Infinite Possibility: Frameworks for Understanding Extraordinary Human Experience

© 2008 Audrey A. Irvine. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 6/23/2008

ISBN: 978-1-4343-1810-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-7726-8 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Infinite Possibility

Frameworks for Understanding Extraordinary Human Ability

By Audrey Irvine Ph.D.

Original Illustrations by A. Elizabeth Irvine

To my loving family for believing in me

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Infinite Possibility could not be completed without the help and support of Rabbi Barry Albin, Simona Aronow, Hun Lye, Maggie McIlvaine, and David Stang who read chapters and gave sage advice on the various traditions. Jack Davidson, my wonderful husband, provided computer and editing support. Each has my heartfelt thanks.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2

SHAMANISM

CHAPTER 3

JUDAISM

CHAPTER 4

CHRISTIANITY

CHAPTER 5

ISLAM

CHAPTER 6

HINDUISM

CHAPTER 7

BUDDHISM

CHAPTER 8

TAOISM

CHAPTER 9

THE WAY OF SCIENCE

CHAPTER 10

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX

GLOSSARY

CITATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PREFACE

This book was inspired by the meetings of a group of scholars and mystics celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience. William James was a renaissance man of the late 19th and early twentieth centuries. A physician and scholar, he wrote and lectured widely on a number of subjects including physiology, psychology and philosophy. The Varieties of Religious Experience resulted from a popular series of lectures that James gave in Great Britain. Over the course of these lectures, James plumbed the essence of spiritual experience, especially as concerned the nature of mysticism, saintliness, and the reality of the unseen. His contributions to the understanding of spirituality are still studied today and their importance is reflected in the fact that the Varieties has been in continuous publication since 1902.

James’ career spanned a time of spiritual experimentation both in Europe and the U.S. People were examining Theosophy and what James referred to as the ‘mind cures’ including Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Scientist movement and the Eastern philosophies of Buddhism and Hinduism. Amidst this smorgasbord of ideas arose some confusion about the nature of spiritual experience. James entered this discussion a Pragmatist, judging the value of all things on the results they produced for the individual. This belief led him to eschew dogmatic religion, seeking instead the kernel of valid spirituality in personal experience. For James, it would be the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitude that would be the authentic basis of spiritual experience.

Our group followed James’ example, examining the extraordinary experiences of the individual from a pragmatic viewpoint. A wide range of people were invited to speak, including healers, mystics, intuitives, artists, musicians and others who had had experiences that took them beyond the confines of our consensual reality. Each of the speakers was encouraged to share the deep phenomenology or felt experience of their life.

One thing immediately caught my attention. Over and over our speakers spoke of their struggles to understand these experiences. In many cases, their experiences had begun at a very young age at a time when it can seem perfectly natural to see fairies, angels or lights around objects. The adults in their lives, however, were more skeptical, even fearful and denigrating of these experiences. This caused a tension between the inner experience of the child and the outer adult perspective. Many questions arose for the child. Are my experiences real or fantasy? Are they good or evil? Who am I that I am having these experiences when no one else seems to?

It struck me that the answers to these questions vary by our particular worldview. In the West, several streams of thought converge, the dominant of which is scientific materialism. This worldview explains all objective and subjective experience in terms of the physical world, but because extraordinary experience cannot be explained by its current theories (e.g., Newtonian physics) nor studied easily using scientific research methods, it has been viewed with extreme skepticism. This has led to a pervasive prejudice against the study of extraordinary ability in academic circles.

Other streams of thought derive from our Judeo-Christian heritage which has produced a tapestry of belief interwoven with the lives of Christian saints, Jewish magicians, and Sufi masters. These traditions have mixed a deep love and devotion to God with intense fear and systematic suppression of extraordinary ability. These contradictory strands have left us with considerable confusion and little coherent direction. Should exceptional experiences be encouraged, ignored or suppressed? What do extraordinary abilities imply about the structure of our universe and the nature of human consciousness?

With these questions as a beginning, I set out to dig more deeply into the impact of worldview on extraordinary ability. The result, presented here, is an overview of extraordinary ability and the worldviews within which they are embedded. Especially exciting has been the opportunity to compare traditions looking for common ground and shared ability.

It was difficult to condense entire traditions to a few paragraphs. With the space limitation in mind, I ask the reader to open him or herself to these time-honored traditions whose pursuit of the Holy is deeper than can be truly reflected in these pages. Each of these traditions offers a unique way of understanding the world and extraordinary experience. Each tradition is devout in its beliefs and we will try to honor them within the space available.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Encounters with the unknown fascinate us: prophetic dreams, miraculous healing, near death experiences, telepathy, or clairvoyance. And yet, we know very little about these abilities. Who has them? Under what conditions do they emerge? Traditionally, such events are thought to be the providence of special individuals such as the saint, mystic, or shaman. These individuals have exceptional access to the miraculous because of their special relationship to God/Spirit. Others have believed that the extraordinary is evoked through mysterious words or rituals acquired after dedication to the study of arcane bodies of knowledge. Western researchers, on the other hand, tell us that extraordinary experiences can happen spontaneously to any of us without special rituals or spiritual achievement. Clearly, something interesting is going on.

