--- title: What do Human Guides teach and help with? description: "Human Lower-World**Lower-World.** The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is a reliable sign of not…" url: "https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/wiki/what-do-human-guides-teach-and-help-with/" updated: "2026-11-10" category: The Guides tags: - Adulthood - apprenticeship - ethics - everyday life - healing - how to be human - "Human Lower-World Guide" - plant spirit medicine - rewilding - words --- # What do Human Guides teach and help with? Human Lower-World**Lower-World.** The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is a reliable sign of not having reached it. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-lower-world/) Guides teach us how to be human: how to live as part of nature rather than separate from it. They heal us, and as they heal they show us how healing is done, so we become their apprentices. In everyday life they can warn, protect and point us to the Plants, Stones and Animals we need, but they do not make our middle-world**Middle-world.** Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. "If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world." [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-middle-world/) decisions, they rarely use words, and the ethical responsibility for our work stays with us. ## What do Human Guides teach? Above all, how to be a human being. In shamanic cultures, the shamans could communicate with the Ancestors**Ancestors.** The human Oversoul: the whole of humanity held as one Lower-World being. Distinct from individual dead ancestors (small a), who are not worked with in this approach. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-difference-between-an-ancestor-and-an-ancestor/), and so with "the knowledge, wisdom, stories and template of how to healthily be a human, knowledge about how to live in a healthy and respectful way as part of the great tree of life."^[1](#note-1) A Human Lower-World Guide is "someone from whom we can learn what it is to be a human living as part of nature, not separate from it. A Guide who can help us reach beyond the damage of domestication**Domestication.** The process by which, in domesticating other species, we domesticated ourselves. When dated precisely, Domestication begins with the Neolithic era, before the Fall proper, which begins with the first city-state cultures around 4000 BCE. What rewilding works to undo. [More about this](/wiki/what-does-domestication-mean/) and discover instead the being that we are really meant to be."^[2](#note-2) They also teach the practice of shamanism itself. A Human Guide "will become a profoundly important teacher in terms of developing and deepening your shamanic practice. As with your Power Animal**Power Animal.** The Oversoul of a wild species, met as a single Lower-World being and bonded with in a deep, committed, usually lifelong soul-bond of unconditional love. The practitioner's first and foremost Guide: Panther, not "my panther". [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-a-power-animal/), essentially you will become their apprentice and they will guide you into the deeper layers of this work."^[3](#note-3) What they teach is not tied to any one culture: "Your Lower-World Guides will teach you Shamanism, not shamanism that belongs to any one middle-world human culture."^[4](#note-4) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Branches on a Tree". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Six, "What Shamanism Says about Why We Get Ill". 3. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Humans from the Lower-World, Who Are They?". 4. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Cultural Appropriation?". ## How do Human Guides heal and teach healing? By doing it, while you watch. Ask your Human Guide repeatedly for healing, and "Remember to pay attention to how they heal you, as they are not only healing you, but showing you healing methods and techniques."^[5](#note-5) Paul Francis's own main Guide is "a gifted shamanic healer, with an extensive knowledge of the healing properties of animals, plants and stones".^[6](#note-6) Learning is gradual. It was a long time before Paul's own Guides let him do an extraction**Extraction.** Drawing a foreign body (an intrusion) out of a person and packing the hole with something healthy. The iron rule: only ever foreign bodies, never a part of the self: extracting a genuine part of self creates soul-loss. [More about this](/wiki/what-is-extraction/). It was only after he had watched them do a lot of extractions that one day they turned to him and said, "You do this one."^[7](#note-7) When working for others, too, the power is the Guides', not the practitioner's; see [What is shamanic healing?](/wiki/what-is-shamanic-healing/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "What to Do When You Have Met Them". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Humans from the Lower-World, Who Are They?". 3. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Six, "Doing Shamanic Extractions". ## Do Human Guides speak in human language? Rarely. Words belong to the middle-world, and this gives a test: a Guide who talks a lot about anything at all is unlikely to be a true Lower-World Guide, as the Lower-World is mostly beyond human speech. Paul's own Guides use words quite rarely.^[8](#note-8) The same goes for Power Animals and Guides alike: "Words are middle-world things."^[9](#note-9) When they do teach, it is often by experience, and sometimes in surprising ways. On one journey Paul arrived with a long shopping list of things he wanted to do, and his main Human Guide simply said "Be Kelp". He spent the whole journey as Kelp, doing nothing, and it is one of the most impactful, vivid and memorable journeys he has ever done.^[10](#note-10) Asked another time about the [meaning of life](/wiki/what-does-animism-say-about-the-meaning-of-life/), "Her answer was, "Ask that rock"."