Showing posts with label SHAMANISM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SHAMANISM. Show all posts
04/10/2023
25/06/2023
Indeed, volumes could be written on the subject of the “Hollow Earth”
“In The Coming Race, Edward Bulwer-Lytton speaks of advanced beings inhabiting caverns beneath the Earth's surface. He refers to these beings as the Ana, saying they were forced underground due to a flood that destroyed their civilization thousands of years before the Biblical cataclysm.
The Hopi Indians speak of an underground world called Sipapuni, where their tribe originated. Interestingly, G Warren Shufelt discovered underground tunnels beneath Los Angeles which the Hopi believed were inhabited by a lizard race over five thousands years ago.
In his book Agartha, Robert E Dickhoff recounts the story of a Tibetan monk who learned that a secret alliance between reptilians and human sorcerers was responsible for causing chaos among Earth’s surface societies. Apparently, the subterranean evil-doers projected bio energetically disturbing frequencies into the minds of humans beings.
Dickhoff wrote that the monk led four hundred warrior monks into the caverns to do battle with a “Serpent Cult.”
From David Icke’s Children of the Matrix we read: Thirty-six underground cities have been discovered in Cappadocia so far and some are huge complexes going down eight levels. The ventilation systems are so efficient that even eight floors down the air is still fresh. Thirty vast underground cities and tunnel complexes have also been found near Derinkuya in Turkey In Secret in the Bible, Tony Bushby writes: Historical documents recorded that during the 20th Century, staggering discoveries not spoken of today, were made at Giza and Mt. Sinai, and Egyptian rumors of the discovery of another underground city within a 28 mile radius of the Great Pyramid abound John Rhodes recounts the discoveries of G E Kincaid who: …apparently discovered a massive underground city that was cut out into a wall of the Grand Canyon with the precision equaled only to that of the Great Pyramid. The highly advanced civilization that inhabited this subterranean city was of unknown origin…
A Smithsonian Institution team… discovered hundreds of rooms. Some as small as an average living room and others as large as several hundred feet in length and breadth. It was estimated that the area explored so far by the team could have comfortably housed fifty thousand people.
Scholar and researcher J J Hurtak declares: In our research in Africa, the Far East and the mountains of South America, we have come across statuary of very grotesque beings, who according to the Indian and Shamanistic tradition, went into the earth at the time of a great cataclysm Apache Indians speak of tunnels between their lands and city of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia. They claim their ancestors traveled for years by subterranean routes, and that the tunnels were …carved out by rays that destroy the living rock and were created by …beings who live near the stars–(From Uriel’s Machine by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas)
In Irish mythology, the Tuatha de Danann (a tribe of powerful Druids) descended into the underworld through so-called “sidhes.” Indeed, volumes could be written on the subject of the “Hollow Earth.” The ancient city of Beersheba… has many underground rooms and tunnels dating back to the Fourth Millennia BC… In 1951, at fifty sites in the northern Negev and particularly near Beersheba, researchers found the ruins of numerous villages. These were not on the surface… but instead they were completely underground. Running at a depth of twenty feet these tunnels form a network like an underground city. These cities have been dated to about 3000 BC–R A Boulay (Flying Serpents and Dragons) Thirty-six additional cities have been located; one near Ozconak was the home of 60,000 people. A similar city at Kaymakli was connected to it by a tunnel over six miles long. Altogether, it is estimated that all these Anatolian cities could accommodate from a half-to-one million people underground.
The Hopi Indians speak of an underground world called Sipapuni, where their tribe originated. Interestingly, G Warren Shufelt discovered underground tunnels beneath Los Angeles which the Hopi believed were inhabited by a lizard race over five thousands years ago.
In his book Agartha, Robert E Dickhoff recounts the story of a Tibetan monk who learned that a secret alliance between reptilians and human sorcerers was responsible for causing chaos among Earth’s surface societies. Apparently, the subterranean evil-doers projected bio energetically disturbing frequencies into the minds of humans beings.
Dickhoff wrote that the monk led four hundred warrior monks into the caverns to do battle with a “Serpent Cult.”
From David Icke’s Children of the Matrix we read: Thirty-six underground cities have been discovered in Cappadocia so far and some are huge complexes going down eight levels. The ventilation systems are so efficient that even eight floors down the air is still fresh. Thirty vast underground cities and tunnel complexes have also been found near Derinkuya in Turkey In Secret in the Bible, Tony Bushby writes: Historical documents recorded that during the 20th Century, staggering discoveries not spoken of today, were made at Giza and Mt. Sinai, and Egyptian rumors of the discovery of another underground city within a 28 mile radius of the Great Pyramid abound John Rhodes recounts the discoveries of G E Kincaid who: …apparently discovered a massive underground city that was cut out into a wall of the Grand Canyon with the precision equaled only to that of the Great Pyramid. The highly advanced civilization that inhabited this subterranean city was of unknown origin…
A Smithsonian Institution team… discovered hundreds of rooms. Some as small as an average living room and others as large as several hundred feet in length and breadth. It was estimated that the area explored so far by the team could have comfortably housed fifty thousand people.
