Bicameral mind and divination. A particular reference to the concept of twinning. Logic and analogic deals are represented by the continuous, infinite contrast and contest between the inner human needs in term of what we could define bi-chambered mind. Human mind is clearly divided in two rooms, named in several different ways depending on the specific focus. Unconscious and Conscious mind. Unconscious and Consciousness. Logic and analogic mind. However, Consciousness is often wrongly confused with awareness, while Unconscious is often confused with unconsciousness. In these minds awareness may take different expression in terms of sensory activation, but is always present. What is very different are the functions. Conscious and Unconscious have different functions from a biology point of view and different psychology impact on the concrete life. In fact they are opposing mostly of times creating what we should call dystonia, that is a psychology tone gradient between the two minds. In terms of anatomy, there is a precise equivalence with the right and left sides of human brain. The right side of human brain (with exception of left-handed persons) deals with analogic or unconscious needs, while the left side with logic or conscious needs. So, human brain and psychology needs in humans are bi-chambered. These two parts of the brain are linked through a structure that is called Corpus Callosus from the latin corpus (body) and callosus (hard). Corpus callosus is made of hard white matter, that is high velocity nervous fibers that allow the transmission of information from a side to the other. Corpus callosus works like an electric switch depending on the gradient of information that creates, but it may also work like a unidirectional valve allowing that passage only in one direction. So it may happen in many that unconscious flow of information won’t ever reach the left side of the brain, leaving the individual in a state that might be called hyper-logic attitude. Or vice versa, the conscious flow of information won’t ever reach the analogic part pf the brain, leaving the individual in a state we might define hyper-emotional or hyper-analogic. Social conditioning, memes, cultural beliefs, education are the main factors that may affect the bidirectional functioning of the mind, leaving human beings in a “compartmentalized” situation. Divination presupposes the abolition of this compartmentalization reducing the bi chambered mind to a single chamber vessel. In fact during Divination there are some presupposition to make the Diviner work following the principles of synchronicity and mesocosmic evolution. These presuppositions are the development of an altered state of consciousness, the hypercritic logic reduction and the increasing of analogic contribution. Obviously starting from a basic level were one presuppose a left brain dominance, that is high logic output with low analogic work. A third factor is the activity of Corpus Callosum. Ifa (and other forms of African Divination) represents an unique tool in psychology arrangement of Divination as presupposes a state of Consciousness where the bicameral mind becomes unicameral, not abolishing one of the two systems, but armonizing the work of both in a process that might be called twinning. What is divination. A divination system is a standardized process deriving from a learned discipline based on an extensive body of knowledge. This knowledge may or may not be literally expressed during the interpretation of the oracular message. The diviner may utilize a fixed corpus, such as the Yoruba Ifa Odu verses, or a more diffuse body of esoteric knowledge. Divining processes are diverse, but all follow set routines by which otherwise inaccessible information is obtained. Some type of device usually is employed, from a simple sliding object to the myriad symbolic items shaken in diviners baskets. Sometimes the diviners body becomes the vehicle of communication through spirit possession. Some diviners operate self-explanatory mechanisms that reveal answers; other systems require the diviner to interpret cryptic metaphoric messages. The final diagnosis and plan for action are rendered collectively by the diviner and the client. Divination and communication. We usually assume communication in divination entails audible speech, although we do secondarily acknowledge a number of nonverbal modes of communication. It is critical to stress that African divination systems are multisensory and variously utilize all forms of communication. Verbal communication between diviner and client apparently constitutes an obliged ritual passage. However, in African Tradition, the value of “silent” communication is mainly highlighted. Reflecting about “silent” or non verbal communication during a divination session, one may refers also to well known mechanisms that are in modern times used during “therapeutic” communication in the setting of hypnosis or nlp. One of the most valued and efficient is the so called “mirroring”. The term mirroring does not absolutely mean a simple and mechanical reflection of the other, while is a term that implicates a profound unconscious and strict communicative relation between two subjects. Mirroring symbolically express the concept “you are me and I are you” so linking the actors of communication in a twin-like rapport. African divinatory systems recognize this concept since ancient times. Twinning. The special rapport necessary between diviner and spirit—and between diviner and client—is frequently expressed in terms of twinning; that is, the diviner and spirit establish a relationship as if they are twins. Ellen Suthers, in Perception, Knowledge, and Divination in Djimini Society, Ivory Coast (PhD diss., University of Virginia, 1987), 