Shamanism

Hughes, Chapter 2:

The first thing in the reading that stood out to me was how it mentioned the cave art as “an early understanding of the interfusion of spirit and nature,” which is related to religion. I guess it just surprised me how true this statement was, because I was raised as a Christian and the supernatural is often perceived as evil, except for the Holy Trinity, of course. 

I also thought it was interesting that the book called shamanism “universal” and “the old Earth religion”. I think that often in our culture we forget to look outside our culture and put things in the world’s perspective. These statements about shamanism just reminded me that the first real religion was probably shamanism.

Another point that I noted was that cave art was still being practiced some 20,000 years after the original art began. I suppose it’s noteworthy because so many things we take for granted are so young in comparison (Christianity is only 2,000 years old.) and probably will change greatly in the near future due to societal influences. But something about the cave drawings and engravings had such a deep resonance with the artists that it remained nearly unchanged in 20,000 years, which I think is an amazing feat.

When the text discussed magic images versus representative art, I immediately thought of abstract art. Can’t abstract art “affect the onlookers’ consciousness, prompting them to see it in the vision of the object”? Whereas representative art, in most cases, is less subject to interpretation. Take one of my favorite photographs, for example. In Bad Boys of the Arctic by Thomas Mangelson (http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/pd--10044894/Bad_Boys_of_the_Arctic_Polar_Bears.htm), there are many ways to interpret the image, but most people will simply see three polar bears lounging around. However, in Salvador Dali’s surrealist painting The Persistence of Memory, it is open to more interpretations than Mangelson’s photo, simply because of the style in which it was executed. I think that the more a viewer studies Dali’s painting and the more he or she applies their own life to their interpretation, the closer to an altered state he or she gets.

Another point that caught my attention was that most potential shamans have near-death experiences, because so often in our society, people have these experiences and are unable to find the words to describe them. But shamans utilize these experiences to help their community. 

I also thought it ironic that our culture perceives certain drugs as dangerous and harmful whereas in other cultures, shamans use the same drugs to heal.

Also for shamans, I think the book emphasized the importance of communication in creativity.

I really enjoyed reading the section in Hughes about rock and roll. I realized that most rock legends are so much more than just pop culture icons. As far as the hippie stereotypes of the fans of John Lennon and Jerry Garcia, I think many people stumbled upon altered states of consciousness because their music was popular, as well as the drugs that are associated with their music. So hippies may not just be tree-loving druggies, but actually the thinkers who impacted their generation and the rest to come. I also realized that like creativity and altered states, shamanism and any significant resemblance to it (like rock and roll) is very often controversial in our society.

Shamanism:

I think there is something to the whole shamanism concept or theory or state of being because after having dwindled in many parts of the world and having never really been present in its original form in our culture, interest in shamanism has been widespread and sudden. The book attributes this spike in interest partially to the common use of psychedelics in the 1960s. It makes me deduce that shamanism must be natural to human beings, further confirmed by it’s age and scattered locations. 

Carlos Castaneda interested me because he simultaneously spiked interest in shamanism and falsely portrayed it. 

Why we are studying shamanism, other than its involvement with creativity and altered states, immediately became clear when I read that when defining a shaman, “there is remarkably little agreement and ‘practically every scholar forms his own opinion of what constitutes shamanism.’”

When reading about how shamans’ ecstatic experiences like journeying, I decided that being a shaman could be a lot of fun, but at the same time it seems like the whole leading part of it would be a lot of responsibility. I guess I’d be a more stereotypical hippie who is selfish when in comes to altered states rather than a shaman who is selfless. 

I can also see how shamanism is kind of the blueprint for religions. In shamanism, there is three worlds: upper, middle, and lower. We live in the middle. In Christianity and Judaism, the upper world would be Heaven; the middle world, our life on Earth; and the lower world, Hell. It almost correlates too nicely to be coincidence. 

Shamans states of consciousness can actually suggest an underlying neural basis, according to Walsh. This development only confirms my initial reaction that although shamanism is often seen as supernatural or unnatural, it actually seems quite natural since altered states can be provoked by common experiences like isolation, fatigue, hunger, and rhythmic sound. 

When reading about mediums, I suppose I rid myself of some doubt, but I definitely still doubt mediums like John Edwards who exploit their gifts or “gifts” to make a substandard TV show to achieve their own fame and celebrity under the guise of helping others.