The knowledge we do have about extraordinary ability tends to be narrowly focused within specific traditions. The parapsychologists have approached extraordinary ability through the lense of the scientific method with interesting results as we will see. Anthropologists have studied extraordinary ability within specific cultures: Religious scholars focus on their tradition of interest. While this has been essential work, almost nothing has been done comparing traditions, and yet, this can answer many questions. Are there common abilities found in every culture or do they vary from culture to culture? Are similar methods used to evoke extraordinary ability and what can we learn about the states of consciousness from which they emerge?

One thing we know for sure is that every culture has its stories of extraordinary ability whether healing, journeys out-of-body, prescient vision, or telepathic communication. It’s hard to know exactly what percentage of the population has extraordinary occurrences since such abilities are discredited and suppressed in the West. The result is a large number of people who have had out-of-the-ordinary experiences that they keep to themselves. Estimates of the number of people having extraordinary experiences, of one type or another, range from 50 to 90 percent.²,³ Instead of extraordinary ability being limited to an exceptional few, it seems to be widely distributed across the population. And the more accepting the culture, the more likely people are to experience extraordinary events and report them.

Extraordinary experiences occur across the life span but often begin in childhood. These experiences seem to begin around 2 or 3 years of age, with another flurry of psychic activity around puberty.⁴ The types of childhood experiences vary widely. Some children report seeing lights around people or objects. My uncle, for example, entertained himself in church on Sundays as a child, watching the lights around his fellow parishioners’ heads. This ability was passed on to his daughter who also sees auras.

Some children say they sense what other people are thinking or feeling. Others see fairies, ghosts, or angels.⁵ Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, saw a ghost in his home at the age of 7 or 8.⁶ Others remember the future, seeing future events unfold either while awake or dreaming. Out-of-body experiences are more common than one might believe. One intuitive learned to journey out-of-body as a child and, later, taught her sisters the technique. Another reported having out-of-body experiences from infancy, seeing herself curled up in her mother’s lap from across the room.⁷

Some young children remember past lives, in some cases with incredible detail. This occurs most frequently in cultures that accept the possibility of reincarnation. Physician, Ian Stevenson spent forty years researching cases of children remembering past lifes. He was able to verify many of the details reported by returning to the location identified by the children. These children were able to remember their previous name, where they lived, whom they had married, details of their previous family, aspects of the home they had lived in and how they died. In some cases the children actually spoke words or phrases from their previous dialect.

I had an unsettling experience with this in my own family. One afternoon, as the children were playing in the family room, my two and a half year old daughter crawled into my lap clearly upset. Mommy, Mommy, the men coming! The men coming! We running! As she became more engrossed in this story, she got a far away look. She was no longer here in my arms but living somewhere else. I was confused and stunned. She had never been exposed to anything remotely like this. Mommy, Mommy! Where is my Mommy! I can’t find my Mommy! My exclamations that I was right here were useless. I wasn’t the right Mommy. I felt grieved and helpless. She was terrified. I running. I hiding. It so cold. Where is Mommy? Over the next few days she returned to this episode spontaneously, each time becoming inwardly focused and clearly distraught. I finally set down with her and we drew a picture. She showed me where her house was and where she ran with her mother when the men invaded. Somewhere along the way, her mother had fallen. My daughter ran to hide at a nearby lake and possibly drown there. After our reenactment, my daughter calmed, never experiencing the event again.

As with most things, parental responses vary. At the worst, parents are afraid of these experiences, fearing them as signs of evil. Well-educated households may be disbelieving and embarrassed by this fantasy play⁸ Children may even be accused of lying or being crazy. Responses can range from nonverbal disapproval to ridicule and shaming. In the north Texas town I grew up in, stories were often told of children being spanked for claiming to have extraordinary experiences. These experiences were thought to be a product of the devil.

A good example of such reactions occurred in the life of Eileen Garrett, a British medium who lived in the early 1900s.⁹ From an early age, Eileen withdrew from the cold unloving presence of her aunt, with whom she lived, into the mystical world of nature. She saw luminous lights around objects, sensed the life in the flowers and trees, and felt their response to the rain. Eileen was accompanied through her days by The Children, her imaginary friends. One evening, as she sat on her porch, Eileen saw her favorite aunt coming down the road toward her carrying a baby. The aunt looked tired and ill and told Eileen, I am going away now and must take the baby with me. Eileen ran to the adults, to tell them of their visitor but no sign of her aunt could be found. Eileen was punished for making up cruel lies. The next day word came that her aunt had died in childbirth along with the baby. Her family found Eileen’s fantasies disturbing and the child too imaginative and unruly. She was sternly warned never to speak of things she saw.¹⁰

Even when disapproval isn’t overt, children may sense that these experiences are out of the ordinary and not readily accepted. This is often the case both within the larger community of school and friends as well as the home.

