Shamanic mission, continued: debunking continuously

English: Taken by Andrew Patton, July 2007. This picture is of a dust devil in Ramadi, Iraq. It has been slightly photo edited (brightness & contrast, and shadow & highlight parameters) in order better bring out the dust devil in the picture. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Beliefs can imprison when organized and alternative religions and spiritual circles lapse into cult-ishness, and imagination can free -- then run amok. Spiritual programs and practices can sweep clean a messed-up place gradually or instantly.

But, as Jesus cautioned (along with other ordinary or mythic spiritual teachers and shamans, in other words), freshly swept inner spaces often stand wide open, allowing trickier dust devils to blow in and take over.

Folks who sound bogged down by diverse exotic "alternative" notions -- or extreme new-age-if-i-cation or "goofy scary beliefs" (I haven't found the right words yet, and don't really expect to...) -- email or call requesting shamanic fixes more often than others inquire about finding shamanizing alternatives to conventional, organized religions. But I am usually guided by spirit to offer debunking -- of quasi-pseudoscience, almost-cults and even blatant spiritual abuse -- instead.

Debunk and journey anew.

Don't enshrine dust devils at home (the soul), for in universal life these tricky spirals are stirred up to activate wondering then dissipate harmlessly, not bedevil folks.   

Recently a church-circle member emailed me this article that (in my opinion) aptly and cannily describes, but -- way too sarcastically, almost hatefully -- overstates the goofiness trends I see contemporary shamanic ways veering into and marooning within, all too often. Anyone who can read this piece (not counting the comments) and laugh (and I recommend reading it and following the links to other sites as a reference) instead of (or at least before) taking offense or generating outrage might "grok" deeply my current bemused consternation as a shamanizer-debunker of much I once delighted and reveled in.   

Though I have often temporarily, purposefully embraced wild imagining and invited weird-weirder-weirdest tricksters in "for tea or coffee but NOT me" (beings, patterns, systems...more), then sent these troubled, troubling "troubadors" packing after a fun visit (with blessings for happier recycling in universal life as ongoing shamanic prayer-shifting), I have come to understand this entertaining, educational, experimental spiritual play isn't safe for all (or even for many).

Do so many really seek and/or aspire to become (or worse, fancy themselves already) real-deal spiritual authorities? Question and quest on, I suggest enthusiastically and hopefully.

IMHO: Shamans must do their bests to live immune to gurus and beliefs of all kinds, traditional to new-age to whatever-sort. And (mere) practitioners (like me) would do well to find effective inoculations, lest consultations lead self and others further astray.

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Spirit as matter

Everyday Journey Openings, Every Day (Photo credit: Shamanic Shift)

Diet affects dreaming and brain wiring determines individuality.

As a shamanizer I wonder over science research announcements, pondering the possibilities for stretching life's limitations. Though I comprehend reality as spirit, and play within invisible realms, for me there is NO noumenon -- nothing metaphysical -- around or about my matter and energy (including dark matter and dark energy) multi-everything universe.

I know NO supernatural beings -- to me that word is (and has been for years) null and void.

Shamanic-shifting, I relate to spirit as ordinary matter and energy first (everyday events and situations that "call" by drawing my attention), then in dreaming and imagining (involving molecular and elemental dances within and among brain cells and the whole body), then in pretending and acting-out on purpose visions of better and best in energy and materials through expressive and creative arts (ritual or impromptu shamanic performances), then through living beneficial new life changes from now on (involving diverse natural decisions and actions -- micro- to colossal, chaotic or orderly, subtle to obvious -- within and near me, then rippling and spiraling away, in all realms and directions, on all levels, from quantum to classical to cosmic).

For me, physical is first and last and between, containing all reality-shifting necessities.

Now scitech is showing, study by study, how eating, drinking and connecting in this world matter ultimately, moment by moment.

Yet, for better and worse, zero and nothing remain mysteriously powerful.

Other views...

• Shamans and Kushtakas
• The fairytale horrors of Soviet shamanism | Andrew Brown
• Shamanic practices=protection, personal responsibility and balance between self, community and environment
• Riffing on Kant and Schopenhauer

New Year calling: 'Don't believe -- be live, shift free!'

Pine Tree Pals (Photo credit: Shamanic Shift)

When I receive calls requesting shamanic shifting, first and last I do my best to transform limiting beliefs into better, funner life stories to sing and dance onward (but never to set in stone). Often I shamanize by dreaming, visioning and acting out a belief-free world and universe, simply because I've found this practice is the most effective way for me to activate and reactivate joy.

