Parapsychology - Who Was Frater Achad?

 

Charles Stansfeld Jones (1886–1950), a British magician and novelist who resided in Cana cay and formed the Fellowship of Ma-Ion, used this mystical name.

He was a disciple of the magician Aleister Crowley, who named him his magical child.

Jones is to be differentiated from theosophical writer George Graham Price, who channeled two popular writings under the alias Frater Achad, Melchizedek Truth Principles (1963) and Ancient Mystical WhiteBrotherhood (1971).

Apart from channeling the two works, nothing is known about Price's life.

Bonner, Margerie Lowry said that while working on Under the Volcano, he started to research the theosophists' canon, which included P.D. Ouspensky, Swedenborg, Blake, James, Böhme, and Yeats, as well as A.E. Waite, Eliphas Levi, Madame Blavatsky, and, by chance, Frater Achad. 

Charles Stansfeld-Jones – a white magician and author of Cabbalistic books and treatises under the name Frater Achad – appeared at Lowry's Dollarton shack and began a long friendship with him, during which time Lowry experimented with astral body projection, the I Ching, and Yoga, and studied the Tree of Life, a reproduction of which was hung on a wall in the shack. 

Lowry discontinued his research after months of immersion for fear of "opening doors that should stay locked." [Originally published in Perle Epstein's The Private Labyrinth of Malcolm Lowry. 

Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, New York, 1969.] While Lowry finished the first draft of Under the Volcano in 1940 before meeting Stansfeld-Jones, he subsequently claimed that he met a Cabbalist at a "critical and serendipitous time in the composition of the novel." Since the receiving of the Book of the Law, Achad has been regarded as the most notable Catholic Thelemite. 

This is because Frater Achad converted to Roman Catholicism in 1928, 19 years after entering the A.A. as a Probationer. 

Achad's claim to fame as a Thelemite—and the reason orthodox Thelemites must contend with him even if they believe his curious researches are mistaken or dangerous—is that he discovered the qabalistic "key" to the Book of the Law, prompting Aleister Crowley to rename the book Liber AL vel Legis instead of Liber Legis. 

This finding was recounted in Achad's magical notebook, Liber 31, which was eventually released. 

Crowley used this insight to consecrate Achad as his magical son, as prophesied in the Book of the Law, and to acknowledge his claim to the Thelemic grade of Magister Templi, or "Babe of the Abyss." However, by the 1920s, Crowley had become disillusioned with his son and successor due to some Achad writings. 

Achad's experiment with changing the courses of the qabalistic Tree of Life was documented in his 1922 Q.B.L.; or the Bride's Reception. 

The Egyptian Revival, published in 1923, and The Anatomy of the Body of God, published in 1925, continued Achad's work. 

To put it plainly, Crowley thought such attempts were foolish. 

Achad was also a member of the Worldwide Brotherhood, an esoteric group that claimed to share universal religious and philosophical knowledge, as well as a "true transcript" of the objective cosmos, by this time. 

Many occultists, including Crowley, thought the convoluted UB system was a "scam" or, worse, a cover for the Catholic Church's infiltration of occult organizations (for more on the UB, see the recent article in the O.T.O. anthology Success is Your Proof). 

Many high-ranking members of the UB converted to Catholicism when it was founded by Merwin-Marie Snell, a Catholic comparative religion professor. 

Crowley and Achad ultimately lost communication, and Achad was expelled from the Order of the Temple. 

Jones, on the other hand, never stopped thinking about his status as Crowley's magical offspring, and Thelema's revelations remained a major element of his spiritual worldview. 

Following Crowley's death, Achad corresponded with Crowley's executor Gerald Yorke in a lengthy series of letters. 

The letters "announced the arriving of the Aeon of Maat" in April 1948, and "from this point onwards the communication contains information recording the development of the new Aeon which Jones had discovered, and exploring its consequences and implications," according to Starfire. 

An Aeon is governed by a central spiritual idea or formula as well as the god-form that personifies that idea, according to Crowley's Thelemic system. 

It lasts about 2,000 years (coinciding with the precession of the equinoxes) and is ruled by a central spiritual idea or formula as well as the god-form that personifies that idea. 

The Aeon of Horus, which began in 1904 with Crowley's receiving of Liber AL vel Legis, is controlled by Horus, the god's crowned and victorious offspring, and will last for thousands of years. 