Scholar and researcher J J Hurtak declares: In our research in Africa, the Far East and the mountains of South America, we have come across statuary of very grotesque beings, who according to the Indian and Shamanistic tradition, went into the earth at the time of a great cataclysm Apache Indians speak of tunnels between their lands and city of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia. They claim their ancestors traveled for years by subterranean routes, and that the tunnels were …carved out by rays that destroy the living rock and were created by …beings who live near the stars–(From Uriel’s Machine by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas)
In Irish mythology, the Tuatha de Danann (a tribe of powerful Druids) descended into the underworld through so-called “sidhes.” Indeed, volumes could be written on the subject of the “Hollow Earth.” The ancient city of Beersheba… has many underground rooms and tunnels dating back to the Fourth Millennia BC… In 1951, at fifty sites in the northern Negev and particularly near Beersheba, researchers found the ruins of numerous villages. These were not on the surface… but instead they were completely underground. Running at a depth of twenty feet these tunnels form a network like an underground city. These cities have been dated to about 3000 BC–R A Boulay (Flying Serpents and Dragons) Thirty-six additional cities have been located; one near Ozconak was the home of 60,000 people. A similar city at Kaymakli was connected to it by a tunnel over six miles long. Altogether, it is estimated that all these Anatolian cities could accommodate from a half-to-one million people underground.
In 1572, a select and hardy group of about 500 German colonists originating mainly from Prussia are hired as soldier-mercenaries by Sebastian I, king of Portugal, to man a garrison up the Amazon River. Later, the group had problems with the local Indians and during their getaway stumbled upon a cave entrance on the side of a mountain. Exploring the cave, they found entrances to deep underground tunnels. Factions of this German colony reemerged in 1647. Headed by a German called Von Luckner, the colony broke into several underground cities over a period of several hundred years. Cities were established… these colonists also discovered another civilization with linguistic roots similar to German who had descended to earth some 30,000 years ago in response to a reptilian invasion of earth. These people were called the Bods, and they descended into the earth through tunnels in what is today Iran, Pakistan and Syria.
It is important to understand that the surface Germans originated from Bodlanders who surfaced through tunnel openings in the Black Forest in Bavaria–Valdamar Valerian (The Master Chronology) Now that we are informed of what ancient lore has to say about prehistory, we make greater sense of the following Commandment: You shalt not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is under the water of the earth–(Exodus 20: 4) Many of the world’s quaint myths and tales-such as those featuring dragons, dwarves, trolls, elves, little people and king under the mountain, etc-allude to subterranean regions. Many native American Indian tribes (particularly the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni) speak of a period when their ancestors resided in a subterranean world after a great cataclysm tore Earth’s surface to shreds. David Hatcher Childress recounts many legends directly referring to the underworld refuges of the ancients: In connection with this story, it is notable that among the Hopi Indians the tradition is told that their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon till dissension arose between the good and the bad, the people of one heart and the people of two hearts. Machetto, who was their chief, counseled them to leave the underworld, but there was no way out. The chief then caused a tree to grow up and pierce the roof of the underworld, and then the people of one heart climbed out–(Lost Cities of Atlantis)”
— Atlantis, Alien Visitation and Genetic Manipulation by Michael Tsarion
It is important to understand that the surface Germans originated from Bodlanders who surfaced through tunnel openings in the Black Forest in Bavaria–Valdamar Valerian (The Master Chronology) Now that we are informed of what ancient lore has to say about prehistory, we make greater sense of the following Commandment: You shalt not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is under the water of the earth–(Exodus 20: 4) Many of the world’s quaint myths and tales-such as those featuring dragons, dwarves, trolls, elves, little people and king under the mountain, etc-allude to subterranean regions. Many native American Indian tribes (particularly the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni) speak of a period when their ancestors resided in a subterranean world after a great cataclysm tore Earth’s surface to shreds. David Hatcher Childress recounts many legends directly referring to the underworld refuges of the ancients: In connection with this story, it is notable that among the Hopi Indians the tradition is told that their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon till dissension arose between the good and the bad, the people of one heart and the people of two hearts. Machetto, who was their chief, counseled them to leave the underworld, but there was no way out. The chief then caused a tree to grow up and pierce the roof of the underworld, and then the people of one heart climbed out–(Lost Cities of Atlantis)”
— Atlantis, Alien Visitation and Genetic Manipulation by Michael Tsarion
20/01/2022
When art transports us, where do we actually go?
An old Chinese legend tells of the painter Wu Daozi (680-c760), who learned to paint so vividly that he was finally able to step inside his work and vanish into the landscape. Magical though it sounds, this legend iterates the common intuition that artworks are more like portals than ordinary objects: they can transport us into other worlds. When I look at Pieter Bruegel's The Hunters in the Snow (1565), I feel like I was there in the frost-bitten village, rather than the galleries of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. When reading Crime and Punishment (1866), the letters on the page conjure a whole world, and in some sense I am no longer in my living room but right there in Dostoevsky's Russia; the cinema, too, is a gateway to faraway galaxies and past centuries.
Even non-representational works can take hold of us, like the breathing colour fields of Mark Rothko's paintings or the beautiful ambience of Max Richter's music. Sometimes, artworks have such a magnetic pull that we forget the actual world around us and lose our sense of time and place, of other people - and sometimes even of ourselves. The French art critic Denis Diderot (1713-84) called such immersive experiences 'art at its most magical'. Once a painting by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-89) pulled Diderot inside a pastoral river scene so completely and enjoyably that he compared the experience to a divine mode of existence:
"Where am I at this moment? What is all this surrounding me? I don't know, I can't say. What's lacking? Nothing. What do I want? Nothing. If there is a God, his being must be like this, taking pleasure in himself."
No wonder, then, that there is a certain sense of wistfulness when it all ends, when the lights come up or the last page is turned, and we find ourselves back where we were, forced to carry on with our daily lives.
