Knowledge & Intention
Knowledge is like a (some)thing. We can't put our finger on what it is, but we know it exists by its ability to "know" certain things. Simply, like how to do something - that is knowledge. Knowledge, except for the gifted, needs to be gained and trained. It is achieved by combining experience and learning.
Intention is from another realm. It cannot be "attained", though it too is only known by its outward expression - and will, of course, be tempered by what the individual (or object) "knows".
However, (conscious) intention is static! It requires the flow to stop - even if only to "realise" the intention.
If intention remains unconscious, then though it is not in the realm of the truly involuntary, but it is now entering into the dissonant realm, existing in an in-between place, a kind of limbo, in that it has a conscious aspect, though the consciousness that is "conscious" cannot understand the symbols and method by which this half-consciousness is attempting to communicate (and, generally, asking for help [unless evil]).
That is essentially the place where the shaman works. All he or she does is return with these "pieces" of information - a kind of a messenger, a human Malach, or angel. If this shaman is working with God, Great Spirit, Ruach Ha'Kadosh, then it will be up to the person to receive these "spirit" gifts, and by a wonderful magical process of synthesia or some form of strange empathy, fit it into their soul mapping. The person knows when it fits - and that work is only as true and effective as the authenticity of the person receiving the gift/message(s). "You receive in response to the intention, relative to the depth of the reception.
Religion (2/19)
What if religion is wrong, just a human overlay of control?
Anything that materialises has to pass through the veil of the ego (Nefesh). It has to become self-identified, have some primal ideal of "beingness", of existence - an idea that seems to come from somewhere within-ish. A driving reason reason for going into any depth is to seek the actual source of this thrust into existence. If we deny its (ever) presence in our present existence, then we need to seek the beginning/starting point and perhaps there is where we will encounter the reason for our existence, for there is where the source/realm from/with which it merged would be most clearly present.
By the fourth iteration most traces of the initial event have been dispersed, and the complexity of the event begins to emerge. Thus we use archetypes, some esoteric, some pseudo-scientific - or so-called rational - and symbols to trace a route to the source. However, any route transmitted will be shaped by these symbols, and will have to be expressed by these archetypes, which necessarily constrain the description, providing only an approximation.
As the whole of creation is expressed in the language of creation, which to any that do not speak that language it is in "code", foreign to those unfamiliar with it. Those that are provided with the key to the code, can begin to decode it. While those who deny the key, cannot, and, of course, thus conclude that there is no code, and it is all gibberish and nonsense. Despite the huge amount of experiential evidence - both anecdotal and scientific - to the contrary.