Yet, like Achad, some unconventional Thelemites have accepted the possibility of a premature dawning of the Aeon of Maat—for example, Kenneth Grant in his Typhonian Trilogies, the Thelemic magical order Ordo Adeptorum Invisiblum, and Nema, whose received text Liber Pennae Penumbra and system of Maat magick is perhaps the most influential result of Maatian speculations. 

The greatest description of these modern currents in theoretical occultism is Don Karr's book Approaching the Kabbalah of Maat. 

Despite the fact that Achad's announcement of the Aeon of Maat influenced a number of important occultist researchers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, his Maatian revelation does not appear to follow from his books, his Catholic conversion, or his involvement with (and eventual leadership of) the UB. 

To truly comprehend the importance of an early Aeon of Truth and Justice—the spiritual concepts symbolized by the god-form of Maat—one must first understand the qabalistic implications of Achad's 1920s views. 

Among early twentieth-century occultists, Achad is possibly the most pro-materialist. 

Unlike many Gnostics, Neo-Buddhists, and Theosophists of the time, Achad believes in a material universe infused with spirit—sacramentally infused, if you will. 

This is in line with the Universal Brotherhood's philosophical realism principles. 

It also corresponds to Achad's extreme qabalistic theories. 

Unlike other qabalists, Achad's multifaceted image of the Tree of Life's primeval fall and eschatological restoration resembles a cosmic fulfillment process rather than a myth of transgression and forgiveness. 

This is something he shares with the modernist Catholic thinkers of his day. 

Idealism and Materialism must join and go hand in hand if a new Civilization is to be established, argues Achad in The Anatomy of the Body of God. 

The Soul of Humanity is the connection that binds everything together. 

Our physical bodies are nothing to be ashamed of, but they would be useless without the Spirit and Will that give them life and action. 

On the other hand, we should not be so timid and selfish as to want to be re-absorbed into Spirit, as if the whole Creative Plan had been a waste of time and should have never been undertaken in the first place. 

No! Let us offer gratitude in our hearts for both our bodies and our spirits, and let us use both properly and to the full extent of our abilities. 

Over the course of the 1920s, Achad's writings became more oriented on the immanent fulfillment of God's Kingdom, a perspective that would be dubbed "realized eschatology" in Christian theology. 

"We must take into the inheritance of Freedom that has been provided for us in the Father's Kingdom upon Earth," says Anatomy, "and begin to construct a 'Living Temple, not created with hands, everlasting in the Heavens'—on Earth." The rousing proclamation, There is a space reserved for every one of you, Here and Now, finishes the book's introduction. 

Everything has its place when everything is placed in its place. 

Take up your positions in the Kingdom of the Ever-Coming Son, fulfill yourself in the fulfillment of God's Will inside you, and demonstrate to those who are still in the dark outside that there is space for everyone who are willing to maintain their place and stop attempting to usurp others'. 

Frater Achad's knowledge of the approaching Kingdom of God is based on his interpretation of Qabalah's cosmic processes. 

In the orthodox Thelemic schema, the Egyptian deity forms Isis—Osiris—Horus correlate to Binah—Kether-Chokmah—and Tiphereth, respectively. 

Malkuth, the Material Kingdom, is represented by Maat, who completes the four-part sequence. 

The four letters of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, IHVH—Osiris (I), Isis (H), Horus (V), with Maat (final H) completing the sequence—can also be ascribed to the Aeons. 

In most texts on Hermetic Qabalah, the letters of the Tetragrammaton fulfill a cosmic story. 

The fallen Daughter (Heh final) must combine with the Son (Vav) to ascend to the level of Heh prime, establishing the Daughter/Malkuth on the throne of Binah, the Mother, in order to restore the Tree of Life to its pre-Fall condition (Heh prime). 

The Mother then "arouses the active power of THE FATHER, and these twain being UNITED, everything is RE-ABSORBED into THE CROWN," as Achad describes in Q.B.L. 

As a result of Malkuth's union with Kether, the eschatological kingdom is realized on Earth, fulfilling God's goal for creation. 

The salvation economy of Mary, a Daughter of Israel and child of the earth, conceiving the Son, the Christos, by the Holy Spirit, then being joined with God the Father in her Coronation as the Mother of Heaven, may be expressed in the Catholic system. 

Through the inbreaking of the eschatological Kingdom in the event of Jesus Christ, the Son's Incarnation thus redeems Malkuth's material world—represented in miniature by Mary. 

Through the Eucharistic Mass, Catholics engage in this reality—the eschaton made manifest here and now in fulfillment of God's design. 

