ABOUT FRANCES
A LIFE LESS COMMON
Hi, I’m Frances Ulman. Only Spirits is for people who are looking for easily accessible, authentic shaman created content. Here you can learn shamanic techniques to keep your energy healthy and protected; dive into mindfully created, comfortable yet powerful, guided meditation practices; enjoy shamanic sound meditations; and more. This content is mindfully designed to expand your consciousness, reconnect you with your power source, and offer ways to connect more safely and deeply with other realms.
Previously a clinical psychologist in the USA, I am now recognised as shaman. These days a lot of people use the word “shaman” to describe their work, yet it’s rarely real shamanism - not even close. I think if you are sensitive in your own ways, you’ll feel the difference fairly quickly in what I offer.
I am painfully aware of the improbability that a true shaman would look like me. To be skeptical of me on first contact is the right first reaction. But as unique as it is, I am following an authentic path of a shaman. I did not attend a training course, and I have no certificate. A shaman’s path of training could never fit in a human led curriculum. I am initiated in Mongolia, where I continue to live and grow in community over the years (for over a decade I have lived nomadically across a few continents). I am not self made. I could only be here thanks to the numerous and generous teachers in my path. When Mongolians first see me they are often shocked. But after a few laughs about how I look more like a ghost than a person, we all settle down to sit with me, and invite in the spirits who move through me. The Mongolians I know have only come to accept me through experiencing me. There I am seen for what I do, not how I look.
It is not for me to decide if I am a shaman. In true shamanism, a person is recognised by community.
People have told me that real shamans never call themselves a shaman. If only it were so simple. I tried that for many years. And I found that when I didn’t speak up for myself and shamanism, it was the knuckleheads in the room who were leading the conversations about shamanism. We now are in a situation where people don’t even know what real shamanism is, or what it is for. Real shamans are rare. More usually I see a mash up of shoddy cultural appropriation, New Age ungrounded energy scattering mayhem, made up silliness, and a heck of a lot of unsafe energy practices. Under the banner of “shaman,” undertrained and untrained people are opening portals where ungood beings enter, causing energetic harms, implanting their unhealed stories into others, and looking for new followers instead of actually nurturing spaces of balance and health. That is not shamanism.
So shaman is a word I use to describe me - to claim space for real shamanism. I state my story plainly. I offer my work from the place of my highest integrity and honesty. And I leave the rest to the spirit realm. I stay with my passion that includes creating authentic shaman created content for people who would like support on their own sacred path.
Access to authentic shamanism and sacred healing practices should be universal. I am just one person, but I do what I can. For this reason, I offer in-person shamanic work, including spirit retrievals, removal of energy attachments, and home energy cleanings. I have an active online community on Patreon, where I create monthly talks, sound meditations, live meet-ups, and more at a low and accessible rate. I also recorded my story of going from psychologist to shaman as a free 8 episode podcast “Not All Spirits Are Jerks.” I write essays related to decolonizing and shamanism on Substack, and I have a YouTube channel to take people with me on my journeys.
Understandably some people may wish to see donation based pricing on Only Spirits. Only Spirits was actually created so I can continue to do the majority of my work at greatly reduced rates, and share free content to everyone, ensuring as many people as possible have equal access to my work. Capitalism is brutal, especially on those of us who are working in shamanism and related fields. For over a decade, in community I have asked people to pay what they can. Sadly this arrangement has left me overworked and not able to support myself, and if a rainy day comes I’m unprepared. The decision to put my work online more publicly was not an easy for me. But ultimately I think it was the right decision. Thanks to support from Only Spirits, I can continue offering people in my lived communities to pay what they can. At the same time, Only Spirits gives more people easy access to ethically created, powerful, compassionate, and spirited support on their sacred path.
When you purchase empowered content from Only Spirits, you are supporting your own path… and you are also supporting community.
FRANCES' REDUCED RATE AND FREE ONLINE CONTENT
Podcast: Not All Spirits Are Jerks.
(FREE) I share my wild stories of how I became a shaman after following the path of a clinical psychologist, only to have my previous life scattered to the winds when the Spirits tapped me in.
Substack: @dropoutpsychologist
(FREE) For those who still enjoy longer form writing (a dying artform for sure), here I offer an ecclictic collection of essays about shamanism, decolonizing minds, decolonizing filmmaking, and more.
YouTube: Dropout.Psychologist
(FREE) Find videos from my life in Mongolia, Greenland, Sápmi, and more. I post talks about how to move more skilfully in this realm. I share some wild stories about my time with shamans in Mongolia - the good, bad, and ugly sides of it. I talk to an eagle hunter. I share ghost stories. I visit Disneyland Tokyo. My YouTube channel is like a chef's special of the day - you never know what I'll be sharing.
Patreon: Sacred Bear Den.
(REDUCED RATE MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION AVAILABLE - NO QUESTIONS ASKED) If you are looking for a deeper dive, my Patreon community may be for you. All members have access to monthly new content including guided practices, talks, empowered sound meditations with video, and casual conversation with Ask Me Anything. All members also have exclusive full access to the Collections, which include all content from previous months.
At the community member level, you can also join our community of others who are relearning how to walk their sacred path. My Patreon community is very active. If I'm honest, I'm kind of in awe of the people who have gathered there. I used to feel very alone on my path of opening. To have a diverse community of people from many paths, just holding space for each other to allow our full weird selves to be present without The Mask, is mind blowing to me. Everyone is so different, and we all just enjoy being in shared space together. It's a place where you can share that thing that happened to you - that no one would believe in your family or friend group. No one needs to be a certain way. That's the best part of this exceptionally unique community, if you ask me. By far, this Patreon community is what I am most proud to have created. At the community level, we have monthly live hang outs, occasional pops ups and community events, and an active group chat on Signal. There is no right person for the community. We are all different, from many countries, backgrounds, and beliefs. One thing we all share is heart on our path. Community members are also able to submit their questions for the AMAs.
Or stay connected on Patreon as a (free) follower. Patreon is where I send out occasional updates about events I am offering, and more.
RECEIPTS
I have quite a strange story, and to question if my story is valid is a reasonable first response. People like me exist all over the world. But few of us have the background of being a clinical psychologist who was the one diagnosing the gifts some are given by the ancestors and spirits. I am valid, but not common.
From when I first began the ancient path of the spirits over a decade ago, I have moved over 300 times: no home, no health insurance, no rest, and only a one pointed determination to not give up, even when all feels lost. I'm not a traveler or a tourist. I walk with the spirits. I wake up each morning not knowing what's to come, unless I've been guided in a dream the night before. This is the wild path that will destroy everything left in me that is not for the liberation of all beings. I'm tired, y'all. But for me, quitting was never an option. Somehow, over the years, and injuries, and heartbreak, and rounds of COVID, life brings me what I need (nothing more) as it strips away layer after layer of who I thought I was. The Great Unlearning.
To question my story makes sense. Of course, the real question is what energy moves through me, which can't be known with eyes alone. And that I never try to prove. I've learned that's a fool's mission. But I thought maybe I will share some receipts of my external journey of traversing through this wild energy jungle we call the earth realm. What an amazing alien planet we live on - I truly fall more in love every day with this little planet in a remote arm of an unremarkable galaxy in a universe with an unknown name.
