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Some Saturday Santeria



I wanted to give a little heads up about a couple of pieces of writing I will be working on. This past Saturday, I knuckled down and went to a shell divination reading done by a Santero (priest of Santeria) in Baltimore. It was amazing, extremely accurate and precise and was just what I needed. I want to share the details of this experience, but want to spend some time crafting a more considered and finished piece than I usually post here on this blog. So that may take me a little while to work out all the kinks from. There are also some follow-up rituals that were prescribed that I want to make sure are wrapped up before I talk about any of it, as I don’t want to go around mucking up the work that was done on my behalf before the smoke has a chance to clear.

This first hand experience of a Yoruba religion has really driven home a lot of important things that I have been struggling to understand when it comes to religion and spirituality, and I expect that I will have a number of smaller supporting posts to that one which will explore various tangents and ideas and pieces that have fallen into place for me as a result of this.

I also just got an email from the owner of the Pathway to Happiness website, who read my piece on thought addiction. He claims that he can teach me to voluntarily stop thinking via a simple 5 to 20 minute phone call and has offered to teach me this technique for free. Should be pretty interesting. Let’s just hope that he’s not actually a CIA operative who is about to give me my hypnotic trigger and send me over the edge!

Hahah. Anyway, I have a few other ideas spinning around in regards to first-hand experiences that I’m going to undergo. I hope that it will be an exciting new phase in my writing and life. More soon!

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14 Reader Responses

  1. Tim Boucher Says:
    July 17th, 2006 at 5:25 pm

    I just thought of another good first-hand type project I might try and do. There is a big tattoo convention coming up next month in Seattle

    http://www.seattletattooconvention.com/

    I wonder if I can find tattoo artist(s) who do “magickal” tattooing. I saw this thing on the National Geographic channel recently about how Thai priests do magical tattoos which are supposed to protect the wearer from like bullets, knives, that sort of thing. Maybe I can find somebody who does that sort of thing and get one even. Who knows? I’ll think about this some more.

    I’ve also made the decision that I am going to try mushrooms over the course of the next couple weeks.

  2. prunes Says:
    July 17th, 2006 at 5:33 pm

    He claims that he can teach me to voluntarily stop thinking via a simple 5 to 20 minute phone call and has offered to teach me this technique for free.

    Who could pass that up?

    I’ve also made the decision that I am going to try mushrooms over the course of the next couple weeks.

    IIRC, you’ve tried salvia? What about acid? I would like to say something here, but will wait until after you have tried them.

  3. Gnomely Says:
    July 17th, 2006 at 5:36 pm

    Interesting study on psilocybin

    In 2006, a group of researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine led by Roland R Griffiths conducted an experiment assessing the degree of mystical experience and attitudinal effects of the psilocybin experience; this report was published in the journal Psychopharmacology. Thirty volunteers without prior experience with hallucinogens were given psilocybin and methylphenidate (Ritalin) in separate sessions, the methylphenidate sessions serving as a control and active placebo; the tests were double-blind, with neither the subject nor the administrator knowing which drug was being administered. The degree of mystical experience was measured using a questionnaire on mystical experience developed by Ralph W Hood; 61% of subjects reported a “complete mystical experience” after their psilocybin session, while only 13% reported such an outcome after their experience with methylphenidate. Two months after taking psilocybin, 79% of the participants reported moderately to greatly increased life satisfaction and sense of well-being. About 36% of participants also had a strong to extreme “experience of fear” or dysphoria (eg, a “bad trip”) at some point during the psilocybin session (which was not reported by any subject during the methylphenidate session), with about one-third of these (13% of the total) reporting that this dysphoria dominated the entire session. These negative effects were reported to be easily managed by the researchers and did not have a lasting negative effect on the subject’s sense of well-being.

