Reading an anthology of texts on shamanism recently (Shamanism through Time: 500 years on the Path to Knowledge) I stumbled upon an extract from Michael Harner’s book The Way of the Shaman (the following quotes are from the third edition, 1990, paperback – all emphasis is added by me) which I had read and considered deeply a few years ago but had allowed to slowly slip out of my mind. The most striking part of Harner’s book was, fittingly enough, also the extract quoted in Shamanism through Time: a description of his experience of Ayahuasca as an anthropologist in 1961. This section struck me at the time of my first reading simply because of its radically novel and vivid images, yet the fact that – despite its otherworldly nature– it appeared to be congruous with various cosmologies and mythologies of the world (not simply that of Ayahuasca using tribes, as might be expected). Having re-read it recently, I find that some of its features remind me of various other texts I have read recently. It is also astounding that this collection of remarkable images could apparently flow simply from one man’s mind. [While I have reproduced most of the report below, there are some parts which I have excluded for the sake of (relative) brevity. I urge readers to seek it out in its entirety and read it for themselves.]
His experience begins with ‘a gigantic, grinning crocodilian head, from whose cavernous jaws gushed a torrential flood of water.’ (p. 3) It is here that the first coincidences begin. Soon after having the experience, Harner feels he needs to take a break from tribal living to digest what he’s been through. He goes downriver to stay at a Christian mission with ‘Bob and Millie, [who] were a cut above the average evangelists sent from the United States: hospitable, humorous, and compassionate. I told them my story. When I described the reptile with water gushing out of his mouth, they exchanged glances, reached for their bible, and read to me the following line from Chapter 12 in the Book of Revelation:
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood...
They explained that the word “serpent” was synonymous in the Bible with the words “dragon” and “Satan.”’ (p. 6)
His experience continues as he feels his “brain” splits into four parts, the lowest of which begin communicating with him ‘the givers of these thoughts: giant reptilian creatures reposing sluggishly at the lowermost depths of the back of my brain, where it met at the top of the spinal column.’ (p. 4) When first reading this passage years ago, only the reptilian nature of these creatures struck me. However, the very specific location from which they communicate with him is also extremely interesting. The place where the brain meets the spine (comprised of the brain stem, basal ganglia, cerebellum, thalamus, and other parts) has been posited by some as “the Reptilian complex” or “R-complex” where we derive many of our survival instincts and drives for aggression, dominance, territoriality, and ritual displays.
Mainzer explains it this way: ‘Some scientists assume that basic feelings like lust and pain and all the servomechanisms which were necessary to survive in a reptile’s life are essentially realized in these early structures of the brain. This centre would give the impulses for all kinds of activities, using the cortex only as huge and effective associative store. Thus, in this interpretation, the ‘self’ is replaced by a little crocodile in the brain operating with some highly complex instruments like the cortex, in order to survive in a more and more complex environment.’ (Klaus Mainzer, Thinking in Complexity: The Complex Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind, 1994 1st ed, Springer-Verlag: Heidelberg – Ch. 4.4 Intentionality and the Crocodile in the Brain, p. 153, p. 162). How could Harner, an anthropologist without any background whatsoever in neuroscience, have known about something like the R-complex, which hadn’t even been devised yet, let alone popularised (as it would come to be first by Sagan in the late 70s and then again more generally in the 90s and beyond)? More baffling still is that this knowledge manifested itself through a psychedelic experience in a very direct way, through communication with reptilian entities which resided specifically in (what turned out to be) the most primitive parts of his brain. This situation almost constitutes evidence for the Reptilian brain before the hypothesis was even suggested (important to note that the report of the Ayahuasca experience was not published until the early 70s, after the Triune brain/R-complex theory had been imagined by MacLean – so it could not have inspired him to pursue that possibility)! Whatever the explanation might be, if there even is one, the point remains that the resonance between these varied authors and texts is truly fascinating...
