Goddess Zodiac : Pasowee / Goddess of Endurance

Pasowee is Kiowa name for the Buffolo Woman, the Native American Goddess, who brought wisdom and medicine to her people/sign of Capricorn / concept by artist Amy Zerner / Goddess Guide me

Terence McKenna / Dennis McKenna










Shamans and Schizophrenia

The question of just how much of the human experience of the supernatural stems from mental aberrance or experiences during trance or intoxication has intrigued anthropologists and psychologists for a number of years. In the preceding chapter we discussed the characteristics of shamanism, one of the most archaic of religious technologies. We now want to show that significant similarities exist between shamanic election and initiation and the effort at psychic reorganization that characterizes some forms of schizophrenia. If, as we proposed earlier, the mind and its buried unconscious contents have their origin at some submolecular interface, then it is reasonable to suggest that a similar biophysical release mechanism is responsible for the irruption of these contents in both shamanism and schizophrenia. Comparison of the two syndromes could be useful for what it might reveal, not only about the processes that trigger access to such unconscious material but also about the means of controlling these processes. Whereas schizophrenia may or may not result in eventual control of the nonordinary experience and psychic reintegration, in shamanism this step is, nevertheless, a sine qua non.The primary difficulty in formulating any definition of mental aberrance in general and schizophrenia in particular is that any such definition will necessarily reflect the cultural bias out of which it is formed. Behavior considered abnormal or pathological in one culture may be quite congruent with the norms of another. Belief in witchcraft might be indicative of paranoid delusion in one culture but might represent a prevailing view in another.For our purposes, abnormal behavior can be defined as behavior differing from the accepted cultural standard as a result of an inner conflict or crisis in the life of the individual, regardless of the standard of normative behavior in the society in which the life-crisis occurs. One of the basic distinctions between normal and abnormal behavior lies not in the outward manifestations of the conflict, but in differing cultural attitudes toward the life-crisis and its resolution.

The term schizophrenia is used to denote a number of heterogeneous, but related, disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from the environment and preoccupation with interior processes, attended by a resultant disintegration of the personality. An early term for schizophrenia was Dementia Praecox, meaning an intense pathological state beginning early in

life. In 1896 the psychologist Kraepelin classified schizophrenia into three subtypes and ascribed organic, endogenous causes to each type. Later, a fourth type, known as simple schizophrenia, was added to this classification and its cause adduced to be a crisis in an individual's life situation.Boisen (1936) lists the following subtypes of schizophrenia (in Boisen's terms, dementia praecox), first noting that . . . findings have indicated that it is important to distinguish dementia praecox as a way of life from dementia praecox as an attempt at reorganization [italics his] (p. 314): (1) Simple schizophrenia, represented by the individual who drifts off into a world of fantasy and easy pleasure-taking without putting up any resistance. This type of schizophrenia is classed as denoting a way of life. (2) Paranoic schizophrenia, characterized by an individual's inability to admit defeat or error and a resulting distortion of beliefs to save the conception of the individual's relation to the external world on which his psychic structure is based. This type also represents a way of life. (3) Catatonic schizophrenia represents a desperate attempt at reorganization following upon an awareness of danger. Catatonic disturbances often take on the form of stupor or excitement and may be looked on as more severe forms of the anxiety neurosis. They bear a close relationship to certain types of religious conversion experiences. (4) Hebephrenic schizophrenia represents the terminal stage of the drifting reaction or demoralization that may follow upon an unsuccessful attempt at reorganization. Speech tends to lose logical sequence, and the individual becomes silly, uninhibited, and indecent and tends to have bizarre ideas.Silverman (1967) lists as clinical symptoms of schizophrenia: (1) an unmistakable change in personality, (2) autism—nonreality-oriented ideation, (3) disturbances of perception, (4) disturbances of thinking, (5) profound emotional upheavals, and (6) bizarre forms of behavior. He makes four classifications of significance for our study under the general heading of schizophrenia,, based on Sullivan's classification (Silverman 1967). The first is process schizophrenia, in which the personality is poorly integrated; there is continuous and prolonged development of schizophrenic symptoms, and prognosis is poor. It is ... the congeries of signs and symptoms pertaining to an organic, degenerative disease usually of insidious development (Sullivan 1953). Reactive schizophrenia, on the other ous development (Sullivan 1953). Reactive schizophrenia, on the other hand, ... is primarily a disorder of living . . . the person concerned becomes schizophrenic—as one episode in his career among others—for situational reasons and more or less abruptly (Sullivan 1953). Under the reactive schizophrenic category, Silverman differentiates between essential schizophrenia, in which . . . the profoundest of emotional upheavals

