Study of Shamanism, 8th Conference

Contents

Article

PP.

Creation of Sacred Space : Lakota

67-77

Dreamtime and ... Collective Consciousness

104-12

Psychological Space and Psychological Time in Siberia

125-6

Practices of Contemporary Soviet Healers

136-46

Discussion on "Sacred Pilgrimage".

151-6

Shamanism and Weather Modification

163-70

Discussion on "Exploring the Visionary Experience".

196-9

Exploring the Insect/Human Bond

199-208

My Answer Is Balance

209-14

Explorations with a Shaman

239-48

Shamanic Soul-Flight in the Space Age

248-58

A Masked Trance-Dance

259-64

Catalyst for Transformation

264-8

Navaho Snake-Woman

268-71

Adventures in the Power-World

288-94

Discussion on "Good and Evil"

300-3

Exploring the Subtle Worlds with Dowsing

303-8

Seeing the Light-Lines

308-17

A Grid of Light

318-26

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pp. 67-77 William S. Lyon : "The Creation of Sacred Space : a Lakota Example".

pp. 70-1 the word /yuwipi/ & its caerimony; Algonkin antecedent

p. 70

"The term Yuwipi is ... (Powers 1975:144) ... "they roll it up," stemming from the Lakota word yuwi meaning the action of rolling up an object ... . The name of the ceremony stems from the fact that the shaman conducting the ceremony is wrapped up. At the beginning of the ceremony, the fingers of both hands of the shaman are tied together behind his back and then he is wrapped up in a blanket that is also wound and tied with rope or rawhide

p. 71

from head to foot. The shaman is then placed face down on a bed of sage. During the ceremony, the spirits untie the ropes and release him."

 

"Cooper made the following observation of a Gros Ventre "shaking tent" ceremony,

The performer was then bound with thongs. The four fingers ... of each hand were tied tightly together by interlacing them (somewhat after the technique of wrapped or twined basketry), the hands were tied behind the back, he was rolled in his blanket and tied around securely with thongs, with only his head protruding ... (1944:65)."

Powers 1975 = William K. Powers : Oglala Religion. Lincoln : U of NE Pr, 1975.

Cooper 1944 = John M. Cooper : "The Shaking Tent Rite among Plains and Forest Algonquians". PRIMITIVE MAN, 17:60-84.

p. 72 Yuwipi food

"After the Yuwipi ceremony, the participants all use to [customarily] share the in a small feat. ... It usually consists of, at least, a boiled ... dog meat (Ruby, 1955:48), ... and wojapi, a pudding made from fruit and ... corn starch."

Ruby 1955 = Robert H. Ruby : The Oglala Sioux. NY : Vantage Pr.

pp. 72-3 Yuwipi altar-flags; ties

p. 72

"Five chokeberry sticks ... are used for the altar flags."

"a string of 405 "tobacco ties." These are one-inch squares ... . ...

p. 73

Within each square, a pinch of tobacco is placed and a prayer is made. ... This string, also called canli wapahte (Powers, 1970:149), meaning "tobacco bundles," is used to demarcate the outer boundaries of the altar or sacred place of the ceremony. The number 405 is said to represent the number of spirit helpers the Yuwipi shaman can call upon for help."

pp. 73–5 sweat-lodge session

p. 73

"the participants also ritually prepared themselves ... by participating in an inipi or sweat-lodge ceremony, just prior to the beginning of the Yuwipi ceremony. According to Lakota tradition, men and women do not use the sweat lodge together. Therefore, there was first a woman’s [women’s] inipi followed a men’s inipi. ...

According to Kemnitzer (1976:267), the altar is called the ohocoka which means "in the center," ... to demarcate the sacred space for the ceremony. ... The Yuwipi altar was laid out on the floor in a square .., while the entry door into the ceremony was in the center of the south wall of the room. At each of the altar corners was placed a small flag, called waunyapi, meaning "offering" (Kemnitzer, 1970:70). ... Each flag ... was attached to the above-mentioned [on p. 72] chokeberry sticks by means of a string ... . ...

p. 74

The mound ... was then encircled with a string of 75 tobacco ties, all red. Finally, a drawing was made ... with the quill of the eagle feather. What picture is drawn ... will vary from shaman to shaman (Powers, 1975:148). ...

p. 75

Once all the participants were in the ceremonial room, the room was ritually sealed by locking the entry door and nailing a blanket over it. ... . ... blankets are also placed over the windows (Powers, 1982:53)".