^[11](#note-11) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "What to Do When You Have Met Them". 2. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Eight, "What Shamanic Healing Is, and What It Is Not". 3. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Eight, "'Being' (Not 'Doing')". 4. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Eight, "Stories about the Meaning of Life". ## Can a Human Guide teach plant medicine? Some can, as their speciality. Over time other Human Guides appear, often with "different shamanic specialisms... Some Guides will be especially skilled at soul retrieval**Soul retrieval.** Finding an exiled soul-part and inviting it home. In the modern psyche the fort-holder who sent it away must consent first, and the retrieval itself is a beginning: the real work is integration. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-soul-retrieval/), others may specialise in extraction work, or in dealing with the souls of the dead, or in plant spirit medicine, and so on. Each of them can teach you about their speciality if asked".^[12](#note-12) Any Guide can also point you towards what you need: "They can bring your attention to particular plants, stones, or animals that have healing and teaching for you."^[13](#note-13) The Plant People are, of course, teachers in their own right; see [What are Plant People and what gifts do they bring?](/wiki/what-are-plant-people-and-what-gifts-do-they-bring/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Other Human Lower-World Guides". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "What to Do When You Have Met Them". ## How do Human Guides help in everyday life? In a number of practical ways. "They can warn you if they sense that you are in any way in danger. They can protect you energetically and psychically. They can show you why the energy in a room feels funny, and what to do about it. They can show you how to 'feng shui' your home and garden, so that the energy does not stagnate but flows freely. They can show you how to bond with the land, and work with the spirits who live there."^[14](#note-14) Like a Power Animal, a Human Guide can also become a constant presence. When you are both ready, you can "practise sensing them around you as you go about your daily life so that, like your Power Animal, they become a constant and reliable presence."^[15](#note-15) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "What to Do When You Have Met Them". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "What to Do When You Have Met Them". ## What do Human Guides not do? They do not run your life. "What they are not though is the parking-spot fairy. Nor are they some parent-like figure who makes all the decisions in life for you." Being of the Lower-World, "they know nothing about present-day human society. They know nothing about bank accounts, insurance policies, mortgages, the law, the career ladder at work", and a Guide giving advice about such things "is not a true Lower-World Guide."^[16](#note-16) "This is your life and you still have to be an adult and make your own decisions when it comes to everyday middle-world issues." 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "What to Do When You Have Met Them". ## Can I rely on my Guides for ethics? Only up to a point. Genuine Lower-World Guides will never help you do harm: "If your Human Guide or Guides really are of the Lower-World they will not assist you in using shamanism to do harm or to manipulate anyone."^[17](#note-17) But "they are hunter-gatherers from the Lower-World and as such they may not be aware of some of the subtler ethical issues of the modern-day human middle-world." No, so the responsibility stays with us. A practitioner must bring the kind of thing set out in the many pages of a counselling code of ethics: "When it comes to ethics, we cannot just hand all responsibility over to our Guides. We need to step up to be an ethical, responsible adult."^[18](#note-18) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Ethics". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Ethics". ## What is the purpose of Human Guide work? To rewild us and help us grow up. Working with a Human Lower-World Guide is part of healing Power-loss**Power-loss.** Disconnection from nature, the web of life and our place in it: like being unplugged from the national grid. One of the two root causes of shamanic illness, healed by reconnection (not by soul retrieval), beginning with the Power Animal bond. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-power-loss/): "In doing these things, we begin the process of re-wilding ourselves and healing our power-loss."^[19](#note-19) It also shapes the teaching on becoming a true Adult; the list of an Adult's qualities draws on the qualities Paul has observed in his Human Lower-World Guides, and on what they have taught him about Adulthood initiations.^[20](#note-20) See [What is the Adult and what does healthy inner leadership look like?](/wiki/what-is-the-adult-and-what-does-healthy-inner-leadership-look-like/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Six, "What Shamanism Says about Why We Get Ill". 2. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Four, "What an Adult Really Is". - [What are Human Guides?](/wiki/what-are-human-guides/) - [What is the relationship between Human Guides and Power Animal?](/wiki/what-is-the-relationship-between-human-guides-and-power-animal/) - [Who are specialist Human Guides?](/wiki/who-are-specialist-human-guides/) - [How are Upper-World Guides different from Lower-World Guides?](/wiki/how-are-upper-world-guides-different-from-lower-world-guides/) - [What is Power-loss?](/wiki/what-is-power-loss/) - [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/) (Chapter Three, Human Lower-World Guides) - [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/) (Chapter Four, the Adult) - [all courses](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/shamanic-courses/)