My views are foolish on purpose, even foolhardy I begin to fear, given the rising "haterade" levels I and others have noticed being sloshed and quaffed around the Net over cherished beliefs. But for me belief-debunking reduces deadly seriousness and restores healing fun, and hopefully, by waves of possibility branching out, eventually this practice cheers and frees others too.

I opine, based upon years of experiencing incremental to drastic improvements through day by day fun-restoring shifts: Alongside laughter, fun is a most powerful natural healing, re-creating force in this multiverse.

Also: While I practice adaptive shamanic innovations, I do my best to live what I term scientific optimism.

Spirituality and science share an evergreen companionship along my earth-adventuring path. Embracing the paradoxes I encounter under these non-identical twin trees opens my understanding deeper and deeper, leaving mystery sacred. I accept technologies emerging from scientific experimenting as a facet of this world's (and universe's) ever-evolving wild nature and accept human nature as a wilderness to adventure.  

But, I've witnessed over my years so far, how the results are unfortunate when humans seemingly compulsively mix-up inner spirituality and worldly religion (within established, organized formal institutions as well as in relatively recently instituted "alternative" movements and organizations). Many, if not all, of these confusing combinations prove deadly, I continue to note with dismay, becoming, all too often, (at worst and at best) traps that leave the best-intentioned folks unwittingly at the mercy of deluded authorities who order wars, instill pessimism and teach self-denigration.

As a tendency or habit, religious "un-questioning" promotes sickening seriousness and prevents reality-shifting shamanic asking and questing. In a series of shamanic acts this new year, I suggest being a heretic and choosing to ask any authority (or even to ask an uncomfortable status-quo situation you find yourself in, or ask any of the beings within those circumstances) "What's ailing here?" -- then dare to take up the calling to shamanic journey further for new answers, then quest farther and wider under the sun, moon, planets and elements in ordinary reality for new remedies!

I speculate: If spirituality is as essential to human nature as some scientists hint without knowing the complex details, the longstanding pitfall of submitting to deified authorities (visible and invisible) might be a root cause of peoples' apparent proneness to serious, self-limiting, unquestioning religious believing and acting. I see examples of spirituality lapsing into religion causing gushing losses of vital knowledge and healing power everyday. Perhaps these tendencies and susceptibilities were complexly genetically coded into humankind during ancient stages of prehistoric evolution when such behaviors could have helped increase chances of community survival, by adding checks and balances to our species' emerging intelligence, cunning and ruthlessness.

In this new age and new year, shamanic ways could drag us deeper into deadly dogmas that many many centuries ago began to decrease survival chances, but I dream and hope shamanic innovations will shift us free.

I suppose: If indeed we are living in an anthropocene geological epoch, this all the more means we can change ourselves and our world for the better on purpose.

How my, the circle's, shamanic calling has shifted

Answering several email inquiries this week, I wrote words similar to this public announcement:

As many, diverse spiritual and circumstantial changes happened during 2011-2012, my and Companions Circle's calling has shifted away from in-person or phone sessions and public events to behind-the scenes prayer-shamanizing, blogging and online consulting (via email and ad hoc connecting through web services with current members of a now widespread, little circle).

Nowadays we live community shamanism individually, at the edges of many ever-shifting worldly situations, connecting through cyber- and non-ordinary realities. We live shamanic performances informally, amid everyday scenarios. Nature (including human nature) and spirit teach as one and all, whenever and anywhere.

I am freelancing a living full-time (writing and odd-jobbing) while helping some elder relatives in their homes and traveling between. This earthy way is spiraling through interweaving ordinary, extraordinary and non-ordinary deciduous and evergreen life experiences. I find myself leaving and arriving anew, day by day -- (immeasurable) moment by moment, I mean, really.    

Oak vibrations amazing me anew

Where I'm visiting long-term for a while, between travels around Wisconsin, I find myself amid many oaks.

During childhood I discovered all kinds of oaks I met provoked watery-eyed sneezes during autumn. However, now I understand this reactive relationship has shifted mysteriously for the much, much better -- no hay fever symptoms irritated me all season.

For weeks the oaks along this street have been expressing soul-exciting synergies of greens and oranges -- contrasting wavelength mergings and emergings, stirring my self-questioning. What fun and innovation am I mixing up today within the branches of this universal tree?

Next, I blur my vision on purpose and imagine the darker russet leaves hanging onto taller oaks a few blocks away are spirit-crewed fleets of enchanted wooden sail-ships ganging up -- nearly ready for voyaging, just awaiting sudden favorable wind shifts, to soar and explore new or old, huge or tiny mysteries, dispersing anew on daring, singular, momentary death in life or life in death missions.