and . . . religious and magical ideation unfold under conditions of marked environmental detachment, and paranoid schizophrenia, in which ... the patient, caught up in the spread of meaning, magic, and transcendental forces, suddenly 'understands' it all as the work of some other concrete person or persons . . . attention is thereafter focused primarily upon environmental events and people. Silverman goes on to say of essential types that they ... evidence an overtly indifferent orientation to unfamiliar stimuli, a reduced attentiveness to the environment, and a tendency to attenuate the experienced intensity of environmental stimulation, whereas he characterizes the paranoid type as one who is overtly responsive to unfamiliar stimulation, extensively scans the environment . . . and evidences a tendency to augment the experienced intensity of environmental input (Silverman 1967, pp. 22-23).Both the shamanic initiation and the inwardly directed essential form of schizophrenia reflect an attempt at psychic reorganization as a means of resolving an inner conflict or crisis in the life of the individual. The non-ous development (Sullivan 1953). Reactive schizophrenia, on the other hand, ... is primarily a disorder of living . . . the person concerned becomes schizophrenic—as one episode in his career among others—for situational reasons and more or less abruptly (Sullivan 1953). Under the reactive schizophrenic category, Silverman differentiates between essential schizophrenia, in which . . . the profoundest of emotional upheavals

and . . . religious and magical ideation unfold under conditions of marked environmental detachment, and paranoid schizophrenia, in which ... the patient, caught up in the spread of meaning, magic, and transcendental forces, suddenly 'understands' it all as the work of some other concrete person or persons . . . attention is thereafter focused primarily upon environmental events and people. Silverman goes on to say of essential types that they ... evidence an overtly indifferent orientation to unfamiliar stimuli, a reduced attentiveness to the environment, and a tendency to attenuate the experienced intensity of environmental stimulation, whereas he characterizes the paranoid type as one who is overtly responsive to unfamiliar stimulation, extensively scans the environment . . . and evidences a tendency to augment the experienced intensity of environmental input (Silverman 1967, pp. 22-23).Both the shamanic initiation and the inwardly directed essential form of schizophrenia reflect an attempt at psychic reorganization as a means of resolving an inner conflict or crisis in the life of the individual. The non-paranoid type of schizophrenia bears the most favorable prognosis for an eventual working through of the inner conflict, resulting in a reintegrated, healed personality:It is as if the paranoid schizophrenic, unable to comprehend or tolerate the stark terrors of his inner world, prematurely redirects his attention to the outside world. In this type of abortive crisis solution, the inner chaos is not, so to speak, worked through or is not capable of being worked through. Since the working through of the inner-world experience turns out to be a primary concern . . . (both for the shaman and for the schizophrenic), the paranoid schizophrenic resolution is considered to be an incomplete one, and the essential, nonparanoid schizophrenic form is therefore regarded as more comparable to that of the shaman, the healed madman. (Silverman 1967)The onset of essential schizophrenia usually begins with the magnification of some unresolved conflict in the individual's life, perhaps a poor sexual adjustment or deficiencies in social relationships, which is apt to give rise to intense feelings of impotence, failure, or personal incompetence to the extent that self-concern may so overwhelm the personality that the schizophrenic becomes aware of little else. The schizophrenic syndrome may end at this point if the individual is successful in attaining some sort of personality reorganization and resolution of the precipitating conflict.

