WHAT SOUTHERN AFRICAN WISDOMS HAVE TO OFFER THE WEST #6

It’s all very well looking at the extraordinary paranormal abilities of the San, the sangomas and other indigenous peoples but how can that apply to us? 

We all have our own distinct proclivities for the paranormal and it is essential for us to identify those strengths. We should not expect to be capable of duplicating the talents of others.

I wasted a lot of time in my earlier years trying to do this.

 Below are some of those that are more commonly described beginning with the simplest and most common.

Each of us may only have one or two of these depending on our inherent nature and potential. The Creator does not endorse a copy cat spiritual path. Our very own uniqueness for the paranormal is set as a default into the soul. 

 You are to find the one/s meant for you !

 

Synchronicity

We are all able to experience synchronicity especially when we are dedicate to some form or forms of spiritual practice. Synchronicity occurs when an outer event coincides with an inner event. It is not coincidental. 

For instance, you are thinking of a college friend that you have not seen or contacted in years and synchronously the phone rings and its him/her on the line. In some way, when this happens, you are picking up on the conscious intention for the call which is not localized in space and time. Hence, simultaneously you begin the think of that person.  The thought is connected with a mysterious energy arising from the Field. Consciousness is not confined to the brain. 

As our spiritual practice deepens these events may become more common and instructional such as...  You are thinking of finding a book on a mystical subject and you are looking through the possibilities in the book store when you bump into someone who turns to you and says; "this is an amazing book. I am going to buy it and read it again." When you look at the book it is exactly what you have been looking for.

 

Superfluidity

 

Superfluidity is a state of mind where things are flowing perfectly in accord with the universe. A musician has a faultless recital, a surgeon feels that some sort of divine intervention has intervened during a challenging surgical procedure which unfolds effortlessly. This is also called being in the zone  and is a state much sought out by athletes.  These phenomena may arise because of support from the "Field."

 

Power Animals

Having an encounter with a "power animal" may occur because your guides are manipulating an animal energetically to empower you or send you a message - say a humming bird that circles around your head and then hovers while facing you or a butterfly resting on your arm. Usually the animal concerned is not behaving normally. 

Sometimes, in addition, the metaphor that the animal represents might hold a message. Seeing a rattlesnake or a coyote on your path may be a warning to beware or be aware. These encounters are also not coincidental.

 

Coherence

This is commonly experienced in group meditations where the sum of the parts of the meditators is greater than the whole and the meditation for each individual is more profound than it would have been meditating on their own. 

The effect may spread beyond the meditators and even into the Field.  There are many other examples of coherence. 

Indigenous healing rituals usually occur when many people are present creating coherence and more power.

 

Dreams scripted by your guides to instruct or warn.

 

"Truth bumps" when truth that has been expounded that creates piloerection, sometimes also sending shivers up the spine. On occasion this can also cause one to tear up.

 

Music

 Experiencing a particular genre of music that makes you come alive. I believe this may be an indication of a past life that enhances the profound feeling. The music is familiar to your soul essence.

In the next blog we will describe more advanced levels of expertise.

 

WHAT SOUTHERN AFRICAN WISDOMS HAVE TO OFFER THE WEST #5

How does one integrate the intuitive - how does one learn it?
The thing about a shaman is that s/he is able to integrate left brain - right brain and have whole brain function and this comes out of initiation.
You cannot just "think" it for it to happen – it is a process that comes from the training.

 

Obtaining information from Spirit Guides.

 

Spirit guides are not subject to time and space. 

They are always around but not always to be known, always within call but not always to be heard, 

always present but not always to be sensed, 

always holding us, but not always to be felt.

Both the San and the Bantu tribes obtain non-local information from their guides or ancestors through three methods:

1. Directly through trance and spirit possession in the Bantu tribes 

or from astral travel and their guides in the Field in the case of the San.

2. Indirectly through Divination - a form of telekinesis where the spirit guide manipulates the Bones so that they fall in a distinctly readable, non-random fashion which depends not only on the objects orientation to itself but also to other objects and also to their orientation on the mat on which they fall.

3. Dreams which are frequently instructional, official and scripted to convey a message.

 

 The psychological orientation that explains dreams as scripted only by the subconscious makes dream interpretation quite limited.

