Harner suggests that this modern resurgence in shamanic practice is due to many becoming disenchanted with the past age of faith. Seeking to distance themselves from the earthly authority of the spirit world as exemplified through churches, this generation has yet to find an adequate substitute in any other religion. Because we’ve been raised in a culture of empiricism, valuing experimental results, when this same process is applied to the spiritual world we find the attraction to shamanism. As explained in the book, “Shamanism is a methodology not a religion.”

The past centuries of deterministic Newtonian viewpoints have ironically caused a resurgence in spiritual interests. Harner argues that advances in the medical field have spurred near-death experiences which provide a window into another reality. I would add that Albert Hoffman’s synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide in the late 1930s sparked an interest in other worlds, the notorious chemical had been used for thousands of years in visionary ceremonies of indigenous tribes (usually in the form of lysergic acid amine, present in morning glory seeds) but was re-introduced by science. Shamanic work is attractive to moderns because these practices can be carried out in spite of our busy lives. Additionally, shamanic work provides an ecological framework in the time of a renewed distress over our disconnection from nature, a shaman does not distinguish between the environment and family.

The most important aspects of this book are the discussions of cognicentrism, how the people most prejudiced against a concept of non-ordinary reality are those who have never experienced it, a point I can confirm with gusto. Distinguishing between the shamanic states of consciousness (SSC) and the ordinary states of consciousness (OSC) provides a framework that can allow even the most skeptical western minds to accept shamanism as a reality for many people, even if it doesn’t apply to his or her own experiences. Interpretations of ethnographic studies have been muddled because of misunderstanding these two states of experience. When a shaman speaks of talking with animals and healing ceremonies to retrieve souls, we know those things can’t happen in ordinary reality so we dismiss them immediately. But the developed indigenous mind has a built-in understanding of the difference between the two types of experience and needs no preface to extraordinary claims, something our society lacks and the key component that leads to cognicentrism. Native peoples are sharp and accomplished hunters who have tremendous knowledge of their local environments so they are far from being naive or stupid.

Harner defines a shaman as, “a man or woman who enters an altered state of consciousness at will to contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality in order to acquire knowledge, power and to help other persons” and the Way of The Shaman provides a solid introduction to the concepts and practices of a shaman that are nearly universal, taking special care to demonstrate how they can fit into the modern lifestyle. Harner’s approach to drumming induced trance states is particularly acceptable to the suburban white spiritual seeker, shying away from entheogenic substances. However, I could easily see how a practicing shaman would have problems with the methods or suggestions in this book. The specifics about what to expect in the lower world or other details could easily condition someone away from trusting direct experience. Additionally, the focus on healing shamanism is an appropriate topic but neglects to fully recognize the prevalence of shamanic wars which are outside of the noble savage archetype that Harner bolsters.

Yet despite these shortcomings, Harner’s approach to shamanic work is particularly resonant for the archetypes and minds of our modern society. I would suggest The Way of the Shaman as a guidebook to gain an initial understanding of other realities and as a spark to begin a few initial adventures into them through the drumming practices detailed within. After a read through this book I’m interested in exploring details behind Harner’s earlier work with the Jîvaro tribes.

Life in an indigenous society is painted as quite idyllic in The Way of the Shaman, for example the Macaebos drank guayasa instead of coffee all day. The tea creates a perception of euphoria and builds a happy community. Sounds like a great society. But I don’t think I can conclude anything about the noble savage as perception vs. reality and their shamanic practices until reading Eliade’s Shamanism.

After participating in a sweat lodge ceremony and receiving powerful visions, I’m completely sold on the idea that there is a non-ordinary reality. I’m just not entirely confident of the framework that Harner provides. I can understand why the Hopi consider that all life is one. The Hopi believe that all life, animals birds, insects, trees an plants appear only in masquerade during ordinary experience, that they surely have a human-like experience in another world. Perhaps this perception sounds a little too non-rational for most people but after a shamanic experience these truisms become more and more real. In a time where we face unprecedented shifts in our way of life, a new respect for our surroundings are far from an unwelcome suggestion.

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Post tags: personal development, practice, shamanism, spirituality

As a student of esoteric thought and spiritual development, I’m interested in the members of our species that have achieved a particular state of enlightened knowledge, a direct contact with wisdom. Many claim to have visitations from spiritual beings or to have received revelation through direct mystical experience. Yet, a true read of their work will reveal the presence of wisdom.

