THE SHAMANIC VIEW OF MENTAL HEALTH

By Jonathon Davis on Wednesday October 9th, 2019

UPLIFT CONNECT

A Holistic Approach

In November 2014, the peak psychology body in the UK, the British Psychological Association, released its new flagship report Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia. It was a watershed moment in the mainstream treatment of mental illness, containing statements such as:

“Hearing voices or feeling paranoia are common experiences which can often be a reaction to trauma, abuse, or deprivation. Calling them symptoms of mental illness, psychosis, or schizophrenia is only one way of thinking about them, with advantages and disadvantages.” 

- The British Psychological Association: Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia.

With mental health problems reaching epidemic proportions in the UK and throughout the western world, this document reads as no less than an admission that the current model of mental health treatment gap has failed, and is a cry for help to anyone with an approach that may be useful. There are indeed a great many cultures who have, and still carry, a deeper understanding of mental illness. While these perspectives don’t fit within the boundaries of rational reductionism, this has little relevance to their efficacy.

“From American Indian shamanism* to esoteric Judaism, this concept has dominated for millennia. As it has now become clear, western civilization Is unique in history in it’s failure to recognize each human being as a subtle energy system in constant relationship to a vast sea of energies in the surrounding cosmos.”  
 - Dr. Edward Mann, Sociologist

Ancient indigenous Shamanic practice

What is the Shamanic View of Mental Health?

Broadly speaking, any form of awareness around mental health that includes spiritual, mystic and/or mythic considerations could be included in a shamanic view of mental health. This ranges from ancient indigenous shamanic practices to yogic methods involving kundalini awakening, through to Jungian and transpersonal psychology (which draw heavily from ancient cultures). Jung, for example, characterised schizophrenia and psychosis as a natural healing process.

“When conscious life is characterised by one-sidedness and false attitudes, primordial healing images are activated – one might say instinctively – and come to light in the dreams of individuals and the visions of artists… Schizophrenia is a condition in which the dream takes the place of reality.”    
 – Carl Jung

Another foundation stone of this perspective is the phrase made famous by Joseph Campbell, “The schizophrenic is drowning in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight” (an idea borrowed from Jungian psychiatrist RD Laing). There has been a long history throughout human culture of people having mystical experiences, and then becoming “weller than well” as Dr. John Weir Perry put it. The key here is that in these instances the person completed a process that western medicine would have labelled as sickness and then medicated. They instead passed through it and went on to lead lives without relapse into ‘psychosis’, living a more fulfilled existence than if they had never gone through their temporary break with consensus reality. Throughout history there have been examples of people who have gone on to use their visionary insights, newly found drive and focus to create great social reform for the benefit of all.

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The Globalization of Goodwill

by Fabian Ubiquitus

Lhasa, Tibet, Saturday 8/8/20

ANY motion can be turned to humanity’s advantage. The current cranky and ill-conceived effort by somewhat demented tinkerers to control the planet is no exception.

Several great positives have emerged from their psychological warfare offensive against the people.

One is that they have revealed themselves, their methods and their collaborators and accomplices a little too much for their own comfort.

Another is that they have thereby made themselves the common enemy in the minds of many people throughout the human community and that, at last, is the CORRECT TARGET.

Another is that they have inadvertently increased the sense of brotherhood among people, the concept of humanity as one race wherein our nations – ideally at least – are self-governing neighbourhoods confederated into a broader global community.

Another is the speed with which the culprits – the global crime syndicate of psychanthropists, would-be authoritarians and utopian tinkerers who just LOVE to use the planet’s human community as their experimental laboratory –  were found out.

Another has been the speed with which resistance has flourished, a growth that is now almost exponential and promises to sweep the globalist criminals aside in a massive groundswell of popular revolt – PROVIDED we persist.

But there’s another from which we should all take even greater heart. Consider:

• There are MANY good people out there willing and able to speak out and fight back even at personal risk. This has been a revelation and one should take great pride in belonging to species capable of such courage and character, man’s habitual defamers and detractors notwithstanding.

• Among these heroes of the evolution are a veritable army of medical professionals, people of great honour who take the Hippocratic oath seriously and are not about to let the politics of totalitarian turds force them into violating it.

• There are millions of people of goodwill willing and able to get along. Among the vast majority of human beings there is NO thirst for war, destruction or mayhem, no desire to rob or deceive or cheat or disenfranchise their fellows.

• Among them are people of immense ingenuity, capability, creativity and constructive power. And YOU are one of them.

• There are advanced technologies capable of producing wonders in so many fields thanks to the powerful minds of generations of thinking men and women.

• There is a sane pro-survival desire among the human communities of Earth for unity and the protections afforded self and others by just laws applicable to all. It is that very desire that has been hijacked by the globalists and perverted into the incremental process of enslavement. Yet that human drive for cooperation, peace and unity as a species is nonetheless real and worthy.

The point I am making here is that, right here and now, we the people of the human community of Earth have in our possession ALL the ingredients, components, skills, resources, willingness and desire necessary for the construction of a new and betterg lobal  civilisation.

They comprise the wherewithal for a new kind of globalism infinitely more desirable, beneficial and endurable than the shabby, tawdry and uninspiring imitation put forth by the globalists, a global community not enforced or imposed by trickery and deceit but GROWN from the grass roots and which consults the willingness and desire of people of good will, which the planet has in great abundance.

The globalists, intent upon their self-serving mockery don’t want you to know this. Hence the turmoil, the infiltration and sabotage of decent movements, the divide-and-rule and the relentless injection of dismay into the affairs of men.

