THE MATSE AND THE SACRED c Bennett Blumenberg 1993 ULTIMATE TRANSCENDENCE Certainly the most extraordinary report of transcendental experience I have ever read is the article by Peter Gorman (1990), a well travelled, knowledgeable journalist who is very astute about the lifestyles of tribal peoples. Gorman's description of the Matse, a tribal agricultural people of the Amazon rain forest is very, very important! It illustrates a religious experience of great depth and daily occurrence which would leave no archeological record. On that account it confirms the supposition that the extraordinary mythic art of the Upper Paleolithic cannot represent a true beginning in any absolute sense, although it certainly represents the earliest articulation of mythic imagery on nonperishable materials as well as documentation for several specific deities and complex rituals. Beyond providing a model for transcendental, personalized shamanism without group ritual or metaphoric art, the nature of the Matse's experience, which was also lived by Peter Gorman, provides an extraordinary proof that other dimensions exist beyond the familiar 3-D which encompasses our daily lives in this `world'. Gorman's experience, which confirmed Matse interpretations, is perhaps unique because his `proof' (my word, not his) fits the traditional, conservative scientific model of an hypothesis confirmed by objective, empirically gathered data. Gorman had no intentions of perfoming such an experiment and nowhere in the article does he refer to such a concept. Nonetheless, unless he is lying, that is precisely what his report documents. The Matse are a society whose atunement to their environment is one of extraordinary integration and fusion. They articulate a complete oneness with the animals and plants of their forest. Mind expanding drugs convert nearly every adult into a shaman capable of seeing into the future, talking with plants and animals and projecting a three dimensional anima. Such access for each individual eliminates the need for a single, exceptional shaman in which to concentrate the sacred. Their experience is so complete, so whole and fulfilling, that they have almost no theology or linguistically, articulated mytho-peotics. Mystics of all ages and all times have repeatedly told us that direct experience of `God' is beyond words and needs no words; theology, philosophy and the intellect are but essential meditation and preparation. The Matse have almost no gods, although they believe the Earth is a benevolent mother (bi-ram- bo) who has provided them with the jungle. We see here a simple, basic conception of the Great Goddess as Gaia which mythographers have always proposed as her earliest form. All things to the Matse have spirit, some stronger than others, and the Matse spirit is the strongest. Mystics of all persuasions, but particularly Buddhists, maintain that when ultimate spirituality is achieved, the union with the Void, Great Bliss, or Adamantine Absolute eliminates the need for thought or conceptualization. God will have been found and humans are but a non-local manifestation of the Ultimate Ground. Dualities evaporate and all individuality then ceases. THE CONFIRMATION MODEL The Matse do not achieve an ultimate state of mindless transcendental bliss but a fusion with universal life energy which allows them to be active in a rich multi-dimensional `world'. They repeatedly journey into a world of supra- dimensions and communicate with the future accurately. This accuracy sets the stage for Gorman's objective confirmation of their experience. By `objective', I mean he did not need to rely upon reports from the Matse which were `after the fact', unconfirmable stories told upon their return from a spiritual journey which would have to be taken or rejected on faith. Heretofore, such narratives have been the only information base available to `outsiders' to describe and interpret the shamanic `soul journey' experience. By `accuracy', I specifically mean that the Matse when undertaking spirit journeys make highly specific, detailed predictions about the future, based upon their needs and wishes. Their predictions involve changes in the local ecology and the behavior of both humans and animals and are thus accessible to objective confirmation. An outside observer is not forced to deal with a data base which is composed of emotional reactions and proposed pyschological changes within people. Their predictions repeatedly `come true' at a frequency that far exceeds statistical randomness. The Matse journey along the time track when projecting an animus, then return to their body in this world and live out the already known future experience. In terms of scientific method, this constitutes a model for phenomena which is empirically verifiable by `experiment'. No subjective interpretations are necessary because the phenomena predicted are not subject to trickery, deceit and manipulation, as can be shamanic healing by sucking out the cause of disease or the retrieval of `lost souls'. This is not to a say such shamanic experiences may not be absolutely real in the hands of fully trained masters. What I am trying to establish is that such events cannot be independently confirmed as `real' in the western scientific sense. New Age cultists sneer at such an approach, or merely define it as beside the point, usually because they are on a fervent quest to shed their Western intellectual heritage and because scientific method is deemed distasteful and narrow. They have merely sidestepped the problem with such reactions. Deductive reasoning in the hands of the `faithful' is wrongly assumed to be the only process by which to investigate the `world' and `reality'. It is but one filter and one approach, although it does superbly when confonting the physicality of the universe. It also has enormous value if we wish to investigate the degree of objectivity (which can never by 100%) of a phenomenon and not remain forever mired in ego-oriented subjective reaction and argument. The experiences of the Matse seem to establish the dimension of the future as both accessible from the present and objectively real; and the pyschic material which we hold in common with all living creatures as also objectively real! The Matse have discovered a methodology to repeatedly access the transcendental. They have transformed their daily life style into one that continually experiences transcendence, an opening of higher dimensional doorways. They experience a continual exploration of human potential in a fashion that can only be described as optimized and maximized. ARE YOU INTRIGUED? ARE YOU INTERESTED? IF SO REGISTER AND RECEIVE THE COMPLETE REPORT (8 pp) ABOUT GORMAN'S EXPERIENCES WITH THE MATSE AND THEIR IMPLICATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF MYTHOLOGY! See register.txt!