The idea of artworks as portals to other worlds dates back several centuries, and it has become a commonplace way of talking about our experiences with art. In Pictures and Tears (2001), the art historian James Elkins called it the 'travelling theory' of aesthetic experience. The obvious problem with this theory, however, is that it sounds terribly metaphorical. In reality, I never leave my place in physical space. I'm there in the gallery, the auditorium or on my sofa all along. Try as I might, I cannot enter Bruegel's landscape by touching the canvas, nor can I run into the world of Hamlet by running onto the stage. The artwork allows me only to peer as if from a threshold, where I can see inside but never enter. Here we face what I call the paradox of aesthetic immersion: when I'm immersed in artwork, I seem to go somewhere without going anywhere, and I seem to be in two worlds at once, and yet I'm not properly in either.
So what kind of 'travelling' are we talking about?
The idea of artworks as portals to other worlds dates back several centuries, and it has become a commonplace way of talking about our experiences with art. In Pictures and Tears (2001), the art historian James Elkins called it the 'travelling theory' of aesthetic experience. The obvious problem with this theory, however, is that it sounds terribly metaphorical. In reality, I never leave my place in physical space. I'm there in the gallery, the auditorium or on my sofa all along. Try as I might, I cannot enter Bruegel's landscape by touching the canvas, nor can I run into the world of Hamlet by running onto the stage. The artwork allows me only to peer as if from a threshold, where I can see inside but never enter. Here we face what I call the paradox of aesthetic immersion: when I'm immersed in artwork, I seem to go somewhere without going anywhere, and I seem to be in two worlds at once, and yet I'm not properly in either.
So what kind of 'travelling' are we talking about?
25/03/2021
Researchers believe the drug might help loosen the brain's fixed pathways, which can then be "reset" with talking therapy afterwards.
A powerful hallucinogenic drug known for its part in shamanic rituals is being trialled as a potential cure for depression for the first time.
Participants will be given the drug DMT, followed by talking therapy.
It is hoped this could offer an alternative for the significant number of people who don't respond to conventional pills for depression.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy might offer longer-term relief from symptoms, some researchers believe.
A growing body of evidence indicates other psychedelic drugs, particularly alongside talking therapy, are safe and can be effective for treating a range of mental illnesses.
This will be the first time DMT is given to people with moderate to severe depression in a clinical trial.
Dr Carol Routledge, the chief scientific officer of Small Pharma, the company running the trial said: "We believe the impact will be almost immediate, and longer lasting than conventional antidepressants."
'Spirit molecule'
The drug is known as the "spirit molecule" because of the way it alters the human consciousness and produces hallucinations that have been likened to a near-death experience.
It is also the active ingredient in ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian plant medicine used to bring spiritual enlightenment.
Researchers believe the drug might help loosen the brain's fixed pathways, which can then be "reset" with talking therapy afterwards.
Dr Routledge likened the drug to "shaking a snow globe" - throwing entrenched negative thought patterns up in the air which the therapy allows to be resettled into a more functional form.
But this hypothesis still needs to be proven.
The team is consulting Imperial College London, which runs the pioneering Centre for Psychedelic Research.
As part of the study, they hope to investigate whether the drug can be administered as a one-off or as part of a course.
Subjects will be followed up for at least six months to see how long the effects of the treatment last.
‘The ketamine blew my mind’: can psychedelics cure addiction and depression?
Participants will be given the drug DMT, followed by talking therapy.
It is hoped this could offer an alternative for the significant number of people who don't respond to conventional pills for depression.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy might offer longer-term relief from symptoms, some researchers believe.
A growing body of evidence indicates other psychedelic drugs, particularly alongside talking therapy, are safe and can be effective for treating a range of mental illnesses.
This will be the first time DMT is given to people with moderate to severe depression in a clinical trial.
Dr Carol Routledge, the chief scientific officer of Small Pharma, the company running the trial said: "We believe the impact will be almost immediate, and longer lasting than conventional antidepressants."
'Spirit molecule'
The drug is known as the "spirit molecule" because of the way it alters the human consciousness and produces hallucinations that have been likened to a near-death experience.
It is also the active ingredient in ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian plant medicine used to bring spiritual enlightenment.
Researchers believe the drug might help loosen the brain's fixed pathways, which can then be "reset" with talking therapy afterwards.
Dr Routledge likened the drug to "shaking a snow globe" - throwing entrenched negative thought patterns up in the air which the therapy allows to be resettled into a more functional form.
But this hypothesis still needs to be proven.
The team is consulting Imperial College London, which runs the pioneering Centre for Psychedelic Research.
As part of the study, they hope to investigate whether the drug can be administered as a one-off or as part of a course.
Subjects will be followed up for at least six months to see how long the effects of the treatment last.
Ketamine clinic
Meanwhile, a ketamine-assisted therapy clinic is set to open in Bristol next week.
First ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic opens
While the drug is already used for depression in clinics like the ketamine treatment service in Oxford, it is not accompanied by psychotherapy.
Rather, it is used to provide temporary relief from symptoms for people who have very serious, treatment-resistant depression.
So-far unpublished researched presented at a conference by professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter, Celia Morgan, suggests ketamine accompanied by therapy has much longer-lasting effects.
Prof Morgan said there was mounting evidence that drugs, including psilocybin, LSD, ketamine and MDMA (Ecstasy), were safe and could play a role in the treatment of mental health disorders.
And there was some early evidence they could have longer-term effects than the medicines conventionally prescribed as antidepressants, known as SSRIs, but more research was needed.
They also worked using a completely different mechanism, Prof Morgan explained.
'Long-lasting change'
While conventional drugs may numb negative feelings, "these drugs seem to allow you to approach difficult experiences in your life, sit with that distress and process them," she said.
