Journeying is the altered, trance-like state of consciousness that a shaman enters when seeking assistance from the spirits. Cross-culturally, a shaman journeys to three worlds — the upper, lower, and middle. Physiologically, the shaman is intentionally leaving the ordinary reality of left-brain thinking and moving into the nonordinary template of the right brain. The journey is a dreamlike state, and understanding the commonalities and differences with dreamtime can be helpful in understanding the journey process. Dreaming involves falling asleep and moving involuntarily into another reality.

The shaman, however, moves with intention into a nonordinary state of awareness. This purposeful effort affords the shaman the opportunity to explore possibilities with deliberateness and allows the shaman to acquire information and affect healing.

Three-dimensional reality as we know it does not exist in this nonordinary state of awareness. Physical laws have no relevance, and what we would term "magic" is commonplace in this experience. Conditions and actions that might seem nonsensical to our left-brain-dominant culture are appropriate to this multidimensional world of the shamanic journey and are the very things that can create deep healing and cause miraculous events to occur.