Santa Claus: Dybbuk, Tulpa, Legend
FreakingNews.com
What is it about this time of year that melts even the hardest disinfonaut scepticism? Sure, Santa Claus might be the old shamanic magic mushroom cult incarnate repackaged to dupe us all into developing a Pavlovian response to the Baron Samedi of consumerism that he has now become, but I’ve always suspected the rabbit hole went down deeper.
And then I came across this blog post by paranormal researcher Jeff Belanger:
My friend Al told me he was struggling with telling his four-year-old daughter about Santa Claus. “It’s the only lie I’ve ever told her,” he said. I too have a four-year-old daughter and am currently in the thick of Santa Fever at my house, where we’ve been lauding Père Noël for the last three Christmases. He’s a legend I’m honored to propagate.
I study legends for a living. Monsters, ghosts, extraterrestrials, and ancient mysteries swirl around me like smoke from a smoldering campfire. If…
Alberto Villoldo On Ayahuasca
Alberto Villoldo
Disinformation’s sister video label True Mind has just released a documentary film featuring Alberto Villoldo, Amazonia: Healing With Sacred Plants. Dr. Alberto Villoldo writes for True Mind about his film:
I started out in the brain laboratory at San Francisco State University – literally surrounded by hundreds of formaldehyde preserved brains. We were studying how we develop psychosomatic disease, and how we could create psychosomatic health.
One day I realized that I had been looking out of the wrong end of the microscope, becoming caught in the minutiae of neurons and brain chemistry, and missing the larger picture of the mind. I decided to leave my lab and travelled to the Amazon, to work and study with medicine men who had no MRI’s and brain scans, only the power of the mind and local herbs to heal their patients.
For twenty-five years, I apprenticed with extraordinary shamans and healers, and learned the use…
14 Shamans Murdered in Peru
Photo: BDean (CC)
Nancy R writes on Care2:
Fourteen traditional healers have been brutally murdered in Peru in the past 20 months, allegedly at the urging of a local mayor. The Peruvian government has sent a team of investigators to look into the incidents. While 14 shaman have disappeared, the bodies of only seven have been retrieved so far; the indigenous healers were shot, stabbed or hacked to death by machete.
Protestant Sect Members Suspected: The prosecutor’s office of Alto Amazonas province stated that the alleged murders were carried out by a man known locally at the “witch hunter,” at the behest of his brother, the mayor of the town of Balsa Puerto. A Peruvian government adviser and expert on Amazon cultures alleges that both are members of a Protestant sect that claims shamans are possessed by demons and must be eliminated. The Peruvian Times reports that the shamans had been planning to form an…
Evolver the Podcast: Rediscovering Plant Magic
In this extended clip from the Evolver Intensive Awakening the Cosmic Serpent, Jeremy Narby talks with Kathleen Harrison about her extensive research with the Mazatec shamanic tradition of Mexico, what they taught her about plants and the “energetic carrying capacity of nature,” psilocybin mushrooms, Tobacco and ways for those addicted in the West to heal this relationship with a misused sacred plant.
Next up we have Erin Shaw talking with Naada Guerra. Naada holds workshops on the power of language and how to change our realities by changing the way we use it. In this interview Erin and Naada get into some of the ways we can move towards Empowering Language and more towards the next evolutionary shift.
If you would like to hear more from Jeremy Narby, you can check out his book The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. If you would like to gain more knowledge from Kat…
Man Charged With Attempting To Cut Off Neighbor’s Toes And Scalp To “Collect His Soul”
In the dead of winter, strange things happen up north. Minnesota’s Fergus Falls Journal reports on an attempt at shamanism gone terrifyingly awry:
The man who allegedly stabbed former Fergus Falls mayoral candidate Ivan “Skip” Mallas early Sunday morning was charged on Tuesday with second degree attempted murder.
