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Encounters on
the Shaman's Path
with anthropologist Dr. Hank Wesselman, PhD.
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by Dr.Hank Wesselman, P.h.D. |
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The Perennial Philosophy
In last month’s column about Australian Aboriginal wisdom, I made mention of the perennial philosophy, and so perhaps it would be meaningful to say something about it in this essay.
The perennial philosophy is a worldview that has been embraced by most of the world’s authentic spiritual thinkers and teachers. The philosopher Ken Wilber has written about it in his book Grace and Grit (1991). He calls the perennial philosophy ‘universal’ because it can be found in virtually all cultures across the ages—and wherever it is found, it is essentially the same. This is really quite amazing as there is virtually nothing on which all people agree.
Wilber offers seven points that he considers to be most important, and so following his (considerable) lead, allow me to draw upon his shared wisdom and list them here for your (and my) consideration.
Point number one: Spirit exists.
This is an absolute given. This is and has forever been, the message of the mystics, whether we believe Spirit to be an impersonal, transcendent and remote fatherly mono-god, residing in Heaven, alternately wrathful or beneficent, having good days and bad days (essentially the fundamentalist and evangelist perspective)… or whether we perceive Spirit as a personal, immanent and omni-present Force or Presence, whose primary (and only) expression is love (the evolved perspective of the secular humanists.)
Second point: Spirit is found within.
All the great spiritual teachers across time have revealed in their teachings that Spirit, and by association—God—is not somewhere ‘up there.” Rather it is found within us and within everything everywhere.
This essentially pantheistic perspective reveals that Spirit is transpersonal, yes… and yet it is also immanent.
It is through the visionary window that each of us may make connection with our immortal, transpersonal aspect, our oversoul. And it is through this ‘god-self’ that we may enter the ‘supernatural’ realms of the spirit worlds, or as the Aboriginals call it, the Dreamtime.
We do this every night when we are asleep and dreaming. The trick lies in learning how to do it all the time, even while we are awake. Hence our frequent reference to the shamanic method, an easily learned way to access our oversoul and through it, the sacred and unseen realms of spirit.
You’ll also note that I put the word supernatural in quotes above. This is because this realm is not really super-natural at all, but rather the world of ‘things hidden’ as opposed to the world of ‘things seen.’ It’s quite simply the other half of the whole. It’s natural.
The modern mystic perspective reveals that Heaven is not somewhere ‘out there’ or ‘up there.’ It’s right here, right now, and it always has been… and this means that the direct experience of Heaven is, was, and forever will be, accessible to us all, no matter who we are or what we believe in, and all the time.
It’s not just through going to church or the temple or the mosque and praying mightily or engaging in deep meditation (on Sunday, Saturday or Friday) that we can connect with God… that inner essence who is actually our god-self. The practice of authentic deity mysticism gives us instant access any time, any place.
Point number three: Most of us have no idea that this is so because we live in a world of unrelenting distraction that creates separation.
This is the challenge provided to us by our endless stream of glittering gadgets, from television to computers, from video games to ipods. Yet this challenge is also offered to us by some of the archetypal forces that are in relationship with us.
One of the most well known among these (as well as the most maligned) is the angelic force that we have discussed in a former column (March 2007) as the Master of Illusion… the one that the Sumerians called Enki, the Persians called Ahriman, the Buddhists call Mara, and that the Judeo-Christians and Muslims call Satan.
As we have revealed, the Master of Illusion is not aligned with the archetype of evil. Not at all. This transpersonal force took on a very specific job in order to be of service to humanity. It is ‘his’ function to create and weave illusions that ensnare and captivate us, keeping us distracted so that we never find out who we really are, what this world is really all about, and what our place within the great mystery of existence actually is.
This is about Hollywood and the media as well. It’s about the endless meaningless sporting events, the endless sitcoms, television miniseries, and movies glorifying the dark side of the human psyche, including the lowbrow game shows as well as the highbrow news commentators whose job it is to entertain us… to captivate us, and (ostensibly) to enlighten us.
This is and was and forever will be the challenge that the Master of Illusion has extended to us, and in the process, he/she has created separation. And it is through this experience of separation that we experience the world as dual—as us versus them, or it or whatever ‘the other’ might be.
Separation, quite simply, is an illusion.
Now… since we have brought up the issue of separation, we could also mention the Christian concept of Original Sin.
History reveals that this was an out and out fabrication, an illusion created by a political schism between the Eastern and Western branches of the early Christian church in 321 AD. (See historian Elaine Pagel’s book Adam, Eve and the Serpent for edification.)
It was during this fateful meeting at the council of Nicea that the cryptic Garden of Eden myth was transformed from a symbolic story of liberation into the condemnation of Original Sin.
You see—from the shamanic perspective, Eden is actually the Judaic version of the shamanic Lower World—the dream world of Nature from which humanity emerged. Adam and Eve are mythic symbols of the first sentient man and the first sentient woman, and together, they represent the dawn of human self-awareness.
The tree of life in the garden called Eden is the axis mundi, the transpersonal link or passage that connects the three levels of the dreamtime—Lower, Middle and Upper Worlds. And the great serpent is regarded in virtually every culture (except Judeo-Christianity) as the archetype of superior knowledge and wisdom.
