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Abram on the Shaman
I just happened across something highly worth reading. It’s the first chapter of David Abram’s book the Spell of the Sensuous. Abram suggests that with the development of written language, humankind gradually began to lose the ability to “read” the landscape. Tangible ecological literacy was replaced with increasingly abstract forms of cognition. We could only gain information by reading books, instead of from birds and trees and and dirt.
Here’s a typically excellent excerpt from that opening chapter:
In keeping with the popular view of shamanism as a tool for personal transcendence, the most sophisticated definition of “magic” that now circulates through the American counterculture is “the ability or power to alter one’s consciousness at will.” There is no mention made of any reason for altering one’s state of consciousness. Yet in tribal cultures that which we call “magic” takes all of its meaning from the fact that, in an indigenous and oral context, humans experience their own intelligence as simply one form of awareness among many others. The traditional magician cultivates an ability to shift out of his or her common state of consciousness precisely in order to make contact with other species on their own terms. Only by temporarily shedding the accepted perceptual logic of his or her culture can the shaman hope to enter into a rapport with the multiple nonhuman sensibilities that animate the local landscape. It is this, we might say, that defines a shaman: the ability to readily slip out of the perceptual boundaries that demarcate his or her particular culture-boundaries reinforced by social customs, taboos, and, most important, the common speech or language-in order to make contact with, and learn from, the other powers in the land. Shamanic magic is precisely this heightened receptivity to the meaningful solicitations–songs, cries, and gestures–of the larger, more-than-human field.
This passage resonates for me because I asked this very same question about magic(k) a while back. So what if we can influence the world or change our consciousness? What are we supposed to do with that ability? Why do we have it? Abram tackles these and many other fascinating questions in his book, and does it in a really beautiful and eye-opening way.
Abram put himself through college for psychology by performing regularly as a sleight-of-hand magician. His studies eventually took him to Indonesia and Nepal where he became immersed in traditional shamanic practices. He’s a really interesting guy and I was lucky enough to see him speak several years ago. Here is some more biographical info and links on Abram, along with an interview, which I’ll probably quote from later. I also recommend reading this opening chapter of his book in conjunction with an essay by another author on the necessity of the connection between between the charlatan and the true magician.
September 6th, 2005 at 1:33 am
what are we supposed to do with the ability to change the world? i don`t think we can change the consensus world. what i believe we can change is the one filament of existance among many that is unique to the self. i think that there are exactly as many worlds as there are examples of consciousness existing in parallel. it`s the only way that i can support what i will say next. in my world, what i imagine comes to fruition. what happens in your reality is true and concrete for you…….even if i differs substantially from mine. my consciousness contains a version of you that responds to my world-view even though the same is true for you.
for us now here on the planet there are approximately 6.5 billion streams of reality ripping through space/time carving out reality. each of our experiences is different for each of us in direct relationship to what we generate via focus and meditation. this all happens while we still all have a groundstate of shared reality to fall back on.
two parallel realities. the collective and the individual.
each individual is a copy of the original with re-write and editing functions enabled for those who know how.
this is the gnosis that was esoteric enough to be kept for the initiated.
you can choose to live the default reality as a passenger and take what comes, or get your spiritual sleeves rolled up and create a new world full of love and passion and discovery by opening up your third eye and looking through it onto a screen of new ideas and outcomes.
September 6th, 2005 at 6:11 am
Before I move on to read it I must say that I disagree. This is akin to environmental literacy, IMO: if your environment includes books but not landscapes, then that is where your literacy will lie. I think that if you are familiar with both environments, that there exists the possibility that you will be literate in both of them. I say “possibility” because not all people possess either the temperament or the inclination for such literacy.
September 6th, 2005 at 11:34 am
I don’t think you’re disagreeing at all. If you read the book, that’s very much his point. He’s not advocating throwing away civilization…
September 6th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
help people to:
-heal diseases
-prevent accidents
-make wise business decisions
-defeat enemies
-attract sexual partners
-provide for themselves & their families
-bring mental & emotional peace
etc
September 6th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
yes rev. it seem so obvious.
September 6th, 2005 at 9:31 pm
regarding the ability to read– i grew up without a tv, and so spent most of my time reading books. later i noticed that i would be floored for a few days after seeing a movie– while my peers that saw the same movie barely reacted to the experience. i chalked it up to an underdeveloped ability on my part to process visual information at the level of my peers (i reckon though my abilities exceeded theirs in words). now i watch tv and movies arent such an experience; its not so exhausting or hard to deal with zillions of images whizzing past.
September 6th, 2005 at 10:57 pm
I dunno if it does or not. New Orleans is the city I kind of woke up in and its been killing me to see whats been happening there this past week. I think any spiritual person who does have the ability to change the world should be doing everything in their power to help those people right now.
I used to think that religion had something to do with intellectual puzzles and the solving of these until I found out that those all end in paradoxes.
Religion is about survival. ANd once you know that then hopefully the circle of things people places you want to help survive will expand to encompass others not immediately connected to your own survival because we all grow from the same roots and are connected by the same blood.