Shamanism for the Age of Science: Awakening the Energy Body - Kenneth Smith 2018

Reality
Shamanism for the Age of Science

Throughout the course of your everyday life, you live in the midst of infinity. In each moment, with each step, you have an infinite number of options at your beck and call. To illustrate, consider the circle, which is defined as an infinite number of points that are connected—a closed curve on a plane—with each point being the same distance from a fixed point, the center of the circle. Now, stand in the middle of a room. Keeping your feet in the same place (the center of the circle), rotate 360 degrees and end where you began. In so doing, you have formed a circle, and by definition you have the ability to access an infinite number of points or directions. You can therefore behave in an infinite number of ways. As though taking compass readings, from your starting point, any movement small or large, places you in a different space, a different orientation from where you started.

If you accept that you have an infinite number of options, questions then arise regarding how you can navigate this immensity, how you can relate to it, how you can move with it, how you can expand your reference to it, and how you can grow within it. The fact is that we limit our options, confining perception and behavior within a narrow slice of the possibilities. Breaking through these barriers is often a slow process. We need to find out how to relate to the vastness of life so that we may continually awaken to new awareness, new knowledge, and new vistas—for the options are infinite.

Reality

”Reality” is a human-made construct. It is a description of the world, born of imagination and defined by learning. Whether a view of reality is based on science, philosophy, religion, or anything else, it is a single canvas in a museum, or one book in a magnificent library. Each view of reality changes over time as individuals, groups, and the species evolve. What remains consistent is that the reality we experience forms from our perceptions of what we think reality entails. Since birth, we have each performed intricate maneuvers of learning, building, and consolidating a worldview. This is quite an accomplishment, even though we have created only a partial reflection of the vastness that lies before us.

The truth is that creation far exceeds our capacity to grasp it. Human-made reality is therefore a practical framework that enables us to survive and continue learning. Learning and survival go hand in hand. But to this end the current worldview is problematic. Humanity is at a crossroads, requiring a change in our view of the world in order to survive. One can argue, for example, that cyclical global warming has accelerated dramatically as a direct result of a human-made reality that renders humans separate from their planet and so the exploitation of natural resources for financial gain, rather than harmony with all aspects of the environment, now threatens social structures of all kinds, as well as the very existence of many forms of life. In a similar way, centuries ago a European “flat earth” view prevented exploration of oceans and continents, diminishing a new relationship with the world. Inhibited learning and lack of awareness caused the effects of both worldviews, modern and historical.

Answers to our contemporary challenges are emerging, however. People are growing more aware of cause and effect. Organizations are taking up arms on behalf of endangered species. And ethical debates abound. The intention behind this book is to contribute to the overall effort by providing information about a unique method of learning, which offers the possibility of heightened consciousness, expanded worldview, and new ways to participate with the world.

Shamanism

Based on my apprenticeship to Toltec seer don Juan Matus, and writing under the name Ken Eagle Feather, I have published five books about the Toltec worldview, a branch of shamanism in which the energy body is the principal component.¹ Based on this central theme, over some thirty-five years I have found that these ancient teachings reveal inherent processes of consciousness and perception, including how we form reality, and extend to us the possibility of purposefully cultivating ever-expanding worldviews. These teachings do not exist in a vacuum. They are rightfully an extension of established fields including philosophy and the sciences. They may also affect other disciplines and serve to significantly extend the boundaries of accepted knowledge.

Others have written about Toltec views and practices as well, elevating what was once-hidden to a recognizable position among an array of metaphysical literature. Since Carlos Castaneda’s first book, The Teachings of Don Juan, published in the late 1960s, Toltec literature has gained ever-widening international recognition.² Toltec practitioners such as Victor Sanchez, Florinda Donner, Taisha Abelar, Miguel Ruiz, Susan Gregg, and others have since contributed to a growing body of work.

While Castaneda and his books gained a degree of notoriety, his work in providing an emic account (from the point of view of a participant rather than an outside, “objective” observer) of Toltec teachings earned him a doctorate in anthropology from UCLA. Contrary to a variety of assertions, Carlos Castaneda’s doctorate has not been revoked.³ The emic format is an essential consideration when evaluating Castaneda’s work. He has been accused of intuiting or even inventing the content of his books. However, if we apply an emic standard, and so view his work as originating from inside the Toltec shamanic tradition rather than the more common observing and reporting by being seemingly removed from the experience under scrutiny, the expression of his training is entirely consistent with that body of teachings. His books may then be viewed as the culmination of a learning project where one is required to enact the teachings. And so rather than intuiting his books as ordinarily considered, he applied instructions for “dreaming” given to him by his teacher, don Juan Matus. By doing so, he significantly extended communication and behavior into other realms of human potential. In this light, Castaneda’s books represent a successful component of having learned and enacted the system, a true representation of emic anthropology.

Shamanism for the Age of Science is not a “Toltec” book, though, as it does not provide practices related solely to that knowledge. Rather, it presents those aspects of the energy body that apply to everyone, not just to those with esoteric inclinations. It takes the essence of what Toltec shamans discovered regarding the basic structure of the human energy body—especially as it relates to individual and group learning—and then looks at it and its effects on consciousness through a lens of contemporary understanding. References to don Juan’s teachings, the principal figure in Castaneda’s books, are meant to provide continuity for this particular lineage. When Castaneda codified a once oral tradition, a new mold was cast, disrupting the sequence of how it has evolved; only time will tell the effects. Since the tradition is rooted in exploring the energy body rather than instilling a set philosophy, the Toltec strain of shamanism often takes different turns in the road. As don Juan said, “There is no official version of Toltec knowledge and the passage of time requires new ways of interpreting and elucidating it.”⁴

One of the oldest practices of philosophy, healing, education, and other forms of expression relevant to the people it serves, shamanism has always been expressed in terms meaningful to the times. As we live in an era forged by science, the portrayal of shamanism in this book provides an opportunity for shamanism and science to have more than a casual encounter.