Mainzer’s discussion of the “crocodile in the brain” continues with an interesting observation that conceptualising ourselves as ‘crocodiles with highly effective neural instruments of survival seems to injure our vanity more than the popular Darwinistic motto of the last century that the ape is the ancestor of man. From a scientific point of view, of course, it should not be injured vanity which makes us criticize the concept of the ‘neural crocodile’. The main objection is that our feelings have not rested at the level of a crocodile, but have developed during biological and cultural evolution, too.’ (p. 163) This last notion is important. The vast majority of our brain is devoted to higher-level thought, conceptualisation, art, culture, basic and complex emotions, and other such uniquely human behaviours. When we allow ourselves to be controlled by fear, anger, drives to aggression or dominance, and territoriality, we are only using those ancient parts of our brain which, while serving some purpose, stifle the remainder – our humanity. We have to overcome those reptilian aspects of ourselves which – ironically, considering that they are remnants of successful survival mechanisms – threaten our continued survival on this planet. Amazingly enough, this very difference manifests itself to Harner towards the end of his experience: ‘I suddenly felt my distinctive humanness, the contrast between my species and the ancient reptilian ancestors. I began to struggle against returning to the ancient ones, who were beginning to feel increasingly alien and possibly evil.’ (p. 5) [His struggle causes a particularly fearful reaction to these entities: ‘I needed a guardian who could defeat dragons, and I frantically tried to conjure up a powerful being to protect me against the alien reptilian creatures.’ (p. 5) Our interrelationship with seemingly hostile extraterrestrial/dimensional entities is much the same – if we seek guardians (St. George), that just what we will manifest (the cross of St. George). This point can be further explored through the work of individuals such as David Icke.]
So these ‘dragon-like denizens of the depths’ (p. 5) who reside in the lowest parts of the brain tell Harber a story: ‘First they showed me the planet Earth as it was eons ago, before there was any life on it. I saw an ocean, barren land, and a bright blue sky. Then black specks dropped from the sky by the hundreds and landed in front of me on the barren landscape. I could see that the “specks” were actually large, shiny, black creatures with stubby pterodactyl-like wings and huge whale-like bodies. Their heads were not visible to me. They flopped down, utterly exhausted from their trip, resting for eons. They explained to me in a kind of language that they were fleeing from something out in space. They had come to the planet Earth to escape their enemy.’
It was the first of the emboldened passages above that really drew my attention years ago when I read this piece for the first time. This was for no reason greater than what I felt was a ridiculously synchronicity: I discovery a remarkably similar animal on National Geographic’s TV show Extraterrestrial, the “Skywhale.” This show was about the possibilities of life on other planets and what it might look like. The fact that one such envisaged creature resembled Harner’s description so closely enthralled me at the time. Here, in the new millennium, we have fairly legitimate speculation by scientists as to what life elsewhere in the universe might resemble and they come up with something that is very similar to the extraterrestrials in Harner’s early 60’s Ayahuascan vision! This was, for me at the time, very engaging; in retrospect, it seems to be the least interesting or important of all the various titbits contained in the report. Here’s a picture:
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| The Skywhale – More info here (click Blue Moon and mouse over the various life forms to find it) |
[Having re-googled the skywhale just now (for the purposes of checking the links for this blog), I find some other interesting artefacts. The first is this very juiced short animated film. Up to now, we might note, all the “Skywhales” have been explicitly extraterrestrial (one might say that this makes sense, insofar as they are “alien” and unusual yet there is no dearth of “terrestrial” examples of imaginary creatures: unicorns, dragons, trolls, jabberwocks – why wouldn’t one of these occurrences of flying whales have been an Earth-based imagining?). The second occurrence is significantly more startling than the first and, indeed, gives me a great sense of synchronicity in a very profound way. Upon image-searching “Skywhale” I happened across this:
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| Available here |
What this picture clearly depicts is a reptilian creature of roughly human stature standing on its hind legs and drinking a goblet of what can only be assumed to be human blood, not only that, but blood drawn from a young woman. That this drawing should crop up randomly in my search for skywhales, yet have such resonance with my above discussion of aspects of reptilian theory, is very remarkable indeed (you are currently seeing someone lose their shit while in the process of developing a blog entry – enjoy!). This surprise outcropping emphatically forces me to return to David Icke. He explains in some detail in many of his works of how the extradimentional reptilian entities require the consumption of blood – preferably that of virgin children or young women – in Satanic rituals to manifest within vessels in this dimension. I am still honestly shocked that this should (re)emerge in a completely unrelated context in my web searching just now... but I digress...]
