![[tmbchr]™](/journal/popocculture-blog-logo.jpg){kind=logo}
The Shamanic Sickness
I just found something that I think adds an interesting layer into our recent debates on what exactly constitutes shamanism. I realize this person’s views are rather extreme and many people who’d like to consider themselves shamans will probably chafe at this - and that’s exactly why this viewpoint is so interesting. It’s polarizing.
This part is great:
A Shaman does not initiate other Shamans, as occurs with Yoga and Wicca. Rather a Shaman may recognise that another has been chosen or born a Shaman, and assist with the unfolding. The primary teaching happens through the spirits directly, although it is not unusual for a new Shaman to be drawn to a more experienced one […]
I’m especially interested in this whole idea that shamans learn directly from the spirits. But this section is even more interesting:
For Shamans, Death shows up as a spiritual being, an ever present spirit teacher-guide whom you get to know, and eventually integrate with. It is an ongoing relationship.
My definition of a Shaman is pretty simple: if the spirit who claims you does not do its best to kill you with a severe, life threatening sickness shortly after you meet, then you are not a Shaman. That is not to say that all life threatening illnesses are shamanic sickness, of course. CFS, malaria, flu, pneumonia, fibromyalgia, cancer, arthritis, heart disease, or suicidal impulses are not Shamanic sickness.
The basic pattern is that there is a “First contact” with the spirit, usually taking the form of a psychic or paranormal experience and an interrogation by a spirit. The interview is followed by a severe life threatening illness. Shamanic sickness usually includes visions, high fevers, transient comatose states, delirium with hallucinations of visits from the spirit that claimed you, etc… the sickness may last weeks or months, however long it takes you to surrender to the training, or die. Medical intervention is usually of little use, as the cause of the illness is supernatural, not physical. (See a doctor anyway, just in case your illness is physical and treatable, and not Shamanic sickness!! Better safe than sorry. ) It is estimated that 1/3 of those who are called, do not survive the sickness. The sickness is a cleansing and a testing.
The key to survival is to consent to their plans for you. Surrender to becoming a Shaman and agree to be trained.
Of all the people today running around who believe they are shamans, I wonder how many would stand up under this very rigorous definition?
October 10th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
I’ve also read that there is usually a vision whereby the person is basically severed into pieces by either animals or spirits and it’s painful as fuck. The spirits or animal guides then put the person back together again and that’s when they become endowed with the mantle of the shaman.
When I first read about that, I wondered about the ghosts that messed with me in Japan and what would have happened if I woulda just surrendered to the ghost kids beating the shit out of me and pulling at my limbs rather than retreating into the ol’ Catholicism with the “Our Father” because I was so freaked out. Not that I’m a shaman or anything (I wouldn’t claim that), but it just made me wonder. Kinda like the crossroads ritual in the south, if ya want the Black Man to endow you with the gift you seek (awesome guitar chops, mastery of rootwork and magick, etc.), you’ve got to stay there and not run despite the freaky shit that you’re supposed to see (various creepy black animals and whatnot–not to mention ol’ Elegba himself).
Epilepsy also seems to be associated with those called by spirits, if not necessarily or exclusively shamanism. The ¡Hmong of China believe that epileptics are chosen in someway–though I’m getting this second hand (anyone have direct references or links to either confirm this or set me straight)? Maybe it’s just them ol’ temperal lobe visions.
Couple of different tangents in this here post. Par-doan!
October 10th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
not many
October 10th, 2005 at 12:55 pm
Wow, that’s a crazy story about the spirit kids Hebrides. I’ve also written elsewhere about an encounter I had as a kid with a skeleton woman who beckoned me to come to her. Instead I ran inside the house screaming. I’ve been wondering what would have happened if I’d gone and seen what she wanted instead.
