Death And The Shaman Part III

Death – the cessation of life – or not...

Normally we do not like to think about death. We would rather think about life. Why reflect on death? When you start preparing for death you soon realise that you must look into your life...now...and come to face the truth of your self. Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.
Sogyal Rinpoche.
Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, “Did you bring joy?” The second was, “Did you find joy?”
Leo Buscaglia.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Psychopomping
For most people it is not the fact of death that they fear it is the mode of transport, and in some cases the concept of blame, also known as guilt.
Fear is a powerful driver; add to that the tag team of guilt and blame and you have a Bermuda Triangle effect, where everyone gets lost. People’s beliefs tend to become more adamant than ever when the perception of death is nigh or imminent.
This can be quite a turn around for some as they have perhaps eschewed all religious belief consciously. Toward the end of life the unknown inspires a search for a common thread of security. This they will find more often than not in a re-visiting of the beliefs of their elders; with the caveat that it will very much depend upon the values that are personally held most dear. It is not unusual to find someone who says that they are not particularly religious. That is until someone steps onto the toes of their values and a surprising effect will occur, a knee jerk reaction; surprising most of all to the person concerned.
Beliefs are very important in all aspects of life but most especially when it comes to death.
In saying that of course the one thing that transcends all belief is the fact that we shall all die.
In that respect we are all of us animal, vegetable and human, equal.
This is where the talent of the Psychopomper comes into play. How many of you have experience of, or have heard someone say, that having said their goodbyes and assured the dying person (even when that person is in a coma) that everyone will be looked after and all affaires managed appropriately, have reported that very soon afterward, if not immediately, the person has died.
We can call it co- incidence but then what is co-incidence? Again, it will depend upon your beliefs not only in religion but in your connection to the deceased.
What has this to do with it? Well, what has just been described is a form of Psychopomping.
At times the Shaman is called, compelled even, to areas of disaster or major accidents and incidents, which due to their very nature cause a lot of confusion not least to the newly deceased who can be lost and wandering in a state of shock having been evicted from their bodies so violently and unexpectedly.
The Shaman journeys to these incidents and becomes a guide for the souls of the deceased, comforting them and facilitating their transition.
Where there is terminal illness, a Shaman may be brought in to allay any fear. By acclimatising the patient to the concept of changing states and introducing them to their body on a metaphysical level they are encouraged to journey to the seat of their illness and to communicate with their bodies, connecting to the divine, by whatever name they choose to call Spirit.
Since the act of journeying involves trance this is beneficial in a lot of ways as this can relieve pain (which will also tend to increase with fear). This in itself is positively therapeutic. In the latter stages of terminal illnesses the patient, may feel totally isolated and alone; lost in a sea of doctors, nurses, beeping and flashing machinery, talked over but not spoken to, de-personalised. By giving them resources to enable them to regain control over some part of their situation it allows them to get as much as possible out of the time they have left in this reality.
Too often the visitors that come are already grieving and perceive loss first and foremost, forgetting that their loved one is still within this reality. They fail to understand that this is not happening to them it is happening to the person in front of them. If we manage in some small part to facilitate an awareness of how to be in the present and to celebrate what the dying person has brought not just to their lives but to those of the extended family and how it has enabled them to go forward and thank them for being – just for being, then perhaps everyone can accept the ultimate change and understand its place in the scheme of things.
It is crucial that this is done for children in this situation. A child reads the emotion of those around them. If they are reading fear and grief they will spend the short time they have left in that state. Sometimes they will be very brave for the adults and be congratulated for being so, but still are not given the space and respect to express their own emotions. They may feel responsible for the morale of the adults around them; children can take on a lot of responsibility without our catching on. All this will be age related and not surprisingly, it is from children that amazing feats of emotional strength are witnessed. It is also at this time in their lives that dogma and fear can be installed to great detriment. We can also steal strength from them, unwitting we feed our guilt on their courage. They will allow us to do so without rancour because they love us and they look to us for guidance and answers. Ironically, it is they who probably know more than we will ever comprehend. Connected still to their inner self so bright and strong, they move between worlds on a daily basis naturally. It is an ability so many of us lack and we should allow them to keep that to their advantage.
“Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”
John Muir

