Self-Inflicted Shamanism – Choosing the Path Least Traveled

“Paying all due respect to the world’s shamanic traditions, we shall not refer to them any longer but instead explore our own position in relation to the time and place we live in as modern shamans.” ~Antero Alli

Traditionally, shamanism is not a choice. You don’t choose the shamanic path; the shamanic path chooses you. This is because existential thresholds must be passed. A Dark Night of the Soul (or two, or three, or four…) must be overcome. An initiation from an ego-centric to a soul-centric perspective must be achieved. Besides these grueling steps, much pain must be self-actualized and transformed into healing energy (medicine).

But, there is a way to choose the shamanic path despite oneself: self-inflicted shamanism. I say “despite oneself” because one must either be crazy, masochistic, extremely introverted, or all three, to want to choose such an arduously Promethean undertaking. As Nietzsche infamously stated, “He who delights in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.” The self-inflicted shaman goes one step further, responding with this: “Nay. He is both, a beast and a god.”

It is important to understand that shamanism is a sacrifice of independence into the fierce jaws of interdependence. It’s a surrender to the cosmic overwhelm, a giving into solitude and meditation wherein one is annihilated and then put back together again (by Universal Law itself) into a healthy and healing force of nature.

If, as Joe Lewels proposed, “we need shamans, and if society doesn’t provide them, the universe will,” then the self-inflicted shaman takes on both the role of the universe and society, emphatically becoming a force of nature, in order to provide the art of shamanism to an otherwise shamanless world.

As Terence McKenna said:

“It is of the first order of importance to remember this, that the shaman is more than merely a sick man, or a madman; he is a sick man who has healed himself, who is cured, and who must shamanize in order to remain cured.”

As such, a person inflicting themselves with shamanism does so in order to remain cured. They purposely enter into sacred wounds in order to remain healed. They deliberately seek out insane realms in order to remain sane. They knowingly shamanize in order to self-actualize.

A self-inflicted shaman inflicts shamanism upon himself. He dives into the abyss. He jumps into the fire. His leap of courage tantamount to foolishness. Only in hindsight can he see how there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity. If he should survive being annihilated, if he should survive becoming ashes, he will have gained a dangerous prestige, a humor of the most-high, and the famed Philosopher’s Stone, which is a metaphorical artifact of existential alchemy without equal.

A self-inflicted shaman lies prostrate at the feet of the universe, a deep wound, a broken heart, a pulsing vulnerability. She sits at the feet of the cosmos in full disclosure. Everything becomes her teacher. Her secret is in dangerously stretching comfort zones and risking the slings and arrows of vicissitude in order to self-overcome for the benefit of the human tribe.

Self-inflicted shamanism is not for the faint of heart. It’s a complete surrender to universal interconnectedness, where the independent ego becomes an interdependent tool for soul-craft. It’s the absolute willingness to become an instrument of Infinity. It’s the renunciation of innocence and the sacrifice of blissful ignorance to painful knowledge. It’s the utter release of the conditional for the unconditional, of attachment for nonattachment. Black and white blurs into middle gray. The sacred and the profane are smeared out into Rumi’s field, beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing, beyond good and evil.

What remains is a vehicle for transporting transformation, a vessel for the dissemination of mercurial change. The self-inflicted shaman is a dynamism of self-overcoming, overcoming the outdated self in order to discover the updated self, overcoming the ordinary world in order to discover extraordinary worlds. The orthodox is trumped by the unorthodox.

The self-inflicted shaman inflicts herself with astonishment. She is stricken by wonder, afflicted by impermanence, and wracked by the death-rattle of a life well-lived. She is terribly overthrown and deliciously overwhelmed. As Diane Ackerman said, “Knee-deep in the cosmic overwhelm, I’m stricken by the ricochet wonder of it all: the plain everythingness of everything, in cahoots with the everythingness of everything else.”