Science

Gerald Piel, founder of Scientific American and author of The Age of Science, eloquently depicts a world where dedicated men and women have mapped aspects of life once relegated to the mystic’s and alchemist’s dens.⁵ Our knowledge of subjects such as light, space, time, genes, and geology, to name but a few, has undergone radical transformation due the explorations of resolute scientists.

As commonly considered, though, the worlds of science and shamanism remain separate beyond measure with those in each camp scratching their heads as they look at the other. It is difficult, if not impossible, to scientifically study philosophical propositions that exist only as mental constructs. The grist of what might be considered speculation is not empirical, not of the makings of experiment and observation, the bastion of science.

A New Collaboration

When specific conditions to be measured are provided, such as the energy body and its systems, then shamanism stands at the threshold of science as these items can be studied with the meticulousness that has gone into investigating other areas. A building block in the world of science is chemistry, for instance, whereas intent—focused energy—serves as a foundational component in shamanism. Scientists are now beginning to explore intention as found in remote healing or how an experimenter influences an experiment, and shamans may come to view chemical actions and reactions as refined manifestations of intent. In turn, the definitive energetic structures of human anatomy and cosmology observed by shamans offer scientists an opportunity to venture into uncharted scientific realms.

It seems things are heading in this direction. As exemplified by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s book The Universe in a Single Atom, we are at a point in our evolution where the worlds of scientific and ancient forms of consciousness research are merging.⁶ Relating to this, there exists a straightforward compatibility between science and shamanism as both are methods to accelerate learning more about the way we tick and the world we live in. Science also complements shamanism by providing present-day, cross-cultural context and shamanism augments science by revealing new pathways of discovery.

Whether or not this collaboration occurs will not impede the progress of either. If it does not, it will just be a loss that each did not learn from the other. Science still has a land of infinite possibility to explore and shamanism will continue with or without the backing of scientific authority. It is in this vein that I blend shamanism with science as I’ve found that the combination provides a firm stepping-stone to increased awareness of human behavior and ability.

Consciousness

As part of this approach, you’ll find reference to bioenergetics, a rapidly expanding scientific field that nicely meshes with advances in understanding cognition, or how we come to know and understand. This is laced with considerations of physics and neuroscience in order to better illustrate how the energy body regulates consciousness. But, as parapsychology professor and Zen student Susan Blackmore points out in her text Consciousness: An Introduction, actually defining consciousness remains one of the all-time riddles.⁷ However, we don’t need to define consciousness in order to use it to become more conscious. We do need the wherewithal provided by context and procedures that deliberately target the development and use of consciousness.

Blackmore also mentions that in the eighteenth century, psychology was regarded as a philosophy of mental life and in the nineteenth century took its first steps into developing as a science. Bringing to bear some of the many facets of psychology gives us another avenue to at least play with the riddle of consciousness and even derive further benefit by relating it to the energy body, especially given that shamanism has been referred to as “America’s oldest psychology.” This also applies to the various expressions of shamanism found around the globe as it remains one of the more widespread influences.⁸ As a result, shamanism as well as science is rooted in cross-cultural meaning and carries relevance for today’s world.

Philosophy

As different ages have come and gone, Toltec investigators of perception have continued their pursuits and delivered a sophisticated constellation of understanding about the energy body, providing concrete, consistent references that detail the energy body as an objective, measurable part of our anatomy. These perspectives also offer a unified perspective, enabling an accounting of the knowledge gained in the various metaphysical disciplines that also study the world as energy.

By its very nature, the energy body pertains to the entire sphere of human activity. Toltec considerations therefore allow us to examine anew the classic literature of other traditions, including the perennial philosophies of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. These branches of mysticism often have shamanic roots that span a spectrum from animism to pantheism to monotheism.⁹ Shamanic findings also extend to examining time-honored matters of philosophical inquiry including topics such as ethics, free will, and the ontological state of being.

The Energy Body

The expanse of this perspective and the possibilities it highlights make this particular study of the human condition worth investigating. In a way, this is quite odd, as according to Toltec lore what became the highly refined worldview of today had begun to coalesce some 5,000 to 7,000 years ago deep in the heart of what is now a third-world country, Mexico. At the same time, what Toltec teachings represent doesn’t reside in a vacuum. From modern science to homeopathy to ancient Taoism, other fields, cultures, and individuals have contributed to our knowledge of the energy body.

I have found that not being aware of our personal energy body is like trying to walk down the street without the use of our legs. There is that much more to being human that is awaiting realization. Developing awareness of our greater potential results in a profound shift in the way the world is viewed and subsequent changes in behavior. This enhanced relationship with our world permits additional learning, including new ways to learn. Learning hinges on how well you use the tools available to you as well as having the tools at your disposal to begin with. You may have loads of perspective and not have any experience that matches that context. Likewise, you might have plenty of experience that goes to waste because you don’t have the means to apply and integrate the experience.