"It might be getting at something more fundamental" that was the root cause of the problem, Prof Morgan said.
"Through that we think you can get much more long-lasting change."
Prof Michael Bloomfield, a consultant psychiatrist at University College London, said although it was a "really exciting" area of research, caution was needed in overpromising the drugs' potential.
It was also a field of therapy that could be open to abuse and misuse, he said.
Prof Morgan also stressed the importance the drugs being used within the context of therapy as there were concerns that "people might think they can give it a go with some recreational drugs".
"But it's really not how it works" she said.
Meanwhile, a ketamine-assisted therapy clinic is set to open in Bristol next week.
First ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic opens
While the drug is already used for depression in clinics like the ketamine treatment service in Oxford, it is not accompanied by psychotherapy.
Rather, it is used to provide temporary relief from symptoms for people who have very serious, treatment-resistant depression.
So-far unpublished researched presented at a conference by professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter, Celia Morgan, suggests ketamine accompanied by therapy has much longer-lasting effects.
Prof Morgan said there was mounting evidence that drugs, including psilocybin, LSD, ketamine and MDMA (Ecstasy), were safe and could play a role in the treatment of mental health disorders.
And there was some early evidence they could have longer-term effects than the medicines conventionally prescribed as antidepressants, known as SSRIs, but more research was needed.
They also worked using a completely different mechanism, Prof Morgan explained.
'Long-lasting change'
While conventional drugs may numb negative feelings, "these drugs seem to allow you to approach difficult experiences in your life, sit with that distress and process them," she said.
"It might be getting at something more fundamental" that was the root cause of the problem, Prof Morgan said.
"Through that we think you can get much more long-lasting change."
Prof Michael Bloomfield, a consultant psychiatrist at University College London, said although it was a "really exciting" area of research, caution was needed in overpromising the drugs' potential.
It was also a field of therapy that could be open to abuse and misuse, he said.
Prof Morgan also stressed the importance the drugs being used within the context of therapy as there were concerns that "people might think they can give it a go with some recreational drugs".
"But it's really not how it works" she said.
17/11/2020
Indigenous Colombians mount a spiritual defense of the Amazon
MOCOA, Colombia — The Union of Traditional Yage Medics of the Colombian Amazon (UMIYAC) brings together five ethnic groups — the Cofán, Inga, Siona, Coreguaje, and Kamëntsá — who practice spiritual ceremonies for individual and community healing based on ayahuasca, or yagé. But that’s not all that these communities have in common.
All five of these Indigenous groups are also classified by Colombia’s Constitutional Court as being at “risk of physical and cultural extermination.”
“Our strategy has to do with revitalizing and strengthening our spiritual connection with Mother Earth,” said Miguel Evanjuanjoy, advocacy and project manager of UMIYAC, in a video interview with Mongabay in October. He was speaking from his community of Yunguillo, in the department of Putumayo. “As stewards of the Amazon rainforest, we care for the land because it is she who nourishes us spiritually and through her sacred products.”
Spread across the Putumayo, Caquetà and Cauca regions of southern Colombia, with a small crossover into Ecuador, the 22 territories represented by UMIYAC are on the front line of the battle to protect the Amazon. A 2018 study conducted by the University of the Andes in Bogotá, for example, shows the annual deforestation rate in Caquetà alone is 0.77%, the highest in Colombia and nearly twice the rate for tropical South America as a whole.
Full article: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/indigenous-colombians-mount-a-spiritual-defense-of-the-amazon/
The ceremonial use of yagé opens participants up to ancestral knowledge, particularly the “natural laws” established by the ancestors that allow communities to “live in peace and harmony with other beings in nature,” Evanjuanjoy said.“The sacred plant of yagé is a spiritual nourishment for people,” Evanjuanjoy said. “Through this plant, our grandmothers and traditional healers receive the wisdom to heal the diseases that affect the individual, the community, and the territory.
“It is the light, the path, the guide, and the primary tool to continue defending our territories and to continue the struggle for the survival of our culture.”
UMIYAC is an alliance comprised of spiritual leaders from five different Amazonian ethnic groups deemed to be in danger of extinction.
The ancestral lands of these five groups are located near deforestation hotspots in the Colombian Amazon, making them the front-line defense for the rainforest.
Presided over by spiritual leaders, the traditional yagé ceremonies that tie these ethnic groups together reinforce the spiritual wisdom needed to retain their territories and autonomy.
25/06/2020
26/05/2020
Latest DMT study addresses eerie prevalence of hallucinations of 'interdimensional entities'
Latest DMT study addresses eerie prevalence of hallucinations of 'interdimensional entities' -- Science of the Spirit
Last month researchers released a new study on the hallucinogen DMT (or dimethyltryptamine) that provided fresh survey data on the phenomenon of DMT users experiencing and encountering sentient 'entities' while tripping. Scientists believe the findings could help to better understand near-death experiences and alien-abduction experiences, as well as develop treatments for mood and behavioral disorders.
The study involved surveying over 2,000 DMT users, the majority of whom claimed to have had positive encounters and even emotional exchanges with beings they felt were advanced and benevolent. Most of the users, upon coming down from the drug, felt the beings were real and not manufactured solely by a hallucination.
The survey produced the following additional data: 99% had an emotional response and of those, 58% believed the entity they encountered also had an emotional response and the feeling was overwhelmingly positive, though some reported instances of fear; 81% of respondents felt the 'entities' were real; and two-thirds believed they had received "a message, task, mission, purpose, or insight from the entity encounter experience."
