My favourite part about the shaman-over-a-weekend narrative is like... have these people read the literature on this? Shamanic initiation is a truly horrifying near death experience, where you get to watch your own mind turn inside out, and it doesn't happen any other way. And then you get to be exiled to the edge of the village to be feared and revered. I don't think many people who didn't have to actually chose that path. And any that did seek it out in a quest, were definitely scary people with terrifying lust for power. Not to be confused with spirit dancers looking to get a good-seal-hunter spirit, or whatever...

The amount of power a person can draw down seems to be == the amount of pain they endured to get it. So I am hoping they aren't really able to send out any energy, they're just damp powder, singeing themselves :-(