Many orthodox Thelemites have proposed bizarre explanations for why Frater Achad would ever switch to the Roman Church, including insanity, a desire to convert the Church to Thelema's Law, or being lost in the Abyss as a Black Brother. 

Achad, on the other hand, offers a different reason for his strange conversion: Achad needed to be escorted to the Temple's opposite Pillar in order to discover the secrets of the R[oman] Catholic Church. 

He joined the Church as an orthodox member and obtained his first communion during Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, 1928. 

This step, and only this step, resulted in the start of the Initiations and Ordeals that were to follow, as per Liber Legis. 

(Jones, letter to Gerald Yorke and Albert Handel, May 6, 1948; cited in Hymenaeus Beta, Prolegomenon to Aleister Crowley's Liber Aleph, Second Edition, Hymenaeus Beta, Prolegomenon to the Second Edition, Hymenaeus Beta, Prolegomenon to the Second Edition, Hymenaeus Beta, Prolegomenon to the Second Edition, Hymenaeus Beta, Pro Achad was poised to herald the beginning of the Aeon of Truth and Justice—the eschatological Kingdom realized on earth, glyphed in esoteric terms by the goddess Maat and glyphed in the New Testament by St. John the Divine's vision of the New Jerusalem: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, since the previous heaven and earth had vanished, and the sea had vanished as well. 

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending down from God like a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:1-3) This is the banquet for the bride—the New Jerusalem has come down to earth, the divine has become one with the mundane world. 

"Jones relayed the news of his 1932 Silver Star Ordeal not only to Crowley, but also to the Catholic Church," states Hymenaeus Beta. 

Achad considered his initiations into this new New Aeon as vital to both the occult world and the Catholic Church. 

"He came to believe that the Aeon of Horus was coming to an end, and that a new Aeon of Truth and Justice, ruled by the Egyptian goddess Maat (or Ma), was about to begin." Achad's conversion allowed him to participate in the Church's sacramental life. 

This implies he took part in the Eucharist, with his first Mass being the Christmas 1928 Mass commemorating the Incarnation. 

For Catholics, the Eucharist is the eschatological reality bursting into our current moment, the Kingdom of God made visible on earth. 

The Eucharist is "a guarantee of future grandeur," according to the Catholic Church's Catechism, "a foretaste of the celestial feast to come" (CCC 1323). 

The Aeon of Maat is a "backwards current," granting us a vision of an age in which "we all may become something far greater, something which exists in the form of seeds within us in the eternal Now" (Horus/Maat Lodge FAQ page), much like the inbreaking Kingdom of God, which rushes in from the future to meet us in the present (see, for example, radical Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx's God the Future of Man). 

Unlike other non-orthodox Thelemites who believe in a "double current" in which both the Aeons of Horus and Maat are active at the same time, or those who believe that the Aeon of Maat will arrive too soon to replace the Aeon of Horus, my reading of Frater Achad through the lens of the Catholic Mass suggests that the new Aeon of Truth and Justice is present in the present at the same time as the "force and fire" of the Aeon The Mother's Daughter ascends to the throne, the Father awakens, and the Son of God is born among the people of the world. 

"Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is in Kether," Frater Achad declares.

Further Reading:

Achad, Frater [Charles Stansfeld Jones]. The Anatomy of the Body of God. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1969.

Achad, Frater [George Graham Price]. Ancient Mystical White Brotherhood. Lakemont, Ga.: CSA Press, 1971.

Melchizedek Truth Principles. Phoenix, Ariz.: Lockhart Research Foundation, 1963.

~ Kiran Atma

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Pagan Religions - What Is APAP (APOPHIS)?

 

 

 

The Serpent of Evil is a symbol for evil. 

The Solar Boat transports the divine slayers of Apap in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. 

• Apap is known as the 'Devourer of Souls,' since he is made out of soulless substance. 

• Horus is shown slaying Apap on many monuments, aided by a multitude of dog-headed gods. Take a look at Apep.

You may also want to refer to my Comprehensive list of World Pagan Religious Terms And Concepts.

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Pagan Religions - Who Are The AMENTI?

 

In Egyptian theology, Ament was the abode of four governing spirits known as the Amenti. Anubis takes the soul into the sun's fall subterranean area, where it is judged by 42 judges and either sent to Aaru or condemned to torment. 