After the cosmic overwhelm, after the surrender to otherworldliness, after the delivery of transformation, the self-inflicted shaman emerges with a mystery-of-the-most-high, a magic elixir, a mythical experience. And now the single task of shamanism in general, and the raison d’etre of becoming a self-inflicted shaman, is the delivery of this sacred knowledge into the hearts and hearths of the human tribe.

In the end, it is what we do with our powers that makes or breaks our self-inflicted shamanism. Do our powers coincide with the universal order of things? Are they moderate, holistic, and nonviolent? Are they flexible, healthy, and robust? For as Antero Alli surmised, “The real test to our shamanic tendencies is not in our ability to enter into the mythical but in how we return to our humanity and what we do with our powers.”

Read more articles by Gary ‘Z’ McGee.

About the Author

Gary ‘Z’ McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide awake view of the modern world.

This article (Self-Inflicted Shamanism – Choosing the Path Least Traveled) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary ‘Z’ McGee and WakingTimes.com.

The Natural Origins of Supernatural Experiences

Transcendent experiences that were once attributed to gods, angels, muses, or even possession, are now being demystified by neuroscience. Jamie Wheal, Director of Programs at the Flow Genome Project, explains that each culture has unique rituals and narratives when it comes to non-ordinary experiences of consciousness or 'altered states', whether that's mediation, flow state, psychedelic experiences, or others.

A farmer in India, a peasant in Mexico, and a coder in Silicon Valley will all have vastly different ways of approaching altered states, and will give vastly different descriptions once they come out the other side - perhaps they saw a vision of Ganesh the elephant God, received a message from the Virgin of Guadalupe, or produced a brilliant line of code while in a Matrix-like binary blur.

However, those experiences are more alike than we think.

Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler devised a functional framework so they could compare non-ordinary experiences across cultures.

Here, Wheal explains that they identified four common elements of altered states of consciousness, which they coined as STER:

selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness and richness.

Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler's book is 'Stealing Fire - How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work.'

So when you're considering non-ordinary or altered states one of the first questions is,

What do they feel like?

What's actually going on in those places and spaces?

And one of the challenges in coming up with a good and consistent answer, not just for a specific state like meditation or a flow state or a psychedelic the state is, what qualities do they all share?

Because each of those communities of practice over decades, centuries and even the millennia have accumulated their own storytelling or content about what the state they access are, what they mean and where you're supposed to go through them.

So for instance, if you were a Buddhist meditator you will be instructed in all sorts of stages and levels and progressions of non-ordinary states of consciousness ranging from waking state all the way to white light void to Buddha consciousness, et cetera.

I if I am a peasant farmer in India and I have a non-ordinary state experience I might experience Ganesh, the elephant God in a rice patty.

If I'm a peasant in Mexico I might experience the version of Guadalupe Hidalgo. If I'm coder in Silicon Valley I might experience the matrix and code mode, this is ones and zeros streaming all night as I bang away on my keyboard.

And the reality is is that underneath those experiences are far more alike than the wrapping paper, the narrator wrapping paper of what people see based on culture, custom and biography.

And what we attempted to do was create a functional framework that lets us talk about these things as apples to apples and really see the similarities.

And what we realize is that because of the neurobiology there are four qualities that tend to arise pretty consistently regardless of which door you go through to get into these non ordinary states.

And they are selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness and richness or STER for short.

https://youtu.be/LY_83_wnk20

Read more at BigThink.com: http://bigthink.com/videos/jamie-whea...

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Altered States Experiences

Archaeologists Unearth 9,000-Year-Old Shaman Sanctuary in Europe

Apr 11th, 2016

The recent discovery of a 9,000-year-old shamanic sanctuary in Europe proves that an advanced and knowledgeable culture once flourished there. The capabilities of the shamans described in mystic tales might had once been a reality after all.

by EWAO

One of the key figures of the ancient world was the shaman. According to ancient accounts, these magic practitioners helped shape the first human societies. 

As wise as they were feared, the shaman mystics were a high-rank figure in the human society, capable of winning battles, de-cursing allies, they could heal physical wounds and the soul, but also communicate with animal spirits and even shapeshift.

