Have you ever been to a sweatlodge? What was it like and did it change your life or just make you sweat?
Been to several. I can’t say it’s changed my life per se, but it has made me think about a lot of things.
A sweatlodge is basically a healing ceremony, physically and emotionally. Sometimes people express pain or problems they’ve been having, or bad experiences in their life that they can’t let go of. People are encouraged to let feelings of pain and anger out by crying, screaming, yelling, throwing up - whatever comes naturally. I’ll tell you this much, the difference between being outside the lodge and inside it during the sweat is a big one. If you’re on the outside and you don’t know what it’s about, it sounds like everyone’s being murdered. If you’re inside, you just go with the flow.
Heat varies depending on outside temp as well as how hot the rocks have gotten. I’ve been to sweats where I didn’t actually start sweating till halfway through, and it wasn’t much different than being in a bathroom right after a shower. I’ve been to some where it gets so hot you become delirious.
People sing in there also, and usually we bring rattles in and sometimes drums. Occasionally a sacred pipe is smoked.
There’s a lot more little details to the whole process. If you want to know more you can email me, it’s in my profile.