• The four genii, or Amenti, Horus' children are the man-headed Amseti (south), the dog-headed Hapi (north), the ape-headed Tuamutef (east), and the hawk-headed Kebhsenuf.

You may also want to refer to my Comprehensive list of World Pagan Religious Terms And Concepts.

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Paganism & Wicca - What Are Animal Gods, Familiars And Shape-Changing?

One of the most significant differences between modern neo Pagans and Peoples of the Book Jews, Christians, and Muslims is their belief in the divinity of both human and animal existence. 

Instead, all animals, including humans, are in the image of the gods or (in certain cultures) are gods themselves, "animals" are not always considered as "inferior life-forms," as they are in those faiths. Pagans' relationships with the natural world differ to some degree. 

Some Neo-Pagans believe that nature is there to be harvested, but that humans owe the spirits of animals and plants a deliberate gesture of gratitude for their contributions. 

• Many, if not all, forms of life, according to Others, have their own intellect and integrity, and should be produced as colleagues and companions, and in some cases as instructors. 

• Men wrapped in animal skins, presumably practicing shamanic or hunting magic, are portrayed in Neolithic cave paintings as the earliest known magical working between humans and ocher animals.

• Dances, songs, and folktales depict the activities and adventures of significant animal species such as the bear, raven, owl, wolf, and fox, from the inuit of the Arctic Circle to the Ainu, the oldest seti people on the Japanese islands. 

• In one Ainu ceremony, the ladies wear blankets dyed to look like crows and do a line dance to the accompaniment of drums and chant. 

• The Ainu are also the only surviving bear cultists, who worshiped a female bear deity and drank from her skull during holy ceremonies until modern times. 

• The shaman's capacity to take animal shape, seek the assistance of an animal friend, or co-share consciousness with an animal enables him to see and hear the world from the ground, the air, and under the sea. 

• Wiccans and Asatru who use traditional lion trance techniques frequently report that their spirit guides take the form of animals, and many will "shape-change" during their spirit journeys, allowing them co fly and swim, as well as walk and run, in their search for hidden knowledge. 

• Animal companions that bring good fortune or bad fortune are a global occurrence. 

• A folk tale about a supernatural fish who bestows good or ill wishes on a fisherman is an example of an animal aid. 

• A shape-shifting chase between a goddess and her "prey" in a British ballad recalls an incident in the Mabinogian in which Cerridwen (or Caridwin) chases Gwion Bach for stealing a magical brew meant for another, bestowing upon him the power of animal language and, after his transformation into Tales and poetry. 

• Many deities in Norse mythology have animal forms as well as animal companions. 

• Skadhi, a mountain giantess, could transform into a hawk, her father Thiazy into an eagle, and Freya, a Vanic goddess, into a falcon. 

• Lieu cooks on an eagle in Celtic mythology, whereas other goddesses are associated with horses or swans. 

• Because of their nocturnal habits, quiet flying, and spooky night cry, owls were linked with wisdom as a symbol of the Greek goddesses Athena and Demeter, but also with death or sorcery by many peoples. 

• Many gods and goddesses that wandered the battlefield, like as the Irish Morrigan, were linked with ravens and crows, which scavenge on dead flesh. Snakes have long been emblems of feminine knowledge and strength, from the Minoan snake goddess of Knossos to the Nagas of India. 

• Pagan religion also includes fish, amphibians, arachnids, and insects. A salmon is a sign of knowledge in Celtic mythology. 

• Toads have been revered for their toxic and hallucinogenic secretions, frogs have been respected for their metamorphosis from toadpoles, spiders have been venerated for their ability to spin, and scarabs (dung beetles) have been venerated for their ability to emerge out of trash. 

• Freya was believed to ride in a cat-drawn wagon. Goddesses and cats, on the other hand, have a lengthy history. 

• The statue of a mountain goddess discovered in C::atal Hilyilk and dated to about 6000 B.C.S. is thought to be Cybele or a comparable proto-goddess; it depicts the goddess surrounded by two lions. Juno's chariot was drawn by the Lions. 

• Only two of the deities who were known as Lady of the Beasts and protectors of all animals were Astarte and Artemis. 

• To entice Europa, the Greek deity Zeus assumed the shape of a bull. 

• The Templars were accused of worshiping Baphomet, a goat-headed god associated with the Christian Satan. 

• As Paganism started its contemporary resurgence in the early twentieth century, Pan, the goat-footed deity, was rediscovered and replaced Diana as the main male and female deities. 