Kemnitzer 1976 = Luis S. Kemnitzer : "Structure, Content, and Cultural Meaning of Yuwipi". AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, 3:1(Feb 1976):261-80.

Kemnitzer 1970 = Luis S. Kemnitzer : "The Cultural Provenance of Objects Used in Yuwipi". ETHOS, 35:40-75.

Powers 1982 = William K. Powers : Yuwipi. Lincoln : U of NE Pr.

pp. 75-7 praeternatural manifestations during sweat-lodge session

p. 75

[author’s personal experience :] "as is so often seen in Yuwipi ceremonies, tiny lights flashed about in the air. I remember having been warned once that I would get a good shock. like electricity, if I ever attempted to grab one of the sparks. ...

p. 76

I also heard two rattles, perhaps the ones that had been placed on the altar, flying throughout the room. Every now and then one of them would bang violently against the floor sending forth a large flash of light ... . A bit later I heard the flapping wings of a large bird pass by and felt a breeze on my face. Of course, throughout all of this there was an ongoing conversation between the spirits and the shaman. In this case, it was not only the shaman who was hearing the spirit talk, but several ... also heard what was being said. ...

Suddenly ... I felt the blanket in which he had been bound fly past me and land on the singer ... . Soon the shaman asked the patient ... to ... announce to the spirits why they had been called. ... When the doctoring was complete, the singers began to sing a series of special departing songs to send the spirits back where they had come from. ... Once they departed, ... I saw that the ... string of 405 tobacco ties had been rolled up into a single ball and was lying on the altar ... . ...

p. 77

Finally, the food already blessed by ... the ceremony, was dished up and handed out to each of the participants."

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pp. 104-12 Marcia S. Lauck : "Dreamtime and ... the Release of Transformative Energy into Collective Consciousness".

p. 109 tornado

"The singer of the Windway can call a tornado any time – he knows the language of the winds (Beck et al, 1977:27-28)."

"Dhyani Ywahoo, Cherokee lineage keeper, writes in her book ...

I have seen old men, old women create and stop tornadoes, make the ground shake ... (1987:128)."

Beck et al. 1977 = Peggy V. Beck; Anna Lee Walters; & Nia Francisco : The Sacred : Ways of Knowledge, Sources of Life. Tsaile (AZ) Community College Pr.

Ywahoo 1987 = Dhyani Ywahoo : Voices of Our Ancestors. Boston : Shambhala Publ.

p. 110 dreaming

"Dr. Evans-Wentz ... writes,

Knowledge is ..., the Mohave declare, ... to be acquired by each man according to his dreams. The direct basis of all religion – tradition, ritual song, and shamanistic power – is individual dreaming (1981:29)."

"Sir Laurence van der Post, a friend of Jung’s, ... writes in his book, ...

Everywhere at all times, in all cultures and races of which we have record when the greatest meaning, the highest value of life [which] humanity called their gods or God, needed renewal and increase through life on Earth, it began the process through a dream (1975:125)."

Evans-Wentz 1981 = W. Y. Evans-Wentz : Cuchama and Sacred Mountains. Athens (OH) : Swallow Pr.

van der Post 1975 = Laurence van der Post : A Mantis Carol. Covelo (CA) : Island Pr.

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pp. 125-6 Olga & Alexander Kharitidi : "Psychological Space and Psychological Time in Siberia". [Hakas {H^akass}]

p. 126 traveling along thread

She "managed to penetrate the looking glass ... the mirror. ... . [She] saw an indigo blue thread in space and was able to go along this thread, however, she ... started to suffocate".

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pp. 136-46 Larissa Vilenskaya : "Shamanic Elements in the Practices of Contemporary Soviet Healers".

p. 138 healer’s hand feeling vibration/tingling

[Kartwel] "When my hand is above the diseased point of the patient’s body, my fingers feel the resonance. ... On the local places where the disease is my hand stops. I feel some vibration in that place".

[Kartwel] "Having my hands along the patient’s body, I can tell from the sensations in my fingers where the problem is located. These include tingling".

