New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans

[Vovin]

A good resource.

http://www.newagefraud.org/

[Magus11]

An interesting site!

A similar thing goes on with pagan/witchcraft & drudic groups. I have known the odd one to lie about how long their group has been going just to impress prospective members, and to try and out-doo other groups. Its very sad really. One of these type of people once told me that they knew all there was to know about magic and the occult! After this I ended furthur contact with this person and their group.

[IronOrchid]

My NON serious reply to this is that actually, plastic shamans are a bloody GOOD idea - wipe-clean (from the ayahuasca vom, mud and copious amounts of rain that seem to crop up frequently in the shamanic experience), foldable (you could have one in each room) and in the end, you can probably recycle them down the local supermarket!

My SERIOUS reply is that while I applaud and support ANY move to drive out frauds, and the Native American peoples' right to define and protect their own heritage, it's been my repeated experience online that a vocal minority of people walking the NA path (usually white, but native-trained or with a single native ancestor) are very find of setting themselves up as THE authority on who may and may not become a shaman, and on the rules that any shamanic practitioner must follow.

For a start, the statement on this website: "Native people DO NOT use the label "Shaman."" - well, no, I hope not because it's not even a native American word, it comes from the Siberian heritage, where many tribes most certainly DO call the shaman the shaman: just like they call the plumber the plumber, and the miller the miller. It's got adopted just like all the latin & Greek & French words into modern English, since there didn't seem to be an existing one, and has then become something of a blanket term.

Unfortunately NA rules have become widely accepted as the only form of shamanic practice, mainly because many of the best core shamanism teachers to date have been Americans (from Harner to Ms Ingerman) so this means that native traditions specific and correct for that culture are often the template other newly awakening shamans worldwide are expected to work with.

This is an example of the kind of sweeping statement I have an issue with being applied outside the NA path: "Native traditionalists believe the ONLY acceptable way to transmit traditional teachings is orally and face-to-face. Any allegedly traditional teachings in books or on websites are NOT authentic."

That may be true of their teachings, for which there was never a tradition of books or written lineage. I respect that, and long may their tradition continue.

But it isn't true of other shamanic paths - the runes alone are a written shamanic form (among other uses), and other occult practices cross-over into shamanic format (if not by name) and do so via written works, in a culture where writing is considered an important spiritual tool.

Another: "Native people DO NOT believe it is ethical to charge money for any ceremony or teaching." Good for them! It is however traditional to pay the shaman like any other service in many other cultures, including indigenous South American, and where money wasn't used barter was the norm, with the shaman as apt to strike you down for not offering them fair exchange, as the community was to lynch the shaman if they felt he or she wasn't doing their job.

I've paid for teachings (not NA related) and I charge for my shamanic work just like any other professional - I fully support people doing what works in their community and tradition. I ask that this respect always go both ways.

One area where I take personal exception to this adoption (and misuse) of the NA culture across the online shamanic community is in the notion one can't walk the shamanic path without initiation from a living tribal elder - in the UK, and certainly in London (my tribe, my land and my community) there are none, so we're forced to look directly to Spirit for teachings and ceremonies, rather than have them passed down from another living human.

I've met traditionalist NA shamans of the type I described above who find this extremely offensive, although they're always quick to offer their own trainings (be they ever so authentic and unpaid) - usually acquired by boarding one of those earth-honouring jumbo jets so popular with many shamanic teachers, to go to their land and work with their spirit... which is an exercise in futility in my opinion.

The first shamans didn't have living elders, they walked their own path to meet and deal with Spirit direct - shamanism is unique in having parallel experiences worldwide, meaning that whatever we're all doing, we're onto something objective. So taking subjective cultural rules appropriate for one community, and superimposing them misguidedly onto others, is an error that's based on fear and not a little ego.

It's my experience over 10+ years anyone can journey shamanically and have meaningful interactions with Spirit - it doesn't mean that person's a shaman, but on the other hand they're just as likely to be as if they'd been born on a reservation.

We who were born into lands without existing elders safeguarding our traditions have the right to look to others who never lost that tradition and see if we can respectfully learn from them, but errors arise on both sides if we delude ourselves they hold the key to our own shamanic revival.

As an aside, I note that the "plastic shaman" thing doesn't seem to be such a big concern of most South American or Siberian shamans, who usually see their work as an everyday role and a career like any other (albeit with rather peculiar bosses & colleagues) just like being a doctor or other specialist, but their voices tend to get lost in the internet noise.

Shamanism if it is to flourish and become a valuable and contemporary part of global spirituality needs to look forwards as well as backwards, and the only way to do this is to let people find their own path by direct interaction with Spirit - be it through their living ancestors as the NA have, or the spiritis of the ancestors who've slept through the long dark ages of Christianity and Enlightenment.

In short, they're right to condemn the newage rip-off artists exploiting their traditions. I agree and hope they continue to find success and raise awareness in that area.

But native American spirituality does not own shamanism - I'm sure no-one on that site would claim they do, but it's a point that's gotten a little lost in the modern world where so many influential voices are American, especially online.

So - great site, but only applicable in most of their points to one nation's tribes.

Long may their traditions remain strong and undiluted, and long may every other person who's sincere find the strength to drown out the Americanisation of the craft, and find their own path.

IOx

[Anubis Man]

I go to a Pagan Festival every year and see this sort of thing. And without specifics in mind, I can think of times I saw someone selling something or a book or method, etc with the selling point that it came from ancient Egypt, etc (oh really?). I was interested in the 2012 theories a while back and my gosh, everyone's got a book about it now. How many different experts can there be? (did find a wonderful book by Geoff Stray called Beyond 2012 where he took a good look at all the 2012 theories).