reflection on healing

When I have the precious opportunity to catch up with loved ones and conversation deepens to surpass the everyday, we discuss with ‘dis-ease’ the future of ourselves and our children. There is a sense of isolation, sadness and a bewildering loss of meaning in relation to our ‘place’ in the world. My father calls it the black dog; it chews away the sunshine and attacks his soul with restrictive, invasive and oppressive qualities. Interestingly, he is an exemplar of success within the western, urban, capitalist paradigm. A self made millionaire who arose from impoverished beginnings to enjoy the material trappings and lifestyle his relentless work ethic delivered, along with a nervous breakdown. Recently retired and reflective, he finds himself left with a collection of ‘things’ he has built and accumulated and an identity crisis punctuated by loneliness and suffering. Dad has a deep longing to live by the ocean. Walking barefoot on the sand for hours, his soul is soothed, he feels like he is home. This paper suggests that Western urban society need look to the ancient art of shamanic, transcendental and ecstatic experience to heal the communal disorder found on a global level.

Western and Indigenous worldviews are oppositional in relation to both community and the natural world (Callicott, 1982). These worldviews are diverse geographically and culturally and are sanctioned accordingly (Katz, 1976). Individuals are ‘grown up’ within their communities and are born into a particular ‘way of knowing’ (Driver, 1992; Katz, 1976). Urban western society is built on a competitive, individualistic and hierarchical premise that divides and alienates individuals from each other and nature (Katz, 1976; St John, 2001). The natural world is valued in terms of economic ownership and dissected via scientific and mathematical reason (Callicott, 1982; St John, 2001). Exploitation of the earth’s resources for industrial and consumer use has rapidly depleted our natural world and current concern over sustainability of natural resources is a familiar discourse (Callicott, 1982).

In contrast, Indigenous shamanic societies do not separate the natural world from the human world (Callicott, 1982). According to animist epistemology, the natural world is sacred and invested with spiritual potency (Callicott, 1982). The health of both human and non human members is intrinsic to the collective wellbeing of the community (Callicott, 1982). All souls are active agents engaged in reciprocal and respectful relationships and shamanic ritual healing practice restores and maintains harmony between ecological members (Callicott, 1982; Driver, 1992). Ritual participation includes many individuals from the community and offers the cyclic opportunity of physical/emotional support and education, providing a sense of ‘place’ (Driver, 1992; Katz, 1976). The Indigenous shamanic tradition employs ‘techniques of ecstasy’ such as drumming, chanting, breath manipulation, singing, dancing, sensory deprivation, and so on, during shamanic ritual healing (Driver, 1992; Winkleman, 1997). Ecstatic tools aid individuals in achieving altered states of consciousness and allow the soul to transcend the secular into the sacred with the aim of deep listening, communication and healing for communal purposes (Winkleman, 1997).

I do not suggest misappropriation of Indigenous cultures to heal urban western society. Rather, an entry into reciprocal relationships with each other, other cultures and nature, with the aim of addressing the legacy of global genocide, left by the dominant Eurocentric worldview (Callicott, 1982). Institutionalisation of scientific ‘truth’ as the western ‘way of knowing’ does not validate experiential, intuitive and sensory responses by individuals within this social schema (Callicott, 1982; Winkleman, 1997). Western urban society is culturally conditioned to place shamanic, transcendent and ecstatic experiences with the Indigenous ‘other’; in the primitive and distant past, from which we have evolved (Callicott, 1982). However Winkleman (1987) argues, seeking states of consciousness that are out of the ordinary is an organic and biological response within all societies, on a global level. St John (2001) cites an awakening of consciousness within urban western society began in the 1960’s, in terms of reconnection with Indigenous and Pagan roots, and shamanic methods of healing. There is a plethora of keys available to unlock different levels of consciousness and enter transcendent states; workshops and festivals aimed at this awakening, abound within today’s Western society (St John, 2001). Ritual is a transformative act which in itself is adaptable and dynamic in accordance with history, location and society (Driver, 1992; St John, 2001, Winkleman, 1987). Shamanic healing is a communal process that often involves an individual calling and re-birthing process which can be a fearful and painful process (Driver, 1992; Winkleman, 1987). Community support and tuition is vital to ecstatic and transcendent ritual, ensuring both individual safety and social cohesion (Katz, 1976). The cyclic and interconnected nature of all beings within shamanic animist philosophy promotes the principle that healing work on the microcosm is reflected in the macrocosm and vice versa (Driver, 1992; St John, 2001). Participation in shamanic, transcendental and ecstatic experience creates a pathway for western urban individuals to redefine their spirituality and experience the profound.

It is not surprising that my loved ones are full of gnawing ‘dis-ease’ at the same time the natural world is calling out for help and nurturance. Nor is it surprising for me that the only clear thought, splicing through my father’s depression, is his call to the ocean. It is his way of connecting with the majestic and numinous that surrounds and envelopes us all. The boundaries between the secular and sacred, the profound and profane; quiver and dissolve. I am lost within the anticipation and culmination of an ecstatic state that envelopes my entire being. I climb to the summit only to discover it dwells both within and beyond me. I transcend ordinary waking consciousness and acknowledge and praise the continuum of consciousness on which I see-saw throughout my days, weeks, years and lifetimes.


References Cited

Callicott, J. (1982). Traditional American Indian and Western European attitudes toward nature: An overview. Environmental ethics, 4(1), 293-318.
Driver, T. (1992). Transformation. In The magic of ritual: our need for liberating rites that transform our lives and our communities (pp. 166-191). San Francisco: Harper.
Katz, R. (1976). Education for transcendence. In R. Lee & I. DeVore (Eds.), Kalahari hunter-gatherers: Studies of the !Kung San and their neighbours (pp. 281-302). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
St John, G. (2001). Heal thy self – thy planet: Confest, eco-spirituality – the self/earth nexus. Australian religion studies review, 14(1), 97-112.
Winkleman, M. (1997). Altered states of consciousness and religious behaviour. In S. Glazier (Ed.), Anthropology of religion: A handbook (pp. 393-428). Westport: Greenwood Press.