11-12, 16.” States the following: “Sharing the same womb experience, twins become endowed with, or constituted of, the same perceptions; hence they emerge in the world having congruent images. Because they share perfect knowledge and perceptions of each other and of the spirit realm, twins do not need speech to communicate with each other or with the host of spiritual entities. ... As pairing makes the client congruent with the diviner and the diviner congruent with the spirits, all come to share a common perception. Through gestures, the diviner transforms his or her body to reflect the image of the client, and thus to reveal the clients problem in concrete terms. this description perfectly expresses the critical dynamics of divination in many African cultures, those esoteric processes which operate whether through diviners or through their devices. Once this perspective is recognized, many representations of it can be found. For example, among the Baule of Côte dIvoire, West Africa, diviners home shrines always include pairs of spirit figures that aid their enterprise. Sometimes these images depict two figures back-to-back in a Janus pose, or one on the shoulders of another, as if to portray the merging of diviner and spirit. Indeed, most diviners (komien) work with a variety of spirit helpers who possess the diviner during divination sessions in order to provide oracular messages”. Transforming one’s body to reflect the image of the client is in the modern times the most faithful expression of what is called “mirroring”. The practical and symbolic meaning of such a mirroring is that no divination session may go straight without a profound and symbiotic rapport between diviner and client that mirroring is able to create. Client and diviner rapport. Mirroring neurons and empathy. Twinning occurs not only in the relationships of diviners and spirits, but between diviners and clients. Not only do complex relations develop around the psychological dynamics between diviners and clients, but there is often a literal, physical bonding of the two to ensure a successful divination session. The Lobi of Burkina Faso use a hand-holding type of divination wherein the diviner holds the clients right hand in his left hand; the raising and lowering of their clasped hands gives yes and no answers to their questions. Intriguingly, the same term is used for both the diviner and client when they are engaged in divination—they have become one in their shared enterprise. Among the Batammaliba of Togo, both client and diviner hold a stick, and its movements convey the oracular message. Recently neurosciences have shown the presence and the activity of a distinct neurological system so called “mirroring system”. In 1992, a team at the University of Parma, Italy discovered what have been termed “mirror neurons” in macaque monkeys: cells that fire both when the monkey took an action (like holding a banana) and saw it performed (when a man held a banana). Like monkeys, humans have mirror neurons that fire when we both perceive and take an action. Locating the tiny cells means attaching electrodes deep inside the brain. As this has hardly been practical in humans, studies have had to rely on imaging, which shows which areas of the brain “light up” in different circumstances. The cells showed up unexpectedly in an area known for memory, the medial temporal lobe, as well as in areas where they were expected. The discovery suggests that memory is embedded in our mirror system. The mirror systems of two people can move in tandem. Many researchers had proposed that the brains of two people “resonate” with each other as they dialogically interact, with one person’s mirror system reflecting changes in the other. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported on the brain activity of people playing the game of charades. The observer and gesturer performing the charade did move neurologically in tandem. In addition to mirror neurons, another kind of neurons, so called canonical neurons, become activated when you merely see an object that can be grasped by the prehensile movement of the hand whose movements they encode, as if the brain were foreseeing a possible interaction with the object and preparing accordingly. What these two types of neurons have in common is they are both activated by an action regardless of whether the action is carried out. It is possible for us to know what is happening in the other person, as inter-subjectivity, when we resonate with them. The activity of neurons is referred to as firing, and it is this mutual firing that we find in performance. On the basis of this mutuality, we can reflect what is happening to the other person when we perform together. The significance of this understanding is that when we talk about consciousness, then we are essentially talking about inter-subjectivity. A lot of speculation is the arised about the role and the importance of this mirroring system of the human brain. But its role has been always explained by the past experiences of famous hypnotists (Milton Erickson) and by Ifa (and other African divination practices) Other mirroring divinations. Silence rules. A mirroring relationship is also used in other Traditional forms of African divination, such as the Isoko of the Niger delta in Southern Nigeria. The two diviners are using the “Eva” system, which is related to the opele (divining chain) of the Yoruba that is incorporated into their major system of Ifa. Working in pairs, each diviner casts his two chains. Then, in turn, each quickly reads the others cast using the esoteric Eva language while the other rapidly translates into standard Isoko. Needless to say, the rapport between the two diviners is striking, with the doubling of the