(quoted in Steffy and Vilenskaya, 1984:32)

[Michael Harner] "With his eyes closed, he [the shaman] stretches out his free hand back and forth over the patient’s head and body, slowly discovering ... any special sensation of heat, energy, or vibration coming from any localized point in the patient’s body. By passing his hand a few inches above the body slowly back and forth, and experienced shaman gets a definite sensation in his hand when it is over the place where the intrusive power lies (1982:153-154)."

Steffy & Vilenskaya 1984 = Joan Steffy & Larissa Vilenskaya : "Some Comparisons of Psychic Healing in the USSR, Eastern and Western Europe, North America, China, and Brazil". PSI RESEARCH, 3:2 (June 1984):29-52.

Harner 1982 = Michael Harner : The Way of the Shaman. NY : Bantam.

pp. 142-3 healing with a visualized chalice

"Maria Mir (Joan Steffy Channon) and I compiled a book ..., The Golden Chalice (Mir and Vilenskaya, 1986).

Mir & Vilenskaya 1986 = Maria Mir & Larissa Vilenskaya (transl.) : The Golden Chalice : ... Writing by the ... Parapsychologist and Healer, Barbara Ivanova. San Francisco : H. S. Dakin.

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pp. 146-50 Stanley Krippner : "A Shango Priest in Trinidad".

p. 147 various depths of spirit-possession

"the practitioner can be in contact with a spiritual entity while talking to a third party.

On other occasions, the entity can take possession and one is aware of what is transpiring but acts and speaks as directed.

Finally, there are times of "full possession" when one is completely "out of oneself" and has no knowledge of what is taking place."

p. 149 exorcism

"The lower spirits need to be exorcised through herbal baths, oils, prayers, or rituals. ... the exorcised spirits are trapped in the empty herbal medicine or oil bottles".

p. 149 vocation to mediumhood

"Sometimes a client’s indisposition is seen as a "call" from spiritual entities for that person to enter religious training. If so, the client might be direct to become a ... medium and begin to incorporate spirits during banquets held to honor the ... entities."

pp. 149-50 obeah

p. 149

"The term "obeah man" is often used to refer to a healer or exorcist in

p. 150

Trinidad and Tobago. The word, meaning "magic" or "help," was brought to the Carbbean by the African slaves and ... is now used ... to refer to a person engaged in spiritual work". {This word is Akan.}

p. 150 there are 17 deities

"I observed seventeen banners flying in the breeze, each of them honoring a different orisha." {There are 17 major gods in the Ijo system.}

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pp. 151-6 Discussion on "Sacred Pilgrimage".

p. 152 [Russia] black/white clothing

"One medicine woman told ... to have two kinds of clothing,

one dark or black when you work with other people

and one white when you initiate the contact."

p. 154 words for ‘shaman’

"the word "shaman" is of Tungus origin,

in Malaysia a shaman is called bomoh,

in Thailand ma khi".

pp. 154-6 alternative healers in medical hospitals

pp. 154-5

"In a Soviet hospital, it is not unusual to find on the staff ... Chi Gong masters, acupuncturists and acupressurists."

p. 156

"We actually had a graduate student at Saybrook Institute who wrote a dissertation on a curandera working on the staff of a hospital. ... There are very few in the United States and ... many more in the Soviet Union."

 

"the university hospital in Palo Alto calls Antonio Costa y Silva, a Brazilian shaman who lives in Berkeley. He performs shamanic rituals inside the hospital."

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pp. 163-70 James A. Swan : "Shamanism and Weather Modification".

p. 164 Cheyenne rite halting a rainstorm

[performance at a Spirit of the Place Symposium :] "a northern Cheyenne spiritual leader ... was now tossing tobacco to the four directions. Five minutes later, ... string of at least two dozen turkey vultures came swooping by ... and then circled in a vortex over our heads. Almost immediately afterwards a flock of several hundred tiny, excited, golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets settled ... . As if on cue, at that moment, the clouds overhead began to thin and the rain stopped."

p. 170, n. 1 "Selected papers from the 1988 and 1989 Spirit of Place programs are published in Jim Swan, The Power of Place : Sacred Ground in Natural and Human Settings. Wheaton, IL : Quest Books, 1991."

pp. 167-70 various tribal rainfall-causing rites

p. 167

"Among the Shuswap, Thompson and Nootka tribes of the Pacific Northwest, twin children are believed to have special rain-making abilities. Such children are frequently called "grizzly bear children" and it is believed that they are under the protection of the grizzly bear spirit who acts as their ally in rain-making."

p. 168

[Transylvania] "You find the tallest Trees where you live and get to know them ... . ... Look at their tops, because that’s where their spirit lives. You tell them you need rain".