    Mental and physical tolerance to psilocybin builds and dissipates quickly. Taking psilocybin more than three or four times in a week (especially two days in a row) can result in diminished effects. Tolerance dissipates after a few days, so frequent users often keep doses spaced five to seven days apart to avoid the effect

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin#Effects

  4. Gnomely Says:
    July 17th, 2006 at 5:42 pm

    well, it looks like I messed up the quote thingy ma-jig. I don’t want to get sued. No sir I do not.
    I did mushrooms once last year it was so much fun! I remember seeing the landscape from Alice in Wonderland and Tim Burton’s Halloween landscape screw each other like two dogs- and voila! they created an instant baby which looked like a dirty piece of toilet paper.

  5. Tim Boucher Says:
    July 17th, 2006 at 6:23 pm

    Gnome, I fixed your blockquotes

    IIRC, you’ve tried salvia? What about acid? I would like to say something here, but will wait until after you have tried them.

    Yeah, salvia I have tried. Not acide though. Please do share your comments cause its not going to ruin anything for me, dont worry.

  6. Fatima Says:
    July 17th, 2006 at 6:48 pm

    Isn’it good when you can get an on the spot, accurate reading, with none of the fluffiness that nowadays “readers” pass as skill…
    Good luck on that endeavour. Keep us posted!
    Just a note though: Santeria is NOT Yoruba, but cuban. Lukumi (the “real” name of that tradition) does derive from Yoruba traditions (It kind of branched out of Oyo, or so have I been told) but time and distance have taken their tolls as well as the need to adapt, survive and syncretise. Result is, the way things are done in Lukumi can be VERY different from the way thing are done in homeland.
    The afro-based tradition that stayed the closest to the ways of the yoruba is Candomble in Brasil.
    I am making this comment because there has been been a LOT of fighting over such issues, and the afro-derived religion field is full of such feuds, fights, and money sharks.

    F.

  7. maximon Says:
    July 17th, 2006 at 8:35 pm

    www.shroomery.org is an incredible resource, if you haven’t already been there.

  8. Rev max Says:
    July 18th, 2006 at 12:21 am

    Hoo boy! Field research!

  9. Ronin Says:
    July 18th, 2006 at 12:30 pm

    Hey Tim,

    Just remember Leary’s old dictum, “set and setting.” I know you’re not talking about acid, but Leary’s acid test has been dead on with almost every psychadelic experience I’ve ever had. Go into it with a relaxed, curious, “lets go for a little ride” mindset (set) and make sure you’re in a place that you feel completely comfortable and safe (setting) and you’ll have a great time.

    Be good,

    Ronin

  10. barbarahoney Says:
    July 18th, 2006 at 1:44 pm

    please,please,please……..DON’T call the character who offered to teach you to stop thinking………..it reminds me of something that happened to someone i knew,back in the early 70’s…..perhaps what protects us(tatoos or other) are the things that we BELEVE protect us…………. so,you want to party with a” fun guy”…………get them from someone you trust……..get the silly siben ones, and do a blessing on them before hand,asking for a good journey,and ask your spirit guides to protect you,and i found that the mushrooms don’t like it if you mix them with alchohol or ganja…………blessings…..bhc

  11. Eric Says:
    July 18th, 2006 at 4:47 pm

    My advice to you Tim: Have plenty of water with you and eat a Hershey’s chocolate bar in the afterglow.

  12. Rev Max Says:
    July 18th, 2006 at 6:58 pm

    really?

    I found that the extraterrestrial plant teachers like corona and a little loco weed just fine ;-)

    then again i don’t take mushrooms anymore - learned what i needed to and then stopped i suppose

    they aren’t for fun, even though they are fun

  13. Rev Max Says:
    July 18th, 2006 at 7:04 pm

    i’ll tell you what though, don’t mix mushrooms with speed unless you want to see yaldabaoth and his soul-sucking minions in all their gruesome glory (shudder)

  14. Jennifer Emick Says:
    July 19th, 2006 at 8:19 pm

    More advice: if you have any of those “high energy” types hanging about, get far away from them when you trip…and wear layers. ;-)



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