Becoming worthy of your basic humanity

Shamanism's initiatory method is designed to facilitate a return to oneself. Basic shame prevents the return and must be combated by methods that lead one to set aside illusions that produce self-doubt. You don't learn to respect yourself until you've combated yourself in your worst nightmares. Only then do you have the capacity to learn self-love. ( It's not really about self-esteem in the way the dominant paradigm defines it, but rather in self-respect and self-knowledge. We respect a formidable foe -- and we learn that we are that formidable foe.)