 

[Sioux] "Boyd (1974) Rolling Thunder found a large black beetle which he held in his hand ... to perform a ceremony which produced a rain shower out of the clear blue sky."

p. 169

[Hopi] "The snake ceremony, where men carry life {live} bull snakes and rattlesnakes, ... is to pray for rain. The Hopi village of Shungopavi {alternative spellings are "Shungapovi" and "Shungopovi" (TNA, pp. 237-8)} is the only village which continues to regularly conduct the snake dance ... (Johnson, 1991:22-27)"

p. 170

"it rains every Earth Day when special ceremonies are conducted in honor of the earth and nature."

Boyd 1974 = Doug Boyd : Rolling Thunder. NY : Delta.

TNA = Patricia Roberts Clark : Tribal Names of the Americas : spelling variants and alternative forms. McFarland & Co, 2009.

Johnson 1991 = Trebbe Johnson : "Caring for the Earth ... among Hopi Traditions". AMICUS J (winter 1991).

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pp. 196-9 Discussion of "Exploring the Visionary Experience".

p. 196 ask the spirits

"Important is that you ask the spirits first to find out whether what you[r] intent to do is appropriate. This has been my experience in terms of working with shamans from around the world. They ask first to see whether it is appropriate".

p. 196 wind inside closed building

"a spiritual teacher in Hawaii. ... I saw this man also create a wind in a building. Although all windows and doors were closed".

p. 197 desalination

"Durchbach Akuete, the African priest from Togo, has said, "if you know water spirits and know how to talk and work with them, you could take salt water and a whirlwind would form and what is left afterwards, you could drink.""

pp. 197-8 purple glow around healer while healing

p. 197

"watching Rolling Thunder do a healing ceremony, at one point, ... I clearly saw a purple glow around his head and the glow was very vivid to me. ... Later, ... people ...

p. 198

came up to me out of the crowd and said, "did you see the purple glow?""

p. 198 rainbow in cloudless sky

"the Karmapa, The Lion’s Roar, when his body was cremated, a rainbow appeared in the sky."

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pp. 199-208 Joanne E. Hobbes : "The Voice of the Infinite in the Small : Exploring the Insect/Human Bond".

pp. 199-200 Insect-deities in various mythologies

p.

tribe

deity

199

Bushman

"Mantis ... sat between the toes of the eland, directing the bushman".

200

Dakota

"Cricket knew where the buffalo roamed and revealed that knowledge in the horns of the abundant green and black crickets."

 

Lengua

"Beetle created and populated the universe".

 

Navaho

"Cornbeetle Girl gave the Navaho people their voices."

 

Sumatra

"Butterfly laid three eggs from which the first men were born."

p. 200 legendary dreams about divine Mosquitoes

"an Eskimo ... "Mosquito Dream," shows Mosquito imparting knowledge to a shaman-initiate by biting him on the neck, lower back, and back of the knee".

"And mosquitoes bit a Blackfoot warrior in a dream until ... he was given a song and instructions to form a Blackfoot Mosquito Society."

p. 201 authoress (J.E.H.)’s dreams about insects

"I dreamed that a beetle emerged from the center of my forehead. Then I squeezed that place and another beetle came out."

"I dreamed ... that ... a cicada ... carried a wedge of spice cake that it divided into small squares and it flew to each guest and gave them a square in a communion ritual."

p. 204 Fly-deity

"A Navaho mentor, Big Fly, ... counseled members of the tribe, landing on the ear of a person who needed instruction and whispering answers to questions or forecasting future events."

"The Philistine God Baalzebub, ... Lord of the Flies, was actually Conductor of Souls – a psychopomp".

p. 205 cockroaches

"Giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches ... die in a euphoric state that involves a gradual disengagement with the world. ... a deep bond developed between them

permitting a kind of telepathic communication.

