SCIENCE and RELIGION: BELIEF vs EXPERIENCE

Atoms, Dark Energy, the Big Bang, Evolution - these are some of the multitude of beliefs about the nature of the world that Science presents us with. I say beliefs because they are not objects or processes we see with our own two eyes. They are not unreasonable beliefs, but they are beliefs nonetheless. On a popular level, which means most of the time, these beliefs are, however, blind because they are hearsay. Our certainty in them lies in our acceptance of the authority that generates these beliefs.

Miracles, to be taken seriously by the Church as evidence for Sainthood, need to have witnesses. They therefore concern experience rather than belief. Many aspects of religion involve the experience of something Other, something Numinous that uplifts and connects and gives meaning. Don't get me wrong, there is no shortage of blind belief to be found in religion, but it is far from the one-way street that Scientism would have it.

Shamanism at its best concerns experience rather than belief, whether it is through the mysterious way in which heartfelt prayers are answered; or the realisation that the world around us is alive and conscious; or the tangibility of energy in healing work, and the visibility of the results.

Shamanism is a way that keeps us close to experience and to direct knowledge. Our distancing from that by the greater authority of Science is the great modern disempowerment. We cannot easily see it because we are in it, spellbound by the idea that these modern priests know how the world 'really' works, and intimidated by their seemingly irrefutable equations and evidence. But it is just another set of beliefs. If it wasn't Science, it would be something else, because large societies seem to need collective beliefs for their own stability. It is not a conspiracy, rather it reflects a collective desire.

Far better to prioritise our own experience over belief. It keeps us close to who we are, and what else is life about? Without this closeness we are lost. It is not for everyone. I don't think it matters too much how we conceptualise our experience, it is the rigidity with which we hold those ideas that is the issue. I think the health of a large society is inversely related to the rigidity of its collective beliefs. 

Our job is to sit at the edge and to soften those rigidities, and to open up for people, to remind people of the delicious path of direct experience, and the re-empowerment that accompanies that. The true human being who is not reliant on others for knowledge, but trusts that source from within.

Shamanism as Direct Experience vs Shamanism as Religion

"Few are happy living according to the postmodern stance of a world without absolute references. This position works for a shaman, however, because he is a rarity in the context of a traditional society. The majority of Native people live with a structured set of ideas, within which life is simple and meaning is rather fixed and concrete. The shaman lives in a different world from his people - this is what gives him a clear vision of what to do for those who are stuck somewhere in their lives." (Coyote Medicine by Lewis Mehl-Madrona p164)

This is why religion has always occurred. In my Buddhist youth, it was observable that Buddhism in the UK had divided itself up into a number of large groupings, all governed by a relatively fixed and particular set of ideas. It is the yogis and heretics and shamans who have the ability to make their own direct connection to the absolute, to spirit, and to live from that.

So we shouldn't be surprised when we see shamanism dividing itself up in this way into groupings of teachers and followers, all with perhaps relatively fixed, even narrow ways of seeing shamanism. And with teachers who maybe think too highly of themselves. And Facebook shamanic groups too. It is just what happens. 

I think it's good to point out the narrowness, but not to waste too much energy fighting it. It is kind of inevitable, and often serves a purpose. For some Shamanism-as-religion gives psychological stability, for others it can be a stepping stone to shamanism-as-direct-experience. And it is often precisely by giving our power away to a teacher - putting his/her judgement before our own as a matter of 'respect' and 'high regard' - that our being comes eventually to rebel and we find that power, that gold, within.

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