Mallas had been approached by Timothy Eugene Peterson while working in his garage. Peterson allegedly began chanting and called himself a “soul collector” and a “medicine man” while trying first to cut off some of Mallas’ toes. Mallas said that Peterson then tried to slit his throat, scalp him and stab him in the chest, all the while telling Mallas that he needed to kill him and “collect his soul.”
During the struggle, the complaint stated, Mallas allegedly had to grab the knife several times to keep it from mortally wounding him. These actions caused deep cuts to both hands, and his attempt to keep Peterson from…
Charles Dickens’ Scrooge – A Victorian Shaman?
The Fortean Times has a very interesting analysis of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” by Guy Reid-Brown, in which he investigates the possible mystical/shamanic inspiration for the classic Christmas story:
No doubt as this Advent commences, I, and many others, will be re-reading Charles Dickens’s 1843 seasonal classic “A Christmas Carol” for the umpteenth time. Those of us who have fallen under its spell will doubtless continue to do so every year, even if we live to be as old as the oldest Biblical patriarch, and each time with the same degree of emotion – whether it be delight, wonder or sadness -– as the times before.
In any other context, such behaviour might be interpreted as borderline obsessive, but that simply doesn’t apply here. Ponder this for a moment: there are few other works in Western literature that have enjoyed such a breadth and variety of adaptations across all media. The tale…
Daniel Pinchbeck’s Business Shamanism
Daniel Pinchbeck. Photo: Herwig Maurer (CC)
I wonder if this essay by Daniel Pinchbeck will, years hence, be looked upon as a seminal point in the transition of the “consciousness” movement, for lack of a better term, from an idealistic remove from the mainstream a la Burning Man (which of course is completely unsustainable despite it’s worthy goals), to a pragmatic vision of how to change the world. From his Reality Sandwich blog:
Now that the Evolver network and brand have established themselves to a certain extent, I want to look ahead to developments I hope to see in the near future, with this organization and other initiatives. For the next phase of development, I propose the term “business shamanism.” “Corporate alchemy” would be a viable alternative.
First, some context: As I write this, the ruling regime in our rotten republic of Obama-stan is seeking to ignore the pain of the sheeple and extend…
Graham Hancock on Shamanism and Spirituality
Graham Hancock took time out of his North American book tour promoting his novel Entangled to spend a week at Reality Sandwich’s retreat in Boulder, Utah. Courtesy of Andrew Hasse, here he is at the RS 2009 retreat talking about religion, spirituality, shamanism and the supernatural.
EsoZone Portland 2010 Starts This Weekend
EsoZone Portland is back for another year! Once it again, the event is an unconference — an event in which the schedule is set by the participants on the fly at the event. Anything can happen, but some of the possible subjects include:
Outsider Art • Discordia • SubGenius
The Occult • Satanism • Conspiracy Analysis
Life Extension • Intelligence Enhancement
Space Migration • Psychedelic Futurism
Consciousness Expansion • R/evolutionary Living
Renegade Metaphysics • Radical Psychotherapy
Aliens • Neo-Shamanism • Temporary Autonomous Zones
Body Modification • Alternative Sexuality • Fringe Culture
Human-Dolphin Communication • DIY Media
Cybernetics and Systems Theory • Pranks
Atheism • Zen • Martial Arts • Recession Hacking
There will also be performances by artists such as Cult of Zir and Ogo Eion and Psychetect in the evenings.
Ayahuasca Vision Quest on Disinformation: The Podcast
Disinformation: The Podcast: Episode 13 — Ayahuasca Vision Quest
iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
This episode features an interview with Adam Elenbaas, author of Fishers of Men: The Gospel of an Ayahuasca Vision Quest. Adam discusses his experiences in the Peruvian jungle with a psychedelic tea called Ayahuasca, and explains how it changed his spiritual outlook.
Stay tuned after the interview for details on Raymond & Joe’s upcoming appearances at Dragon*Con 2010 in Atlanta. The guys will be supporting events and lectures by Disinfo favorite Graham Hancock.