{Cockroaches have effectually read my mind : once, when during the daytime I made a resolution not to kill them, them swarmed forth at that moment.}

One female cockroach ... When the time came for her to disengage from the world, she signaled ..., she was already on her back in a state of profound relaxation. ... She bid {bade} him goodbye in the silent language".

{Once, an insect (housefly) purpose lay on its back repeatedly for me : at interval it would flip over into flying through the air to my nose-tip. (This was after I witnessed often a fly landing on the nose-tip of an elderly woman who told of her having read personal fortunes from a deck of playing-cards.)}

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pp. 209-14 Jan O:gren : "My Answer Is Balance, What Was the Quaestion?".

p. 213 directional animals

direction

animal

west

Mouse

north

Bear

east

Buffalo

south

Coyote

above

Eagle

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pp. 239-48 Gini Graham Scott : "Explorations with a Shaman".

p. 244 apparitional experiences

"I saw myself entering the mirror and had the experience of soaring over Beverly Hills down to the sea and back. ...

Then he introduced me to his familiar, a small female energy. .... A few seconds later, she appeared where he had directed her to appear as a golden glowing spot or light surrounded by sparkles and flashes."

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pp. 248-58 Bruce Hawkins : "Shamanic Soul Flight in the Space Age".

p. 250 visionary experience by the author (B.H.) on "Bear Butte, northeast of the Black Hills"

"I am alone. ... First, I hear faint music ..., and then I see, really see, light and, within this light, electrifyingly, animal figures dancing ... . The music becomes drumming ..., and the dance accordingly intensifies. Hawks, snakes, elks and buffalo dance."

pp. 252-3 a dream by the author (B.H.)

p. 252

"The first painting shows the sun darkened by storm clouds. ...

The second painting ... . A dark purple earth and greyish sky ... .

p. 253

... a path to the sun. Indeed, this mazelike path is rooted to the earth and extends heavenward toward the sun. Th path is fraught with ... lightning, but it is there."

p. 254 vision-quaest by the author (B.H.) on Mt. Diablo nigh San Francisco

"I discern very fine, nearly invisible threads extending from the Four Directions inward to my abdomen. ... In the remote distance, the Spirit presences of the Four Directions dance toward me. They are awesomely head-dressed and energetically dancing ... . ...

A hawk soars overhead, directly above me .... . A silver thread of light bonds the hawk and my spirit body. The lifeline thread circles round and round ... . Yes! I am moving upward along the light thread.

I am flying, hawk soaring, and I see my dancing body below me. ... .

{If this be a true out-of-body experience, then the body below could be kept dancing simultaneously -- only by its being possessed (animated) by a deity.}

... dizziness, ... no body, ... whirlwind apprehensions. I yank back into the dancing body, suspended by the Great Threads of Being. Jolting feeling and I am here".

p. 257 Black Elk’s own caelestial journey

"I looked ahead ... and from the mountains flashed all colors upward to the heavens. Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. ...

Then, as I stood there, two men were coming from the east ... flying and between them rose the day-break star. They came and gave an herb to me ... . It was the day-break-star herb, the herb of understanding, and they told me to drop it on earth. I saw it falling far, and when it struck the earth it rooted and grew and flowered, four blossoms on one stem, a blue a white, a scarlet, and a yellow; and the rays of these streamed upward to the heavens to [the effect] that all creatures saw it and in no place was there darkness (Neihardt, 1988:35-36)."

Neihardt 1988 = John G. Neihardt : Black Elk Speaks. Lincoln : U of NE Pr.

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pp. 259-64 Felicitas D. Goodman : "A Masked Trance Dance".

pp. 261-2 Eskimo myth (reference :- Rasmussen 1988:29-37)

p. 261

"A Myth about the Eagle, Flying Swallows, and the dance of the Wolves at a Clay Embankment." "One day this young hunter met two strange fellows who wore fox caps. They appeared before him out of nowhere and told him, "... since we are not here out of our own free will, you have no choice but to follow us." They took the young man far inland, where he had never

p. 262

been before, and ... they started carrying him aloft ... and ... they no longer touched the earth with their feet. Suddenly he began hearing, as from a distance, a loud rhythmic knocking and his companions told him that it was the knocking of the Eagle Mother’s heart. ... It was the home of the parents of the eagle the young hunter had shot. ... Large swarms of swallows flew along the river. Suddenly they all slipped into the holes of the embankment and changed their shape. In a moment, they came out of the holes,

 

their heads having the shape of wolves. ... .

