Voodoo

[Queso]

what?

[MagnetMan]

I did a documentary film on the lives of forty witchdoctors in Soweto. Each one recounted the day they had their first psychic awakening. The youngest account was at 8 years of age. So, I am not sure if one is born a voodoo chile, or if it comes as a visitation around puberty. I had my first voodoo experience when I was thirty, though I do remember having some very weird dreams when I was eleven or twelve. Anyway, I have a whole coven of very straaange voodoo stories tucked away in my off-cuts.;)

[Queso]

Can I watch that film?

You ****ing amaze me.

[MagnetMan]

Can I watch that film?.

 

I can send you a DVD copy (Doc was shot in 1973) if you are really interested.

 

You have opened up an intersting thread here that has univeral implications and I would like to flesh it out with some background information if I may.

 

Voodoo in the Caribbean and South America orginated in Africa of course.

Before the colonial era, all of Africa was administered by shamans who pracriced a wide variety of psychic specialialities. There were seers, herbalists, mediums, rain-makers, dream interpreters, prophets etc. -- all were involved with the healing arts in one form or another, whether it be, physical, mental or spiritual.

 

With the arrrival of colonialism, Africa was gradually baptized, script-educated, scientifically focused and gradually detribalized. No region more so than South Africa - and no region in South Africa more so than Johannesburg, where the gold reef attracted literally millions of blacks, who let go of their ancient tribal life and migrrate to the Witwatersrand (Goldie)in search of work. The men found employment in the mines and the women as domestic servants. Massive shanty towns grew around each town to house them and had to be eventually mowed down and the populations relacated in antiseptic dormetary locations built by the government.

 

Soweto was and still is the biggest of these locations, six miles west of down town Johannesburg. When I worked in Soweto 30 years ago there were over one million urbanized blacks in residence, most of them were third and fourth generation and virtually entirely detribalized. All the kids were in compulsory primary schools and the medical needs of the population were served by Baragwanath Hospital, the largest medical facility in Africa.

 

Almost invisible among that multitudre, some three thousand witchdoctors lived in Soweto and continued to practice their ancient healing arts, right in the shadow of Baragwanath hospital.

 

This fact gave me a vital statistic to work from when I did my documentary. I have come to believe that throughtout human evolution, at least 3% of our number, in every generation, are born with a greater degree of right brain psychic potentials than the rest of us. (Shamanism was univerasally practiced throught every society on the planet during the Bronze Age of agricultuiral customs.)

 

Carrying this ancient human birthrite forward into modern societies, I believe that it is this evolutionary imprint that was designed to sustain our psychic potential, which calls that important 3% of our number into modern medical and psychiatric vocations, into religious ministry and school teaching. Some few continue to practice their gifts the old way, as mediums and fortune tellers.

 

Modern research into the differences between right and left brain modes of awareness tend to support this hypothesis.

 

With these thoughts in mind, I designed my doc around forty witchdoctors and focused on finding out what "called" them to the ancient alchemical craft, and how the psychic abilitiies of neophytes who gravitated to accomplished adepts, were further developed by their baba's (psychic teachers.)

 

I applied some of these ancient psychic drills and disciplines to myself and later to all my children.

 

I will go happy to reveal all thirty years of my researches among the world's voodoo children (from Animsist to Zenists) as this thread progresses.:rose:

[Queso]

wow.

yes, I am very interested in watching your documentary.

And that's an amazing statistic,

3%

A psychic waltz, if you will.

 

Shamanism is almost like an archetype,

it just occurs,

and here I am

sitting @ the computer

thinking about harvesting cactus,

and playing music for people,

transcending what I convert

for my community

but I should feel lost

amongst all of this insanity of the city

but I'm like

that one black

cloud.

 

BRAVO on the post,

this is just amazing

i don't know what to say

I want to keep listening.

[Racoon]

That was a great post MagnetMan!! :)

Fascinating.

I believe it!

 

Science may not be able to "prove" Voodoo, and may dismiss it as something else, but

I think it's real!

 

Black Magic. :)

A Voodoo curse is not something you want! :)

 

I wonder how it works? :rose:

[MagnetMan]

I wonder how it works? :rose:

 

The evolutionary importance of the 3% I mentioned, is focused on the survival necessity for a degree of altruism to always be present in each generation, and thereby help to keep societal momentum dynamic and reasonably cultivated. The basic evolutionary design is for the vast bulk of us to pursue pesonal excellence via intense ego-centric competition, and thereby acheive the primary goal of developing a highly intelligent and creatively resourceful specie - able for instance, not only to keep inventing the technology that will allow the planet to support our increasing numbers without permanent collapse - but also allow us to survive the next major meteor impact (the random elelemny that keeps God from being bored) and not die out like the dinasaurs, leaving Mother Nature to start all over again, the lengthy process for developing Her highest expression of consciousness and thereby present the Cosmic Godhead with the type of God-Conscious Companion He has been yearning for these past fifteen billion years..

 

But that momentum cannot be achieved unless a small percentage of altruistically-inclined individuals are born in every generation, who are prepared to let the rest keep on trucking, while they stay back to inspire, heal and teach the young ones.

 

In the next post, I will share the basic drills and disciplines the witchdoctors taught me about how to develope one's psychic potentials for healing applications and then go on from that primitive foundation of psychic understanding to the abstactions of Zen and beyond should you remain interested.:)

[Turtle]

You have opened up an intersting thread here that has univeral implications and I would like to flesh it out with some background information if I may.

By all means!

 

Voodoo in the Caribbean and South America orginated in Africa of course.