Last month researchers released a new study on the hallucinogen DMT (or dimethyltryptamine) that provided fresh survey data on the phenomenon of DMT users experiencing and encountering sentient 'entities' while tripping. Scientists believe the findings could help to better understand near-death experiences and alien-abduction experiences, as well as develop treatments for mood and behavioral disorders.
The study involved surveying over 2,000 DMT users, the majority of whom claimed to have had positive encounters and even emotional exchanges with beings they felt were advanced and benevolent. Most of the users, upon coming down from the drug, felt the beings were real and not manufactured solely by a hallucination.
The survey produced the following additional data: 99% had an emotional response and of those, 58% believed the entity they encountered also had an emotional response and the feeling was overwhelmingly positive, though some reported instances of fear; 81% of respondents felt the 'entities' were real; and two-thirds believed they had received "a message, task, mission, purpose, or insight from the entity encounter experience."
24/10/2019
21/11/2018
Shamans: 'Astronauts of inner space'
Shamans: 'Astronauts of inner space' -- Science of the Spirit -- Sott.net:
The trances and healing powers of shamans are so widespread that they can be counted a human universal. Why did they evolve?
Shamanism is as varied as those who practice it. Its practitioners range from indigenous lineages who have passed down their craft over thousands of years to the modern 'plastic shamans', who represent no specific culture but have adapted shamanism to meet the demands of metropolitan markets. However, there is a common theme to shamanism wherever it is practised: the use of spiritual (or shamanic) trance to facilitate journeys to a non-ordinary reality. Here, in this non-ordinary reality, the shamans do their work. According to the historian of religion Mircea Eliade writing in 1951, shamanism is the 'technique of ecstasy', involving the purposeful invocation and use of dreams and visions to solve problems.
By this definition, shamanism is the landscape of the spirit-journey, populated by good and evil spirits and the souls of the deceased and yet-to-be-born. It is the place where mountains speak and Grandmother Skeleton points out which plants to eat when the dry season lasts too long. In this form, shamanism is everywhere in the old ways of humans. Every tribal culture - alive or dead - has some broker of spiritual capital. The Indonesian Mentawai have their sikerei. The Inuit have their angakok. The Columbian Desana have their paye. The Mongolian Buryat have their böö. The American Sioux have their heyoka.
The sheer magnitude of our shamanic ancestry means one of two things: either shamanism originated once prior to the human diaspora some 70,000 years ago and has been preserved since, or it has arisen independently countless times in premodern human cultures. If we consider that preagricultural human societies are each experiments in how to run a village, with each competing in the evolutionary market of survival and reproduction, then we must ask: what good is shamanism?
The answer is a lesson in both the psychology of problem solving and the construction of meaning. In order to get there, we first have to understand what the prominent explanations of shamanism are in contemporary anthropology. These explanations all rely upon a common set of psychological and evolutionary principles, and these principles in turn explain the adaptive value of shamanism.
The trances and healing powers of shamans are so widespread that they can be counted a human universal. Why did they evolve?
Shamanism is as varied as those who practice it. Its practitioners range from indigenous lineages who have passed down their craft over thousands of years to the modern 'plastic shamans', who represent no specific culture but have adapted shamanism to meet the demands of metropolitan markets. However, there is a common theme to shamanism wherever it is practised: the use of spiritual (or shamanic) trance to facilitate journeys to a non-ordinary reality. Here, in this non-ordinary reality, the shamans do their work. According to the historian of religion Mircea Eliade writing in 1951, shamanism is the 'technique of ecstasy', involving the purposeful invocation and use of dreams and visions to solve problems.
By this definition, shamanism is the landscape of the spirit-journey, populated by good and evil spirits and the souls of the deceased and yet-to-be-born. It is the place where mountains speak and Grandmother Skeleton points out which plants to eat when the dry season lasts too long. In this form, shamanism is everywhere in the old ways of humans. Every tribal culture - alive or dead - has some broker of spiritual capital. The Indonesian Mentawai have their sikerei. The Inuit have their angakok. The Columbian Desana have their paye. The Mongolian Buryat have their böö. The American Sioux have their heyoka.
The sheer magnitude of our shamanic ancestry means one of two things: either shamanism originated once prior to the human diaspora some 70,000 years ago and has been preserved since, or it has arisen independently countless times in premodern human cultures. If we consider that preagricultural human societies are each experiments in how to run a village, with each competing in the evolutionary market of survival and reproduction, then we must ask: what good is shamanism?
The answer is a lesson in both the psychology of problem solving and the construction of meaning. In order to get there, we first have to understand what the prominent explanations of shamanism are in contemporary anthropology. These explanations all rely upon a common set of psychological and evolutionary principles, and these principles in turn explain the adaptive value of shamanism.
Read more here.
28/02/2018
Altered States of Entrapment: The Plant Medicine Manipulation - The Dark Side of Aya
Medicine plants are not a magic pill that miraculously heal all wounding and trauma, even though they can be of assistance in revealing what needs to be healed and processed (and can also be beneficial when dealing with intense addiction issues).
The deception – or rather, the misperception – my friend and I (and many others) have realized in respect to ‘plant therapy’ is similar to that which arises when one “intellectually” knows (or even “feels”) their issues, but has failed to work through them on an embodied level.
My friend had an interesting insight about this point: looking back, she felt that, during her ayahuasca ceremonies, the wounds opened up and “projected” all of her “stuff” and shadow aspects into her awareness. That experience – combined with the euphoria/bliss/ecstasy of getting “high” (based on the medicine/drug induced DMT rush) – can transmit the idea that a deep healing has occurred…a perception that can last for weeks or even months. Hence, many people keep going back to work with medicine plants when they feel “stuff” resurfacing, in order to have that “peak” experience again and again.