While Gary Lachman’s A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult tackles many of the important writers that have made these claims, it still falls a bit short of the book I wish it was. And my disappointments aside, this is still an amazing work. Divided into two halves, the first is a series of essays on the specific eras of western esoteric development and the key players that defined it, the second half containing excerpts from important writings by the authors introduced in the first half. This volume is keenly focused on authors and writers, and Lachman admits in the beginning that an equal number of pages should be devoted to musicians and other fields.

Within A Dark Muse the esoteric enlightenment is broken into five eras: Enlightenment, Romantic, Satanic, Fin de siécle and Modernist, each highlighting Lachman’s penchant to expose under-appreciated contributors to western thought. If you want to find a reading list for the next year and a half, this is the book to pick up. I’ve discovered quite a few writings that I will explore in depth over the next few months. While the public believes that ‘the occult’ and ’satanism’ are synonymous, a simple survey of the ideas in this book will reveal quite the opposite. Occult studies are truly a deeper look at the hidden wisdom present in many of the holy books, cultures and humans on the planet. Most of the authors featured by Lachman deal with esoteric Christianity, the nature of God, metaphysics and spiritual practice (my areas of interest). The chapter on Satanic Occultism, while the most shocking, is also the shortest, simply because there aren’t many writers along those lines. This is a grab bag and a good one at that. Read and find the teasers you’ll need to dive further into many deeper ideas.

Where the book fell short is in the failure to acknowledge some major influences of the 20th century in their own right. Rudolph Steiner, G.I. Gurdjieff, Israel Regardie, Manly P. Hall, the first two being mentioned and the last two entirely left out. Other important thinkers, such as Krishnamurti, while not being explicitly occult, was still the center of Blavatsky’s Theosophical movement and would deserve more than the brief mention he receives. However, omissions make sense, jamming this much into 380 pages requires at least a few to be left aside.

The reason for the focus on occult writers becomes apparently early on in the piece on Romanticism as Lachman states,

“It’s not surprising that the mage and the poet should be linked. Both used words in order to produce a desired effect, and as magic moved more and more away from the medieval sense of controlling angels and demons, and closer to the visionary powers of William Blake, the distinction between the two became one of mere terminology.”

Learning more about Swedenborg, Cazotte, Mesmer, Saint-Martin, Eckharthausen, Blake, Goethe, Balzac, Poe, Bulwer-Lytton, Blavatsky, Blackwood, Bucke, Ouspensky, Milosz and Lowry is an eye-opening experience. To think that most of the ideas being touted as new age or evolutionary have originated in these men is refreshing. A coming rapid evolution of the human race via 2012 or other catalyst? Bulwer-Lytton has already covered it. Ascending states of cosmic consciousness? Bucke has dissected it. Spiritual science? Goethe, Steiner, Ouspensky and many others have laid the framework. The excerpts section was filled with gems.

The essay included by Ouspensky included some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve seen to describe the human condition.

Some of the most cutting edge theories of modern physicists were hinted at (with a slightly more spiritual tone) by writers like Poe in the early 1800’s:

…there are gradations of matter of which man knows nothing; the grosser impelling the finer, the finer pervading the grosser. The atmosphere, for example, impels the electric principle, while the electric principle permeates the atmosphere. These gradation of matter increase in rarity or fineness, until we arrive at a matter unparticled-without particles-indivisible-one; and here the all of impulsion and permeation is modified. The ultimate or imparticled matter not only permeates all things, but impels all things; and thus is all things within itself, this matter is God. What men attempt to embody in the word “thought”, is this matter in motion.

Poe was also the first to state the reason why the sky is black and not saturated with the light of stars. An insightful man. And he also stated, “Positive pleasure is a mere idea. To be happy at any one point, we must have suffered in the same.”

Saint-Martin was filled with equally brilliant insights,

There is not a man in possession of his true self for whom the temporal universe is not a great allegory or fable with must manifest the truly divine pleasures… the overwhelming misfortune of man is not that his is ignorant of the existence of truth but that he misconstrues its nature…man is the visible expression of divinity…we have not the courage to work to justify [that we are the highest in the universe]… the learned describe nature, the wise explain it…as a proof that we are regenerated we must regenerate the world.

Wow. Powerful stuff.

The down side of A Dark Muse: I now have a reading list longer than I can ever hope to tackle.

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Post tags: esoteric, history, occult, philosophy, spirituality

As a sustainable campus, we encourage you to bike, walk, bus or carpool to orientation activities.

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Post tags: grad school, sustainability, ubc

Might the dollar eventually follow the precedent of the pound and cede its status as leading international reserve currency? Unlike the last time this question was prominently discussed, ten years ago, there now exists a credible competitor: the euro. This paper econometrically estimates determinants of the shares of major currencies in the reserve holdings of the world’s central banks. Significant factors include: size of the
home country, inflation rate (or lagged depreciation trend), exchange rate variability, and size of the relevant home financial center (as measured by the turnover in its foreign exchange market).

