We often hear Western mind pondering : how to reconcile shamanic and scientific seeing of the world? How can we verify if visions are objective – in other words “real” if we can not even verify where or what consciousness is – we can observe its correlates, but not the actual content of the experience. So assuming – or guessing one or another is just that – assuming, or choosing culturally conditioned dogma, not something proven or unproven, at least not in ways available to modern science. So here the ways seem to be parting : the shaman sees real spirits and the scientist ( including psychiatrist, but bear in mind, rhetoric figure, life is complex and things change ), with little experience but strong faith ( yes, faith ) in materialistic dogma, says he doesn´t. He can not deny what is being seen, or if he is brave enough, he sees himself, yet he can say – it is projection, it is not real, it is “just psyche”.
Fair enough, but what we do with that ? How do navigate the terrain we claim does not really exist ? Just as Europeans who got wiser by experience of stepping out of their medieval dogma and stepping out of their continent and eventually employing local guides in lands they previously held as imaginary, so the scientist should at least attempt to trust the guides of inner realms, navigators of this “subjective” psyche kingdom where western understanding and objective tools – mostly funny pills – seem to be working poorly. The instint of fearful explorer unfamiliar with the terrain is to shoot at everything he does not like – whether we call it demons or depression. But should we?
Let us listen to one of the guides :
“However, if the reason demons arise is that one is not housecleaning a neurotic mind, all the external efforts to get rid of them won’t help. We have to work through the problems. How do we do that? Let it rise, and let it pass. Let the demons of the mind reveal themselves and instead of clinging to them or grappling with them, allow them to vanish of their own accord back into the luminous space of awareness. This is the practice of allowing the mind to heal itself.
In The Vajra Essence, Düdjom Lingpa claims that all such beings have no existence except as appearances to the mind. While this is the view of many psychologists today, it is important to recognize that he also asserts that the self is no more real than these other apparitions to the mind. Both are “empty” of inherent, objective existence, and we, not some imaginary, supernatural beings, are responsible for what befalls us.”
Excerpt From
The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind
by Alan Wallace Ph.D.