In giving the apple (the symbol of wisdom) to humanity, the great serpent offered us knowledge, and by association sentience and self-awareness. But who did this great archetypal force offer the gift of wisdom to?
The Women!
And whom did the women elect to share the gift with?
The Men!
The church fathers couldn’t handle this in the 3rd Century—hence they created a myth that demonized both the great archetype of wisdom, the serpent, as well as the women of power and knowledge, who were condemned for all time for their “original sin” of accepting the gift… and we in the Western world have been dealing with this one for 1700 years.
But I digress…
To return to our consideration of the perennial philosophy, the inside message of point number three is that we are all living in a fallen or illusory state (both self-imposed as well as inflicted upon us by church and state and culture alike in the form of false belief systems) and this is the cause of our pain and our suffering. This brings us to…
Point Number four: There is a way out of this state of delusion and confusion…
In considering this point, we could observe that hundreds of millions of concerned citizens in the Western world today are totally confused as to what is or is not going on, what is or is not important, not to mention who they are and what they are supposed to be doing here.
This confusion has been enhanced and furthered by the false beliefs created and spread by the politicians of our governments, as well as by the media who serve them.
From the perspective of the perennial philosophy, it could be observed that both the politicians and the media are working hand in hand with the Illusion Master, although most don’t know it because they too are ensnared in this state of delusion and confusion.
What is important to say here is that there is only one way out of confusion and despair… through the direct, transpersonal experience of Spirit.
This alone—not ceremony, not prayer, not meditation, not political caucus, not belief nor faith in God or in Jesus as our savior—this direct experience of Spirit alone leads us into personal transformation. But…
Point number five: We have to choose it…
The power of choice is a function of our egoic self, our mental soul aspect. If we choose to accept the call to adventure and take this path… if we choose to transcend belief and faith and directly experience things as they really are… and if we choose to follow this path to its conclusion, the end result brings us into the direct experience of Spirit that, in turn, leads us into the irreversible vortex of personal enlightenment.
But we have to choose it.
Point number six: When we choose this experience, it brings us inevitably toward the supreme liberation that marks the end of our pain and suffering, delusion and separation…
It also conveys to each of us the experience of authentic initiation.
This path is the hero’s journey (see the Meta Arts Archives—October and November 2007). And that journey is always and forever the same.
It begins with 1) the call or summons to leave the known behind and engage in an adventurous quest into the unknown. And when we accept the summons, 2) we are precipitated immediately into the stage of initiation where we learn our life lessons… and where we remain until we discover that we have spiritual allies. When we turn in their direction, asking for support, power and protection, we emerge from our initiation successfully and… 3) we achieve the goal of the quest, whatever that goal might be. The journey ends when 4) we finally return to our source, to the place where we began the quest, yet we return as the master of the two worlds, the inner and the outer.
This brings us finally to:
Point number seven: Having successfully completed our version of the hero’s journey, we ascend to the next level of our soul’s evolution to become world redeemers.
At this point, our primary goal becomes the alleviation of pain and suffering in the world, and we then live and act differently from the more ordinary people. We think and feel and speak from a place in which the practice of compassionate action on behalf of all sentient beings becomes our all-consuming task.
At the moment that we achieve this level, we literally become gods—highly evolved exalted souls in service to our colleagues, friends, and family members, and even humanity at large, all those who are still entrapped in Samsara—the world of illusion—assisting them so that they may step up to the next level in their own personal evolution as souls traveling across eternity.
This is not about missionizing the ignorant, the unready and the unwilling. It is not our job to inflict the experience of self-realization upon others, because it simply doesn’t work that way. This experience unfolds in layers for those who are prepared, for those heroes who are ready, willing, and able to assume the chase.
This, in turn, reveals that the negative polarity of the priest/priestess/missionary is zeal.
The negative polarity is not necessarily bad although it certainly can be. The negative polarity is where we learn our own life lessons, and nothing can be accomplished on behalf of others when we are in the negative polarity.
In the positive polarity, however, the practice of the priest/shaman/mystic is, and forever will be, about compassion… and about compassionate action, thought, feeling, speech, and relationship with ‘the other,’ whoever and whatever the other might be. It’s not about missionizing!
It is only in the positive polarity, not the negative, that the spiritual teacher or practitioner can be a healer… a teacher, an encourager, and a world-redeemer.
This is the Bodhisattva path on which exalted souls walk—those who have completed their evolutionary cycle as embodied souls and who are ready to step back into eternity and return to the Source… to the One… yet who choose to postpone their own salvation so that they may return again and again, coming back into this world of pain and suffering in order to be of service to all sentient souls still stuck in their stuff.
The ‘perennial philosophy’ is a term that was coined by the philosopher Count Leibnitz, a panpsychist who knew from direct experience that Nature is God.
When we as individuals come to realize this as well, we must accept and embrace the fact that we are and forever will be, part of Nature. This means that when we abuse Nature in any way, shape or form, we abuse God… and by association, we abuse ourselves as manifested and embodied aspects of the god-essence within Nature.
