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

Epilogue

We can use the findings from diverse disciplines such as processes of neural networks, influences of epigenetics, dynamics of states of consciousness, procedures for self-actualization, and properties of physics to illustrate the energy body because these seemingly disparate subjects are all functions of cohesion, the part of our energetic anatomy where the meta-cognition that gives rise to each of them takes place. While there is interaction among all systems comprising human anatomy and awareness, cohesion as governed by energy body mechanics is the common basis of perception and behavior. At the same time, these specialties can help shed greater light, in a faster way, on the nature of cohesion.

The shamanic view of the energy body doesn’t obviate anything; it only serves to enhance and expand. It opens new avenues of inquiry for what may be brought into our world. In bringing to bear an extended human anatomy, it reveals increased capacities of consciousness and behavior that have been there all along. By mapping the properties of cohesion, we gain a better understanding of perception and our place in the world. Through personal application, this opens the book of your life, and not just to a page or chapter.

The quest to explore and use the energy body provides sustenance and renewal to all areas of life, its effects are that entrenched in human affairs. Even so, at every turn something or someone signals halt. It’s easy to close the book and forget about it, and so close off awareness, meaning, and your sojourn. Difficulties here and there along your path may actually be insurmountable but, free will or not, that awaits discovery. Overcoming external obstacles is not the final test of success anyway as there is a greater, more profound meaning of life and living it, the very heart of it.

It is in the nature of our era that we need to build a deeper relationship with our world. Our survival may depend on it; just take a good look around. For this pursuit, science and shamanism stand best to assist and illuminate when used in concert. They both accelerate learning and have recognized value in all corners of the globe, and combined could offer new options and means to gain balance among individuals, groups, and environment.

Such a journey requires achieving new levels of imagination and learning. We need new navigational maps, and those of ancient and modern making could serve us well. From science and technology to ethics to education, if not across the spectrum of human endeavors, this undertaking stands to awaken immense potential. This pursuit is the same for each of us, for as adults we must assume responsibility and chart the course, and all the while remember that even as children we sensed a life of abounding potential, perhaps, even, of touching infinity. . . .