Occasionally, a child receives support from a family who has a history of psychic experiences and a vocabulary for discussing them. Belleruth Navastek interviewed Reverend Gregory Kehn of Girad, Ohio, who was a fourth-generation psychic.¹¹ His family recognized his abilities and welcomed him as a continuation of a family tradition coming from his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. At the age of nine, he was mentored by Dana Bailey, another psychic in his community. This experience allowed Reverend Kehn to develop his ability and become a respected psychic in his community.

But, not everyone is so fortunate. When intuitives talk about their early experiences, they often report having felt alone and isolated in trying to understand what is happening to them. It is real or an illusion? What does it mean? Am I crazy?

In my own family, precognitive (i.e., seeing the future) dreaming occurs routinely and is sometimes alarming when the children first experience it. For us, it’s important to normalize this experience, helping the children to accept it as a gift that is passed down through our family. Children are told You aren’t crazy. This is normal for us.

The ambivalence our culture holds toward extraordinary ability makes it difficult to come to terms with these experiences. This should not have to be the case. Extraordinary experience has been a part of human life since the earliest times and has been harnessed for the betterment of human communities in many traditions, as we will see.

Defining Terms

There is a wide range of terms used to describe extraordinary experience. These include mystical experience (William James), altered states of consciousness (Charles Tart), anomalous experiences (Etzel Cardena), extraordinary experiences (Daniel Helminiak), metanormal experiences (Michael Murphy), transpersonal experience (Stanislov Grof, Ken Wilber), exceptional human experiences (Rhea White) and paranormal or psi experiences (ElizabethTarg, Joseph Rhine, Dean Radin).

Each of these terms has its own definition that differs slightly from the others. Taken together, they cover experiences from small eruptions of the paranormal to mystical Unity with God and from experiences devoid of overt spiritual meaning (e.g., out-of-body expenses, or telepathy) to those that are profoundly spiritual. Some experiences do not require anything of us and others are life-changing at the deepest levels.

Paranormal or psi experiences are the most common. They are the garden-variety extraordinary ability. Suddenly, you know what someone is going to say. You dream of something that later happens. Machines never seem to work around you or maybe you have a special knack with machines that no one else seems to have. These kinds of phenomena do not demand much of us. They can be annoying or pleasant, even miraculous. Their frequency of occurrence varies widely, happening often or rarely depending on the person. Many intuitives think of extraordinary ability as talents that everyone has to some degree, like the ability to play music.¹² These talents can be ignored or cultivated, depending on your own preference.

On the other end of the spectrum are the mystical or transpersonal experiences.¹³ These take us beyond our ego-bound sense of ourselves. William James characterized them as ineffable (unable to be described in words), noetic (a state of deep of authoritative knowledge or insight unknown to discursive intellect), transient (a tendency to fade leaving only an imperfect memory), and passive (being unable to control the situation, characterized by feeling as if in the grasp of a larger power).¹⁴, ¹⁵ The boundaries between us and the world loosen and, in the profoundest of experiences, we merge with All-That-Is. These states have been reported in all the great spiritual traditions and they are experiences of the most holy and sacred.

Mystical experiences can be profoundly life-altering, changing our understanding of the Universe and our role in it. Both Evelyn Underhill and William James believed that changes are made upon the soul during these experiences. These so-called fruits of the spirit are felt by some to be defining characteristics of mystical experience.¹⁶ But, there are also profound openings that do not lead to change. The heavens close and we return to our daily lives in wonder. What did it mean?

Both paranormal and mystical experiences occur in realms beyond the five senses. Paranormal experience seems to reside close to physical life relaying information relevant to daily life, the body, and personality. The fact that animals show some of these abilities suggests that they may have evolved very early in the evolutionary time scale. Mystical states, on the other hand, involve information…that is connected with soul. They transcend mundane existence and are only available (as far as we know) to humans.¹⁷, ¹⁸ There is no clear line between the paranormal and the mystical. In fact, mystical experiences often contain various types of paranormal activity. Why this happens will be a question we pursue as we examine extraordinary abilities within the various spiritual traditions.

For our purposes, we will use extraordinary experience and extraordinary ability as global terms referring to all the experiences mentioned above. We will use the terms mystical, transpersonal, and spiritual to refer to experiences that pertain to transegoic experiences of spirit. Paranormal, psychic, or psi will be used for experiences that might occur within a mystical experiences but may not, in and of themselves, be considered spiritual in nature.