divinatory work ensuring better results. But in Africa and also in Ifa Tradition silence is one of the most appreciated parameters of human beings. According with the definition of the related quality of “suuru” silence is temperance and defines the man of character, the wise and the sage whose wisdom may be shared in order to improve others’ lives. So, this quality cannot lack in a diviner though it also represents an apparent paradox as the diviner should express by voice the results of divination. That is obviously only an apparent issue as the need for silence refers in fact to the phases of divination during which the only noise should be represented by the paralinguistic communication between diviner and client, as created by the various divination instruments. So, the focus should not be on the verbal language but on the non verbal and paraverbal communication between diviner and client. Silence, divination and animals. The value of silence is suggested also by various animal symbolisms ar even by the use of animal guide during divination in the various branch of African Tradition. We might first think that those animals with distinct voices or sounds would be the chosen divinatory creatures, but they are not. Lions and elephants rarely figure in divination, nor do parrots or other creatures whose calls we often mimic. In fact, despite such abilities as mimicking human speech, little is found about parrots in African cultural practices. Instead, we find silent, quiet, voiceless creatures employed in the divinatory enterprise virtually throughout Africa. One of the worlds most remarkable creatures is the chameleon. Cultures the world over note its ability to change its skin color and its independently rotating eyes. While not absolutely without voice (it will hiss if disturbed), most reckon it to be silent. Throughout Africa, chameleons are held to be among the worlds oldest and wisest of creatures. With their primordial and supernatural status, they have great wisdom of the mysteries of the past and of the future. While chameleons are not, to my knowledge, directly employed in divination, they are frequently portrayed in their role as trusted messengers to the other world on iron shrine staffs outside diviners shrines in West Africa. Although the silence and slow speed of snails does not seem to recommend them as divinatory agents, they are encountered in divinatory paraphernalia throughout Africa, as with diviners in Mozambique. Likewise, the tortoise is a frequent character in African folk tales and is considered one of the wisest of animals. Its slow and deliberate behaviour seems to be what is most recognized as demonstrating its wisdom, but its silence is also noteworthy. Tortoise shells often hold diviners apparatuses, as among the Baule and Senufo. A divination system based on the spider exists in Cameroon. Spiders are depicted in the royal arts of Cameroon kings because they are mediators between gods and men. Among a number of peoples in Cameroon, the ground-dwelling spider is the main agent of divination primarily because it lives near the ancestors in the earth. The diviner draws out a large number of marked leaf cards from a container lying on the tail of a squirrel (who is also considered a messenger between worlds). These cards are placed near the spiders burrow and all is covered. When the lid is removed, the spiders alterations of the cards are read by the diviner. Another form of divination, also from Cameroon, employs a close relative of the spider (at least in our scientific typology), the land crab, also a silent creature. Among the Kapsiki of north western Cameroon, specially marked pieces of gourd are placed in a container with the crab and all is covered. After about fifteen minutes, the cover is removed and the rearrangement of objects is studied. Partial answers are perceived; then the whole procedure is repeated until the diviner is satisfied with the revelations made by the crab. Twinning, silence, Ela and client as active empathic player. So, the importance of twinning, mirroring and silence during divination come directly from the observation of various different African practices that share all these common features. The Babalawo/Bokonon/Bokono….. should so be aware Ifa/Fa/Afa/Ewa…… affects both the Babalawo and the client during divination, especially if the Diviner interacts with the client in a proper way, that is by a direct mirroring communication. It is to say the client himself may be touched by the Spirit of Ela to unconsciously communicate his “truth”. From a neurological point of view we might say the Diviner and the client activate their mirroring brain system to receive mutual information, as coded by Ela. Furthermore, the inspired (from Ela) Diviner may “guide” the client to the correct path during this very initial moments when that sort of non verbal, Ela inspired communication, is taking place. From a more modern point of view it is interesting to note the concepts of “silence” and “twinning” express in religious language the mechanisms that are universally recognized as able to alter drastically the Consciousness during hypnosis. In Ifa Tradition the Babalawo is “possessed” by Ela. Nevertheless this is not necessarily the only requirement to successfully go through a divination session even though it may be sufficient. The possibility of twinning with the client and silently enter in touch with his/her unconscious depth is the appropriate way to allow the client enter in communication with the Spirit of Ela so transiently put the Ori of Diviner and the Ori of the client in direct touch (a good definition for “empathy”).
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:14:06 +0000
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