The key from the paper is that,

Whether the euro might in the future rival or surpass the dollar as the world’s leading international reserve currency appears to depend on two things: (1) do enough other EU members join euroland so that it becomes larger than the US economy, and (2) does US macroeconomic policy eventually undermine confidence in the value of the dollar, in the form of inflation and depreciation.

[ via @planetmoney]

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Post tags: economy, monetary system, planet money

Something to consider when you flip that light switch.

What is a stator you ask? According to Wikipedia,

The stator is the stationary part of a rotor system, such as in an electric generator or electric motor
Depending on the configuration of a spinning electromotive device the stator may act as the field magnet, interacting with the armature to create motion, or it may act as the armature, receiving its influence from moving field coils on the rotor.

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Post tags: generation, photos

[via All Songs]

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Post tags: comedy, Music, video

If this dosen’t pan out we can always do it Twitter style:

@jritch @jmw213 invite you to our wedding, 6.9.10, Highland Inn, please RT

awesome

[via Metalmother]

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Post tags: cool, wedding

Eating smaller fish… offers health benefits. Because sardines eat mostly plants, they do not accumulate high levels of mercury or PCBs the way larger, carnivorous fish such as tuna or salmon do. Sardines also live shorter lives: six years vs. about 10 for tuna, meaning less time in the ocean to absorb hazardous toxins. Those factors, say the Sardinistas, plus high levels of protein and omega-3s, make sardines an excellent option for pregnant women, children and eco-conscious college students on a budget.

Intellectually, it’s a strong case, but to succeed, the Sardinistas must overcome a big cultural hurdle. Sardines look like fish. And most Americans would rather not be reminded that the meat they eat was once a living creature. “The reason we eat big predators [such as tuna and salmon] is not because they are big predators; it’s because they can be cut into steaks,” said Alton Brown, host of Food Network’s “Good Eats,” …”Bluefin tuna is like crack cocaine if it’s good. But we all know what happens if you try to live on crack cocaine.”

[via the Washington Post]

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Post tags: eating, food

I am a former ScO, the Space Shuttle Fleet, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 1958 to 1992.
I participated in or observed so far, 657 missions and am still counting.
I have an event that I observed within an STS mission that will have you wondering IF a TALL ET can exist in space.
Another friend had a similar event, but, in another STS mission. BOTH, TALL ETs.
We are both Aerospace engineers. Did TWO such engineers with many, many years experience both see an illusion? Of course not.

Please see if your great campus wants such an exciting event at your school. Be one of the first, Mr. President!
Please inform me that you have received this email, OK?
Say what school you are from and name.
Thank you.
Go Tar Heels!
Clark, ScO

The commenter’s website is http://www.stargate-chronicles.com

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Post tags: blogging, comment, crazy

...from a cell phone bill I was sent a few years ago

When Dr. Laurence Peter was born in Vancouver, Canada during the year of 1919, the world was not prepared for his revolutionary doctrine. Today we suffer the consequences because few have heeded his warning, we all think we are the exception to his principle. I’m not talking about a prophet or spiritualist, I’m talking about one of the most brilliant analysts of modern society.

With this simple phrase on p.15 of my edition of The Peter Principle he explained nearly every problem the human species has faced as we have entered increasingly complex organizations in the development of our civilization,

In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence given enough time and enough levels in the hierarchy

And the more I’ve thought about it, internalized it, experienced corporate hierarchy… the more I’ve realized that it explains everything.

A housing bubble caused by artificially low inflation rates? Some blame Greenspan but the reality is that he was just serving above his level of competence. It makes sense. America’s colony in Iraq flubbed? Some blame Bush or his subordinates but the reality was that they were serving above their level of competence. We all do from time to time. We all think we are the exception.

As acquaintances enter the work force and through my own witness to the mindset of the low level employee, everyone seems to be focused primarily on ascending to the higher levels. Why? I think it is what we do as a species. It is our fate. I don’t mean to dissuade blame from individuals, removing responsibility from personal action. I only intened to explain that we shouldn’t expect success, we should expect blindingly stupid failure and then be pleasantly surprised when things aren’t flubbed up. That’s not being cynical or “realist”. It is just recognizing human nature. Incompetence knows no boundaries of time or place.

