With shamanism so often portrayed in terms
of its most cinematic features, like a Hollywood Indian,
it's good that finally we have a book on shamanism that goes
to the essence. I'm referring to The Spirit of Shamanism
by Roger N. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D. The author is a professor of
psychiatry and philosophy at the University of California,
Irvine, and has written a number of books in the
transpersonal tradition. His broad perspective invites the
comparison between shamanism and Edgar Cayce’s work.
The essence of shamanism is not shaking rattles, beating
drums, or consuming exotic herbal mixtures, although shamans
often do these things. Nor is it of the essence of the Cayce
worldview to wear chunks of lapis lazuli taped to the
forehead, sit connected to a wet cell appliance, or wear
castor oil packs, even though many students of the Cayce
teachings do these things. It is rather the purifying and
attuning of one's consciousness to the reality of spirit as
it manifests in so many ways. Above all, it is the
acceptance of the responsibility that we are an active part
of creation.
A shaman usually receives his or her calling through
battling with a personal illness. It is in learning how to
heal oneself that one becomes a shaman. Mr. Cayce had throat
problems that no one could cure. Cayce learned to cure
himself using self-hypnosis. It was during his self-healing
trances that he began to give readings for others. In the
famous autobiography of a Native American shaman, Black
Elk Speaks, we learn that a shaman must function as a
healer in order to maintain their own healing. Edgar Cayce
found himself in that same predicament.
The shaman's worldview sees all life as interconnected,
with the life spirit in everything, and views events
symbolically. Cayce advocates the concept of oneness and
often interprets concrete events from a symbolic point of
view.
The most distinguishing characteristic of the shaman's
modus operandi, for some scholars, is the use of an altered
state of consciousness and the flight of the soul to
spiritual regions. In that condition, the shaman makes
contact with the patient's soul and searches for causes or
cures for the patient's illness. That description fits Cayce
quite well.
Shaman's make use of helpers, spirits and animal guides.
Here is the main place where Cayce would appear to differ
from shamanism. In his psychic trance he certainly talked to
disincarnate spirits and was offered their help. He decided
it would be for his better development, however, to obtain
his information from the attunement of his own
consciousness. Cayce also led a double life as a traditional
Christian in his waking life and a Gnostic in his trance
state. Gnosticism, however, has much in common with
shamanism, they both being founded on a profound
experiential participation in creation. Furthermore,
shamanistic cultures, such as the natives of Central and
South America, could easily incorporate the Christian
teachings of missionaries into their spiritual diet. They
saw Jesus nailed to a cross as a shaman who was practicing a
well-known technique for transcendent ecstasy.
Shamanism has important lessons to teach about the
relationship between ecstasy and madness. Shamanism and
Edgar Cayce’s philosophy provide a solid framework for
understanding the intimate and necessary connection between
the wonders of swimming and the dangers of drowning. They
can encourage us to explore ourselves deeper than the
conscious mind while at the same time explaining what is
required to avoid succumbing to the rapture of the depths.
Just as you'll find many people who identify with Jesus as a
model of spiritual life, so will you find many people in
mental hospitals who claim to be Jesus. Shamans run the same
risk. Edgar Cayce faced personal risks as well in his work..
For shamans, religion was not a spectator sport, but a
way of life that demanded active collaboration with the
spiritual forces of creation. No wonder it has an ancient
tradition of methodologies for experiencing the dimensions
of the sacred both in ecstatic states of consciousness and
in daily interaction with all of creation's inhabitants. If
there is anything that characterizes Cayce's approach to the
secrets of Christianity it is that along with the worldview
he thought he also provided a system of practices--a
methodology consisting of activities that any shaman would
recognize as being part of their repertoire of skills.
If you were to Walsh’s this book, I bet you would be
able to easily imagine, as I can, that if Edgar Cayce and a
"witch doctor" happened to meet and have a visit,
they'd discover they had a lot in common.