While all this knowledge may seem loose out of fantasy books, there’s a great chance that shamans were capable of performing all of the above feats. 

Although records of these mystics often comes from the 16th century and mostly referrers to Asia as their last known refuge, it’s likely that they did their bidding all over the world.

At least that’s what this ancient shaman site from Europe indicates.

In 2012, archaeologists uncovered an unusual site near Lake Świdwie, in north-western Poland. After meticulously analyzing the settlement using modern techniques, the team of researchers concluded that it dated back more than 9,000 years.

One of the most notable finds in the area consisted in a circular design of approx. 6 meters in diameter where the foundation of strange structures was still visible. 

A trapezoid building with poles, encircled by an arch of rocks aligned at equal distances from each other caught the attention of the Polish archaeologists. 

Within this ancient design, sharpen yew sticks were piercing through the ground so that they formed the shape of the Big Dipper – a fragment of the constellation Ursa Major, also known as The Great Bear.

Yew blades found near the lake Swidwie

This discovery is unique, as other shaman settlements were only found in Siberia and Mongolia. It apparently served as a sanctuary from where the spirit practitioners engaged into rituals and out-of-body experiences which are now out of reach for modern science or written history.

Other enigmatic pieces of wood used in smoking rituals, bark, herbaceous plants and animal bones presumably used as offerings and for driving off evil spirits before a ritual were also unearthed at the site.

“Sacrificial offerings were an expression of belief in supernatural powers and forces of nature”, said Prof. Tadeusz Galiński from the Szczecin branch of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology PAS. 

“They were made on behalf of all residents and members of the group with the participation of the spiritual leader.”

A rich collection of different stones with supra-natural properties were found inside the sanctuary. 

Among them were syenite, diorite, granite, quartzite, sandstone, gneiss, and even unusual rocks for the Pomerania area such as red marble and green syenite. 

However, the discovery of black amber and pumice – an extrusive volcanic rock obtained when molten lava is spit out of a volcano – topped off the charts of the discovery list.

“This extraordinary rich collection of sotnes is unique among the previously known Mesolithic sites, located both within the vast European Plain, and in the zone of the foothills and highlands,” explained Prof. Galiński.

“These stones had to be brought to the site in Bolków, and not only from the surrounding area, but also from distant lands, the best example of which is hornfels, which occurs closest in the Giant Mountains and the Harz Mountains.”

The site furtherly proved to be rich in items mostly made of wood such as pendants and wood masks used in the mystic rituals.

Sacrificial offering discovered in the sanctuary

Thanks to the favorable conditions of the area, all the unearthed pieces were preserved in perfect shape.

The discovery adds another dimension to our written history because it proves that shamans once ruled the plains of Europe before Christianity and other religions rushed in and wiped these timeworn culture. 

It also demonstrates that ancient Europeans had knowledgeable advisors who could read the stars, use advanced remedies from nature, and who knows what other ancient techniques that are now forever lost.

Scattered inside the sanctuary were numerous items made of wood, antler and stone

Furthermore, is it possible that the ancient-shaman myths were something more than fiction? Did we once have the ability to commune with nature, animals and spirits alike? 

Was there an ancient culture of mystic practitioners who was brutally wiped-out in the process of imposing certain religious and political aspects?

Whatever the case, certain questions remain to be answered, and hopefully time will settle the matters straight. 

Well, at least for those who understand that alternative and forbidden history is the key to obtaining true knowledge. 

There is no need for an official explanation when we can draw our own conclusion from the abundance of archeological finds that keep contradicting with what elites have imposed as facts so far.