Altered States

We will be using the phrase altered state of consciousness from time to time. But what does this phrase mean? Altered in what way? In using this phrase, I mean that the individual enters a state of consciousness different from the one she normally uses during daily activity. Sleep is an altered state, so is day dreaming. A state of consciousness is inherently stable. For it to change, it must undergo a three stage process of destabilization, repatterning and restablization at the new level.¹⁹, ²⁰ States of consciousness destabilize under a variety of conditions. These may include physiological stress, rhythmic stimuli, sensory deprivation, or simply the intent to do so. When the destabilizing forces are sufficiently intense, the usual state of consciousness is disturbed and a transition begins.²¹, ²² This process can happen deliberately and slowly or it can be unconsciousness and fleeting as a daydream.

Steps to Creating an Altered State of Consciousness²⁰

The nature of the new state will depend on how consciousness is repatterned. Many variables can influence the patterning of the new state, including belief systems and the physical and emotional setting. The way in which consciousness is repatterned influences the type of state and the types of experiences evoked. If you are a Native American undertaking a vision quest, you are more likely to open to a vision of White Buffalo Calf Woman than the Virgin Mary, because of the symbolism inherent to your culture.

Every spiritual tradition has a technology, or method, for shifting consciousness. We will examine these technologies and see how the resulting states are repatterned to produce specific outcomes. The goal when using these techniques is usually spiritual in nature, but it can also be quite practical.

Worldviews

There are various factors that are likely to influence the expression of extraordinary ability. One of the most important is worldview. Worldviews consist of cognitive-perceptual frameworks that define the world around us. Vast amounts of stimuli bombard our senses minute to minute. Our worldviews guide us in making sense of what we perceive. They tell us what is important and what is real. In this sense, they act as a template laid over all the buzzing, howling stimuli of a much larger reality, restricting it in meaningful ways and making sense out of potential chaos. When physical survival was the rule of the day, knowing that a pattern of dots was a predator, and not just the waving grass, was crucial. Templates can be very practical.

Worldviews go beyond the strictly perceptual, however. As worldviews developed over the centuries, they began to tell us who we are, defining our roles and giving direction to life. They also told us about the nature of human consciousness. This is particularly evident in our creation stories, which explain how we emerged from the Absolute.

Many traditions have a hierarchical and multi-layered understanding of the unfoldment of Ultimate Consciousness (God) into creation. Mystics from these traditions suggest that the levels can be traveled in reverse by transforming consciousness, ultimately bringing self into Unity with the Divine. But, traditions vary widely in the recognition of such states. Some deny altogether the possibility of seeking higher states (i.e., higher states are either impossible or heretical); while others provide detailed maps to the states of consciousness leading the Unity.

As we go through this book, we will see how these varied worldviews influence the understanding of extraordinary ability. We will see this happen in several ways. At the most basic level, worldviews tell us whether extraordinary abilities are even real. Traditions, such as the Western Scientific tradition, do not recognize extraordinary ability as real and frequently go to great lengths to find alternative explanations when they occur. Other traditions accept extraordinary abilities, but view them in very different ways. Some believe them are evil. Others see them as a reflection of goodness unfolded at the highest spiritual levels (e.g., in the saint), and still others define them in neutral ways, approaching them as a tool that is only as good or bad as the use to which it is put.

Worldview also influences the development of techniques for shifting consciousness. If your worldview does not allow you to have a personal relationship with God, then you will not develop techniques that seek personal contact with the Divine. Consciousness will not shift and the chances of opening to extraordinary experience will decrease. Finally, worldview defines what you experience in these altered states. This has a lot to do with the symbols that are valued and the understanding of the world beyond our five senses.

None of this is meant to denigrate any particular tradition but to point out that every framework, every worldview, opens possibilities and closes off others. It is the nature of our reality and our minds. Without these templates we would all be like schizophrenics, overwhelmed with chaotic stimuli, unable to make sense of our world.

Worldviews and Self-Definition

As templates, worldviews also have a powerful influence on identity. Who am I that I am having this kind of experience? People with extraordinary abilities have been called many things: oracle, shaman, priest, siddha, lama, prophet, psychic, intuitive, saint, mystic, sheik, and witch. Some cultures identify those with extraordinary ability early in life and channel their abilities for the good of the community. These children are defined as gifts to the community. In other cultures, anyone reporting these experiences may be called demonic, insane or delusional. A modern example of this comes by way of the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), a personality inventory used in diagnosing a variety of mental illnesses. This survey contains items asking if you ever hear voices. Intuitives chuckle at this. Of course they hear voices. Many meet frequently with the disembodied beings behind these voices who they intuit to be spiritual guides or highly evolved souls. But they would never answer yes to this question because they know that in our culture this is considered a sign of mental instability (and for some, I might add, it definitely is, but that is a different story).

Labels have a powerful effect on legitimacy in the eyes of others. Someone defined as crazy can be invalidated and ignored. Someone who is viewed as a servant of the devil can be killed. Another who is labeled a gifted seer or a healer is held in esteem and their input sought after.