Before the colonial era, all of Africa was administered by shamans who pracriced a wide variety of psychic specialialities. There were seers, herbalists, mediums, rain-makers, dream interpreters, prophets etc. -- all were involved with the healing arts in one form or another, whether it be, physical, mental or spiritual.

Very refreshing to see someone discuss what all this mind altering is for.

I will go happy to reveal all thirty years of my researches among the world's voodoo children (from Animsist to Zenists) as this thread progresses.:)

Happy to listen.:rose: :)

[Tarantism]

i know this is irrelivent, just bear with me here,

 

please correct me if i am wrong MAGNETMAN,

but didnt many rituals in archaic African societies involve the eating of psychedelic mushies?(psilocybin cubensis among others)

[Racoon]

Voodoo, like Feng Shui and other energy systems we don't yet understand can possibly exist ...

If they don't already.. and have been since when who knows.

 

They have yet to be disproved. :)

There is a "Magical" element in the world. :) And the word "magic" is to label it something while its not yet scientifically understood.

Voodoo... whatever you want to call it...

 

That energy force some people can Tap into,

That mystic quality that elludes so many of us......

 

all ears,

[Turtle]

i know this is irrelivent, just bear with me here,

 

please correct me if i am wrong MAGNETMAN,

but didnt many rituals in archaic African societies involve the eating of psychedelic mushies?(psilocybin cubensis among others)

 

It's not irrelevent, it's that you're still missing the point that I(we?) bear with you. The rituals, mushy induced or otherwise, have the purpose of effecting some manner of healing. Not healing for the witchdoctor who enters the altered state, but for someone else. It is not a recreational pursuit.

:)

[TheBigDog]

There is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in my philosophy. But I keep dreaming for more.

 

Bill

[Queso]

Earth is heavenliest

[MagnetMan]

i know this is irrelivent, just bear with me here,

 

please correct me if i am wrong MAGNETMAN,

but didnt many rituals in archaic African societies involve the eating of psychedelic mushies?(psilocybin cubensis among others)

 

Since ancient times some form of hallucinogenic “soma juice” has been administered by spiritual masters to some of their neophytes in order to “loosen” spiritual blockages and open their psyches to alternative states of reality. This “medicine” was and still is administered, by some psychic trainers for the first few months and then put aside. (There are some spiritual sects (in Mexico for sure) who have ritualized hallucinogenic use in group meetings.) But in general, spiritual masters/mistresses seek a clear psyche among their apprentices, one that is able to energize the natural powers of the psychic system. So, in answer to your question, most psychic adepts are drug-free and focus their healing powers best when they are so. I have met a few who are alcoholics and have found that their powers are markedly diminished, and consequently are forced to fake their supernatural claims, giving the craft a bad name. They generally end up practicing the black side of the art and deal with twisted clients who want poison potions and magic curses that can harm those they are envious of.

 

When I first began my investigations of African shamans in 1971 there were all kinds of misconceptions among the uninitiated (stemming from medieval witch-hunts - which in turn were motivated by the need of scripted religious administrations to maintain their authority) as to what those who practiced witchcraft were into. As children growing up in Africa, we heard spooky stories from our African nannies of the Tockolosh who preyed on innocent kids and of tagati (evil) witches riding on the backs of hyenas, their minds crazed with dagaa (cannabis) acting like mumiyani (vampires) drinking human blood and taking human hearts out to be eaten, while keeping the bodies alive as zombi slaves. Some where able to control the weather and throw lightening bolts at each other.

 

Though there were indeed many secretive aspects within witchcraft that contribute to some extent towards the creation of these superstitious rumors (which I will gradually reveal as we progress) within my first few days of meeting some of the practicing witchdoctors in Soweto ( 80% female) most of that dark nonsense was dispelled.

 

All the clear intelligence and common sense that human beings are capable of projecting when not troubled by inner conflicts, was immediately evident at my first meeting More than that, the sense of affection and empathy that we are also capable of feeling for each other, shone out of their bright faces and piercing eyes like tangible auras. These men and women were healers in the true sense of the word. One feels a mix of both inner peace and vigor just to sit quietly in their company. (The ancient origin of the physician’s bedside manner.)

 

During candid biographical interviews with each of them, enquiring how and why they became psychic healers and diviners, I was to find out the hard road each had trod through life that allowed them to arrive at the sense of holistic awareness and inner peace, and in that discovery I got my first truly adult glimpse into the complex psychology of the human psyche in general.

 

During the months that I worked with them, my own naiveté about myself and how humans relate to each other on the sub-conscious level, became increasingly apparent to me. I was able to use the gradual awareness of my own psychic ignorance as a lightening rod that allowed me to measure the spiritual distance between an adept and a rank neophyte..

 

Before going any further into the content of the interviews that I had with each witchdoctor and then explaining the psychological implications that lie behind such super-natural awakenings, I would like to make sure there are no unanswered questions regarding what has already been stated. I believe, if one progress' carefully enough, that it is possible via discussion, even on the internet, for one to awaken to the latent meta-normal potentials of their own sub-conscious self just as I did, when I listened to them.

[Queso]

I believe it too,

and this is so fascinating

that somebody actually went out and researched this!

I'd give you my address but honestly

I have no idea where i'll be in two weeks.

Eventually I really want to see this documentary,

and even though i have NO IDEA

what to say right now,

I am all ears, just like them.

This is one of the best threads yet.

[Queso]

Those lightning bolts they spoke of

I'm sure must have been just

psychedelic flashing vision,

Unable to understand the

chemistry.

 

How beautiful,

I have only met one person that has ever affected me

the way you describe the shaman's presence

to.

[Queso]

It feels so good to swayyyyyy