• Stag gods are said to have originated in prehistoric Britain and Europe, but the rituals of the hunter and the hunted, who was both a god of fertility and a god of death, were carried on as rural pageants into the medieval and early modern eras. 

Many Egyptian gods and goddesses were animals, either by birth or by agreement. 

• Their animal­ human essence was linked, and it is a testament to the unification of mankind and all of nature, which was ingrained in both Egyptian religion and everyday life in ancient Egypt. 
• The most well-known Egyptian animal goddesses are undoubtedly Bast, the cat-headed goddess of the household, and her wilder sister, Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess. 
• Ta-urc, the hip­popotamus goddess of birthing and fertility, and Sebek, the crocodile deity of protection and retribution, as well as funerary and pharaonic deities like Tahuti ibis), Anubis jackal), and Horus (falcon), were prominent to every Egyptian deities. In many parts of the globe, cats are the foundation of wealth. 
• As a result, it's not unexpected that cows and bulls have been integrated into religious beliefs. 
• The primordial cow Audhumla licked the first man free from a block of salty ice, according to Norse mythology. Hathor, the Egyptian deity, is shown wearing a cow-horn headpiece. 
• The Apis bull was an early Egyptian fertility deity with solar and chthonic characteristics, and holy bulls were slaughtered and mummified in his honor. 

Modern-day Wiccans have resurrected the Sacred Stag and his foliate form, the Green Man, as emblems of the masculine essence, replacing Pan. 

• Pigs and boars were the main sacrifice animals for the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece, and they represented a variety of goddesses and gods from India to Egypt to Ireland (see Mystery Religions). 

• Dogs were linked with the virgin huntress Diana, a Roman goddess. Cerberus, a three-headed hound, guarded the Greek underworld. 

• However, throughout the Middle Ages, dogs, particularly black canines, were linked with the Christian Satan. 

• An intoxicated sacristan dedicated to the Virgin Mary was stumbling out of the basement to go to church when he was accosted by a bull, a dog, and a lion, according to a twelfth-century tale. 

• In each instance, a female with a white handkerchief drove the animals away till the chef the sacristan was finally rucked into bed. 

It was thought that witches maintained familiars, or creatures that clung to their bid­ clings, throughout the Middle Ages and early modern era. 

• Fear of a lady or man who could speak with animals and didn't follow the Christian taboo that separated people from all other creatures often resulted in the death of the individual and his or her animal companion. 

• Much of the wanton cruelty to vehicles and dogs that animal rights organizations are fighting today likely started with these slaughters. 

• While owls, crows or ravens, hens, and a wide variety of ocher animals are often thought of as witches' familiars, witches have been known to connect with owls, crows or ravens, hens, and a broad variety of ocher animals. 

• To create a familiar, the witch would traditionally allow the animal companion to nurse from her or taste a drop of her blood, forming a mother-­child connection with her animal companion. 
• Animals may have been revered as gods or symbols of gods, but they were also sacrifices in ancient times. 

• They were sometimes simply slaughtered in a ceremonial manner—for example, to worship Cattle on their journey to the butcher's shop—but more frequently they were given in blood rituals to honor a deity or to send a message to a god in the Otherworld. 

• Huge cemeteries filled of mummified vehicles, ibises, hawks, and other creatures provide silent witness to the temple business of animal sacrifice. 

Modern Pagans and Wiccans see animals as having souls, and therefore regard their lives as holy in the same way that human life is revered. 

• The death of a beloved pet cat, dog, or snake may be just as painful for many neo-Pagans as the death of a human relative, and some Pagan periodicals include "in memoriam" sections where both two-footed and non-two-footed family members can be remembered. 

• Many Witches take pleasure in vehicle herding, or at least mutual feline-human respect, and Polk traditions like as horse whispering have been extended to encompass communication with a range of nonhuman people. 

• Human and nonhuman per­ son connection and mutual respect are essential elements in the preservation of the numerous species that are threatened today, according to most neo-Pagans.

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Shamanic Heart, Altered Perception And Consciousness - Dismemberment, Visions, and Near Death Experiences

Dismemberment, Visions, and Near Death Experiences are examples of extreme altered states of consciousness. Taking the changing of brain processes a step further, we reach a world of changed states that seem to be beyond our usual state-shifting ability. 

As viewed by Eliade (1964), Harner (1982), and others, the shamanic trip, or'shaman's flight,' takes him beyond the body into the quantum world of 'All there is.' 