In a circular way, worldviews reinforce themselves. A crazy person, after all behaves in crazy ways, seeing things that aren’t there and hearing voices. Their crazy behavior reaffirms for us that our worldview is correct. On the other hand, belief in extraordinary ability can have just as strong an effect as disbelief. While the latter worldview (disbelief) can overlook or suppress exceptional ability, the first (belief) can validate myth and superstition which is equally as misleading.

Universal vs. Unique Abilities

Universal abilities are common denominators in the world of extraordinary ability. These abilities should appear in every culture and are important because they give us some idea of the fundamental capacities of humanity. They are our shared heritage.

From the beginning, we might suspect that certain abilities will be universal. Telepathy, for example, is reported in every culture as are visions of disembodied beings (e.g., angels). How do we understand this? Does it reflect a shared potential or shared symbols emerging from a common reservoir in the unconsciousness? Perhaps it aided survival in the distant past and was, in this way, kept alive in the gene pool. On the other hand, common abilities may simply be easy to invoke and are, therefore, seen more frequently. By looking across the major traditions, we will be able to explore some of these questions.

While looking for universal abilities, we are likely to find abilities that are unique to specific cultures. Unique variation tells us about our potential for the extraordinary in the way Olympic runners tell us about potential for speed. It tells us what the best can achieve.

Unique abilities may also arise from unique beliefs that influence the form of the ability that emerges. Many of the Catholic Charisms, such as stigmata or the bleeding crown of thorns are unique to Catholicism. Transformation into an animal forms seems limited to the shamanic traditions. Taoist martial arts evidence exceptional strength, speed, agility as well as the use of qi energy to repel adversaries during combat. These culturally-specific abilities occur within specific belief systems, each of which has goals and practices that have meaning only within those contexts. Sources of variation may also be tied to differences in technologies applied in shifting consciousness, the imagery and symbolism used, the goals aspired to, as well as the specific needs of the people. We will look for sources of variation as we examine each tradition.

Overview

This book was undertaken with two purposes in mind. The first goal is to help individuals who have extraordinary experiences explore different frameworks for understanding their experience. They are neither alone nor crazy. Extraordinary ability has a very long history and has been applied to the benefit of the larger community since the dawn of humankind. Second, this book gives us, as readers and scholars, a unique opportunity to find out more about extraordinary ability, exploring the range, type, and settings of extraordinary abilities. We will explore eight different frameworks and in the process will:

•     Explore who has extraordinary ability.

•     Explore the historic applications of extraordinary ability.

•     Compare the types of extraordinary abilities that occur across cultures looking for commonalities, as well as unique cultural contributions.

•     Examine the relationship between extraordinary abilities and state of consciousness.

•     And finally, compare techniques used to deliberately shift consciousness and the conditions under which such transformations are most effective.

To explore these questions, we will consider seven of the major spiritual traditions, as well as the Western Scientific paradigm. Each chapter will begin with a discussion of the history and/or cosmology (i.e., their understanding of the universe and mankind’s place in it) of that particular tradition in order to provide the framework for understanding extraordinary ability within that culture.

This will be followed by an overview of the extraordinary abilities as manifested by specific mystics or adepts in that tradition. In the process of reviewing these traditions, I discovered that certain abilities reoccurred. These included extraordinary physical abilities, power over nature, manifestation, healing, bilocation, out-of-body travel, and paranormal phenomena (e.g. telepathy). Because these were so common, we will look at these categories across the traditions looking for similarities and unique variation.

Although extraordinary abilities can occur spontaneously, they are most often associated with certain spiritual practices. In the third section, these practices will be explored, looking for common strategies for altering consciousness and evoking extraordinary ability. At the conclusion of each chapter, the risks associated with the transformation of consciousness will also be discussed.

Our journey will begin with the Shamanic tradition which is the oldest of all spiritual traditions. This will be followed by the Western traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam whose common history give them many shared elements. The last group of spiritual traditions will be the Eastern traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism.

The final section of this book will examine the Western Scientific tradition. It will explore the scientific worldview and some of the research validating extraordinary experience. We will also explore several theoretical perspectives that might account for extraordinary ability. The Epilogue will touch base with many of the questions posed here, summarizing what we have learned about the nature of extraordinary abilities.

This book is not meant to be a How To manual. The overview of techniques given here is only a brief description and is not meant to be used as a basis of practice. The novice is advised to look elsewhere if he is interested in following the path of magician. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the serious physical symptoms that can be evoked, some of which can be incapacitating and/or life threatening.

All of the abilities described here are considered impossible within our current scientific paradigm. Skeptics will point to legend, myth, and bias of all sorts. This book will not join the philosophical tug o’ war regarding the existence or nonexistence of extraordinary abilities. Instead I am suggesting a ‘both and more’ perspective (i.e., both the skeptics and the ardent believers are right and wrong in differing ways and more is going on than we have yet to appreciate). It is indeed the case that many reports of extraordinary ability have been embellished to magnify the reputation of a beloved master or saint, to show superiority over other traditions, or to encourage conversion and faith. There are endless rational reasons to explain away extraordinary ability and many of them are true.²³ However, the repetition of these abilities across time and physical location and their association with certain specific techniques point to core experiences that cannot be denied. In addition, the lesser of these abilities have been well documented in scientific research spanning a century. With this in mind, I challenge the reader to retain their critical faculties while throwing wide the door to extraordinary abilities.