The deception – or rather, the misperception – my friend and I (and many others) have realized in respect to ‘plant therapy’ is similar to that which arises when one “intellectually” knows (or even “feels”) their issues, but has failed to work through them on an embodied level.
My friend had an interesting insight about this point: looking back, she felt that, during her ayahuasca ceremonies, the wounds opened up and “projected” all of her “stuff” and shadow aspects into her awareness. That experience – combined with the euphoria/bliss/ecstasy of getting “high” (based on the medicine/drug induced DMT rush) – can transmit the idea that a deep healing has occurred…a perception that can last for weeks or even months. Hence, many people keep going back to work with medicine plants when they feel “stuff” resurfacing, in order to have that “peak” experience again and again.
30/01/2018
Philosopher Rudolf Steiner talked of supernatural beings that feed on negative emotions
Philosopher Rudolf Steiner talked of supernatural beings that feed on negative emotions
Anxiety, depression, and fear ravage so many today, but few pause to consider that in addition to the material influences in our lives, we may be also under the influence of beings which exist in dimensions outside of our ordinary perception.
But there is much more to reality than what we can see, feel, hear, taste and touch. In fact, an accounting of the matter that makes up the universe reveals that some 73% of it is made up of dark energy, and another 23% is made up of dark matter, neither of which can we see, nor understand. Furthermore, the human eye is only capable of seeing around .0035% of the entire spectrum of electromagnetic (EM) radiation. When we look into the heavens, 96% of it is invisible to us. Include in this the spiritual realms and there is an entire universe of possibilities which exists beyond our five senses.
Very few scientists today are willing to explore metaphysics to examine life beyond ordinary perception in order to make a connection between the seen and the unseen.
Rudolf Steiner, though, one of the most prolific and gifted scientists, philosophers, and esotericists of his time, devoted much of his work to the task of peering behind the veil, sharing his insight into the deeper nature of life and of the world beyond.
Regarding anxiety and depression, Steiner spoke of hostile beings in the spiritual world which influence and feed off of human emotion; a concept flatly rejected by most today. Yet this analysis also holds true for shamans and others who access the spiritual dimensions in order to alleviate mental suffering for their patients.
Anxiety, depression, and fear ravage so many today, but few pause to consider that in addition to the material influences in our lives, we may be also under the influence of beings which exist in dimensions outside of our ordinary perception.
But there is much more to reality than what we can see, feel, hear, taste and touch. In fact, an accounting of the matter that makes up the universe reveals that some 73% of it is made up of dark energy, and another 23% is made up of dark matter, neither of which can we see, nor understand. Furthermore, the human eye is only capable of seeing around .0035% of the entire spectrum of electromagnetic (EM) radiation. When we look into the heavens, 96% of it is invisible to us. Include in this the spiritual realms and there is an entire universe of possibilities which exists beyond our five senses.
Very few scientists today are willing to explore metaphysics to examine life beyond ordinary perception in order to make a connection between the seen and the unseen.
Rudolf Steiner, though, one of the most prolific and gifted scientists, philosophers, and esotericists of his time, devoted much of his work to the task of peering behind the veil, sharing his insight into the deeper nature of life and of the world beyond.
Regarding anxiety and depression, Steiner spoke of hostile beings in the spiritual world which influence and feed off of human emotion; a concept flatly rejected by most today. Yet this analysis also holds true for shamans and others who access the spiritual dimensions in order to alleviate mental suffering for their patients.
14/09/2017
25/07/2017
17/06/2017
The spirit of the plant puts people in touch with their repressed pain and trauma...
Ayahuasca: The power of a plant from the Amazon and the respect it demands
The spirit of the plant puts people in touch with their repressed pain and trauma.
As a Western-trained doctor, I have long been aware of modern medicine's limitations in handling chronic conditions of mind and body. For all our achievements, there are ailments whose ravages we physicians can at best alleviate. In our narrow pursuit of cure, we fail to comprehend the essence of healing.
Thus the popularity of ayahuasca, the Amazonian plant medicine that many Westerners seek out for the healing of physical illness or mental anguish or for a sense of meaning amid the growing alienation in our culture.
The spirit of the plant puts people in touch with their repressed pain and trauma.
As a Western-trained doctor, I have long been aware of modern medicine's limitations in handling chronic conditions of mind and body. For all our achievements, there are ailments whose ravages we physicians can at best alleviate. In our narrow pursuit of cure, we fail to comprehend the essence of healing.
Thus the popularity of ayahuasca, the Amazonian plant medicine that many Westerners seek out for the healing of physical illness or mental anguish or for a sense of meaning amid the growing alienation in our culture.
An anthropologist's theory on shamanism and the origins of knowledge completely rewrites our understanding of dna
The shaman’s world is one of allegory, symbolism, metaphor and transcendence into the realms of energy and spirit. Their understanding of the universe and the abundant sentient beings which inhabit it is wildly foreign to the mind of the material scientist. Our best chance, therefore, at bridging the gap between science and spirit may lie in the anthropological study of those tribal cultures whose operating systems permit them to move freely in the metaphysical realms with the assistance of natural hallucinogenic substances.
The shamanic explanation of the origins of life and of the intelligent nature of the plants and animals which inhabit the rainforest are quite unbelievable to most, but a rational approach to understanding their perspective lends extraordinary insight into some of the greatest mysteries of human consciousness.
Author and anthropologist Jeremy Narby set out in the mid 1980’s to do just this, hoping to learn from medicine men of the Amazon jungle about how it is they claim to be able to communicate directly with plants and unseen spirit beings of the forest.
