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Capitulum

Paginae

1

Superstition -- But Whose?

11 to 45

2

Work of the Devil

46-83

3

Heart of the Matter

84-110

4

Medicine Ways

111-45

5

Walking The Good Red Road

146-94

6

First Men on the Moon

195-233

7

Healing ... Medicines

234-81

8

Beyond Belief

282-337

9

Breaking the ... Barrier

338-69

[10]

Appendix

371-406

1

Superstition -- But Whose?

1.1

Bending the Rules of Science

pp. 11-18

1.2

Play Dice with Universe?

pp. 19-24

1.3

Parapsychology

pp. 25-6

1.4

Physics & Shamanism

pp. 26-35

1.5

Scientific Inquiry

pp. 35-9

1.6

Reality & the Observer-Effect

pp. 40-5

"John Mack ... publishing ... in 1999 ... Passport to the Cosmos : Human Encounters with Aliens ... had analyzed ... cases ... of alien encounters. He also interviewed [Amer]Indian shamans ... . In the end Mack concluded that an alien abduction experience was similar to those of shamans experiencing the spirit world. "Like shamans ... they are brought by the experiences into ... a world or worlds of nonhuman spirit beings ... .""

"The shaman ... is ... merely ... a conduit through which a spirit can act. ... In the regular trance the shaman speaks to his helping spirit, while in the full trance the shaman's spirit takes over the shaman's body and speaks in an altered voice through the mouth of the shaman. In the full trance the shaman does not remember what was said."

{In West-African-style spirit-possession, persons who are not consciousness while their body is possessed are regarded as inferior in attainment to a recognized authentic houngan : whereas, a genuine houngan will remain conscious while the deity is in possession (control of the movements etc.) of his body, and therefore will remembre whatever the deity performed (speech and/or actions) while occupying his body. This houngan's attainment is known as "grasping with the eyes" (because, just as during one's dreaming the movements of one's material eyen remain under one's conscious control, so likewise in the houngan's attainment [viz., the houngan's material eyen remain under the houngan's conscious control]). African attainments routinely quite generally far exceed and transcend anything any AmerIndian shaman can ever hope to accomplish.}

"when a spirit being comes into an Indian ceremony ... shamans in ceremony all hear the same thing from the same spirit. There are numerous reports confirming that shamans in ceremony all hear the same thing from the same spirit."

p. 37

"among the Fort Nelson Slave, a medicine man's power is known as inkonze, which ... translates as "will power.""

[quoted from Fletcher 1898, p. 579] "We trace the Omaha estimate of his own will power in the act called Wazhindhedhe (wazhin {waz^in}, directive energy; dhedhe {dede}, to send), in which, through the singing of certain songs {hymns}, strength could be sent to the absent ..., or thought and will be projected to help a friend ..., or even so as to influence the mind of a man {or of a woman} to affect its receptivity of the supernatural."

p. 38

"However, every spirit helper usually comes with a singular ability to exercise medicine power. ... Shamans ... feel ... for the possibility of a spirit helper to produce additional powers. However, there are limitations to medicine powers. One common limitation arises ... as ... healing ceremonies are usually limited to one patient at a time. For example, there are accounts of Indian shamans curing cases of smallpox, but these shamans were unable to save entire villages."

"shamans and their helping spirits are all-knowing, but not all-powerful. ...

For example, when listening to Indians pray for help during a ceremony, you most often will hear them asking for small favors, small wishes, such as help for a sick relative ... .

On the other hand, Westerners who come to these same ceremonies ... pray for ... unobtainable goals. From the American Indian's perspective, such prayers are wasted effort, if not a little foolish.

{The sort of divinity who can be communicated withal in an ordinary religious caerimony is authorized to extend (on any particular single occasion) assistance to only one other particular person, who must be personally acquainted with the person uttering the prayer.}

However, being humble, an Indian won't mention this fact." {This fact is well-recognized, however, by membres of various meditation-societies, expecially such as caerimonially pray (at appropriately-consecrated altars) to the various orders of mal>akiym (angeloi); for, each such order is well-known (in standard religous manuals traditionally maintained within such a society) to have strict limitations as to the scope of its authority within the oikonomy of divine governance.}

{To explain why grandiose ("unobtainable goals") schemes cannot be achieved through an ordinary religious caerimony would involve/entail explaining limitations of authority on the part of conventional divinities within the divine scheme of cosmic government; and this sort of limitation would not be expected by persons of European extraction, who typically vainly imagine that they have direct personal communication with a Supreme Being : not recognizing that an ordinary person's communication with the supernatural worlds cannot be on a level higher than one's own spirit-guide (or guardian-angel).}

"Layritz decided to test his class. He first showed them a film of Uri Geller['s] bending a fork. Then he let his students try it. ... 8% of them could perform the fork-bending feat. ... Consequently, believing that an event can take place appears to be integral to it[s] taking place." {\integral\ = "a necessary, but not sufficient, condition" : additionally, Geller's spirit-guide must have temporarily remained praesent (invisibly) in order to perform this praeternatural feat for them.}

{Uri Geller is able to achieve such an effect only through his silently praying to his spirit-guide divinity to perform it on his behalf. The exceptional students who through means of watching a cinematic film of this process were praesumably assisted by the same spirit-guide divinity when they likewise silently prayed to that divinity, and the divinity heard and approved their prayer. The students' mere "belief" in Uri Geller himself would not have been of adequate avail.}

2

Work of the Devil

2.1

The Coming of the Dust-Eyen

pp. 46-59

2.2

The Coming of Anthropologists

pp. 60-4

2.3

Hopi Account

pp. 64-73

2.4

Most Famous Indian Account

pp. 73-8

2.5

First Anthropologist to Break the Silence

pp. 78-83

p. 49

"Among American Indians medicine was also ... "holy," ... "sacred," "wonderful," "mysterious," etc. ...

p. 50

A "medicine power" is a magical ability, and a "medicine man" is a shaman ... ."