CHAPTER 2

SHAMANISM

In the world of the Shaman, extraordinary experience arises from the very fabric of being. Life, soul, and consciousness permeate every aspect of reality and spirits move freely between our world and the worlds beyond. The universe of the shaman is very different from reality we know through our senses, but, as we will see, it is access to this vastly larger reality that allows the shaman to function in extraordinary ways.

The Shaman is chiefly a healer for his community, but he may take on other roles and tasks depending on the culture and the needs of the people. These roles are grounded in the ability of the Shaman to use his mind to move between the physical world and alternative transpersonal realities. This other world is not experienced through the outer senses but through the inner eye and ear during states of consciousness referred to as the Shamanic State of Conscious ness (SSC).¹ Within this state, the Shaman is able to gather information that cannot be known in normal waking states.

The classic ability defining the Shaman is her ability to journey. This is done by detaching and then projecting the soul out of the body. Journeys can take the Shaman to places within our physical world or to other realms to seek the information she requires. By tradition, the Shaman is also endowed with other abilities including certain supernatural powers (i.e., extraordinary abilities). She is able to read and diagnose illness in people clairvoyantly, control the weather, see the future, levitate, and master the effects of heat and fire, to name but a few.

Shamanism is an ancient tradition that has been traced back tens of thousands of years. It is believed to have existed in most parts of the world at one time or another and can still be found in many parts of the world today.² Although its classic form is found in Siberia and central Asia, Shamen can be found on every continent.³

In the past, western explorers and researchers have tended to disregard Shamanism as archaic and superstitious form of spirituality. This perspective arose out of our own paternalistic approach to other cultures. As we have set aside our arrogance and been willing to approach aboriginal peoples on more equal terms, we have begun to appreciate the depth and power of the shaman and his world view. We have also been able to see with new eyes the extraordinary capacities of the shaman and the applications of these abilities on many fronts.

For a visiting westerner, the shaman may be difficult to recognize. Within his community, however, the shaman may be identified even from before birth. His birth may be foretold in his mother’s dreams or he may be born with certain defining characteristics that alert the community to his presence. As the shaman matures, he is identified by his power of healing, out of body travel, shape shifting and many other extraordinary abilities. For us to appreciate this power, we must understand his worldview and the characteristics of the mind/soul that allow the shaman to journey and perform the extraordinary.⁴

World View

It is the Shaman’s worldview that lays the foundation for the work she will do. The classic Shaman understands herself to be at the center of a three-tiered universe that is laid out around a central axis, or axis mundi.⁵ This axis reaches from the lower world, going through our earthly plane to the upper world. The central axis has been symbolized in various cultures as a world tree, a cosmic mountain, or world pillar. In each case, the axis is embedded in the underworld and reaches to the top of the heavens, symbolized by the North Star.⁶

The axis mundi connects the three worlds and provides our world with energies that nurture and sustain us. Through ecstatic trance the Shaman moves up and down this central axis, journeying at will to the many regions of the lower, middle, and upper worlds. In certain cultures, this journey of consciousness is played out through the symbolic climbing of a pole, ladder, or tree.⁷ Westerners have often written off these rituals as superstition, failing to see them as external enactments of a deep internal process.

Within the body, the axis mundi is represented by the spinal cord. The Shaman controls and trains the movement of energy/consciousness from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. This is most fully developed in the yogic traditions, which the renowned anthropologist, Mircea Eliade, reminds us, developed out of the Shamanic traditions of India.⁸ A very similar understanding of subtle energy has also arisen in the Americas. The Cherokee of North American have an ancient tradition of using visualization and chant to move subtle energies up the spinal cord to the top of the head.

The Shaman may be thought of as a specialist in the working of the soul and the geography of the inner worlds. She is able to see what others can only see in dreams or at the moment of death. The people of her community may believe in spirits and may see spirits, have a guardian animal or even be possessed by spirits, but only the Shaman has control over the spirits. Only she is able to command, commune at will, and intercede with them for the benefit of the tribe.⁹

During her journeys, the Shaman encounters spirits of many types. They may be evil or divine, souls of ancestor, the recently dead or souls of the living who have wandered away. Inhabitants of the spirit realms may appear as people, animals, birds, plants, rocks, or other entities such as wood, earth, or the hearth to name a few.¹⁰, ¹¹, ¹² Spirits play a fundamental role in the journeying process. Very early in her training, the Shaman allies herself with a spirit guardian. It may be any of the types of spirits mentioned above. The spirit guardian will defend the Shaman, doing battle with other spirits on the behalf of the Shaman. They travel with the Shaman to protect her, helping her find her way, even carrying her on their back to the sky.

