WALK WITH A SURGEON SANGOMA #3

THE SAN BUSHMEN OF THE KALAHARI
(excuse changes in font size I was unable to correct.)

In 1987 my "wounded-ness" came to a head in a sort of existential crisis arising from frustration in private practice and a deteriorating marriage (partly at least due to the rigors of the profession.) Sometimes it takes a challenge to propel someone who is stuck into effective action. This can also be an illness, death of a loved one, loss of a job or one's income and other challenges where the opportunity arises to make something useful out of the "situation." In my case, growing up in South Africa, I had always been fascinated by the San Bushmen but the opportunity to spend an extended time with them had eluded me. I decided it was time to leave my surgical practice for a month and head to the Kalahari. My trip was facilitated by Isaac Barnard who had spent a good part of his life with the San. Essentially after a short stay with a group he had taken up, he left me alone with a 4x4 Toyota, a case of supplies and a tent. My real journey at last had begun.

The Bushmen, or San are one of the last Hunter Gatherers of Africa. Anthropologists see them as a link to long lost stone age cultures and naturalists and hunters admire them for their extraordinary expertise in the bush. Those of a more mystical inclination are fascinated with their oneness with the fauna and flora of the Kalahari, a connection that has enabled them to survive for centuries in a desert that most others have avoided. 
Although many Westerners are enthralled with the superb bushcraft or “hard” skills, just as noteworthy are their group interaction or “soft” skills, and spirituality.

 The San are renowned for an out of body spirit dance that enables the healer to leave his or her body and connect with the spirit world for the restoration of the health of the clan or individual. The dance as well as their dreams enable some profound psychic and healing abilities. Moreover, the out of body trance state allows remote viewing of game or water and other resources which have helped them survive in an austere environment for eons.

During my visit it seemed that their closeness to nature facilitated a consciousness akin to the mystics of Eastern religions; joy and living totally in the present moment, lack of ego and judgmental attitudes, unconditional love for children, an unconditional positive regard for each other and being in the flow of nature and the cosmos. They were also egalitarian - men and women had equal say and there was no chief or leader. All group decisions were  done by consensus.

The only "spiritual practice" they appeared to have had that enabled them to reach this enlightened state was the purity of their relationship with wilderness. They had no esoteric techniques such as meditation or yoga and many at that time were illiterate. Hence it seemed that nature alone, being a "room" with many doors and windows to spirit was the power allowing them to transcend and travel into the Astral realms. 

I started to get the idea that although we could no longer be hunter gatherers the closer we could get to Mother Nature the more profound would be our inner experiences. Nature could meditate us! We would, however, like the San, need to have as little as possible separating us from Her energies.

The Kua San depicted the mother earth as a pregnant woman created by the Great Spirit "Bisi." The huge belly of the woman that they drew for me they told had ruptured, giving forth all the animals of the veld. The skin of the woman then became the crust of the mother earth whom the San treat with the greatest respect. The concepts of Gaia and Deep Ecology that we are now embracing were obvious to them. 

 Few of us will ever know what it feels like 
to be a hunter-gatherer, to be so connected to wilderness that one can survive and even thrive. Their survival gear comprised an antelope skin bag housing a fire kit, a bow and poison arrows, a digging stick for foraging and a sipping straw to suck water out of tree hollows or from sip wells in the sand. With a toy like bow, poison arrows, amazing stealth and tracking ability they were able to bring down large animals, enough to fee the whole clan. They related to nature beyond the five senses and lived in a psycho-spiritual dimension that we could hardly appreciate. 

      Love was not a challenge for the clan - there was an abundance of it. It was humility and an open heart that enabled them to negotiate the spirit world so expertly through their healing trance dance. Their healers would say that one had to love everyone no matter what you thought of them in order to heal others. They managed to reach higher states of consciousness not by any esoteric practice but by their intrinsic connection with Nature alone and by exposure to the multifaceted properties She possesses.  

    With the fast disappearing clans in the remote Kalahari, 1987 was for me a small window in time when one could still experience  what life was like for our ancestor hunter-gatherers. After all it was not so long ago in the context of earth time that we had been them.  We all have Bushman D.N.A. and they were the first people.
This was a seminal experience for me. Sadly for them everything has now changed and their habitat, amazing bush technological skills and even the original unpolluted power of their healing dance are threatened. 

Bushman child in an advanced yoga asana. Spontaneous yoga positions and mudras unknown to indigenous peoples have been known to occur spontaneously during Kundalini experiences. 

The San call Kundalini - "Num."

        At last some ideas about an "alternative" healing paradigm relating to wilderness began to gel in my psyche during those startling Kalahari nights in the Kalahari with their singing and dancing around the fire. 
         Serendipitously when I returned I was asked to give a talk on my "journey" to the local medical society which gave the impetus for research.  I began to delve into the "yoga" of wild places; energy anatomy, eco psychology, the Gaia hypothesis and wilderness psychology. The lecture was a great success and I was invited to speak to other medical groups  A surgeon who was also a Sikh, in one of the lectures came up to me after the lecture and said; "I cannot believe that you got away with talking about Kundalini to this audience!" 
        Most physicians are under the gun especially today and are looking for ways to relieve themselves of stress. Most love to sail, surf, ski, hike etc. so what I was saying was received with interest. 
I also gave an informal talk in Durban South Africa. A well known journalist came up to me afterwards and said to me - "you have a book here, write it!" And so it was that "Inner Passages Outer Journeys" manifested itself. I had never had any desire or for that matter any expertise to do such a thing. There is a summary pdf of the book on the web site for those interested. The book is out of print but can still be found.

             Click of the link to highlight and play.
       (Original San spirit chants are included in the song.)

/Indigenous_Voices_-_MP3s/05_Bushman_Bush_Mantra.mp3



Those wanting to view a dvd of the Trance Dance can look under Videos at davidcumes.com and this title; San out of body spirit healing trance dance. It's five minutes.

or click on this link 

http://davidcumes.com/videos_5.html