The second passage in bold from my last quoting of Harner again interests the missionaries he visits after his experience: ‘When I came to the part about the dragon-like creatures fleeing an enemy somewhere beyond the Earth and landing here to hide from their pursuers, Bob and Millie became exited and again read me more from the same passage in the Book of Revelation:
And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angel with him.
I listened with surprise and wonder. The missionaries, in turn, seemed to be awed by the fact that an atheistic anthropologist, by taking the drink of the “witch doctors,” could apparently have revealed to him some of the same holy material in the Book of Revelation.’ (p. 6 – 7)
Before discussing the above in-depth, I’ll let this flow naturally on to the continuation of his vision and my last citation of the experience itself: ‘The creatures then showed me how they had created life on the planet in order to hide within the multitudinous forms and thus disguise their presence. Before me, the magnificence of plant and animal creation and speculation – hundreds of millions of years of activity – took place on a scale and with a vividness impossible to describe. I learned that the dragon-like creatures were thus inside all forms of life, including man. (Footnote: In retrospect one could say they were almost like DNA, although at that time, 1961, I knew nothing of DNA.) They were the true masters of humanity and the entire planet, they told me. We humans were but receptacles and servants of these creatures. For this reason they could speak to me from within myself.’ (p. 4 – 5)
What we have in the first fragment is the bizarre, yet strangely fitting, juxtaposition of interstellar conflict and the Book of Revelations in the Bible. “Heaven” refers to space (or perhaps another dimension, wherever Harner’s reptilian entities came from) and the casting down to earth is the end of the reptilian creatures’ flight from their nemesis. This second biblical allusion is significantly stronger than the first, and yields considerably more for discussion; especially when coupled with the second fragment from Harner’s report, which effectively claims that these entities created us to conceal themselves. Interestingly, when seen through the biblical interpretation, the enemies of these entities from whom they seek refuge on earth are in fact the good guys: God and His angels. Yet it is the ones who were cast down from heaven that “created” us and inhabit the world with us. This doesn’t seem to hold in a “normal” Christian understanding of the Bible and genesis generally, which suggest that the Being which created us was the One True God, the good guy par excellence... the One who triumphs in heaven, no less, casting the Serpent down! I was mulling over some of these ideas in my head when a good friend of mine mentioned the Cathars, a heretical medieval Christian sect best known for the heavy persecution they suffered at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. He mentioned that in their thought Satan was seen as having been given dominion over Earth/material existence by God and that, therefore, our world was tainted and presented a kind of test to us (when I mentioned them to my girlfriend she said they were “something like Christian Buddhists” – a characterisation that, in light of their renunciatory relationship to the physical world around us, seems quite apt!). In my own dalliances with the Jehovah’s Witnesses (another group who have suffered significant persecution) who turn up at my door occasionally I have found a similar doctrine: that Satan is the true ruler of this world and its various governments and political institutions (this certainly doesn’t extend as far as Cathar beliefs did). [Again, both of these are similar to David Icke’s writings concerning how the reptilian entities almost always are proximate to power, to certain political, cultural, social, religious leaders.]
Historical resonances – The yellow cross Cathars were made to stitch into their clothing during persecution and the yellow star the Jews were forced to wear during their persecution under Nazism.
Another piece of evidence for this kind of view from the Bible is Jesus’s temptation in the dessert (Luke 4:1-13, Matt 4:1-11). Amongst other enticements, Satan offers Him absolute political power on earth if He worships him – suggesting that he has direct control over the various kingdoms and other political entities (it is even stated explicitly at Luke 4:6). Insofar as the earth (or material realm) is the dominion of Satan or these reptilian entities, it isn’t necessarily going to be the nicest place to live a lot of the time and here we reach a typical problem with spirituality – if the Source of everything is the Good (in, say, Platonism), or a good God (in, say, Christianity), why do bad things happen? It seems that the fall of Satan to earth gives some potential directions in thinking about this “conundrum.” Since we inhabit the same territory as him, it doesn’t seem surprising that we will suffer various tribulations and not always enjoy our time, being mired in the illusion of seperateness from God. There is still another way of looking at this whole thing: To make the world perfect – that is, to remove the bad that occurs and make empirical existence commensurable with a good God – it would be necessary to postulate that God is with us, on our level... which would mean that He had been driven down, expelled from the heavens by Satan... which would mean that Satan would be the lord of the heavens and God the lord of material existence. While we might enjoy this for now, what would happen in the afterlife, or in the dimensions and spheres greater than this one? They would all be the domain of the Devil (and thus contain the various unpleasant occurrences that are sometimes used to deny a good God’s existence). Well may we then say *whiny voice* “everthiiiiiiiiiiiing, everythiiiiiiiiiiiiiing in its riiight plaaaaaaaaace...”