October 10th, 2005 at 1:10 pm
The reason I was looking at this page was because I had a dream last night wherein I was Death. I’ve had maybe 4-5 of these dreams in the past couple years. And I’m never quite sure what to make of it all. I’m rather interested in this later passage from the same site:
October 10th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
innaressin:
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/awakening101/obeah.html
this too:
DEATH Had A Face
THE SPECTER OF DEATH IN SHAMANISM AND ZEN
October 10th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
i spent most of my early twenties in a state of chaos where there was no structure in any aspect of my life. it was during this time that i had what others have characterised as visitations, paralysis episodes, mystical visions, bright beams of energy and odd encounters with humans who spoke in coded terms. none of these events threatened my physical or mental existance to the degree that it had the potential to kill me, but i think if i wasn`t mentally grounded enough, some of the experiences could have led to psychosis. during that period there were others i knew who didn`t make it. one or two of them that i knew personally were experiencing similar things and i think it led to thier demise. i`m going to write these people`s names as a tribute.
scott “ulla” nielsen.
aires goergeantopolis.
jim dashney.
souls of art and torment, too fragile for this realm. god bless them. i smile in the memory of thier smiles.
October 10th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
You’ve opened the floodgates, Tim. Now every two-bit mystical shyster out there is going to make sure to put life-threatening illness that doesn’t include CFS, malaria, flu, pneumonia, fibromyalgia, cancer, arthritis, heart disease, or suicidal impulses in their shamanic resumes…
October 10th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
Weird. I’d repeat that last blockquote that Tim put up in comments if I felt like I could shorten the relevance, but it all really rang strongly for me. Like Tim’s skeleton visitor it makes me wonder about my “incubus” that visited me twice. The first time threatening, and the second time with a sense of tameness. It too makes me wonder what would’ve happened if I hadn’t fought it off the first time.
Either way it’s nice to know I can tame demon-things, I guess. haha.
“They call me the demon whisperer…”
October 10th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
After reading more about shamans though, I’m not really sure if I have any sort of desire to be one, regardless. It seems way too “dark,” even for me.
October 10th, 2005 at 11:03 pm
i dunno about life threatening but they will make your life miserbale and drag you to the edge of ruin until you figure it out
they do have an agenda too - pick people who are well suited to do their work
its not always fun work. they dont pick people to make them happy but to get things done
October 11th, 2005 at 2:27 am
I was reading ‘Dreams, Prophecies, and Mysteries” by Credo Mutwa.
He claimed that when he was young he had a sickness for months that he would have died from had he not become a shaman. Same as your article stated. Very odd, I was just reading that not a week back.
October 11th, 2005 at 7:54 am
“The shaman is primarily an ecstatic technician, a master of the art of inducing trance states and deriving usable information about the way the world works from them. Ecstasy, in its purest expressions, creates a harmonic resonance cascade that can become the laser-like coherence of enlightenment.”
this is a quote from vincent bridges in a book called “the ufo enigma, spirits of the dead, phantom airships and flying disks”.
for me that sums it up.
vincent talks elsewhere about john dee the 17th century astrologer who was given a crystal egg by a being of light who knocked on his drawing room window. he was a shaman who lived in a mansion and had his suits made for him. i guess it`s all a matter of perception.
October 11th, 2005 at 10:39 am
yeah, but that dude sure as hell believed in spirits!
October 11th, 2005 at 3:26 pm
i think that you would have to after being given an egg by a spaceman hovering outside your library window.
October 11th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
Yeah, it seems like you’ve pretty much got no choice at that point…
October 11th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
the crystal egg that john dee proportedly recieved from the alien is still sitting on display in the british museum in london. i recieved a similar gift in what i percieve as a dream. it was a pattern or mandala that i knew to be important and as soon as the experience was completed i drew the pattern on a piece of paper. i have kept that paper for nearly 30 years.
October 11th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
Supposedly, aliens also gave John Lennon a metal egg, which Uri Geller allegedly owns today
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2004...12/john-lennons-alien-encounters.html
October 11th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
that description of the bright searchlights that lennon tells of reminds me of a light that hit me one morning in 1984. it was a beam the shot at me and paralysed me for a fair amount of time. the next thing i remember was waking up some time later no worse the wear for the experience. i didn`t see entities or recieve any insight or get an egg. i have hypnotised myself back into that memory to see what i could retrieve and came up similarly empty-handed.