Amazonian "shamanism": vegetalismo
Peru 2019 retreat notes
Preamble
These notes were written (on my smartphone) during a 3-month "phytotherapeutic" retreat in the Peruvian Amazon with the Shipibo people.
Initially intended for myself, the universal scope of the teachings I received, it seems to me, gradually led me to believe that they could touch the hearts and minds of inspired beings, or those also in search of inspiration (in-spirit-ation).
Could it be you?
Plant alchemy, an age-old practical wisdom, opens up the channel of reception through purification/purge of both body and mind.
If the encounter with spirits, especially dietary plants, is an obvious empirical fact in this device, these selected writings are expressly more the fruit exclusively of a dialogue with Soul or Great Spirit or sometimes just Consciousness, Common Sense or even a certain Folly, but I dare hope not with the ego. These spontaneous outpourings, unreflected reflections and unpremeditated meditations are of course also coloured by my personality and background.
To the trained eye, the transpiration of the non-dual tradition, notably Buddhist, in the text is obvious.
I have, however, created another folder explicitly entitled "meditation" for teachings that develop the theme more directly.
If I choose to immerse myself in certain traditions and sacrifice myself on the altar of the trials and tribulations of initiation, my Path means that I don't feel myself the guardian of any of them. I am at the service of the Universal, the Humanitarian, hence my search for a teaching that transcends any cultural connotation or particularism.
Beyond codes, let's hack emancipation programs that speak to as many people as possible!
Welcome to the exhilarating world of healing, let's cheer up!
Download these anti-viruses from the matrix, which may have seen us born, but won't see us die!
Neo! Emancipation hero
Nepalese "Shamanism" (Tamang)
It was a 7-day retreat with Nepalese shamans (tamang), including 2 of my "gurus", bringing to a close 9 months of daily learning. During this week, we hardly slept as the night was entirely dedicated to practice (prayer, dance, chanting, etc.) and during the day, villagers came for blessings and divinations. It was at this point that I began to understand what "seeing" meant after 2 years in Nepal.
Exhaustion no longer allowed rational-linear thinking to operate (fracture of the ego), but thanks to the ritual framework, the "sacred set & setting", flashes of spiritual understanding/integration ("systemic brain-right fulgurances") could naturally occur.
These traditions still seem to provide access to the "roots of Heaven and Earth". The Big Bang is actualized by the trance itself, as Creation is an ongoing process. Unlike religion, if the ritual is quite strict and protocolized, what is experienced is quite open, if not totally so, and allows, depending on the "merits" of the practitioner, the unexpected to occur...
To be read only after viewing the short film! :
What do you see in the last image of the film on the altar? Most people will spontaneously see, among other things, a skull on the plate behind the candle. But this is pure illusion! (In fact, it's just a small clay pot with oil and an extinguished wick!) What's interesting is that this illusion is not an illusion for traditional practitioners! In fact, my shaman teacher used to explain that these manifestations were "normal" because we were practicing in a place where corpses were burned. Indeed, the spirits of the dead tend to want to test the fearlessness of practitioners (especially apprentices). But fortunately we were well prepared and protected, according to my teacher!
Constructive comments are welcome for this video material ...
Psycho-shamanism
Mistiaen, V. (2017). Exploratory study about the use of shamanism in clinical psychology. Five cases of European psychologists gone to encounter an alternative practice. Dissertation (cover and abstract), Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
"Interview with a psychologist with shamanic influences", filmed interview with Mansour, R. (2022)