The shamanic explanation of the origins of life and of the intelligent nature of the plants and animals which inhabit the rainforest are quite unbelievable to most, but a rational approach to understanding their perspective lends extraordinary insight into some of the greatest mysteries of human consciousness.
Author and anthropologist Jeremy Narby set out in the mid 1980’s to do just this, hoping to learn from medicine men of the Amazon jungle about how it is they claim to be able to communicate directly with plants and unseen spirit beings of the forest.
09/06/2017
The Last Shaman - Ayahuasca Journey
James is an all American boy whose promising life is brought to a halt by acute depression. Turning his back on the most progressive western treatments and medicines, James discovers ayahuasca in search of healing in the Peruvian jungle. Over the course of 10 months venturing from Shaman to Shaman, James finds friendship, answers and a kind of redemption hidden deep in the Peruvian amazon. watch the-last-shaman
22/05/2017
Lament singing: An ancient tradition that helps people cope with trauma in the modern world
In Finland, lament singing is experiencing a revival, one sad song at a time.
Lament singing: An ancient tradition that helps people cope with trauma in the modern world -- Science of the Spirit --
To the people of Karelia,
souls and spirits born in beauty:
Through the windows were your green fields,
in the blue skies larks were singing,
saints and icons stood in silence,
watching over wooden log homes.
Kanteles echoed in the dark rooms,
and the stars blinked in the night sky,
but your thoughts were wrapped in darkness:
iron hail rained on your rooftops
Lament singing: An ancient tradition that helps people cope with trauma in the modern world -- Science of the Spirit --
To the people of Karelia,
souls and spirits born in beauty:
Through the windows were your green fields,
in the blue skies larks were singing,
saints and icons stood in silence,
watching over wooden log homes.
Kanteles echoed in the dark rooms,
and the stars blinked in the night sky,
but your thoughts were wrapped in darkness:
iron hail rained on your rooftops
09/05/2017
What is appropriate and what is not?
Growth is not measured by what one accomplishes (in life) but rather by (our realization of) inner truths. These inner truths are always available from within. There is no greater help than what you carry within yourself. Hear your own song so that you may learn to sing…
Hale Makua
02/04/2017
Ayahuasca — The Fashionable Path of Awakening?
“Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.” These words were spoken by Krishnamurti in 1929 as he dissolved the global spiritual organization that had formed in order to promote him as the new Messiah. As I witness the growing popularity ayahuasca, I hope we do not turn this medicine into a Messiah that has to come to save us. Although I see ayahuasca as a powerful tool of individual and planetary awakening, I am also seeing it evolve into a spiritually-sophisticated brand that we wear and glorify. As any trend becomes more popular, authentic original impulses are replaced by unconscious conformity: we follow trends as unquestioning groups, rather than as conscious free-willing individuals.
The New Yorker recently published an article on ayahuasca, calling it the “drug of choice for the age of kale”. The author narrated her only ayahuasca experience, in a Brooklyn yoga studio, next to a “thumping dance club”. The article makes no mention of the rich cultural diversity of ayahuasca traditions or the countless stories of ayahuasca-assisted personal transformation. However, I thought her association of ayahuasca with kale was spot-on. Ayahuasca may be answering the call for a global paradigm shift, yet it also fulfills an obsessive craving for wellness, detox, and healing. Plant medicines can be powerful catalysts for healing, when approached with individual and social self-awareness, and these two forms of awareness – of ourselves and of our society – are difficult to cultivate when we do what the cool kids are doing. What we can do is learn to discriminate between self-expression and imitation, and between the authentic desires of our hearts and the chatter of our minds. Are we acting from our core or simply being blown around by the cultural zeitgeist?
When to take ayahuasca?
These distinctions are absolutely necessary. Powerful tools can be misused and have damaging effects. My original inspiration for writing this article was a botched iboga ceremony that left me so traumatized that I was forced to accept that 1) there were some highly irresponsible and reckless shamans/healers out there and 2) there were highly irresponsible and reckless individuals like myself naively attending ceremonies without proper awareness. I’ll save the details for a future article, but I will share that I experienced an abyss so unbearably painful that my only wish was for it to end, without caring what came after this end. I understood the torment of suicide. These realms of consciousness are real. I share them here not out of masochism, but to emphasize the importance of preparation, discrimination, and intuition.
We can sharpen our skills by coming back to the basics: set and setting. Set – why am I here? And how do I really feel in my heart of hearts? Setting – do I feel safe? Do I trust this environment and the people around me? It is crucial to critically evaluate the shaman by their “fruits”: what type of life has this person created for themselves? How do they relate to their family and partner? How do they relate to their assistants and workers? Have the workers been there a long time? Are they happy to work there? These questions reveal a lot about what kind of person the shaman is, and therefore what kind of shaman they are.
We also need to de-romanticize our understanding of shamanic traditions. We crave for more natural, organic lives, for health, and for wisdom, so it is not a surprise that we fantasize about Amazonian tribes and their psychedelic brews. But our colorful projections have consequences and can reinforce racist, neocolonial dynamics. Not all medicines are appropriate at a given time or compatible with a given person. Indigenous peoples are born into tribes, whereas Westerners self-select into their tribes. Not all shamans heal; some throw curses; others do both. And I have yet to meet a shaman who calls themselves a shaman. Shaman is a word from Siberia popularized by Western anthropologists to categorize a wide variety of seemingly related spiritual practices.