The Peter Principle when published in 1969 raised a storm because many did not want to accept that they existed at their level of incompetence. Business people didn’t take it seriously because it was written tounge-in-cheek with full blown laugh out loud moments. Far different from the bland, dry language they were used to while obtaining their MBAs.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book because it is an opportune time for me to examine if I have already achieved my level of incompetence.

While the explanations of the Principle could easily be redundant… (the plot is summarized at the beginning as Dr. Peter states the principle) this book isn’t redundant,  like a Dilbert cartoon with some acute wisdom. Dr. Peter describes, through various case studies and examples, that every perceived exception to the Principle isn’t really an exception at all. Complex hierarchies will see its members achieve the ominous final placement. Someday I too can reach this level.I can get stressed out while making poor decisions.  I too can wear the badge of administrative “success”: the ulcer.

This might all seem a bit pessimistic. A little defeatist. But not at all. The solution is to focus our species on moving forward instead of upwards. We see our cohorts in groups struggling for status on a, “treadmill to oblivion.” But Dr. Peter clearly states that we can rescue ourselves by seeing where this unmindful escalation is leading us. If we focus on the quality of our situation we can achieve previously ignored success without obtaining a literal or figurative promotion.

By applying this principle to our everyday experience, we witness many byproducts. For example, the applied Peter Principle approximates that employees in a hierarchy, “do not truly object to incompetence, they merely gossip about incompetence to mask their envy of employees who have pull.” … with pull being the ability to develop a relationship with someone above you in the hierarchy who can pull you up  with them. How poignant. We decry good ‘ol boy networks but rarely focus on the one thing that could break them up, changing our focus from output to input. I can put in a 40-50 hour work week but would I be more productive if I worked 30-35 hours? We may never know because a full-time job insists that I work 40-50 crushing and life imbalancing hours. Society has focused on input in this situation. Can we think of a better solution to this situation? I’ll apply Peter’s Bridge to this question: if you can’t think of a better solution you have already reached your level of incompetence.

Although the observations made in the Peter Principle are obviously applicable to corporate environments, Laurence Peter made some other candid observations of society in these pages. Such as, exposing our modern caste system on p.64 and p.83 of the 2009 edition:

…we have a class system, it is based not on birth but on the prestige of the university one has attended. The graduate of an obscure college does not have the same opportunity for promotion… but as college degrees become the prerequisite for more jobs, soon everyone will have access to his or her level of incompetence.

…with incompetent handling, the test system is only a disguised form of random placement. The purpose of testing is to place the employee as soon as possible in a job which will utilize the highest competence level on his profile. Obviously, any promotion will be to an area of less competence.

Brilliant stuff that has played out over the last 30+ years just as Dr. Peter predicted.

Lasting happiness can only be obtained by avoiding the ultimate promotion, by choosing at a certain point in one’s progression to abandon one-upsmanship and to practice staticsmanship. Don’t ascend, celebrate your competency. Thwart promotion with creative incompetence. Demonstrate to your superiors that you aren’t quite material for the next level. If you are a business: don’t expand your markets globally so that you become too big to fail, celebrate your contribution to the community with sustained profits. If you are a species: don’t try to conquer space, pay attention to everything you can fix on your home planet.

The Principle is, on the surface, a critique against bloated governments and corporations but in actuality it is a deeper critique of society, exemplified in Chapter 15: The Darwinian Extension. Humans have ascended to the top of the Earth’s species hierarchy but questions whether our cleverness allow new levels of success or impending incompetent failures.

Hope is little alluded to. As diplomas and degrees are losing their values as measures of competence. The modern certificate now proves that the recipient was competent to endure a certain number of schooling. Our only measure of academic achievement has lost all value. Additionally, we’ve tried to outsource intelligence to machines, that we are incompetent to operate. In summary,

…those who achieve their levels of incompetence could be kept harmlessly busy, happy and healthy. This change would set productive work free for the millions of people pleasantly employed in looking after the health and repairng the blunders of all those incompetents. The net result? An enormous store of man-hours, of creativity, of enthusiiasm would be set free for constructive purposes. We might… develop safe… efficient rapid-transit system for out major cities. We might tap power sources… which would not pollute the atmosphere. We might improve the quality and safety of our automobiles, landscape our freeqays … and restore some measure of safety and pleasure to surface travel. We might learn to return to our farm lands organic products that would enrich without poisoning the soil.

In summary: we can choose life-quality-improvement in place of mindless promotion. And on a larger scale we can choose prosperity instead of growth.

I hope we embrace the message of The Peter Principle as we begin to re-organize in the face of peak oil, scarce energy and monetary system alternatives.

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Post tags: hierarchy, human beings, incompetence