{cf. mythic winged wolves}

 

... he created a drum that would give the tone of the mighty heart of the Eagle Mother and, since he wanted to represent the swallows and wolves, he created an embankment out of boards, with holes in them. He decorated the dancers with feathers and slender, long, split tails. ... This he accomplished by hiding wolf masks behind the board wall which the dancers put on in a hurry after having entered as swallows.

Rasmussen 1988 = Knut Rasmussen (transl. Aenne Schmuecker) : Die Gabe des Adlers. Berlin : Clemens Zerling.

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pp. 264-8 Howard Teich : "Catalyst for Transformation".

pp. 267-8 Red Emmet Way of the Navaho

p. 267

"The first of the four underworlds is called the Red Ant".

"The Red Ant people ... sent a messenger to the gods to see the great Horn Toad who is the medicine healer and ask for a remedy to save their people. ... Big Fly who watched from a doorway ... whispered to the emissary, "Make a tobacco pouch ... . On one side, you must place the sun figure, and on the other side the moon. Then place this on ... his left little toe." The bag was quickly made and quietly slipped onto the god’s left little toe. ...

p. 268

And Horn Toad performed the ritual to restore life and harmony to the Red Ant Way people (Wyman, 1973:106-124)."

Wyman 1973 = Leland Wyman : The Red Antway of the Navaho. Santa Fe` : Museum of Navaho Ceremonial Art, NAVAHO RELIGION SERIES, vol. 5.

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pp. 268-71 Donald Sandner : "The Aeternal Serpent : Navaho Snake Woman".

pp. 268-71 Snake Way of the Navaho

p. 268

"The Navaho Snake Chant ... was once, it is said, performed in a secret ritual language which cannot be understood today. Part of this old Snake Way survives in the present Enemy Way Chant and other part in Beauty Way (hozoni) which was the female branch of the Snake Way Chant, the Chant of Earthly Beauty. ... The chant ... has a heroine, Glishpah, as its protagonist. ...

p. 269

The story begins with the long mythic journey of Bear Man and Snake Man all the way to the western ocean. As they traveled, they looked like two very old men. ... The two chiefs of the people were offering their beautiful daughters in marriage as prizes to those who could shoot the farthest.

 

But when the two tottering and rheumatic old men (Bear Man and Snake man) came to try their strength, everyone laughed and ridiculed them. However, amazingly, their arrows, seemingly without effort, sped so far into the distance, they could not be recovered.

{In the Odusseia, Odusseus likewise appeared to be too old to win the archery contest (with Penelope as prize), but won it (and her) nevertheless.}

 

The two old men won, but the chiefs were reluctant to give them the prize ... . Late that night, when the two maidens went to the stream to drink, they smelled the most beautiful tobacco aroma. ...

 

They were offered some tobacco and they became so entranced ... .

{Demeter’s daughter Kore was picking opium-poppies and so became entranced.}

 

... In the morning, the girls found ... A growling bear and a rattling snake held them captive. Their [the maidens’] kinsmen .. sentenced them [the maidens] to be whipped to death. So they decided to flee :

one went west and became Bear Woman and

the other fled east and became Snake Woman.

Glishpah, the Snake Woman, fled through terrible storms and lost all her clothes.

 

... the young man caught up with her and persuaded her to come with him to the land beneath the earth where his people lived. ...

{Haides caught up with Kore and abducted her with him to the land beneath the earth where his people lived.}

p. 270

Once, when she prepared a meal of beans and corn, ... the portions magically increased until the whole hogan was full. ...

{cf. Demeter as goddess of grain/corn}

 

The heroine also ventured out to the east, south and north, ... against instructions, and met with terrible misfortunes.

 

When she went east, she was rolled up in a ball of squash. She had to be cut loose by her hosts with flint knives.