Metamorphosis- Ayahuasca Documentary

Ayahuasca has been used by Shamans and those they help for hundreds if not thousands of years. Found all over the Amazon, Ayahuasca and it's incredible ability to heal has been slowly but steadily creeping into western consciousness. Metamorphosis is a documentary that follows several westerners as they undergo five Ayahuasca ceremonies and experience the gamut of emotions - from utter fear to outright ecstasy. It also explores the shamans who work with the medicine as well as all the key elements of an Ayahuasca ceremony. The film also tells the story of Hamilton Souther, who earlier in life had no belief of and in spirit. After having a spiritual awakening, Hamilton is led to the Amazon where he apprentices as an Ayahuascero, or person who practices medicine with Ayahuasca. Hamilton and Maestro Don Alberto (an indigenous master shaman for over thirty years that practices with Hamilton) take us through the ceremonies as well as explain the meaning behind them.

What Plants Talk About

by Doc Film
February 28, 2014

When we think about plants, we don't often associate a term like "behavior" with them, but experimental plant ecologist J.C. Cahill wants to change that.

The University of Alberta professor maintains that plants do behave and lead anything but solitary and sedentary lives.

'What Plants Talk About' teaches us all that plants are smarter and much more interactive than we thought!

The Mountain of Mystery

by Planet Doc Full Documentaries
February 5, 2014

from YouTube Website

 

In this documentary we travel to the oldest place on Earth. Here lies the largest, most intact virgin forest in the world, on the Guayana Massif, in the south of Venezuela, along the Brazilian border.

In the interior of this green world lost in time, live men intimately adapted to their jungle environment which, though fascinating, is full of dangers. They are the inhabitants of the jungle, who live alongside and respect the endless different life forms around them.

 

Their culture is ancient, almost as ancient as the landscape in which it has developed.

Traditional knowledge of the jaguar shamans of Yuruparí

The jaguar shamans of Yuruparí are the common heritage of the many ethnic groups living along the Pirá Paraná River in southeastern Colombia. Using traditional knowledge and ritual practices, the shamans heal, prevent sickness and revitalize nature. During the Hee Biki ritual, male children learn the traditional guidelines for these practices as a part of their passage into adulthood. It is believed that shamans inherited their traditional knowledge from the all-powerful, mythical Yuruparí, an anaconda who lived as a human and is embodied in sacred trumpets. Country(ies): Colombia.

Shamanic Ecstasy

by Alberto Villoldo
27 September 2013
from RealitySandwich Website

You are not your genes,
you are your dreams.

Several decades ago, I was a medical anthropologist doing research in the Amazon rainforest.

My salary and expenses were paid for by a research grant from a pharmaceutical company hoping to find the bark or root that could become the next great cancer cure. After all, the jungle is nature’s pharmacy, filled with exotic plants whose powers have yet to be discovered.

I spent many months canoeing to villages that had seldom seen a white man and wherever I went, I found there was no cancer or heart disease, even in the elders of the communities.

Clearly, the indigenous people of the area knew something about health that we westerners didn’t know.

What was their secret?

I returned home with my backpack empty, and my sponsor could not accept that I hadn’t brought back the key ingredient for a blockbuster drug that would make all of us rich and save some lives at the same time. However, I did return with insights from having been taught the wisdom of the shamans by several mentors who took me under their wing.

I learned there was a magic ingredient to health that could be found in the rainforest, but it would not fit in a backpack. It was shamanic medicine. It was, the shamans told me, the medicine that would allow a person to become like the jaguar (below video).

And it could only be found in the invisible world of Spirit...

(Alberto Villoldo is one of the world’s most respected shamanic teachers and authors, and the founder of the Four Winds Society, where he trains individuals throughout the world in the practice of energy medicine. A psychologist and medical anthropologist, he has studied the healing practices of the Amazon and Inca shamans  for more than 25 years. While at San Francisco State University, he founded the Biological Self-Regulation Laboratory to study how the mind creates psychosomatic health and disease.)

The Shaman and the Jaguar

2012 Time for Change

Entheogenic Shamanism Ancient Astronauts History

Medicine for Mother Earth

Nature's Cry - Native American Flute by Jonathan C. Ward

Going Tribal - Walking The Spirits

PART-1

PART-2

PART-3

PART-4

Journey of a man who want to explore the shaman world with tools of psychoactive herbs. Footage taken in Amazon.