But their crime syndicate is of no service or help to Man and therefore of no value. They have nothing to offer humanity and stand merely as an impediment to our  creation of something vastly superior

They are getting in our road.

Sweep them aside.

For we can conceive and play a better game.

11 NEW SYMPTOMS OF THE COLLECTIVE AWAKENING

Dylan Charles, Editor

Waking Times

During the run up to 2012 the world was fascinated by the idea of the shift, that is, an awakening that first takes place within the individual, then radiates outward into our communities and societies at large, changing the world for the better.

At that time, attention was mainly focused around the personal dynamics involved in this, including the work of navigating the upheaval and turmoil that precedes inner peace and profound transformation. Much of this shift was triggered by newfound awareness of the corruption and deception in our political and social institutions. The pain of realizing that the material world is built on lies left us with no place to go but inward.

We explored meditation and energy healing, radically altered our diets, opened our minds to different ways of thinking and relating to the world, embraced ancestral wisdom, and we fearlessly answered the call to purge, heal and connect. The energy around this was very intense, but it inspired a tremendous sense of wonder and creativity.

But, as all things do, the flow in this new space began to ebb, and since around 2016 it has felt like a major regression happened, taking us back into the dense, murky energies of cognitive dissonance and willful ignorance. So much so, that the last few years has had many of us wondering what the hell the point was in all of this. We began to doubt that our willingness to change had any real value in a world so hopelessly shipwrecked in the shallow end of the pool.

When 2020 began, nothing had substantively changed in the world around us, and for many of us, this muddled our sense of purpose and direction. Many of us fell back into old habits and old pursuits. Business and pleasure.

And then all of a sudden, boom! Here we are.

No denying it now, the train has left the station and everything is being exposed. All of the darkness, depravity and evil that we’ve been collectively covering up and ignoring for generations is squealing and squirming in this flash of bright light. The powers that be see what’s happening, they’ve revealed their hand, and they’re pulling out all the stops in order to maintain the illusion of control.

Indeed, we find ourselves in quite a vulnerable position, and since we’ve been quarantined from all of the distractions that’ve helped to blanket us from reality, we can no longer avoid the truth. A new awakening is happening now, and this time it is global. We can no longer numb ourselves to this.

“We numb vulnerability — when we’re waiting for the call… This is the world we live in. We live in a vulnerable world. And one of the ways we deal with it is we numb vulnerability…

And I think there’s evidence — and it’s not the only reason this evidence exists, but I think it’s a huge cause — We are the most in-debt … obese … addicted and medicated adult cohort in U.S. history. The problem is — and I learned this from the research — that you cannot selectively numb emotion. You can’t say, here’s the bad stuff. Here’s vulnerability, here’s grief, here’s shame, here’s fear, here’s disappointment. I don’t want to feel these. I’m going to have a couple of beers and a banana nut muffin.” ~Brené Brown

As the awakening rolls forward, it’s taking everyone with it. How it ends is anyone’s guess, and since we’re all along for the ride, it may be insightful to connect some of what we’re feeling to the bigger picture of the change that is coming our way.

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Exploring the Subtle Realms: The Issue of Skepticism

By David Nicol at Lover Earth

Have you developed Covid Interpretation Fatigue (CIF) yet? 

It’s a rapidly spreading secondary condition of the virus. Symptoms include deep sighs and eyes glazing over on coming across yet another profound analysis of ‘what’s really going on.’ 

I mean, I know that the coronavirus is the brontosaurus in the room right now but…..enough already. Can’t we talk about anything else? 

In this spirit, I’m returning today to a topic I was writing about just before we got shipwrecked on Pandemic Island. The subtle realms and how we develop our relationship with them. 

There is much to say about this topic, so I plan to explore it over a series of posts in the coming months. 

Don’t tell anyone, but the truth is that this subject is far more than a fascinating diversion from current affairs. That’s because the exploration of the subtle realms and the beings we encounter there is an inescapable step in the process of restoring our connection with the Earth, in all its mysterious depths. Developing our relationship with these realms opens a direct channel of connection between us and the creative intelligence of nature. Once established, this bridge provides an inexhaustible source of guidance that can transform our lives into a truly magical unfolding. Nature is constantly feeding us creative ideas that bring us into ever deeper and more delightful forms of self-expression that are also in harmony with the whole of life. As our external systems and supports dissolve around us in the challenging passage ahead, knowing how to follow this magical trail will become an increasingly vital navigational capacity.

At the same time, our explorations of these realms form part of a profound collective process unfolding in our times to re-connect human consciousness with the natural, multidimensional intelligence of life. This change in consciousness is crucial to enable us to access and embody the holistic solution patterns for the meta-crisis we find ourselves in. 

And so (we can now all see), this shift is WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON. It’s what the Covid19 crisis IS ALL ABOUT.

Oh darn. There I go again. Wading into profound analysis territory. My sincere apologies. I’ll stop now. I’m a responsible global citizen and I do not wish to spread CIF. 

The subtle realms: encountering skepticism

One of the first things we can encounter when exploring the subtle realms is our skepticism. Even if we want to develop a deeper relationship with these dimensions, we often find within ourselves a barrier of doubt. Anyone who has received a modern Western education has been deeply conditioned to regard experiences of these realms as mere figments of our imagination. Thus we tend to have developed within ourselves an internalized guardian of the orthodox, disenchanted modern worldview. Whenever an experience starts to arise that seems to threaten that picture of reality, this guardian steps in to shut it down, often with considerable force. 

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Why It Is Impossible to Prove That Viruses or Bacteria Cause Disease

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