Our interaction with indigenous medicines is not a one way street – with us simply “gaining wisdom” from them. As any quantum physicist or modern anthropologist will tell you, observation entails participation. It’s a two way street: the massive influx of ayahuasca tourists to the Amazon impacts local economies, culture, and healing traditions. In addition to our own healing, we need to remember that indigenous communities have their own healing to do. Are we operating as co-creators or are we imposing ourselves on them? Am I giving as much as I am taking? And where is all this ayahuasca coming from? This is not a question of shame, but of awareness.
The reality of indigenous peoples is not a Jungle Book fairy tale. Their cultures are steadily declining in the face of consumerism, missionary activity, and the rape of nature by oil pipelines and industrial super-farms. Ayahuasca tourism is a booming industry in much of the northwest Amazon and its reality is more nuanced than we like to think. Explore the backstreets of Iquitos, Peru and see for yourself the shadow side of the Western appetite for healing.
Please don’t mistake my words for pessimism. The intention that infuse these words is for renewed awareness and courage. Charles Eisenstein writes that “no optimism can be authentic that has not visited the depths of despair…no despair is authentic that has not fully let in the joy.” The world is not ending. It is only changing, as all things change. Stop, breathe, be gentle. May all beings be happy and peaceful.
by Félix de Rosen
Félix de Rosen is a free spirit who aims to catalyze conscious planetary evolution. His long-term vision is to organize sacred arts festivals and create spaces of trust, spontaneity, and transparency. He was born in France, grew up in the US, and is learning how to let go and relax. He is currently based in California.
The New Yorker recently published an article on ayahuasca, calling it the “drug of choice for the age of kale”. The author narrated her only ayahuasca experience, in a Brooklyn yoga studio, next to a “thumping dance club”. The article makes no mention of the rich cultural diversity of ayahuasca traditions or the countless stories of ayahuasca-assisted personal transformation. However, I thought her association of ayahuasca with kale was spot-on. Ayahuasca may be answering the call for a global paradigm shift, yet it also fulfills an obsessive craving for wellness, detox, and healing. Plant medicines can be powerful catalysts for healing, when approached with individual and social self-awareness, and these two forms of awareness – of ourselves and of our society – are difficult to cultivate when we do what the cool kids are doing. What we can do is learn to discriminate between self-expression and imitation, and between the authentic desires of our hearts and the chatter of our minds. Are we acting from our core or simply being blown around by the cultural zeitgeist?
When to take ayahuasca?
These distinctions are absolutely necessary. Powerful tools can be misused and have damaging effects. My original inspiration for writing this article was a botched iboga ceremony that left me so traumatized that I was forced to accept that 1) there were some highly irresponsible and reckless shamans/healers out there and 2) there were highly irresponsible and reckless individuals like myself naively attending ceremonies without proper awareness. I’ll save the details for a future article, but I will share that I experienced an abyss so unbearably painful that my only wish was for it to end, without caring what came after this end. I understood the torment of suicide. These realms of consciousness are real. I share them here not out of masochism, but to emphasize the importance of preparation, discrimination, and intuition.
We can sharpen our skills by coming back to the basics: set and setting. Set – why am I here? And how do I really feel in my heart of hearts? Setting – do I feel safe? Do I trust this environment and the people around me? It is crucial to critically evaluate the shaman by their “fruits”: what type of life has this person created for themselves? How do they relate to their family and partner? How do they relate to their assistants and workers? Have the workers been there a long time? Are they happy to work there? These questions reveal a lot about what kind of person the shaman is, and therefore what kind of shaman they are.
We also need to de-romanticize our understanding of shamanic traditions. We crave for more natural, organic lives, for health, and for wisdom, so it is not a surprise that we fantasize about Amazonian tribes and their psychedelic brews. But our colorful projections have consequences and can reinforce racist, neocolonial dynamics. Not all medicines are appropriate at a given time or compatible with a given person. Indigenous peoples are born into tribes, whereas Westerners self-select into their tribes. Not all shamans heal; some throw curses; others do both. And I have yet to meet a shaman who calls themselves a shaman. Shaman is a word from Siberia popularized by Western anthropologists to categorize a wide variety of seemingly related spiritual practices.
Our interaction with indigenous medicines is not a one way street – with us simply “gaining wisdom” from them. As any quantum physicist or modern anthropologist will tell you, observation entails participation. It’s a two way street: the massive influx of ayahuasca tourists to the Amazon impacts local economies, culture, and healing traditions. In addition to our own healing, we need to remember that indigenous communities have their own healing to do. Are we operating as co-creators or are we imposing ourselves on them? Am I giving as much as I am taking? And where is all this ayahuasca coming from? This is not a question of shame, but of awareness.
The reality of indigenous peoples is not a Jungle Book fairy tale. Their cultures are steadily declining in the face of consumerism, missionary activity, and the rape of nature by oil pipelines and industrial super-farms. Ayahuasca tourism is a booming industry in much of the northwest Amazon and its reality is more nuanced than we like to think. Explore the backstreets of Iquitos, Peru and see for yourself the shadow side of the Western appetite for healing.
Please don’t mistake my words for pessimism. The intention that infuse these words is for renewed awareness and courage. Charles Eisenstein writes that “no optimism can be authentic that has not visited the depths of despair…no despair is authentic that has not fully let in the joy.” The world is not ending. It is only changing, as all things change. Stop, breathe, be gentle. May all beings be happy and peaceful.
Félix de Rosen is a free spirit who aims to catalyze conscious planetary evolution. His long-term vision is to organize sacred arts festivals and create spaces of trust, spontaneity, and transparency. He was born in France, grew up in the US, and is learning how to let go and relax. He is currently based in California.
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