The patient may then return to normal, sometimes improved but often with a seriously damaged self-esteem.More often, however, the sense of estrangement and isolation is followed by an ever more marked narrowing of attention to the external environment, increased absorption in interior fantasy, and withdrawal from the outside world. Sustained constriction of the field of attention under these conditions also results in a state of self-initiated sensory deprivation, with consequent inevitable difficulty in the differentiation of fantasy and nonfantasy, between hallucination and perception (Silverman 1967, p. 24). In this and later stages, auditory and tactile hallucinations may manifest themselves; the patient often hears voices or engages in conversation with imaginary companions and also may experience distortions of body-image, the sensation of dying or of the body being cut up, disintegrating, or melting. Often the patient falls under the compulsion to obey the imperative of the voices and may engage in irrational, sometimes symbolic and ritualistic, actions or gestures (Boisen 1942). This stage is tantamount to the stage that Silverman terms fusing of higher and lower referential process, in whichthe already unstable and weakened psychological self is disorganized by this drastically altered environment and is inundated by lower order referential processes such as occur in dreams or revery. Owing to the depths of the emotional stirring that triggered the whole process, the world comes to be experienced as filled with supernatural forces and profound but unimaginable meaning. (Silverman 1967, p. 24)In Boisen's (1942) words:It is known as the inspiration or the automatism, and may be defined as the idea or thought process which after a period of incubation darts suddenly into consciousness . . . they seem to him entirely different from anything he had ever thought or dreamed before. He assumes therefore that they must come from a superhuman source. (p. 25)The fifth stage—what Silverman calls the cognitive reorganization — occurs when the schizophrenic succeeds in reintegrating his personality and assimilating the new unconscious contents to which he has gained access. This stage constitutes the main difference between essential and paranoid schizophrenia, in that it is conspicuously lacking in the latter. It may be said to represent a cure, not in the sense that the schizophrenic henceforth returns to normal and is no longer bothered by autonomous unconscious contents, but rather in that he manages to integrate these contents into the sphere of consciousness and learns to cope with the expanded reality in which he now must live. This stage may develop to any point, from a very marginal adjustment accompanied by constant relapses to an extremely pronounced state of mental acuity in which awareness, sensitivity, and creative capacity are likely to be many times greater than in normal individuals, as if entire areas of the brain, previously inaccessible, had been opened up by the transforming experience. The schizophrenic who has managed successfully to complete this final adjustment is in every sense superior, for he is truly a healed madman, one who not only has crossed over to the other side but has returned and hence possesses access to both spheres of reality.Up to this point we have examined the phenomenon of schizophrenia in its successive stages, from its onset to its resolution. We must now search for correlations between this most severe of mental aberrances and the motifs encountered in shamanism, the revered and respected archaic techniques of ecstasy that occupy a central position in the religious life of tribal peoples.The criteria that define the vocation of shaman are many and varied throughout the world, and it is certainly untrue that every shaman must be a schizoid personality. We have observed that the shaman is usually considered a healed one and that he gains shamanic status because he has healed himself; but the crisis for which he works out a resolution is not always a mental disorder and, in some cases where it is, it is not always a schizophrenic type of aberrance. The shaman's call or election may arise from a purely physical malady, the spirits making their desire that he become a shaman known to him during a feverish delirium. Still other forms of shamanic election may arise from an accident in the external world, such as being struck by lightning or being bitten by a snake. In instances where mental aberrance is a factor in shamanic vocation, a predisposition to epileptic or cataleptic seizures, to hysteria or anxiety, may be the underlying cause rather than schizophrenia. But whatever the underlying cause of the shaman's election, it is important to constantly keep in

mind that it is the ability to cure that is the real basis of the shamanic status:. . . we must also consider the fact that the shamanic initiation proper includes not only an ecstatic experience but... a course of theoretical and practical instruction. . . . Whether they still are or are not subject to real attacks of epilepsy or hysteria, shamans, sorcerers, and medicine men in general cannot be regarded as merely sick; their psychopathic experience has a theoretical content, for if they have cured themselves and are able to cure others, it is, among other things, because they know the mechanism, or rather, the theory of illness. (Eliade 1964, p. 32)In a significant number of cases, however, it is possible to discover important similarities between certain elements of shamanic initiation and the motifs associated with progressive schizophrenic disintegration. Now let's return once again to the stages of essential schizophrenic onset, this time to uncover similarities between these stages and those associated with the shamanic election and initiation.The onset of schizophrenia usually arises at the time of some basic lifecrisis, when the individual is likely to experience feelings of guilt, impotence, or incompetence in a life situation culturally acknowledged as crucial. We find that this is also true in many cases of shamanism; in addition to being introverted and of a nervous constitution since childhood, the future shaman often receives his vocational call through accident, sickness, familial misfortune, or similar mishap. Thus, we may infer that in cultures where the shamanic institution exists, an individual may choose to restructure his life and become a shaman as a means of resolving a life-crisis.The second stage of schizophrenic withdrawal is manifested by a sense of isolation and estrangement from ordinary cultural concerns, which may be followed or accompanied by a pathological fixation on certain ideas, events, or objects purportedly imbued with some sort of supernatural significance. This is also found in shamanism; initiatory seclusion of the shamanic candidate is common among many tribes, and this is symbolic of the shaman's psychic isolation, for ... the medicine man stands apart from the world of the profane precisely because he has more direct relations with the sacred and manipulates its manifestations more effectively (Eliade 1964, p. 31). In this and later stages, the schizophrenic or shaman may develop a fixed ideation on a narrow circle of significant

