What Others Say
Ken Wilbur speaks in his book: The Marriage of Sense and Soul (1998) about the difficulties between science and spirituality. It was thought that due to the authority given to scientists in empirical science that their power dramatically affected how people perceived the spirit realm. Anything that was not proven was deemed irrational or non-existent, and that pretty much stands the same today.
If scientists state it’s real, we accept it. If they come back later and say it isn’t, we may tut and complain, but many of us will then change our view and accept it because they, the authoritative ones, the ones who know, said it was so. In regards to science, the spiritual experience is often devalued; paranormal experiences, miraculous cures, or any other abnormal phenomena is often considered hype, fraud or plain ignorance if it lacks quantitative data to prove its existence. As time has gone on, and with science gaining more and more popularity for people who were or are looking for the truth, much of the ancient spiritual knowledge of how to coexist with the spirit world has been lost or forgotten. As many cultures pass on their knowledge verbally, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hold onto important truths that were discovered thousands of years ago. As with all things, over the centuries verbal instruction starts to become disjointed or confused and often loses its power and intent. For some, what was in the past is no longer relevant for today; but we take that perspective at our own peril, for there are thousands of years’ worth of spiritual wisdom and knowledge that is still highly relevant for today and the future.
Shamanism has stood the test of time. It may look different on the outside when we look around the world, but the basic precepts, the basic values are the same. It has been and always will be a bridge between spirit and matter, a bridge between the spirit realm and the physical realm.
Martin Prechtel, a contemporary shaman, says in an interview with Derrick Jensen on Saving the Indigenous Soul: “For the majority of human history, shamans have simply been a part of ordinary life. They exist all over the world. It seems strange to Westerners now because they have systematically devalued the other world and no longer deal with it as part of their everyday lives.”
At this point we may want to consider what a shaman actually is, and although it may conjure up many ideas in today’s minds, this is what Martin Prechtel explains as a shaman, from the same source, Saving the Indigenous Soul:
“Shamans are sometimes considered healers or doctors, but really they are people who deal with the tears and holes we create in the net of life, the damage that we all cause in our search for survival. Shamans deal with the problems that arise when we forget the relationship that exists between us and the other world that feeds us, or when, for whatever reason, we don’t feed the other world in return.”
We need, as spiritual human beings, to remember:
It’s like my old teacher used to say (says Prechtel): “You sit singing on a little rock in the middle of a pond, and your song makes a ripple that goes out to the shores where the spirits live. When it hits the shore, it sends an echo back toward you. That echo is the spiritual nutrition. When you send out a gift, you send it out in all directions at once. And then it comes back to you from all directions.”
What we sow we reap, good or bad. Even the Bible tells us:
Cast your bread upon the waters for you will find it in many days. (Ecclesiastes 11:1).
We are The Quantum Warrior, The Master Architect of our life – Braveheart