{cf. the Yuwipi caerimony, where in performer is rolled up in blanket, and loosed thence by deities.}

 

When she went to the south, she met Toad Man who ... shot mudballs at her, laming her arms and legs. Since that time, Beauty Way has been used to treat swollen and painful joints. {arthritis}

 

When she finally ventured toward the north, ... She was utterly crushed by a heavy rock fall brought about by the rock wrens. All the powers of nature had to be called upon to reassemble her body and bring her back to life. ... Glishpah ... was now a goddess ... . Then she went back ... to impart her precious knowledge. On the way, she met her sister, Bear Woman, who was also returning. They ...

p. 271

taught the secrets of their healing ceremonies, Beauty Way and Mountain Top Way, to their younger brothers."

Donald F. Sandner : Navaho Symbols of Healing. NY : Harcourt Brace Jovanich, 1979.

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pp. 288-94 Shelley Thompson : "Adventures in the Power World".

pp. 291, 293 cases of hostile UFOs

p. 291

"she could perceive the beings looking down at her ..., and she ... could see them looking down at her "like a bug under a microscope." ...

The apparatus, as I saw it, looked like the barrel of a very large microscope. I could see the beings clustered around the top end."

p. 293

Aboard "a daytime plane ... Looking out of the window, he noticed a strange cigar-shaped object maneuvering in the air... . This went on for several minutes, and ... of the other passengers ..., everyone except himself was asleep. ...

We eluded it, but it was close. I do not doubt that if we had been tagged, we would have been in the same situation".

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pp. 300-3 Discussion on "Good and Evil".

p. 300 exorcisms in Brazil

"The espiritistas of Brazil treat all split personalities as ... possession cases. ... In South America, they feel that schizophrenia is definitely possession.

Epilepsy can also be treated with exorcism because it is the spirit guide who is trying to get in contact and is creating problem in the electrical system and influencing motor activity."

{An obstinate refusal on the part of the "patient" to co-operate reasonably well with the prospective spirit-guide is creating the epilepsy-problem.}

pp. 301-2 dangers in attempting to exorcise a qlippah (Qabbalistic hostile possessing-entity)

p. 301

A certain praeternatural "entity ... has a qabalistic name and ca be exorcised through the qabalistic system. ... . ... exorcism and possession of this particular type is contagious. What makes exorcism such a dangerous procedure is that the entity usually seeks to transit in a report condition. ... With one of these, ...

p. 302

it will give you [the attempting exorcist] the same problem and will ultimately kill you if you don’t get help. ... The entity will physically attack you, break open your aura. ...

When we do our exorcism, the person is in the other room. Also, we never do an exorcism without the consent, i.e., a request of that person."

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pp. 303-8 David Howie : "Exploring the Subtle Worlds with Dowsing".

pp. 304-8 rites & spirits in dowsing

p. 304

"The Dowser’s Quarterly ... comes out of Danville, Vermont, where the dowsers meet nationally once a year."

"You can go in and out of worlds. ... I practice Qi Gong ... . I am also a Feng Shui

p. 305

practitioner ... . ... I make sure that my guardian spirits are present. I do this every time before I begin a project. ... Every healing environment in which I do my Feng Shui and dowsing work has a buffer zone around it ... . The zone is protected through the support of a guardian spirit or an angelic spirit."

 

"when I went to Sedona, my work brought me into contact with many ancient spirits, earth spirits. The community of Sedona is a rather interesting one. Many people talk about the vortices of energy."

p. 306

"Last year, when I dowsed, there was an ancient spirit on this land. ...

p. 307

In this case, I discovered this ancient spirit who, for the last two hundred years, had no contact with white humans. ... This spirit is very old. We can’t know how old it is. It had contact with the white men of the Mission. ... The men of the Mission heard about these spirits through native curanderos ... . ...

The ancient spirit should be approached and the pledge to maintain the land as a sacred place ... should be honored. A promise has to be made to work with the deva on this property – the deva is the being with which one can communicate to make any changes on this property, i.e., any planting, any building ... . ...

p. 308

I obtained permission from the ancient spirit on this property before proceeding. After that, I had to consult with the deva, etc."