A purely psychological interpretation of dreams discounts a guiding, Non-Local spirit source that can be nurtured and is personal.

 

Southern African indigenous peoples are connected to their ancestors and guides in the dream state and in real time. 

Some of the most expert San hunters did not need to follow the spoor of their prey, they just "knew" where to go. Their guides were telling them in one way or another during the hunt. 

 San Bushmen and women travelled out of body - astral travel - in the trance state to get information that told them where to find water or where to hunt the next day or who might be sick and where to find a lost child ... Their out of body state was enhanced by dancing rhythmically around the fire with rattles around their ankles. The women with their incredible chants and hand clapping, facilitated the trance state. The women also tranced with or separately from the men.

 

The Bantu healers of Southern Africa on the other hand get their information when "possessed." They trance from drumming and dancing and the guiding spirit enters their bodies, often speaking in an  the language required to convey the message to the seeker. The healer's ego steps aside and the spirit takes over and imparts information unconfined to the space-time continuum. The voice of the channel could change as might their facial appearance. They may  have asked for a drink of water or even a cigarette since they were sentient in the sangoma’s body. The sound of the drum calls the spirt to come. The word sangoma  comes from the word ngoma which means a drum.

Possession differs from trance channeling in the West in which case the spirit is giving the channel the information without totally taking over the body. Trance-channeling in the West where the spirit is giving information, is remote from the channel and less intense.

There are two forms of spirit possession, involuntary and voluntary. Involuntary possession is a serious condition requiring an exorcism. Voluntary possession, where the ego steps aside and a spirit takes over completely, is part of sangoma tradition. 

 

Both the San healers and the Bantu sangomas use divination “Bones” and dreams for diagnosing and healing. The sets are not all strictly bones but comprise various small animal bones but also other objects that are assigned a specific meaning. 

We in the West, on the other hand, use different methods such as; Tarot cards, Runes, a pendulum, a divining stick to find water etc. Telekinesis from an outside spirit source is usually part and parcel of the mechanism here as well.

Kabbalah has its own expression as to how this information is provided - mostly in dreams.

 

“The sages who have died are present in this world to a greater extent than when they were alive.” The Zohar

There is a story about a Kabbalist who on returning to his community after many years of study was asked; "what did you learn there?" To which he replied; "I leaned how to sleep."

 

“When a word is spoken in the name of its speaker his lips move in the grave. And the lips of him who utters the word move like those of the master who is dead. A sage cannot speak words of teaching unless he first links his soul to the soul of his dead teacher or to that of his teacher’s teacher.” Talmud

 

It’s all very well looking at the extraordinary paranormal abilities of the San, the sangomas and other indigenous peoples but how can that apply to us? 

This will be the topic of the future blog.

 

 

THE FORCE OF THE PRIMAL

WHAT SOUTHERN AFRICAN WISDOMS HAVE TO OFFER THE WEST #4

 

There are many paths to the mystery wisdom exuding from the growing things that surround us, from the color of the sky and from all the Beings of nature.

 

Spiritual Skills arising from the Primal.

The force of the primal manifest as love is the glory of God.

 

Contacting The Field

 

The Field is mostly Unknowable – more was made knowable to indigenous peoples who were the first yogis, sages and mystics.  

 

“Whatever being (Still, Growing, Wild or Talking) comes to be, be it motionless (Still Beings) or moving, derives its being from Field and Knower (The Creator) of the Field. Know this!” Bhagavad Gita

 

Information, knowledge, doubt, denial, disbelief, ego and judgment get in the way of our accessing the Field, our guides and the Divine.

 

God’s voice is heard in quietness and stillness. Beware the noises of ego which drown out the Divine Spirit.

 

"Blessed are the meek..." Jesus

The soft, silent, still voice of the Infinite one is heard when the ego is set aside and the heart is open. This requires purity and faith.

 

The indigenous mind was schooled by their experiences in nature. They have and had an almost "Quantum" like ability to access Non-Local information in the Field.

In the case of the San, wilderness was their Yoga and their Zen until civilization’s temptations intruded. Before that they were mindful mainly of needs, not wants. 

They enjoyed the magic of polarity balance and entrainment in the natural meditation offered by the wildness around them. Nature is a room with many doors and windows to spirit. Nature's power enabled them to find the middle way of the Buddha. They learned to coexist with the difficult, the life threatening, the dark, the negative and the profane with acceptance, realizing it was part of the necessary tension required for the magical to occur. 