Legendary Showman Turns Shaman
Psychomagic is the newest book by the legendary surrealist filmmaker, comics author, Tarot expert and therapist, Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy is the brand new English translation of Jodorowsky’s poetic-action therapy techniques. The book first appeared in Spanish in 2008. It’s published by Inner Traditions and was released on June 18, 2010.
The book is separated into 3 sections, keeping Jodorowsky’s wide-ranging ramblings carefully collected. Writer Gilles Farcet interacts with the author in the book’s first chapters which are written in a Q&A format.
An introductory essay by Farcet makes it clear that their “interview” consisted of his enduring an expansive, multi-layered monologue from Jodorowsky which was only later recast in the Q&A structure. The “knowing teacher vs. baffled student” feel of this section is absolutely delightful, and the disarming approach allows the deeper implications of Jodorowsky’s ideas to take the reader by surprise. In…
Occult of Personality With Jeremy Vaeni
Occult of Personality — Podcast Episode #85 — Jeremy Vaeni
Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS
In podcast episode 85, we’re joined by Jeremy Vaeni. Jeremy is a writer, director, podcaster, and experiencer of high-strangeness. He hosts and produces the successful and popular Culture of Contact and Paratopia podcasts.
Jeremy’s unique perspective on UFOlogy and the paranormal have earned him fans as well as critics, but he speaks his mind with frankness and a sense of humor that’s refreshing. We begin the interview hearing about his early experiences with UFOs and alien abduction. Based on these contacts, he’s led to understand that UFOs and aliens are not necessarily what many may believe, in that they serve to try to rouse humanity from its waking dream.
From there, we delve into what Jeremy calls his “I AM” experience. I think you’ll agree that his story is quite compelling, rather extreme, absolutely fascinating, brutally honest, and undoubtedly controversial.
Don’t miss…
Master Shaman Jose Vargas’ Alien Encounters (Video)
Master Shaman Jose Vargas describes his telepathic communications with alien beings in another dimension where time moves more slowly, for Reality Sandwich:
Into the Red Zone: An Ayahuasca Monologue (Video)
From our friends at Reality Sandwich: Comics artist Adam Pollina takes an extraordinary journey into the heart of Colombia’s military Red Zone in search of a legendary shaman.
This video was recorded at the Third Annual Ayahuasca Monologues, held at Webster Hall in New York City, on November 5, 2009.
Halloween and (Black and Orange) Magic
“Not pagan Samhain celebrations or the like,” to quote Chiropteran, “but bright-orange, screaming-pumpkin, Trick-or-Treating Halloween.” It’s all about doing magic with the wild, pop mystery explosion that Halloween has become. The Universal Monsters (Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, Mummy) as the spirits of the North, South, East, and West; invocations of Jack Skellington; Jack-o-lanterns as the undead spirit servants we all carve every year to protect our homes from evil.
Halloween and Black (and Orange) Magick
Chiropteran – Well, yesterday was October 1st, the official opening day (by my reckoning) of the Halloween season.
This year, as part of my overarching goal to get my magickal butt in gear, I’ve decided to do a nightly meditation/devotion/working to hammer my Halloween Magick system into shape.
(I don’t know if anyone’s interested in the particulars, but here goes anyway, for any of you who are…)
I started last night by turning the lights down and reading some H. P. Lovecraft…
Adventures with Mazatec Mint: Exploring the Mind-Bending World of Salvia Divinorum
David Jay Brown writes in Reality Sandwich:
Within around thirty seconds of smoking the dark herbal extract the effects rapidly began, and I felt my entire sense of identity suddenly shift. I was instantly transformed from a human being into a tiny disembodied speck of consciousness — completely bewildered as to what I was and amnesic of my former identity. I was suspended in a hyperspatial dimension, a crystalline network of pulsing energies, that was filled with countless other miniature beings like me. I found myself inside of a kind of space within space, that appeared to transcend the whole three-dimensional universe. Suddenly, my identity shifted again, as a portion of the space and beings around me folded and twisted into me, becoming a part of me. More and more layers of the space around me continued folding in and becoming a part of my expanding sense of identity — until,…