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pp. 308-17 Mark Levy : "Seeing the Light Lines".

pp. 308-9 shamanistic seeing

p. 308

[experiences of author (M.L.)] "when I started practicing shamanistic techniques, I took a journey into non-ordinary reality and found my shamanistic ... powers of seeing. ...

p. 309

At a later state in the process of seeing, objects began to dissolve before my eyes and merged with the overall pattern of energy lines that included those of myself. If something inside or outside my field of vision moved, the whole web of lines would jiggle. ... I had moved from an I-it relationship to a state of unity with the object and everything around me."

p. 309 Wic^ol peyote ritual

"About three hours after the ingestion of peyote, the participants in the ritual begin to see flashes of color which are followed by light lines and then animated geometric figures. The peyote ritual is usually accomplished with the eyes closed, in darkness or semi-darkness."

p. 310 Squid-goddess (quoted from Sutton 1988)

[isles off Arnhem Land] "the female Squid, who created all the families and places along the Wessell Islands chain ... is still present there in the form of a rock formation in the island of Djidinja, where the black mark of the Squid’s ink can be seen ... .The male Squid ... allocated the placed created by the female Squid to estates owner by different aboriginal clans ... . ... The bands of cross hatching ... on the Turtle’s carapace contain

the color sequence

These represent __, respectively."

black

night

red

sunset

yellow

sunrise

white

still water at midday

The Squid ... transformed itself into Turtle."

Sutton 1988 = Peter Sutton : Dreamings. NY George Braziller.

p. 311 Chinese divine lineations

"The flow of chi or vital energy along the meridian lines in the human body ... can be felt by the experienced healer. I have studied with Chinese masters of Tai chi who see these meridians as glowing light lines."

"Taoist shamans create talismans that are composed of interwoven curvilinear lines. ... these lines .. are the living embodiments of intangible spirits (see Lazlo, 1975:20-24)."

Lazlo 1975 = Legaza Lazlo : Tao Magic. London : Thames & Hudson.

pp. 315-6 metaphysics of Alex Grey (quoted from his book The Sacred Mirrors. Rochester (VT) : Inner Traditions, 1990)

p. 315

[visionary experience by Alex Grey & his wife Allyson, taking LSD] (1990:7) "Our shared consciousness, no longer identified with or limited by our physical bodies, was moving at tremendous speed through an inner universe of fantastic chains of imagery, infinitely multiplying in parallel mirrors. At a superorgasmic pitch of speed, and bliss, and we became individual fountains and drains of Light, interlocked with an infinite omnidirectional network of fountains and drains composed of and circulating a brilliant iridescent love energy. ... It seemed as if the "real" material world was an illusory veil, now withdrawn, and the energetic scaffolding of causation and creation, the Ultimate Reality, eternal and infinite, was laid bare before and through us."

p. 316

(1990:36) "the Universal Mind Lattice portrays an advanced level of spiritual reality that transcends the physical body and all material objects."

 

(1990:94-5) "During deep meditation, ... I envisioned Theologue, The Union of Human and Divine Consciousness Weaving the Fabric of Space and Time in Which the Self and Its Surroundings Are Embedded. ... A mystic fire engulfed me. Across the horizon all I could see were perspective lines going into deep space. I was seeing both the perceptual grid of my mind on which space and time are woven, and the universal mind which was both the source and the weaving loom."

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pp. 318-26 Paula Engelhorn & Lillian M. Rhinehart : "A Grid of Light".

pp. 320-1 structure of the Earth’s grid of luminosity

p. 320

"The Grid of Light is made up of two rainbow wheels surrounding the earth. ... The strongest points for each of these wheels are at the North and South poles. ... The North and South Pole sun wheels are compact, intense sources of energy. ...

p. 321

The equator is encircled by twelve large rainbow colored disks. These disks are large spotlights of color, protecting the equator, holding the center line of the earth in reds, greens, purples ... . These etheric colors, infused with light, repeat themselves while they encircle the world. ...

The longitudinal lines of the grid ... form another piece of the web or safety net which is the Grid of Light. ...

The latitudinal lines around the earth ... are jewels of intense rainbow light."

pp. 324-5 purpose & function of the grid of luminosity

p. 324

"In visions, the Grid is seen pulsating with life. The colored disks are translucent rainbow light, alive with sound and movement. The numinous disks pulse in and out like a heart beat, every disk, small and large, beating in unison. The sound of the Grid is a clear reverberation

p. 325

similar to the sound of Tibetan bells. ...

Threads of light are built between the earth wheels and the Grid of Light. These strong threads of golden light help reestablish stronger ties of communication between spirit and matter."

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE STUDY OF SHAMANISM held at San Rafael (CA) in 1991. Independent Scholars of Asia, 1991.