For the shaman, this visionary way of perceiving the world may be an inherent outcome of the rituals necessary for attaining their powers. Shamans are initiated in ways as various as there are tribes of people on the planet, but there are parallels between many of these practices. Their common threads involve a loss or stripping away of the initiate’s ordinary way of perceiving reality, as well as a detachment from the personality or ego self. This death and rebirth initiatory experience seems to be a critical aspect of shifting one’s understanding of the world from focusing on matter to centering around spirit. Common threads of these ecstatic experiences include a dismemberment or dissolution of the physical body, which is followed by a gradual renewal of the flesh—sometimes appearing different or having different components than the original viscera. During this experience of being dissolved or destroyed, the shamanic initiates would experience some new view of reality and their place within it. This view may show that their existence is inexorably tied to all other beings, or they may see their bodies as constructed in such a manner that they contain all living things. They may describe being able to perceive light emanating from living beings or experience seeing luminous threads holding the world together. These anomalous experiences of reality (anomalous in that they appear to defy the reason of Newtonian physics) are consistent with those described by people who undergo a brief period of clinical death due to severe accident, illness, or surgery. It would appear that this loss of the ordinary self allows the quantum view of reality to be revealed. dailyom/library/000/003/000003136.html
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 19:05:07 +0000
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