 

Balance is achieved by harmonizing polarities. Dualities come into harmony by negotiating a third or middle path, a path not of assimilation but a path of coexistence.

 

The San Bushmen hunter-gatherers naturally adopted a profound connection to Gaia - their Earth Mother. Their spiritual practice of being immersed in nature gave them the the humility, the openness of heart, the purity and the vibration required to travel out of body into the Field during their healing trance dance.  In this way they obtained non-local information, critical for their survival as well as for the protection and healing of the clan. 

 

Magical Powers. The San Out of Body Spirit Trance Dance.

 

San dancers travels out of body to glean non-local information from the Field which can help the clan. The other dancers help those to come out of trance and back into their bodies. They heal when they come out of trance by putting "Num" into those ailing - the same magical energy that enabled them to trance (see last weeks video link.) 

The San are known not only for their hunting and tracking but also for their unique healing abilities. The dance can go on all night and is a profound example of Coherence facilitated by the clan - it takes a village.

With their trance dance and mastery of Num (or Kundalini,) the San Bushmen describe similar energetic phenomena mostly seen in advanced spiritual practitioners such as; heat rising up the spine, creeping sensations, tingling, vibrating, shaking, light experiences, inner sounds and smells, an empty mind ;“my thoughts were nothing in my head”), connection with Self; “I feel my-Self again, out of body experiences and astral travel, paranormal powers, spontaneous movements including adopting yoga-like postures, paralysis, falling and the mastery of fire.

Rock art left by them showed some of the visions they experienced in trance including shape shifting.

Beyond the veil they connected with their ancestors and some, even saw an anthropomorphic representation of the Great Spirit; "when I make myself very small," (San healers to Richard Katz in his book Boiling Energy.)

 

The Medicine Person or "Shaman"(The Seer") and Healing

 

“With our potions and charms we arouse in the sick one’s brain the will to be healthy. Without the strong will to be alive a human can be carried into the valleys of death by even the mildest sickness.” Credo Mutwa

 

 Credo Mutwa a Bantu, Zulu sangoma, or more accurately a sanusi or prophet, was profound in his spiritual teachings. He is talking here about the will to heal combined with the power of placebo and belief which is a love and not a fear vibration. It also occurs, although less so now days, with the old-fashioned Dr. - Patient Relationship and Bedside Manner.

“Some patients, though their condition is perilous, recover their health simply through their contentment with the goodness of the physician.” Hippocrates

"Only love can generate the healing fire,” Agnes Sanford

 

The San healers teach that in order to heal we must love everyone no matter what we think of them. All medicine men and women, shamans or similar, inspire hope through their charm, charisma, compassion and competence. With their magical divinations or rituals they enhance the power of placebo. 

Allopathic medicine, often unknowingly, does the opposite by invoking a nocebo response often with dismal prognoses or describing every detail of all the mishaps that could occur when obtaining the legally required informed consent for procedures. This may be regarded as a form of medical hex.

It is important to note that there are several basic mechanisms occurring  during diagnosis and healing. 

Diagnosis can be remote or "distant" coming through the Field through trance, divination and dreams.

Healing can arise through the direct affect of placebo on the Inner Healer which is mediated by love and belief.

Distant or remote healing which is separate from placebo comes directly to the Inner Healer through the Field. This Universal Healing Energy is just the Creator's love in disguise mediated through the San or other healers and especially powerful when empty of ego.

Distant healing has been found to be effective in double blind studies where placebo is discounted. It works whether one believes it or not or knows about it or not. 

Unfortunately the same is true for distant hexing. There can be no light without dark. The Field is democratic and value neutral. Both light and dark intentions can be propagated by the Field. 

Distant healing is enhanced by the power of placebo. 

Distant hexing is aggravated by nocebo and enhanced by guilt. For instance, if some one has been unskillful in their actions and feels guilty and knows they have been hexed (nocebo) and has been hexed (distant affect) they can be seriously harmed. 

Those who for religious, guilt reasons feel that because they have wronged God they do not deserve to be healed - most likely will not recover from a serious illness. They have hexed themselves through nocebo - the power of belief to hurt, harm or even kill. 