Shamans, particularly traditional ones, acquire an extraordinary capacity to change their moods in significant ways, as far as I can tell. 

Dismemberment experiences, visions, and near-death experiences are the closest we can get to imagining and describing such radically changed states. 

• Shamans who have had extensive training in order to experience and acquaint themselves with such states seem to be able to not only control and operate inside such states, but also to re-experience them at will. 

• They also seem to recall events that occurred while in such altered states, which is not usually the case when humans enter profound trance states. 

• The shaman's method of seeing and defining the world and operating within it is informed by these profound trance states, as well as the wisdom and learning that comes from investigating 'All there is' in this way. 

• As a result, it's crucial to take a quick look at severely altered state events including dismemberments, visions, and near-death experiences. I'll do so based on my own experiences as well as research. 

Dismemberment 

For the most of my adult life, I've been engaged in 'altered state experiences.' When I was younger and living in ashrams in India, I started my search for them. 

Since then, I've practiced Vipassana meditation and mindfulness on and off, attended numerous spiritual groups, seminars, and trainings, apprenticed to shamans in South and North America, and had clinical hypnosis training, which I've taught for many years. 

I experienced altered state experiences that showed me the critical distinction between imagination and vision. 

I had moments of utter terror that revealed the depths of the human darkness, as well as ones of utter joy that led to enlightenment. 

I had an early, terrifying experience of dismemberment and subsequently, a near-death experience. Both of them made an indelible impression on me. 

• In my mid-twenties, I had a terrifying experience in India. I took part in a Vipassana meditation group for seven days, during which we meditated for 10 hours a day, observed our breath, and practiced awareness. 
• Meditations were only broken up by the consumption of rice and vegetables, as well as contemplative walks. 
• After months of eating a limited diet and participating in different spiritual activities to purify my body and mind, I awoke one night and was instantly overwhelmed by an experience that seemed very genuine and began without warning. 
• I began to shatter into many, many pieces, then reassembled; then I was blasted apart again, then reassembled, and so on. 
• I'm not sure how long this went on for; it might have been a long time, since light was breaking when I recovered control. 
• I vividly recall how terrified I was at the time. It was tough for me to think logically. It seemed as though I had lost control of my mind. Whatever was going on with my body was occurring without my being able to stop it. 
• Parts of me raced across the cosmos at breakneck speed, returning without my being able to feel that I was being reassembled properly. 
• My legs were in the wrong position; I was missing pieces of myself; I was very cold, then tremendously hot. I was likewise unable to converse. 
• I recall attempting to get up but falling backwards and laying on my back, unable to move any of my muscles and wanting to get up. 
• My whole body felt paralyzed. I was still splintering into a thousand pieces visually, and all I could feel was dread. I began to shake at one point. 
• My heart was racing, and I knew I was having a panic attack somewhere in the back of my mind (I had never had one before). 
• My arms were trembling as I attempted to move them. Tears streamed down my cheeks, which was the first sign that my face wasn't being torn to shreds as it flew through space. I attempted to take deep breaths and concentrate on recovering my voice in order to wake someone up, but it was in vain. 
• We were in a dormitory, and after what seemed like an eternity and for no apparent reason, the girl on the bed next to me appeared to feel that something was amiss. 1 She approached me and inquired about my well-being. Still shaking and unable to talk, I shook my head, but realized I was responding properly to her inquiry. 
• This understanding, along with some very calming visions of light whirls all about me, appeared to gradually bring me back to a more normal state of awareness. 
• The girl went to fetch the meditation leader, who sat with me for a time, rubbing my right arm softly, explaining, and soothingly talking to me. 
• My "left brain" was finally engaged, and I was able to respond to questions in monosyllabic form. My heart rate decreased, and the sensation of my body breaking faded away. 
• I sipped some sweet tea and fell asleep after feeling someone cover me with the saree that had fallen off the bed. I awoke weak and in agony in the afternoon, as if all of my muscles had been stretched and exposed to new activity. 

This was my first time being in an uncontrollable, profoundly changed condition. I had no prior experience with dismemberment at the time. 

I just knew this wasn't a "dream" in the traditional sense, but it did get more dreamy as the intensity of the experience waned, with strangely calming light and vibrations whirling about. 

Nonetheless, I couldn't place it in any perspective at the time, other than to say that something was different thereafter. I grew more confident in myself, and although I became more conscious of the body's fragility and the mind's power, I felt overall stronger and, more significantly, less frightened, more focused, and more grateful of my existence following the experience. 