[quoted from Long 1948, p. 11] "The kahuna[-]s do use ... magic. They do heal. ... They do look into the future and change it for their clients."

[quoted from Long 1936, p. 59] "The kahuna[-]s use magic in their fire-walking ... . There is one set of natural laws for the physical {material} world and another for the other world. And ... : The laws of the other side are so much stronger that they can be used to neutralize and reverse the laws of the physical."

"the telling of his vision was a sacred undertaking, and upon completing his story ... he wanted to "pray to the six grandfathers that the tree of his vision would bloom at last.""

p. 75

[quoted from DeMallie 1984, p. 224] "we could see small horse tracks all over the tipi floor. The spirit horses had been dancing around the circle of the tipi."

p. 76

"I know from my own experience that spirit tracks are a common event in Lakota ceremonies. ... Then at one point during the ceremony (conducted in total darkness) everyone could hear a spirit running across the top of a ... tin foil. After the ceremony ..., we all saw a tiny set of human footprints embedded into the tin foil."

{"Return of gods after absence ... -- young god (Tlamatzincatl) arrives first, old gods (Huehueteotl, Yacateuctin) last -- gods' arrival manifested by the appearance at midnight of footprint(s) in maize flour in temple" (HMAI, vol. 6, Table 4).}

[quoted from Turner 2003, p. 150] "These [spirit {in religion of the Inupiat of Alaska}] manifestations constitute the deliberate visitation of discernable forms that have the conscious intent to communicate, to claim importance in our lives."

"the Zun[~]i believed in {and praesumably continue to believe in, and to practice} mental telepathy, as ... [Stevenson 1904, p. 52] "heart speaks to heart, and lips do not move." ...

There are a number of European anthropologists who believed in medicine powers a well. For example, in 1931 French anthropologist Caesar de Vesme published an extensive work on primitive supernatural abilities. ... He included many accounts of supernatural abilities among primitive people world[-]wide, including the North American Indians. ...

I have heard of mental telepathy among Lakota elders. ... Although not common, one does find accounts of shamans communicating through mental telepathy."

3

Heart of the Matter

3.1

Two Ways of Being Human

pp. 84-91

3.2

The Hidden Conflict

pp. 91-3

3.3

Getting Educated

pp. 94-8

3.4

Forked Tongues

pp. 98-103

3.5

Altered States of Consciousness

pp. 103-5

3.6

The Power of Breath

pp. 105-10

p. 85

"The acquisition of a medicine power normally comes with a series of songs as well as ceremony. These songs are a form of prayer designed to call spirits to the shaman. ...

p. 86

Frances Densmore concluded from her long study of American Indian music that the chief function of their songs was for [Hofmann 1968, pp. 80 & 108] "communication with the supernatural. ... Songs ... come from a supernatural source and their singing connected with the exercise of supernatural power.""

"the source of power songs comes primarily from vision quests or dreams. Songs are always there in spirit world, waiting to be given to the seeker. Furthermore, an interesting consistent characteristic of receiving a song is that

it is first heard faintly at a far away distance and gradually becomes louder and closer."

{The divine anthem's swelling in volume is indicative of the approach of its deity toward the enraptured mortal harkener.}

[quoted from Roberts 1936, p. 9] "the real value of the song lies ... in ... the imagery of its words, or their ... curative or magic potence.

Rhythm is more important than melody because songs are sung ... {religious} rituals and {sacred} dances, with the accompaniment of rattles, drums, or other percussion instruments." {This is likewise generally true of West African caerimonal music, and in the African diaspora to the Americas (Haiti, Brazil, etc.).}

{It would be on account of the rhythm of the praeternatural percussion-instruments, played in the divine worlds by divine musicians, being so very reminiscent of the beating of the heart of living creatures, that the figurative expression \"heart mode"\ (vide Index, pp. 531b-532a) is so frequently employed.}

"Peyote use originated in Mexico around 2000 years ago, but it was not until a little more than a century ago that it migrated northward into Texas and Oklahoma. From around 1890 to 1925 it's [sic] use spread among the Indians as far north as the Sioux and Chippewa and west to the Ute."

"Early on, Richard Bucke referred to it as "cosmic consciousness" in his 1901 book so entitled.

Evelyn Underhill called it "consciousness of the Absolute."

Subsequently, Aldous Huxley referred to it as the "perennial philosophy,"

R. D. Laing as "transcendental experiences,"

Raymond Prince as an experience of "mystical states,"

P. D. Ouspensky as experiencing "the miraculous," and

Abraham Maslow as "peak" or "religious-core experiences.""

p. 106

"Hopi ... Hikwsi, which means "Giver of Breath of Life." ... is ... who is constantly driving the breath ... . ... For example, among the Taskigi division of the Creek Nation ... was ... Hisa`kidamissi, which freely translates as "Master

{This is likewise the personally divine principle behind Taoist "Internal Alchemy". Some Taoist texts specify that the White Tigress goddess is cause of one's huffing (exhaling), whereas the Green Dragon ("Puff the Magic Dragon") god is cause of one's puffing (inhaling).}

p. 107

of Breath.""

"American Indian medicine people have the habit of being in the here and now, ... where one lives

[Martin 1999, p. 5] "instead of in the still point of time.""

{"When there is no more separation between 'this' and 'that,' it is called the still-point of the Tao. At the still point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.   ~ Chuang Tzu" ("RT--SP")}