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MATSESH.TXT
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1993-09-28
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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!