The Entheogenic Evolution: Psychedelics, Consciousness, and Awakening the Human Spirit

DMT - The Spirit Molecule

PART-1

PART-2

PART-3

PART-4

PART-5

The Spirit Molecule explores the enigmatic dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a molecule found throughout nature, and considered the most potent psychedelic.
In 1995, Dr. Strassman completed the first government-sanctioned, psychedelic research on DMT, with results that may answer humanity's greatest questions.

Magic mushrooms & Reindeer - Weird Nature - BBC animals

Watch this short video from BBC wildlife show 'Weird Nature' to learn more about the reindeer appetite for intoxicating fungi, and perhaps discover a little more about the origins of Santa's flying companions!

Jungle Trip - AYAHUASCA

Shamans & DMT

David Icke & Credo Mutwa - Old Friends (The Truth Must Be Spoken)

The torture of Credo Mutwa

Put simply: what you give out you get back – often with interest – and so the ‘winners’ who ‘win’ by hurting, exploiting and parasiting off others (‘Oh, haven’t they done well?’) are the biggest losers of all. They are just too greedy and ignorant to see it.

The consequences of such behaviour, for this life and those to come, will return to give them what they gave out - and more. Only that way can those consumed by greed, self and vindictiveness see that it’s not the way to treat your fellow expressions of the Infinite. So those who have stolen the money from Credo Mutwa's books and stolen the Necklace of the Mysteries think they have got away with it. But they are just a ticking clock until the consequences come flying back.

It’s the same with the man who stole years of income from my books – he went to jail for not paying tax on what he stole! Talk about instant karma. The book distribution company that helped him to fleece me went bankrupt and the big New York legal firm that charged me far more than necessary to deal with the case went into liquidation.

And it is the same with the single person with no dependents who is currently seeking to clean me out through the courts and, on top of that, demanding nearly $5,000 a month from me in unearned income with monthly payments continuing until I am nearly 70. No, I'm really not kidding.

This person is trying to ‘win’ – ‘if you want a war you can have one (I don’t)’ – but by even thinking of such demands, never mind employing a barrister to secure them, this person has already lost in a way they don't even begin to understand.

And those pathetic and ignorant people who are urging this person on to exploit and, in effect, destroy my work, have also already lost just as comprehensively.

As Martin Luther King said: ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice’. And at this time of great energetic change, the end of a vibrational age, that arc is becoming shorter by the hour.

You cannot hide from cause and effect, you can only kid yourself you can, or convince yourself that when you cheat or exploit someone it is either justified, only what you deserve, or 'their own fault'.

No matter, tick, tick, tick, karma's a comin'.

Enjoy the necklace, chaps.

Credo Mutwa presents a cultural and historical view you are not likely to encounter in your regular history books. What I have found most fascinating are the stories related to some of Credo Mutwa's personal experiences. This is the real version of Africas history - not the history given to Africa by white colonists.

The torture of Credo Mutwa and the theft of the Necklace of Mysteries

David Icke and I (Bill Ryan) recently met with Credo Mutwa, the great Zulu shaman, healer, and keeper of African tradition. He told us a horror story.

The short version of what happened is this. A few months ago, earlier in 2010, Credo was being pestered daily over the phone by someone who claimed he was from a group of young Zulus about his "betrayal of the Zulu nation" by talking so much to white people.

Exasperated, he put the famous and priceless Necklace of the Mysteries on his shoulders and took a train to Swaziland to confront the people who were giving him such a hard time.

When he arrived, he was set upon and tortured. They started pulling his fingernails out with pliers. The Necklace was taken from him, and he was put on a train back home. In the background, throughout all this, was a white man whom Credo did not recognize.

If you know ANYTHING about the theft of this priceless, ancient artifact, of inestimable value to the history of Africa and the human race - but very likely now in the hands of white men who are only interested in money - please contact DavidIckeContact@aol.com in full confidence. Thank you.

Bill Ryan
22 August 2010

Carlos Castaneda And The Shaman. Tales From The Jungle