The Great Spirit, however, does not work this way. Everyone is capable of redemption.

 

WHAT SOUTHERN AFRICAN WISDOMS HAVE TO OFFER THE WEST #3

Yoga philosophy has brilliantly enunciated the spiritual anatomy and the power of Kundalini.

 

“The Kundalini in the form of latency is coiled like a serpent. One who impels this Shakti to move will attain liberation.” 

Hatha Yoga Pradipika

 

Manipulating this life force which facilitates energy shifts and advanced stages of consciousness was easy for primal peoples. We all have this universal, feminine force - Shakti, Kundalini in Yoga - although few of us nurture it. The San Bushmen call it Num, the Zulus, Umbilini. Most tribes in Southern Africa recognize it as feminine and some, snake like resting dormant in the lower belly.  Kundalini, serpent energy is awakened by some form of spiritual endeavor. 

For the San Bushmen, hunter-gatherers, who are distinctly physically different from their neighboring Bantu peoples, it is mobilized by clapping, chanting and dancing with rattles around their ankles around the primal fire. This enables an out of body spirit flight where they glean information from the "Field" - mainly the Ancestors. They call it the Little Death (Richard Katz) since they fall prostate on the earth while their spirits travel into the Astral plane.

For the Bantu it is mobilized by dancing to the sound of the drum sometimes also with rattles around their ankles. When Bantu sangomas go into trance the ego steps aside and the spirit of an ancestor or guide takes over completely. They become voluntarily possessed to access the non-local information required to help their clients or patients. This process is much more dramatic than the trance-channelling we see in the West. 

The sangomas' body language and facial expressions change, they often shake as the spirit enters the body rather than falling like their San neighbors do with Num. They may speak in "tongues or in a Bantu language sometimes different to the one they know in real time. The word sangoma comes from the Zulu ngoma which is a drum. It is the sound of the drum that brings forth the spirit possession.

The Bantu call this magical energy, Umbilini and the San, Num. Kundalini manifests differently for them as it would in anyone of us. How it manifests in the West will be highly individual. It can be subtle or more dramatic as it is in the San and Bantu. When it manifests it allows us to gain access to information not localized in time in space. It usually occurs for those less adept, as energy or vibration moving up the spine. 

The Ancestors teach that; "the snake brings the dream." For some it may manifest in the dream state or even as subtle downloads while awake.

 

(I wasted a lot of time in my earlier years trying to emulate what I had read from yoga texts. When I initiated as a sangoma, Umbilini manifested in other ways for me as well as compared to my mentors and their African initiates.)

When we immerse in nature with as little as possible between us and the Earth Mother we are able to experience some of this profoundness. With the right intention of going inward rather than outward we can attain equanimity, an alfa, relaxed state of consciousness and a feeling of oneness with nature and each other. Our dreams and our connection with the Field intensify. The longer we are out in nature, the deeper the effect. Nature has multiple polarities to help us find the middle way of the Buddha. It is a room with many doors and windows to spirit.

It is vital that we adopt more of an indigenous consciousness for ourselves. The demise of the primal self in the West has resulted from our upbringing, education, religion, culture, and the allure of materialism, technology and the innumerable commodities that tempt us. We have lost our indigenous, root, core or primeval self and our inherent wholeness because of “civilization.”  We all were once nature bound and able to access the Field. Our children now are even more at risk as the hypnosis of technology and social media becomes more pervasive. We have paid a huge price for the benefits accrued. For the San it was one for all and all for one - for us not so much. Self-absorption and narcissism which shut out access to the Field seem to be running rampant.

 

The Bantu tribes of Southern Africa both use similar spiritual technology to help their people. There are numerous Bantu tribes in Southern Africa. They all use similar divining and healing methods. The Bantu tribes migrated south centuries ago and when they arrived they encountered the San who had already been there for millennia. The San probably had a profound influence on the sangoma tradition. It was they, I was told that introduced the Bantu to the power of animal bones in divination, each of which have their own unique energy and know where to go when they are manipulated by a form of telekinesis from their guides in the Field. Further north, south of the Sahara, African peoples tend to use shells instead.

To view the San trance dance you will have to go to davidcumes.com to videos. The file is too big to upload. It's five minutes.

Look for this at the bottom of the page on videos