New Documentary by BYP On Shamanism

[Philo Sofee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRrJfbOJ3kU

This is my third documentary and I have fallen in love with doing these things! This is on Shamanism, the ancient spiritual path. It's been a lot of fun doing it and I get a dig in or two on organized religion (you KNOW who you are!)... Come and enjoy and leave a like and a comment on it.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

That A.I. art was amazing! Even Dr. Shades is going to have a hard time finding fault with those images.

Hope you’re enjoying New Orleans.

[Philo Sofee]

That A.I. art was amazing! Even Dr. Shades is going to have a hard time finding fault with those images.

Hope you’re enjoying New Orleans.

So far, so good. Very humid in these parts.

[Moksha]

Hope you’re enjoying New Orleans.

So far, so good. Very humid in these parts.

You should have gone in March. Much cooler and you could have gathered some beads.

[High Spy]

So far, so good. Very humid in these parts.

You should have gone in March. Much cooler and you could have gathered some beads.

This reminds me of the poor buggers that were sent to AK in February to calibrate our mountain of test equipment. They do construction in the dead of winter too. Seems the almighty dollar says the lowest bidder won't be working here in the height of tourist season, when room rates are through the roof.

Things there are just warming up. The awesome Mrs. Spy and I dripped great drops of sweat there while munching delicacies at Cafe Dumond, or something like that. Given the opportunity to again visit during Mardi Gras we opted to go a few days after the festivities died down. Debauchery is detestable to those that have moved on from such things. The graveyards there are the setting of some wonderful books, or so I'm told.

[huckelberry]

Just to see if any discussion can be found I will pose a question. What is real shaminism and how can it be determined.

Religion precontact with modern world? Perhaps but nobody knows what that really is in any detail.

I remember being surprised the first time I heard a Mexican refer to somebody as brujo in a rather matter of fact fashion. Yesterday I was curious what google would find with the word. Wikapedia spoke of a spiritual system in latin america composed a combinations of indigenous traditions ,African traditions and some Catholic influence. Might not disqualify because of mixture as different peoples have likely shared ideas for thousands of years now. There never would have been any pure tradition.

Google also supplied me with an advertisement for my home town. It was in Spanish but my fragmented reading saw the proposal of influence of white magic to be purchased on ones behalf..

A good deal of popular interest in shamanism was sparked by a series of book by Carlos Castenada. I remember the first few as rather amusing tales with an uncertain mix of real experience and fiction. I did not continue to read his later books. I understand there is controversy as to whether there is any real connection to indigenous tradtion. I found myself hearing some vague connection to ancient Roman tradition>(Castenada read books) I gather he ended creating a rather fanatical but small cult.

To my mind a more positive connect might be glimpsed through Black Elk. He was Sioux medicine man old enough to be present when Custer ran into trouble. He presented a book Sacred Pipe which reviews a set of inportant ceremonies. It can be observed that later in life Black Elk became Catholic and an instructor for the reservation. His observations about the Sioux traditions are colored by seeing common values themes with Catholic tradition. I do not see any way that is not valid. At the same time it may not be acceptable to everybody.

I can wonder if artist can be understood to be shamans. Picasso intentionally set himself at least somewhat in that tradition.Perhaps Bob Dylan for a few years, perhaps not.

[Philo Sofee]

Yes Huck, if I was at home with my library I would have included Black Elk in Shamanism. So far as a pure tradition I suspect there isn't any since it strikes me as being more of a spiritual system with lots of differences between cultures.

[Valo]

Yes Huck, if I was at home with my library I would have included Black Elk in Shamanism. So far as a pure tradition I suspect there isn't any since it strikes me as being more of a spiritual system with lots of differences between cultures.

Although I haven't compiled the evidence and so its mostly anecdotal as far as I'm concerned, but, I have found in the study of ancient religions and spiritual systems or ideas, that in the end, they all have a similar or same idea underneath all the layers of symbols, rites, or whatever.

In ancient Finland shamanism was the spiritual understanding. These were often people who in society were different than the so-called "regular" folks. But they seemed to have a knack for seeing and sensing things oddly, or in a weird way, and often did not have the same desires and pursuits of others. So the role of a shaman in each community or village kinda fell on the person who had those criteria. And what was cool was that nobody in the community judged or looked down upon this weird fellow because they understood that society needs all sorts of people, and they respected the fact that this person could see in a way they couldn't even if he was ood and not easily understood.

My grandpa from Finland was learned in old ancient Finnish shamanictic traditions. He and I spent a lot of time in the woods when I was a small child. He would show me plants, mushrooms, and things in the forest that were good for food or medicines. He'd collect stumps, growths, and what not from the forest and create little representations of forest spirits.

Anyway, I think it's interesting.