Spirit guardians know the landscape of these worlds and act as guides and teachers. This is particularly important for the novice Shaman who hasn’t learned the dangers involved in ecstatic journeying. The Shaman may partake of the guardian’s knowledge and abilities by actually merging with the guardian. This is done voluntarily and is under the control of the Shaman and, as such, is not considered a possession.¹³

The Nature of Soul

The existence of soul is not a theory or belief but a living reality for the Shaman. The understanding of the nature of soul is fundamental to understanding health and disease and explains, for the Shaman, how extraordinary ability emerges. Anthropologist Holger Kalweit has found a set of shared beliefs about the nature of soul among the peoples of Oceania. Kalweit suggests that these beliefs are representative of those held by Shamen worldwide.¹⁴

According to these beliefs, all beings, including living and nonliving forms, possess a physical form, a soul body, and a spiritual essence (life force or subtle energy aspect). The human adds to these a psyche or rational mind. The soul is considered immortal and may be described as wind, vapor, breath, a shadow, an image, a mirror image in water, a reflection, a double, or an echo. The soul may be present throughout the body or only in parts such as the head, heart, or belly. It is the source of health, warmth, and strength. Causes of illness arise in this soul body, not within the physical body. Healing, therefore, concentrates less on the physical body and more on targeting irregularities within the soul body.¹⁵

Under certain conditions, the soul can leave the body. Any bodily orifices such as the mouth, anus, nose, ears, eyes, navel or the fontanel at the top of the head can be used as a passageway. The soul may leave the body on any of a number of occasions including: sleep and dreaming, in states of intense emotion such as shock, excitement, or fear, when unconsciousness, during battle, or during a physical stress such as the delivery of a child or an illness. Without the soul, the body is unconscious and appears dead. The body can continue to function, but only in a purely mechanical way. At death, the soul leaves the body permanently and is met by the spirits of his ancestors. When the soul has completely separated from the body, these ancestors accompany it to the Beyond. Defensive rituals are often performed for fear that the dead person’s soul will return as a ghost either to purposefully cause trouble or as a lost, wandering soul.

Because the soul is not bound to space or time, it receives information in an extrasensory or acausal manner. It can recognize objects over vast distances, journey quickly to remote places, and associate with mythical beings. The soul knows the thoughts and feelings of other people and is capable of taking on any shape (i.e., shape shifting). In some cultures, fights between enemies can be engaged on the soul level. Injuries from these encounters can only be healed by a shaman who has the ability to perceive and treat at this level. Soul has a substance which lingers after a person has left or died, adhering to everything with which the soul has had contact, including fingernails, hair, saliva, and excrement. This soul substance can be used for all sorts of diagnostic purposes, as well as, for negatively influencing a person.

Just as our physical body functions within the laws of physical reality, so the soul functions within the laws and conditions of the soul planes. The Shaman is a specialist in the functioning of the soul and has learned to alter consciousness in order to gain access to the realms beyond and to the nonmaterial cosmic reservoir of energy. She is able to work with her own soul (e.g., travel out-of-body, interact with spirit/souls) or that of others for a variety of purposes. Access to the soul body and the soul planes is not limited to Shamen, however. People of all cultures can acquire access if they learn to alter states of consciousness appropriately.¹⁶

One of the best examples of belief in the soul body and subtle energy forms can be found in the Hawaiian belief system. The Hawaiian Kahuna believes that humans are comprised of three souls: the Conscious mind, which is rational and self aware, the Subconscious, which is emotional and animal-like, and the Superconscious, a higher self which exists beyond time and space.

Superconscious (Aumakua)

Conscious (Uhane)

Subconscious (Unihipili)

Each of these souls has a subtle body form and a subtle energy life force that is associated with the soul. The Subconscious has the densest subtle body which is intertwined with the physical body, corresponding with it cell for cell. The subtle energy force of the Subconscious is the lowest and densest of the three and is associated with a certain type of subtle energy healing

It is through the subtle body of the Subconscious and its life force that most extraordinary abilities are thought to occur. It is the subtle body of the Subconscious that detaches during out-of-body travel. If the subtle aspect of the Subconscious is accompanied by that of the Conscious, the traveler will be fully aware of the journey. The Hawaiians, being very practical people, used this ability to assist on their oceanic journeys. It is said that in ancient times, the Kahuna, Hawaii Loa, used out-of-body travel to find their future home, the Hawaiian islands, and was able to direct the great canoes over the vastness of the ocean to find the islands.

Another example of the use of the subtle body occurs with telepathy. To read another person’s mind the subtle body of the Subconscious soul is projected as a finger or hand until it reaches the subtle body of another person. When the hand pierces the subtle body of another, the thoughts and feelings of that person can move along the thread of subtle body substance to be heard by the person initiating the connection.

