find quarter-sized black hairy wolf spiders every time I turned around.  I would kill a few in the morning getting ready for work. A few more when I got home until bedtime... and then a couple more during the night whenever I had to get up.  I averaged about 6 a day for most of a summer.  It was tough to go from never wanting to gett near one to outright slaughtering the horde of them invading my apt every day. I believe they lived in between roof rafters and came down into the apt to avoid the summer heat.  I got to a point where I got tired of killing them all the time and learned to just live with it... to a point.

I struck a deal with them. They could live as long as they never came within arms reach of me. 

I understand that spiders eat many of the annoying bugs we hate and I understand they're important and everything... but I grew up in a house that had black widow spiders found in many dark corners. You didn't lift anything up for fear of one of them nesting underneath (because half the time, they were). I've probably killed more black widows than many people have seen in their lifetime. Even a couple of violin spiders, too. I ... just don't care for having any close-by anymore. 

[Cottonbaler]

... just don't care for having any close-by anymore. 

I hear you. I still remember the critter briefing at Jungle School in Panama... "And this is the common wolf spider that grows up to a foot in diameter."

Boy was my neck on a swivel when we were in the jungle!

[Valerian]

 A foot in diameter!! wow

[Kothnok]

"And this is the common wolf spider that grows up to a foot in diameter."

Spiders large enough to catch parrots are common in many jungle-type places around the world. Down in Alabama, near the coast, there used to live giant banana spiders that grew that large too and I would have seen some while on a slightly off-beat dolphin watching/alligator swamp tour a few years ago.  Our tour guide ended all his dolphin tours by taking his flat-bottomed boat up a ways into the swamp to show off some alligator haunts and at the spot where he would turn around and head back to port was a nest of those giant banana spiders. He enjoyed seeing people's reactions to seeing foot-long spiders suspended in webs 10 feet over their heads. Unfortunately, hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the area and the spiders have not returned. Curiously, the entire coastal swamp area was fairly devoid of flying insects too (which, if you've been anywhere hot and humid, you know what I mean).  Our guide, who is also a professor that has studied the wildlife in the area for many years, attributed the lack of flying insects to the now missing spiders and is now trying to figure out why there is virtually no flying insects there either.