Although my experience appears minor in comparison to most stories, I would now categorize it as a dismemberment experience, a symbolic metamorphosis play, as recounted in many mythical traditions. 

• Dionysus was ripped apart by the Titans in Greek mythology, but his heart was saved by Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. The Egyptian story of Osiris, the king who was dismembered and supernaturally revived to produce his son Horus, depicts this scenario. 

• The Inuit Indians of the Arctic commemorate Takanakapsaluk, the dismembered goddess whose many unconnected pieces gave shape to all marine animals, while the world itself was formed out of the goddess Tlaltecuhtli's fragmented parts in pre-Aztec mythology. 

• Siberian shamans viewed dismemberment as an important part of initiation, and is well recognized for bringing "ecstatic trance postures" to our attention. 

• The archetype's universality, many Westerners who had spontaneous dismemberment visions were always destined to be healers of some kind. 

• Shamans have frequently been critically ill and have suffered greatly for longer periods of time while undergoing their bio-psychic transformation, which culminates in a dismemberment experience that represents a turning point of change towards a spiritual state of being. 

Our primal anxieties are triggered by dismemberment experiences. 

Dismemberment, at its most fundamental level, dismantles our previous identity; it removes the superfluous, the dispossessed, and the disjointed, forcing us to confront the naked core. 

Knowing who we really are is the remedy for amputation. 

After a dismemberment experience, our sense of who we are, our self-concept, changes dramatically, and transformational processes of this magnitude, assist us in transforming our consciousness by assisting us in synthesizing the fragmented, separated parts of our psyche into a harmonious whole, regaining that original unity at the core of our being. 

Because this is the shaman's job, he has to go through it personally.

Joan Halifax discusses the shaman as a healed healer, a person who has gone through a personal change, recovering the shattered parts of his or her body and mind and integrating various levels of existence, in similar words. 

Indigenous traditional shamans are known for their ability to integrate the mind, body, and soul with the soul and spirit, the ordinary with the extraordinary, the individual with the community, and nature with the unseen, the historical with the mystical, and the past with the future and present. 

Visions & Visualization During a Vision Quest

Here I had my first ‘real' vision, something that was more than just a visualization in a trance. 

• Of course, visualizations change our condition, but they are usually more powerful when the individual is already in an altered state when they are asked to picture something. 

• Visualizations may be very stunning when a person is visually oriented and in a profound altered state. 
• If the individual is not visually oriented, the experience becomes more of a ‘sensing' one.

• Visualizations seem to be within our control, in the sense that we can make them go away, alter them, or move on from them, and they are always affected and set up by the original purpose, whether they be memories, visual trips, archetypal pictures, or symbols. 

A vision is unique. 

• It comes out of nowhere, with no warning, and it has a distinct quality. 
• It's simply there, and its intensity extends far beyond what can be seen. It made me feel as though I were enchanted. 
• I couldn't have altered the vision, moved on, or impacted it in any way. It wasn't anything I'saw,' but rather something that took control. 
• It also came with an insight that wasn't an idea or a picture. 
• The realization arrived in the form of a feeling of "total knowledge." 

My life was transformed by the image. I'll never know if the decision I made based on the vision was the correct one or not, but it seemed like I had no option but to act on the insight the vision provided. 

• I haven't had many visions, but I learnt the difference between a vision and a visualization, and I realized that we can experience much more than we allow ourselves to, and that those types of experiences have a significant effect on how we view the world and ourselves within it. 

• When I got the opportunity to study with an Ecuadorian shaman, he told me about a vision that had profoundly altered his life. 

• He saw the vision while meditating and connecting with a spirit at his "power spot," which was a lake at the base of one of the mountains with which he works. 

• He saw himself instructing the Eagle's people in his vision. Educating the people of the Eagle, in his opinion, meant teaching those from North America. 

• He had never met anybody from North America at the time of this vision, but he knew he would have to honor the vision when the time came, and, as these things go in the linked world, people started to come to visit him and he began to teach them his healing techniques a few years later.

• It's fascinating how he handled the location where he had his vision. 

• He makes pilgrimages there, treating the lake's water as holy and using the herbs and plants that grow there for healing. 

• When he works, he visualizes and connects with the location of his vision, particularly when he works with non-indigenous people, he leaves offerings for the spirits of the land. 

Visions are life-changing events. 

Black Elk, a Lakota, is without a doubt the most well-known shamanic vision.

