OK. (I'll disregard the poodle thing....)
All I am saying is that for an interested bystander to get some facts
about shamanism, he would need to actually immerse himself in the culture
and apprentice himself to the shaman. Whereas, if one wanted to learn
angioplasty, although a period of schooling may perhaps be beneficial,
the techniques and methods are published in a cadre of professional and
other journals.
It is this 'you have to "become" one' aspect of shamanism that I observe
as deception, and that I hold up as evidence. It is in this way that it
is different from science. And I'm completely disregarding for the sake
of culture the fact that no shaman can offer proof of his claims beyond
anecdote.
And I don't want to get lost in this- can you show me a nuts and bolts
manual of shamanism, with full and replicable support for their magical
methods, such that some study may be made of these techniques outside
their resident culture?
And yes, I still feel (alright, yes feel...) that for a shaman to perform
his function, he needs to abrogate the mysterious forces he controls only
to himself, and that a necessary part of his continuing is the absolute
ignorance of his clients as to his sources and methods. I also feel that
is because his methods are foolshow on a veneer of sham, but that is my
own bias.
*****************
Wade T. Smith
morbius@channel1.com | "There ain't nothin' you
wade_smith@harvard.edu | shouldn't do to a god."
morbius@cyberwarped.com |
******* http://www.channel1.com/users/morbius/ *******