Death and the Shaman Part II

Traditionally Shamanic initiation will involve some form of ‘death’ which in turn is followed by rebirth into the new life, the new state of being. For the Shaman death is another state, another way of being in the Universe; this one or any of any number of others. The valley of shadows is a journey undertaken by the Shaman for many purposes. They choose to cross the bridge that spans the worlds.
Occasionally, through trauma mental or physical the veil may be pierced by those unaware of the existence of the other worlds. Unbeknown to them as it does not form part of their belief system. They are shown that there is something else, somewhere else.
Some catch a glimpse of what is on the other side of the veil or membrane of that parallel Universe and others are catapulted right into the belly of the Void with all its magnificent potential. Each experience is subjective and coloured again by the belief system of the person involved. This may be the reason that it does not sit well with some.
This is life through a different door, and like Bluebeards’ wife we may find that once we have gone through that door our perception of what life is on this side of it will be changed forever. As found the curious spouse, once something is seen it cannot be un-seen, once a story is told it cannot be un-told it may be changed and adapted but it will still have been brought into conscious awareness.
Le Barre said ‘There were Shamans before there were Gods’; it is a kind of Schrödinger idea, the situation doesn’t exist until it is seen, and once seen it may be believed – but only by those who have experienced the sight of it. Depending on whom these people are, their relationship to whomever they tell and the evidence they produce of how that experience has changed their own perception will govern the acceptability of the event to a wider audience.
That this idea remains unacceptable for some is to be expected since it may fly in the face of certain belief systems. There will be those who will question such ability or the experience of it due to fear, dogma or their opinion of the person relating it.
Let’s get this straight Spirit doesn’t care if you have a degree in theology or not, Spirit speaks to the heart and soul; Spirit is its own qualifier and quantifier. Ordinary Joe Blogs round the corner has as much chance of an epiphany as does the Pope the only difference is in the expectation and perception of their audience. The Pope is expected to deal in epiphany; it is a recognised and widely held belief that this guy has the ear of God; therefore it’s his job to deal in the less than tangible. Joe Bloggs on the other hand, he has the ear of his wife and family and his epiphany can easily be brushed off as a dream or nonsense by family and friends even should this be the result of a near death or indeed a death experience.
It is others’ beliefs as to what right Joe Bloggs has to claim a life changing spiritual experience that will govern how many times he tells it, and to an extent his own continuing belief in his story. If he believes he has witnessed/experienced a miracle and it was sent to him by God it is most likely that he will seek out the counsel of a priest. Should the priest be dismissive of his experience it will fall to how much he believes that he is deserving of such an epiphany and what it means to him.
It is understood that even Jesus Christ had a hard time being accepted as the Messiah in his home town, because people knew him as only the son of a carpenter.
It is the human condition to seek out those who with whom we share experiences, this is proven by the amount of support groups that are around brought into existence by people searching like for like. There are indeed groups of people who give each other support due to dying on the operating table and having the post resuscitation blues. They stay within this ‘circle’ and are comforted. Some see it as a miracle some really do not like the idea of it at all – a door has opened and they’ve had a peek, a bit like Bluebeards’ wife, once she knew what was on the other side of the door she had no idea how to deal with it only that she wanted to undo it, which of course is the one thing she was unable to do. She had no way to know how to be, everything was different now, and she was different.
For others the way to understanding the concept of death is less dramatic – they may not remember the event or indeed they may not consider it memorable enough – one persons’ near death trauma is another’s extreme sport.
It is within these parameters i.e. being human, being curious and being experiential learners that the whole thing gets tangled up like a big ball of string the kitten’s had for a week.
Generalising is one thing, feeling, being, doing, touching, hearing and seeing is another.
Oh, and one more thing before I go on...there is a theory that we cannot imagine anything we have not already experienced...if you could just keep that idea in mind for what comes next and if you are not sure then perhaps you could imagine what that would feel like now, or not either is better.
We cannot speak our minds for fear of ridicule
We cannot love for fear of being hurt
We cannot move forward for fear of losing what we leave behind
We cannot stay for fear of what we may miss
We cannot be ourselves for fear we offend another
We cannot die because we fear..... DEATH

Instinctively self destructive...

The Outcome of Communication

One of the tenets of NLP is that the outcome of communication is in the result that you get.

I am discovering that in certain situations when I am being less than totally magnificent in my communication the results I am getting are on the surface, pleasing, however I am aware of their placatory and transient nature, particularly within the scenario I find myself playing out on a day to day basis at this point in time.

A friend asked me recently had I ever heard of the adage of ‘trapping more flies with honey’? Of course I have, my tendency though is to either leave them alone or kill them instantly.

Thinking about it dispassionately (?) I wonder if this has as much to do with my personal coping mechanism, as it has to do with my beliefs, which are of course inextricably linked.

This is something that I have learned about sentient beings, we make connections and having made them we use them as convincers banging home the rightness of it. For the reasoning and more rational animal this is a complicated procedure – or not. It can just as easily be a knee jerk reaction to an external stimulus that provokes an emotional response, jeez would that be the birth of a strategy that would possibly be compounded by proving it again and again – compounding itself, becoming rooted in our neurology. That old survival fight or flight still crazy after all these millennia, and still so strong.

In the aftermath of an adrenaline high response attitude there is only a need to rest, conflict especially within oneself is exhausting and it can be the result of a learned behaviour, a less than totally positive behaviour at that.

I know what my friend means about the honey. For me it’s a bit like learning something new and strange and until I am able to be secure in this alien world in all my states, I am likely to slip back to swatting the flies, irrevocably and taking the hollow victory of being placated until I go away and leave them to lick their wounds and build their walls of resentment so that I become the trigger for their adrenaline response.

Eventually this too will cease and there will be no communication at all. What is the point in that?
The self-fulfilling prophecy goes around again and nothing new is learned, only re-iterated.

So, in order to rewire my neurology I have to examine those static beliefs about myself, and change them now.