A fair proportion of Americans visit my Glasgow web site, and many of them, influenced by the Native American tradition, are interested in the concept of spirit travel or shamanic flight along ley-lines. I have never personally experienced shamanic flight, but I can at least claim to have reached first base with a vertical takeoff and three-minute hover job.

It was the time of life when the new teeth push out the old, and as I had quite a lot of extractions to be done, it was decided that I had to go to the Dental Hospital. The deal was that if I went peacefully I'd get a little carpenter's set and a saw with real teeth, not rubber. If I didn't go peacefully I'd get a smack on the behind.
I went peacefully and after the anaesthetic was administered I saw the whole operation. I was up on the ceiling looking down. From my vantage point somewhere between the entablatures and cornices of the old Georgian surgery I could see three people in white coats surrounding my inert form. I still remember my amazement at seeing myself down below. My arms were poking out of a white apron-type gown, and I could count the coloured bands on each cuff of my woollen jersey. One minute I was down below with dentists and nurses probing into my mouth, the next I was up on the ceiling. I changed from one state to the other continuously. When I was up on the ceiling I could move my legs and turn around, but nobody seemed to know I was up there.
When it was all over, my mother remembered me running into the waiting room, oblivious of blood, pain and the carefully packaged carpenter's set lying on the seat beside her.
"Mammy, mammy there's two me's" I kept telling her over and over again. . . but she never really believed me.

The only account I have ever come across in Scotland that resembles shamanic flight or astral travel along ley lines is from Duchal Castle, an ancient fortress mentioned in the Lanercost Chronicle as the scene of a series of hauntings in 1296. The ghost first appeared at Paisley Abbey in a "hideous, gross and tangible" form, then for some reason it moved on to Duchal where it settled on the castle turrets. The garrison fired arrows and threw spears at it to no avail; anything that came within striking distance burned to ashes. One night, the Lord of Duchal's eldest son heroically engaged it in single combat. He was never seen alive again, but his torn and mutilated body was found in the castle hall next morning. After that, the ghost disappeared for all time.

During research for The Guide to the Haunted Castles of Scotland in 1981, the ghost's route was traced from Paisley Abbey to Duchal Castle and another ley was discovered in the process. For some reason, the ghost of Duchal seems to have used it in its travels. A straight line from Duchal Castle to Paisley Abbey runs through the grounds of Duchal House and prehistoric Houston South Mound on the way. Extended past the Abbey the alignment leads to Crookston Castle, one of Glasgow's major sightline centres.

(The shamanic illustrations were selected from a panel of Bronze Age rock carvings at Kallsangen in Sweden.)

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