The subtle body of the Conscious and its subtle energy are associated with conscious awareness and rational thought. Although the Subconscious can communicate with both the Conscious and the Superconscious, the Conscious can only communicate with the Subconscious. However, its higher subtle energy form allows it to direct the Subconscious, its subtle body and energy.

The Superconscious has the most subtle soul body and its subtle energy form is of the highest and most rarified type. Energy of the Superconscious can heal instantaneously and transform material objects. Because the Superconscious exists outside of time and space, it is able to see into the past, present, and future and knows the soul purpose of the individual. This detailed theory provides an understanding of many types of mental and physical illness and allows for the practical application of EAs in many forms.

The Call

Many westerners take weekend workshops to experience the Shamanic journey. For the true Shamen, the initiation process is lengthy and, at certain points, life threatening. The process is not undertaken lightly. Classically, shamanic initiation begins with a call to begin his career. This stage is followed by an initiation process during which the novice learns the SSC and gains control over the mind and physical body. Finally, the novice gains mastery of the journey process and undergoes the core experience of psychological death and resurrection.

The call to be a Shaman can be hereditary passed from father to son or grandmother to granddaughter. This call may also arise spontaneously. Whichever is the case, the career of Shaman is usually not a choice. If he does not follow the call, the consequences are severe leading to illness, seizures, and even death.¹⁷

The call to Shamanism is indicated through dreams, hallucinations, seizures, or other illnesses.¹⁸ In the West, many of these elements are considered evidence of mental illness. Eliade notes that, contrary to dysfunction, the Shaman is usually a study of physical and psychological health. He describes a Yukut Shaman, who, though an old man, outperformed the youngest by the heights of his leaps and the energy of his gestures. He became animated, bubbled over with intelligence, and vitality.¹⁹ In addition he displayed a variety of extraordinary abilities such as eating burning coals without harm. Shamen are sometimes wiley at times playing the trickster and fool. Some may point to this as evidence of instability; however, Shamen, at the same time, display great strength of character. This strength is cultivated in their training and the practice of their various roles, when they are required to display high levels of energy and self control.²⁰

Initiation

Once identified, the novice Shaman will not be considered a practicing Shaman until he has mastered the art of ecstatic trance (SSC) and received the teaching of the old master Shaman regarding rituals, herb lore, names and functions of the spirits, along with the mythology of the clan and a secret language.²¹, ²²

The novice’s first task is to acquire spirit vision - the ability to see spirits. Ascetic practices are undertaken to open the novice to the necessary states of consciousness. These may include fasting, sleep deprivation, or the taking of certain drugs, all of which weaken the boundaries between one reality and another. In the beginning, the novice may only glimpse a spirit but with time and continued practice he is able to stabilize and deepen this ability into a permanent visionary capacity.²³ This is the fundamental challenge of every mystic, as Huston Smith so beautifully notes – to turn flashes of illumination to abiding light.

Ascetic practices play important roles in strengthening and purifying the novice by forcing him to confront his limits, fears, and self-deceptions. They aid in clearing the mind and intensifying concentration while strengthening courage, will, and endurance. Developing these abilities give the Shaman power, power of body and spirit… Power to control one’s faculties and responses, power over temptation and obstacles, and power to serve and benefit others.²⁴

The mastery of journeying or soul flight is the essence of Shamanic power. In the early journeys, two critical events occur. One is the identification and alliance with a guardian spirit, mentioned above. This relationship ensures safe passage in the spiritual realms. Dangers exist for the Shaman as he journeys in this other world. Without guidance, the Shaman may become lost or even killed.

The second event is the ritual death and resurrection of the Shaman’s body. Through death, the Shaman can meet the souls of the dead (or spirits) and receive their teachings – for the dead know everything.²⁵ In order to have contact with the dead, one must be dead, so the Shaman gives up his life to enter the realm of spirits and bring back new knowledge for the well being of his community.

This process is intense and graphic involving the visionary death and dismemberment of the Shaman; Yakut shamen describe the process as follows:

The future Shaman dies and lies in the yurt for three days without eating or drinking…during which time he was cut to pieces…The candidate’s limbs are removed and disjointed with an iron hook; the bones are cleaned, the flesh scraped, the body fluids thrown away, and the eyes torn from their sockets. ²⁶

Dismemberment is followed by the distribution of the pieces to the evil spirits of disease and death. Descending into the deepest, darkest states and submitting to total violation and annihilation of his being, the shaman visits the disease and death he will later cure. From this experience, the Shaman is resurrected, given new flesh, new blood, and even new clothes, emerging whole and with the gift of healing.²⁷

The Shaman not only heals but is consulted in all things pertaining to the soul. He conducts the souls of the dead to the underworld. He is called on to foretell the future (especially with respect to hunting and weather) and to use his clairvoyant abilities to find lost animals, or recover lost objects. Shaman will reverse curses and seek out sorcerers who cast them, sometimes battling and killing them in their soul body, if necessary.

Extraordinary Abilities

All tribal traditions recount tales of the