Understanding this allows us to know the absolute truth that all of reality, including all of us, our souls and our consciousness, our animal and plant colleagues and our earth, water and air are actually One.
And yet it is true that The One is also experienced as The Many—that it is transcendent yet also immanent, existing within every moment and at every level of reality, from amoebas and insects and worms to human beings, from rocks and oceans and dirt to stars and galaxies and universes.
The One is, and has always been, formless and non-dual, as well as the Source of the dream from which the manifested All has emerged, including ourselves. Yet it is when it is expressed into our world of form that the One becomes dual.
No escape… Up and down. Darkness and lightness. In and out. Right and left. Male and female. Seen and unseen…
Welcome to the club. No dues. No committee meetings. Just reverence.
Until next month, allow me to invoke the exalted spirit of Chief Hale Makua, my great Hawaiian friend… and with his blessing (and his words), I extend to each of you the Light and the Love of the Ancestors, The Source of Life, rejoicing in the Power and the Peace, braided with the cords of Patience, revealing the tapestry of the strongest force in the Universe… your Aloha.
With warm thoughts—Dr Hank
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Dr. Hank Wesselman, P.h.D
Anthropologist, Shamanic Teacher, Healer, & Author
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Dr Hank Wesselman PhD., holds advanced degrees in anthropology and zoology from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Since 1971, he's conducted research with an international group of scientists, exploring eastern Africa's Great Rift Valley in search of answers to the mystery of human origins--fieldwork that has allowed him to spend much of his life living and working with traditional peoples, rarely, if ever, visited by outsiders.
During this time, he has worked with many notables including Prof F. Clark Howell, Dr Don Johanson, "Lucy's" discoverer, as well as members of the famous Leakey family.
He is currently engaged in fieldwork in northern Ethiopia with the Middle Awash Research Project headed by Prof Tim White, where he is reconstructing the paleoenvironments of sites dated between four and six million years old that have yielded the fossilized remains of humanity's earliest ancestors.
Dr Wesselman has taught anthropology for the University of California at San Diego; the University of Hawai'i at Hilo's West Hawai'i campus at Kealakekua; California State University at Sacramento; American River College and Sierra College in northern California; and Kiriji Memorial College and Adeola Odutola College in Western Nigeria, where he first became interested in indigenous spiritual traditions while living among people of the Yoruba Tribe as a US Peace Corps Volunteer during the 1960s.
Dr Hank (as his students call him) is also a shaman in training, now in the 23rd year of his apprenticeship. His autobiographical trilogy Spiritwalker, Medicinemaker, and Visionseeker describes an ongoing continuum of visionary experiences that began spontaneously out in the bush of southern Ethiopia in the 1970s, resumed in Hawai'i in the 1980s, and continue to the present day.
Combining the sober objectivity of a trained scientist with a mystic's passionate search for deeper understanding, Hank's books and teachings contain revelations about the nature of reality, the self, as well as the shaman's spiritual worlds.
Since 1994, he has offered seminars and training workshops at many internationally-recognized centers such as the Esalen Institute in California, the Omega Institute near New York, and the New Millennium Institute in Hawai'i.
Hank's newest books include the Journey to the Sacred Garden: A Guide to Traveling in the Spiritual Realms, and Spirit Medicine: Healing in the Sacred Realms (co-authored with transpersonal medical practitioner and soul retrieval specialist Jill Kuykendall).
He currently serves on the advisory board of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners, is a member of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Anthropological Association, the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, and is featured in Traveling Between the Worlds: Conversations with Contemporary Shamans by Hillary S Webb.
In addition to his scientific publications, he is at work on a book about his expeditionary field experiences in Africa.
He has also written a small book for children: Little Ruth Reddingford and the Wolf.
Contact info and workshop schedule:
www.sharedwisdom.
com
email:
hw@sharedwisdom.com
Notes & Updates
from Dr.Hank
Descriptions of the workshops and presentations offered by Hank Wesselman and his wife Jill Kuykendall, as well as the website links to the centers where they will be held in 2007, are now taking form on their web site:
www.sharedwisdom.
com
Soul Catchers
I discovered, quite by accident almost 15 years ago, that I am married to a great soul catcher. My wife Jill Kuykendall was trained in the Western medical paradigm and has worked as a physiotherapist in acute care rehabilitation in hospital as well as home health settings for more than 25 years.
Today, Jill works primarily in transpersonal medicine and has a private practice devoted to soul retrieval. Clients come to her from all over the country, as well as from abroad and she is usually booked up months in advance.
Interestingly, the transpersonal nature of this work means that it is “nonlocal’ and is just as effective when done long-distance, revealing that Jill can still do the work on behalf of those who cannot travel to meet with her in her office.
Jill is the co-author with me of Spirit Medicine and wrote the chapters on soul loss, soul retrieval and more. As you may be aware, we have a website <www.sharedwisdom.
com> where Jill has a page describing the nature of her work in soul retrieval.
For those interested, there are also two hour-long interviews with me posted on the Broadband Learning Channel <www.bblc.tv>, one of which is focused upon health, illness and healing the soul in the indigenous perspective.
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