To say that Satan is the lord of Earth, however, is still a little less than claiming that we were created by him, which clearly isn’t overtly suggested in the Bible. What we do have, however, is the story of Genesis, the very place where God is said to create the earth and us too. In this book the Fall from Paradise is a central feature and involves Satan intimately. Perhaps we weren’t created by Satan in an absolute sense, but only made to fall to earth by him. Perhaps he took us with him so that he could hide all the better from God. Or maybe he put us here first. This raises an interesting question concerning the chronological relationship between Genesis and Revelations. Obviously, Genesis is meant to come first, insofar as it contains the Creation, and Revelations last, insofar as it contains the Apocalypse – the eschaton of the Abrahamic religions. However, the weird synergy between Harner’s experience, in which the events described are told as if they have already happen, and Revelations does raise some interesting issues here, especially when coupled with beliefs such as the Cathars (for the Jehovah’s Witnesses this is not as contentious – they understand us to be living in the End Times themselves and as such Satan fell to earth somewhat recently... perhaps the Cathars held similar millenarian beliefs, though no record of them remains). More generally, this whole discussion raises interesting questions of the dichotomy of beginning and end – where closing certain doors opens others and where beginnings might signal ends elsewhere...
Harner’s own closure on the whole episode (although this experience is the one that leads him to continue researching and practicing shamanism for the remainder of his life – so this closure is perhaps more of an opening) comes with his approaching a wise old shaman who surprises him with the level of corroboration he gives his story: ‘I was now eager to solicit a professional opinion from the most supernaturally knowledgeable of the Indians, a blind shaman who had made many excursions into the spirit world with the aid of the ayahuasca drink. It seemed only proper that a blind man might be able to be my guide to the world of darkness.
I went to his hut, taking my notebook with me, and described my visions to him segment by segment. At first I told him only the highlights; thus, when I came to the dragon-like creatures, I skipped their arrival from space and only said, “There were these giant black animals, something like great bats, longer than the length of this house, who said that they were the true masters of this world.” There is no word for dragon in Conibo, so “giant bat” was the closest I could come to describing what I had seen.
He stared up toward me with his sightless eyes, and said with a grin, “Oh, they’re always saying that. But they are only the Masters of Outer Darkness.”
He waved his hand casually toward the sky. I felt a chill along the lower part of my spine, for I had not yet told him that I had seen them, in my trance, coming from outer space.’ (p. 7)
We see here, in conclusion, that the entities were just saying that and that in fact they are not the true masters of the world, but merely “the Masters of Outer Darkness” (perhaps the place they reside in the brain). In this sense, they were lying, being deceptive, and if there’s one thing Satan is, it’s the great deceiver. As always, he is taking God’s works as his own, trying to usurp Him, and generally make people worship and fear him. Deception is the name of the game – distortion of the Platonic Good – and behind every label you will find another, and then another behind that one again. The material world is a place of transience and impermanence. Perhaps the best way to face these dishonest creatures and the devilish things that happen around us is with a grin, like the wise old blind master shaman; treating them as cosmic jokers or clowns who pull multicoloured ribbons of matter and light out of metaphysical pockets, conjuring up in front of us all the various wonders (and horrors) of the natural and material world. After all, the jester’s coxcomb has horns too...
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| An Interesting Resemblance - The "Mushroom Runners" of Tassili |
[A last little conjuring trick using google image search: Searching for “jester” yields this image (interestingly enough, like the reptilian/skywhale, this one is also from a designers website)...
...which, especially considering the juxtaposition between jesters and devils that I have just offered, brings to mind Satan’s first temptation of Jesus – where he brings Him a stone to turn into bread to feed himself. Crazy stuff!]