ideas, omens, or objects, often becoming so intense as to result in sleep loss or autohypnosis. The boundaries between sleeping and waking break down, and the novice shaman lives in a twilight world of hypnagogic fantasy and half-waking reverie.The principle behind the induction of autohypnosis is one of perceptual fixation, and some of its behavioral manifestations are present in the pathological staring of schizophrenics or novice shamans or in the total attentiveness of certain shamans to their frenzied, prolonged drum-beating or whistling. (Silverman 1967, p. 26)This acute constriction of the field of attention brings about a state of self-initiated sensory deprivation. Experiments with sensory deprivation at McGill University (Nordland, in Edsman 1967, pp. 170ff.) have shown that in this state, visual and auditory hallucinations and perceptual distortions are common, with subjects often hearing voices, seeing imaginary people, and having sensations of body-image distortion. All of these manifestations can be found to a marked degree in shamanism. The shaman is said to make a journey, during which he is spoken to by the spirits, who give him curing instructions and make their wishes known for certain kinds of propitiatory sacrifices; they may also appear to him in the form of visions or apparitions. Motifs of death and rebirth, often involving bodily dismemberment and reassimilation, are common in shamanism, as Eliade (1964) illustrates:. . . both spontaneous vocation and the quest for initiation involve ... a more or less symbolical ritual of mystical death, sometimes suggested by a dismemberment of the body and renewal of the organs . . . equivalent to re-entering the womb of this primordial life, that is, to a complete renewal, to a mystical rebirth. (pp. 53, 63ff.)In both schizophrenia and shamanism, this is followed by a fusion of lower referential processes with higher, so that the mind is inundated by a flood of archaic imagery that seems to come from outside sources; in shamanism, this stage is typical of the fully manifested trance.

The fact that they are entirely different from anything previously experienced lends support to the assumption that they have come

from the realm of the supernatural. One feels oneself to be dwelling among the mysterious and the uncanny. Ideas of world catastrophe, of cosmic importance, and of mission abound. Words, thoughts, and dreams can easily be seen to reside in external objects. Causal relationships are perceived against a background of magic and animism. (Silverman 1967, p. 28)The difference between the shaman and the schizophrenic must be sought in the degree of cultural acceptance of this lower-order referential content. The altered perception of reality into which this newly opened region of cognition plunges the schizophrenic has, in modern societies, no cultural validity.The last stage in the progression, that of cognitive reorganization to cope with the altered perception in which the individual now lives, is for the shaman and for the schizophrenic much the same thing—the arduous task of learning to use the altered perception to good advantage, for creative endeavor and increased sensitivity. An important difference, however, is that in our culture the schizophrenic is forced to work out his adjustment without the benefit of culturally sanctioned attitudes of acceptance for the expanded reality that he now inhabits, whereas in primitive society not only is the shaman in possession of an elaborate body of traditional teachings regarding his illness, but his adjustment is made much easier by virtue of his accepted and respected social position.The shaman must indeed be possessed of a superior flexibility and constitution, for not only must he attend to the needs of his patients in this world but he must also satisfy his spirits in the other. He is the technician of the numinous par excellence, and his vocation is a demanding one, consisting as it does of maintaining a constant equilibrium between ordinary reality and the supernatural realm. The shaman's psychic life is not unlike the unnaturally dexterous dances he performs at the height of his ecstasy; it is a constant balancing act, as though he were a psychic tightrope walker on the razor's edge between the external world and the bizarre, magical, often terrifying world within. However, one of the major differences between shamans and schizophrenics appears to lie in the cultural attitudes with which they are regarded, and this disparity is perhaps deserving of some comment. Lommel (1967) says of shamanism as a possible cure technique:The way out of the situation lies in shamanizing; that is to say, the mental sickness can be healed only if the sufferer accepts the often

unwanted and feared office of shaman, which the spirits are forcing upon him. We gain the impression that early man has found an almost unfailing way of curing mental disease, that a certain psychic constitution makes escape from a pathological state possible. (p. 53)The suggestion that we wish to infer from Lommel's observation is that perhaps, in literate cultures, the schizophrenic is the victim of a culturally misdirected attitude. It seems reasonable to suggest that in our culture the schizophrenic provides a necessary pipeline to the collective unconscious, just as the shaman does in tribal societies. The spiritual atrophying of contemporary culture may be due in large measure to its loss of sensitivity to processes in the collective unconscious. A reinstitution of the shamanic role in modern society might prevent its total estrangement from the collective unconscious, which remains the fountainhead of all human cultures, archaic or modern.