Shamanism and the spirit world

[john vallimarescu]

When I was ten years old, I drew a precise rendition of a (thankfully) aborted sexual assault I experienced at age 13-months.  The elements of the drawing have a truly amazing correspondence to the elements of a shaman's description of rescuing a young girl's power animal from the spirit world. This precise correspondence begs the questions: Is there a "spirit world" that our conscious / unconscious minds access / participate in? I would be happy to share the drawing to "illustrate" the correspondence. 

“Mahtee dodged the wet fronds as he made his way through the dense tangle of vines that clogged the ancient path.  At last he broke out into the light of the clearing where Nata’s village stood. Nata rushed out to meet him.

‘At last you are here!’ she cried, clearly distressed.  ‘My sister Tia is not better.  Can you see her after you have eaten?’

‘Take me to her now,’ Mahtee advised.

Tia lay on a mat, stony and unresponsive.

Mahtee sat silently for a moment, relaxing for a moment as he asked for guidance from his spirit allies.  He pulled out his small traveling drum and began a rapid beat.  Using his shamanic sight, he looked at her spirit body and saw that her power animal was missing.  He also saw a density and a blockage of black color around her chest.  Looking more closely, he noticed that from the opening to the spirit world in the top of her head there was oozing a black slime that appeared to be alive.  He asked his guardian spirit, the python,

spirit pulled out the black slime and patted it into the shape of a young man who immediately ran away.

Tia let out a scream and then fell forward, sobbing uncontrollably. Mahtee quickly journeyed to find Tia’s power animal with the help of his python.

When he had spotted it four times, he managed to talk to it, a small bird,

into coming back.  Then he quickly knelt over Tia’s head and, blowing with all his might, delivered Tia’s power animal through the spirit opening.

Mahtee said quietly to Nata, ‘She will be okay soon.  Let her cry all she wants.  She had a secret love with a young man from the next village.  He left her when he found her without any power.  She has neglected her power animal and it abandoned her, just as he did.  Perhaps she has learned her lesson.

‘Now I am hungry.  Please bring me some food.’”

(Secrets of Shamanism: Tapping the Spirit Power Within You.  Jose Stevens, PH.D. & Lena S. Stevens (Published by arrangement with The Philip Lief Group, Inc.) First Avon Books Printing: August 1988.  (pp. 158-59))

[Ben Iscatus]

Interesting John. When we consider all the different spirits and gods dreamed up by all the different cultures, it seems reasonable to believe that everything that has ever been imagined and given credence exists in an unlimited dream-world of ideas.  Our world of form has rules and blocks which limit what appears to the five senses. But shamans have a highly developed sixth sense and can tune into the unlimited dream-world. Culturally, they expect to see animal spirits, so they do. Those of a Western mindset would more likely expect to see energy flows and blockages. I guess.

[Lou Gold]

Ben,

But shamans have a highly developed sixth sense and can tune into the unlimited dream-world. Culturally, they expect to see animal spirits, so they do. Those of a Western mindset would more likely expect to see energy flows and blockages. I guess.

Not true that this is all culturally-fashioned formulation or projection. Jeremy Narby reports the anomaly of urban dwellers imbibing ayahuasca in New York City have reported seeing snakes and fractal forms similar to those seen by those who are native to Amazôn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cosmic_Serpent

[Ben Iscatus]

Not true that this is all culturally-fashioned formulation or projection. Jeremy Narby reports the anomaly of urban dwellers imbibing ayahuasca in New York City have reported seeing snakes and fractal forms similar to those seen by those who are native to Amazôn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cosmic_Serpent

Archetypal images -yes.

[Jim Cross]

I've written related to this.

[john vallimarescu]

Grateful to see the posts on this. I am debating now how to make my drawing accessible to forum participants to illustrate the remarkable one-to-one-correspondence between my "physical" experience and the shamanic "spiritual" experience. One idea is to post the drawing on imagekind.com. Does anyone have any alternative suggestions? Perhaps it would be best for me to email the drawing to interested participants. Thank you. John

[Lou Gold]

I just posted an on-point interview with the great ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/metaphysical-speculations/HFXi5hf41ug

[Lou Gold]

John,

I'd love to see your drawing. Take a photo and post the image here. Very simple to do. I can guide you, if you need assistance.