Larry Lamsa, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Firstly I would like to say that I am not a Shaman.
And I do not claim to have any Mystical powers.
There is no need to dress up in native costumes or howl at the Moon.
This is just an introduction.
During the mid 1990’s I was going through a tough time.
Via my sister I had heard of a guy that had been on a Shamanism course and now his life was ticketty boo!
So I started looking at Shamanism,Buddhism,Kabbala,Sufism etc.
What is Shamanism?
Well it seems to be the oldest type of Religion here on Planet Trance.’
(Religion’ is a poor word for it really).
Stretching everywhere from the Americas to Africa,Hawaii,Siberia, Japan,Europe and even good old Albion.
Obviously 40,30,20 thousand years ago people were very close to the Natural world.
They observed the Sun and Stars,felt the wind and watched the Animals.
A true Shaman will show you the way but not tell you to follow him blindly.
He does not make you read The Bible,Koran or Torah.
It is about Experience.
It is not a dogmatic religion.
And also a way to examine ourselves and the way we behave.
The Shaman believed that everything was alive!
All that he saw had Spirit.
Humans,Animals,Trees and even Rocks.
They cared for the Spirit of the Land.
They realized that they were supported by it and were caretakers,not the owners.
There were no fences round it !
Unlike now where some people don’t give a stuff and denigrate our homelands.
If there was a problem in the daily lives of the tribe, such as there being no fish to catch, the Shaman may go and visit the Spirit of the fish and ask them to come back!
Or he might ‘Journey’ to the Upper World to converse with the ‘higher’ beings.
Crazy eh?
At this point many of you will stop reading or call me a silly twunt – but that is just your programmed ego.
* * *
The Shaman believed that the Universe was made up of ‘Mind’.
What Mind you ask?
He saw it as the ‘Great Mystery’ or ‘Wakan Tanka’ as some American Indian tribes called it.
Later morphing into The Tao or God.
So if everything is ‘Mind’ then talking to Fish isn’t so crazy.
If it is all MIND then the part speaking is just conversing with another part.
One part is dressed up as a Human and the other dressed up as a Fish.
How did the Shaman do this?
By Journeying.
Usually by getting into a trance like state by banging a drum or shaking a rattle.
He believed in 3 worlds.
The Upper,Middle and Lower.
Often represented by the Tree of Life.
I won’t go into the meaning of the 3 worlds as this may colour your minds, as I suggest we do an experiment together, later in the article.
The ‘Middle world’ is the Trunk ,which represents the here and now life on this ‘plane’..
The Shaman imagines the Tree and then states his ‘Intent’ and uses the Tree to ‘journey’ to his destination.
( No lifts in pre history).
To me the most important aspect of Shamanism is about understanding ourselves.
So if everything is ‘Mind’ then who are you and why do you do the things you do?
Looking at my own life I would say that I was brought up to be polite,open doors for Ladies and OBEY.
At School my head was filled with nonsense like crop rotation in Albania and Maffs tests on equations and matrices.
And taught that Teachers,Bank Managers,Doctors and basically anyone in authority deserved respect as they were all to be trusted.
This is called Programming or Conditioning.
Thousands of years before Freud and Bernays, Shaman knew about Psychology.
So who are we living our lives for?
Our parents?
Partners?
Children?
Are we doing things to fit in on Respectable Street?
Are we scared of what others may think about us?
Most of us walk around with a massive imaginary black bag on our backs which is full up with the crap we have accrued .
Unconsciously.
We believe things because we have been programmed or heard others repeat .
This is why Cults and nasty people attack the minds of Children.
For the first 7 years of our lives our Brains are in Alpha stage.
Sponges.
Look at all the phuqwits on Twitter and FBPE berks.
The Shaman also stated that Humans had 3 minds.
The Lower, the Personality Self and the Higher self.
The lower is a very child like.
(It isn’t actually lower as being less worthy,but lower as in being uneducated and in need of TLC).
In some new age type circles it is known as the Inner Child.
What are its characteristics?
The Inner Child is very impressionable and is very easily led.
It collects information without understanding it and can have some very odd notions.
It wants to be loved and can remember these things for our whole lives!
And like a Child it can misinterpret things.
This is why lots of people then act like children even though they are 50/60/70+.
A.C Wailing and Susan Michie spring to mind).
(It also takes care of breathing,digestion,cell replacement etc)
. Imagine having to consciously remember to breath!
In most ancient societies they had rituals to mark the ending of Childhood and becoming an Adult.
If you have ever seen the movie The Emerald Forest with Charlie Boorman there is such a scene where his Brazilian Indian mum says ‘she will never see her boy again’.
He isn’t dying but becoming a warrior.
The ritual ‘shocks’ the lower self and forces the child to become a man or woman.
To my mind this is where we have a major problem in the West today.
Many people are stuck in perpetual childhood.
They go to School,then Uni and don’t have to face the world.
The lower self is impressed by authority so if you tell kids they have White Privilege and Climate change will kill us all – then they will believe it.
And they will not accept any other point of view.
‘Take the VAXX’!!!!!!!!!!!
Boris said it is Safe!
My French buddy from Grenoble did so many degrees that he didn’t start work until he was 27!!!
* * *
The Middle self is our daily personality.
The Mask.
We all wear different ones.
So who are we?
The Indian Mystic Ramana Maharshi based his whole teaching on this question.
So I ask.- who are you?
Most of you will say things like……..
I am a Man
A Dad.
A Woman.
A Mum.
An Electrician.
A Demolition man .
A Nurse.
A Programmer.
But these are that you do.
Not who you are.
The Upper world is the world of gods .
We won’t go there. Maybe later?
So how do we find out who we really are?
Well there are an infinite amount of ways,depending on how hooked into the game you are.
It is a game…more later.
The best way to start is by meditating.
Our own minds are full of incessant noise.
Repeated thoughts.
Anger. Hate. Frustration.
Obviously the last 20 months have added to all of our problems
My Tourettes is now 2nd to none.
For me meditation is a way of clearing the mind.
We can rest our bodies but most of us cannot shut off our minds ..
It is incredibly difficult.
Most of us are always thinking……
What shall I get in Tesco?
The Car needs an MOT.
How many STD’s does Bozo have?
Has Syph rotted his brain?
The simplest form I know is to relax,close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing.
Listen,feel and let any thoughts that arise come up and allow them to fade.
Now this can be a real bastard!
It took me a couple of years to be able to truly say I could stop my mind for just a few seconds.
This is because I too am programmed.
Buddha did say all life was suffering.
So where do our thoughts come from?
Bozo couldn’t tell us.
Or SAGE.
Or Commie Michie .
Or Ferguson’s modelling.
Science cannot tell us.
So who wants to do an experiment?
If everything is ‘Mind’ then we are a part of that.
Therefore we must be able to experience what mind does?
So how about thinking about something and making it appear?
Don’t let your Monkey Mind get in the way.
Not everything is as it seems.
Go to bed tonight and ask for a Feather to appear.
Just that.
Simple enough.
Then forget about it.
Over the next 2 or 3 days just look around.
Maybe a feather will turn up?
You might not find an Ostrich in your lounge or get Myhermes delivering a Heron ( and breaking it) but just see if something comes along.
Please can any of you that have an ‘experience’ send me an email and I will write a follow up.
I won’t obviously put your names in the article.
You might also try writing a list about ‘who’ you really are?
© Deathoftheuk 2021
