AWAKENING TO THE SPIRIT: THE SHAMANIC PATH OF DIRECT REVELATION

excerpt:

THE NEW SPIRITUAL COMPLEX

The new spiritual complex that is emerging has no name as yet, nor is it focused on the teachings of some charismatic prophet, guru, or holy person. Its singular, distinguishing feature involves the realization that each of us can acquire spiritual knowledge and power ourselves, making the direct, transpersonal contact with the sacred realms that defines the shaman/visionary, without the need for any priest or religious organization to do it for us. In this manner, all people acquire the freedom to become their own teacher, their own priest, their own prophet, and they can receive their spiritual revelations directly from the highest sources—themselves.

As we engage in this ancient human experience, each of us inevitably discovers that our personal consciousness is part of a greater field of consciousness, a deep insight currently being illuminated and confirmed by quantum physics. This is the direct path of the mystic at its absolute best, one that leads the spiritual seeker into the experience of self-realization and spiritual empowerment.

It is not surprising that this new spiritual impulse seems to be integral in nature, drawing on all the world's wisdom traditions, from the East to the West, from animism to Zen. What is surprising is that right at its core a cluster of principles can be found that were embraced at one time by the world's indigenous peoples.

In approaching the idea that principles of indigenous wisdom are involved in the genesis of the new spiritual complex in the West, we are broadly concerned with the general mystical insights that were once held in common by virtually all of the traditional peoples and are thus the birthright of all. We hasten to add that modern spiritual seekers do not seem to be retreating into archaic belief systems, nor, with rare exceptions, are they interested in playing Indian or becoming born-again Aboriginals.

To the contrary, many members of the Transformational Community are seriously reconsidering the core beliefs and values once held by the traditional peoples, and right there, embedded within them all, we find the path of direct revelation.

MODERN MYSTIC BELIEFS

At its inception, the quest of the modern spiritual seeker is intensely personal. Yet as it progresses, it leads us inevitably toward a universal and ultimately altruistic perspective—one that includes a number of mystical beliefs.

For example, ongoing direct experience of the transpersonal worlds leads the seeker to an inescapable conclusion: that everything, everywhere, is interconnected, and that consciousness is the "etheric field^ through which this linkage is achieved. This is a core belief that is clearly articulated by the indigenous tribal peoples who were our distant ancestors at one end of the human continuum and at the other end by the quantum physicists and Zen Buddhists of our own time.

Another core belief of the modern mystic concerns the existence of more than one reality. In addition to the everyday, objective physical level in which we all live and have families, friends, and careers on an ongoing basis, there are the nonordinary, subjective levels of the dream worlds or spirit worlds outside the time-space continuum, where the laws of physics and cause and effect do not work in the same way.

This belief leads directly into another: the ability of some individuals to expand their conscious awareness and enter into these alternate realities with ease. This conviction that we can easily access these alternative states reveals why the rediscovery of shamanism has become a major thrust within the Transformational Community. The relative freedom with which the shaman's time-tested methods for achieving mystical states can be learned and practiced, even by nontribal Westerners, stands in stark contrast to the years of rigorous training often required in many of the contemplative disciplines such as meditation and yoga before significant consciousness shifts are achieved.

Another belief held by modern mystics is that by utilizing the shamanic method to journey into these inner worlds, the same levels that Carl Jung called the archetypal realms of the psyche, the seeker may enter into relationship with spirit allies—inner helpers, teachers, and guides who may provide the seeker with access to power and knowledge, protection and support. Among these beings one can find connection with her or his personal Higher Self, variously known as the transpersonal self, the angelic self, the god-self, the overself, or simply the oversoul.

Another related belief concerns the existence of a field of mystical power, perceived by virtually everyone as an invisible essence or vital force that is widely dispersed throughout the universe and highly concentrated in certain objects, places, and living beings. It is becoming generally understood within the movement that everyone can learn how to access, accumulate, and focus this power, and that one's health, well-being, and success in life are ultimately dependent on being able to maintain, and even increase, one's personal supply.

This awareness gives rise to the belief in the existence of a personal energy body—a subjective self-aspect that carries this power as life force and provides the "etheric pattern" or energy body around and within which the physical body is formed and maintained. The ability of some transpersonal healers to manipulate the energy body in restoring and repairing the physical body is a skill that many in the Transformational Community have personally experienced. It is believed that this energetic matrix can be perceived as an aura by those who have psychic awareness and that it can be enhanced by utilizing the energy centers within it called chakras in Eastern thought.

Taken together, these beliefs constitute an emerging world-view that is being embraced by an ever-growing population of well-informed souls. And as we have mentioned already, those who hold the new view believe that it offers an unprecedented promise of hope for all human beings everywhere as well as a firm guarantee of sweeping changes to come.

Copyright © 2010 by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman