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Myths and metaphors

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Laurent: Before introducing myself, I'm going to follow up on your words, Olivier... Earlier, you spoke about the Internet and the way in which this tool is changing the way we work, inform ourselves, communicate, etc. I sometimes use the Internet as a metaphor with people who come to see me to explain to them how shamanism works. This allows me to explain what other worlds are, because the invisible reality in which shamans travel has a lot in common with the Internet: it is a reality in which all possible and imaginable information is “stored” - and even beyond -, and what we do, what shamans do, is to seek out this information. A shaman works like an Internet browsing program, like Internet Explorer, if you will. For example, he can move from one computer to another, that is to say from one person to another, and navigate the network.

 

So a shaman travels to the other reality and then returns “home”, in his body. Hence this computer metaphor that I use quite often, even if it is, how should I put it?... modern. Besides, I think that the development of the Internet began at the same time as the (re)development of shamanism in the West. The computer revolution, psychedelic substances, ecology and the various spiritual approaches that have gained momentum in our countries, all of this comes directly to us from the second half of the 20th century.

 

Olivier : Totally agree with you. The holistic doctors I'm talking about work a bit like this too. Indeed, we are interconnected between ourselves, others and our environment, which forms an information network similar to the Internet.

 

Laurent: This computer allegory is very useful, even if it is not very poetic...

 

Olivier : I like it.

 

Laurent : So shamans travel in a web, in a network, and access information, like in the Web. But it is not something virtual: it is an invisible facet of the reality in which we live and in which everything is connected. We can call it the “psychocosmos”, the “collective unconscious”, the “beyond”, the “non-ordinary reality” or simply the “other world”. The words don't matter. Shamans are specialists in “surfing” in this invisible facet of reality: they go in search of information, healing energies, etc. And, in this quest, the spirits who inhabit the other world guide the shamans, they show them the path. A bit like Google. The shamans ask a question, and this question will determine the outcome of their quest in the other world.

 

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Excerpt from The Way ofShaman by Michael Harner 

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Experiencing the forces of the invisible

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NOTWe are discovering today that even the near miracles of modern Western medicine are not always capable of completely solving all the problems of the sick or of those who wish to avoid illness. Increasingly, healthcare professionals and their patients are seeking complementary methods of care, and many healthy individuals are engaging in a personal journey to discover practical alternative approaches that bring well-being. But it is often difficult for the layman, and even for the health professional, to distinguish what is unfounded from what is effective. On the other hand, the ancient methods of shamanism are already tested by time; in fact, they have been tested for an immeasurably longer time than, for example, psychoanalysis and various other psychotherapeutic techniques. 

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