Shamanic Shifting, Dreaming, Drumming & Foolish Wondering: 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.