RE: virus: the meme site

Brett Lane Robertson (unameit@tctc.com)
Thu, 18 Sep 1997 17:54:38 -0500


At 07:08 PM 9/18/97 +0100, you wrote:
>> From: Kirt A. Dankmyer -- aka Loki[SMTP:dankmyka@wfu.edu]

>> >I guess a shaman would probably deny the mind/matter
>> >dichotomy.

>> For that matter, don't most shamans seny the self/universe dichotomy?

>I don't know about that, but most mystics probably would.

>Robin

List,

A Shaman is a mystic/magus. So, yes, the shaman must *also* deny the
self/universe dichotomy--like the mystic does. Though the magus maintains
the self/universe dichotomy as does the mystic maintain the mind/matter
dichotomy. (But in the words of a magus--me--there is no dichotomy between
self/universe, mind/matter...there is a progression or hierarchy. Mind is
superior to matter and self is superior to group--for the simple reason that
it is quicker for the individual to think something than it is for the group
to build it.) A "professional Shaman" (a term I've been trying to come to
grips with...so bare with me...like "professional sham") is a magus who
orders mystical experience (or a mystic who destroys order--otherwise known
as a chaos magician...a contradiction in terms).

So, finally I think I agree with Wade, that in a professionalistic world
view there is no room for a Shaman (though technology, magic, mysticism,
and spirituality--in the negative sense that they are often used--keeps
him/her in business).

Brett

Returning,
rBERTS%n
Rabble Sonnet Retort
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy - and Jill a
wealthy widow.

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