• Black Elk Speaks (Neidhardt 1988), a book by Neidhardt that was originally published in 1932 and has since been reprinted many times (with a new Kindle version currently available), is a revelation. 

• I highly suggest it because it not only depicts the deep insights and foresights that shaped Black Elk into the great visionary, healer, and amazing man that he was, but it also recounts the medicine man and shaman Black Elk's successive visions and the price he paid. 

• He had his first vision when he was four years old, and during his second vision, when he was approximately nine years old, he was ill for 12 days, unconscious and battling death. 

• The six grandfathers appeared in his vision, symbolizing the West, South, North, East, Sky, and Earth. Each of them gave him abilities and showed him how the world worked. 

• He was shown a lot, and he later recounts his "weirdness" to his own people, as well as his inability to put into words the pictures, emotions, and words given to him, which he vividly recalled.

• There are also accounts of other tribal members recalling the transformation of the nine-year-old boy, who fell sick as a child and grew up to become a grandpa. 

Black Elk, like all great visionaries, had to act on his visions; he had to endure the agony, as well as the grandeur and wisdom that comes with such deep state shifts, and, as far as I can tell, much of what he predicted came true. 

Near-Death Experiences 

NDEs are transformational because they alter our perception of who we are, our self-image, and, in most instances, our view of the world, according to a large body of research.

• We can't comprehend shamanism without considering the concept of death and rebirth. 
• NDEs are the closest we can go to imagining their experiences, so I'll go through everything we know about them quickly. 
• NDEs have been shown to have transformational consequences. 
• They seem to alter people's self-perceptions, sense of identity, and worldviews. 
• Shamans who intentionally travel through them will always have a perspective of the world that is beyond ordinary, manifested reality. 

There is a growing body of people who talk about transcendental experiences of their consciousness travelling into realms that are beyond the boundaries of the body, from Jung's account in his book Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1961) to the accounts collected by Kübler-Ross (1997) and Moody (2001), who compared 150 NDEs. 

They typically describe exiting the body and entering the light. NDEs are transformative in terms of worldview and attitudes because people often evaluate their life, feel euphoric and serene, and occasionally have spirit beings about them. 

Van Lommel, a renowned cardiologist at Arnhem's Rijnstate Hospital, is one of the most recent specialists to challenge our understanding of consciousness. 

• He confronts us with evidence that seems to confirm that consciousness is not encapsulated by the boundaries of the physical brain in his highly acclaimed book Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (2010), citing that 18% (62 patients) of 344 cardiac arrest survivors had recollections of events that occurred during the time they were clinically dead. 

• He also mentions additional findings in a report given to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, such as an American study of 116 survivors, of which 10% had recollections during the time of cardiac arrest. 

The majority of the patients described NDE-like experiences, such as being aware of being dead, feeling very happy, traveling down a tunnel, interacting with departed relatives, being out of the body, encountering "the light," and/or having a life review. 

• Van Lommel conducted a two-year and eight-year follow-up research to determine if the "change in attitude toward life and death after an NDE is the consequence of experiencing an NDE or the result of cardiac arrest itself". 

• The outcomes were as expected: following a time of consolidation, those patients who experienced an NDE exhibited no dread of death, a strong belief in a hereafter, and a shift in their perspective on what matters in life. 

• Love and compassion for oneself, others, and nature had taken hold, and they displayed heightened intuitive abilities. 

• Like Raymond Moody and others before him, Van Lommel examines all of the proposed hypotheses, particularly those of a physiological and neurophysiological character, and concludes that the "unproven" premise that consciousness and memory are located in the brain should be addressed. 

• He also concludes (and I'll return to this point later) that there is a solid case for awareness being experienced in another realm beyond death. 

• Alternatively, in his words, "the finding that consciousness may be experienced independently of brain activity may possibly cause a major shift in the scientific paradigm of western medicine". 

Before we can appreciate shamanism, we must first recognize that extreme altered state experiences of this type inform the shamanic state of consciousness, and that the major cognitive shifts that occur during dismemberment experiences, visions, and, especially, NDEs, lead to major shifts in how we see ourselves and the world around us. 

As research continues, it appears that brain functions can be permanently altered, and that traditional shamans, as well as some contemporary shamanic practitioners, exhibit the characteristics of seekers who practice spiritual approaches, such as caring for others, decreased materialism, lack of fear of death, profoundly different worldviews, and awakenment.

You may also want to read more about Shamanism here.

Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.