Mask Shamanism and usage #1: Religion as non-rational engagement

Here is a re-cap from my earlier blog on the first valid definition of Religion according to Ken Wilber in "A Socialable God."


"Religion as non-rational engagement.  This has both positive and negative connotations.  To theologians, it means that religion deals with valid but nonrational aspects of existence, such as faith, grace, transcendance, satori, and such.  To positivists, it means religion is nonvalid knowledge; it might be "meaningful" to humans in an emotional way, but it is not real cognition. 
          This usage is often reflected in common sense.  Most people would intuitively say that magic-voodoo is a type of religion, however primitive, and that mythic gods and goddesses are definately religious, although maybe not very "serious."  They would also say that what yogis, saints, and sages do is certainly religious.  But science-rationality?  That is not religious.  This overall usage says that religion is not so much something done on all levels but rather on particular levels, and specifically, those that are not rational-scientific per se.  If you are pro-religion, then this definition implies that religion is something you can grow into; if con, something you hope to outgrow.  In either case, it is nonrational; it belongs to or at least originates in a dimension that is other to reason."

If we were to have a discussion on mask shamanism and religion, using this definition, what would transpire?

I would like to first talk about the term non-rational.  It is very vague term and covers basically anything outside of reason.  Is there any way we can break it up better so as to have better clarity?  Yes.  The pre/trans fallacy.  If our culture were to have, as its' center of gravity, a developmental structure geared towards rationality then we would have two categories of development outside of rationality.  The two are: pre-rational and trans-rational.  Early anthropologists studying indigenous cultures, without actively engaging in their methodologies, seemed to have labeled these people on the whole as savages, brutes, or non-rational (pre-rational.)  Their practices were something used only for social cohesion and belongingness.  Whereas many people can indeed be pre-rational (something that even our modern culture has issues with), this does not mean that the methods and observations of the practitioner were invalid.  Rather, they just had, and still have, a different way of verifying the observation.  This becomes a fallacy because you do not have a strong discernment between the two, causing categorical confusion during discussion.

Is it non-rational engagement?  By now you can probably guess that my answer is going to be both yes and no. 

Non-rational will be further divided into two categories (pre- and trans-) in order to better understand how.

Trans-rational: Rational might be a term that can confuse some people during this conversation.  So let's substitute a different term for the moment.  Instead of trans-rational let us use trans-personal.  Normally, a person will walk around with an identity that rests either with the body, the mind, or the body-mind.  In this case, mask shamanism functions as a trans-personal religion in the sense that it aims towards taking your identity into more and more subtle forms.  For many people, this means the spirit, soul, etc.  You work with beings that rest on subtler phenomena and, by virtue of learning from these beings, you begin to realize that your true nature, as such, is much more subtle than what you first thought.  I would like to point out that this is more of a developmental stage, rather than a concept.  Theology takes place where you use language, thought, the mind, etc. in order to prove or disprove the existence of something beyond the gross material realm or body-mind.  A trans-personal identity (usually happening over a series of experiences that loosen your grip on your current identity) tends to happen first through experience.  After the initial experience has settled you use the mind to try and develop a language or systematic way of explaining what happened so that others may understand. 

Pre-rational:  An authentic shamanic practitioner, one who engages in proper methodologies and assimilates the experiences into a healthy developmental structure, is far from the pre-rational religion.  Many people who lived in tribes thousands of years ago could very well have been pre-rational or pre-personal.  An example of this would be:  A shaman, traveling into non-ordinary reality, comes into contact with his compassionate spiritual helpers (ascended beings.)  Upon meeting them they rip his subtle spirit body into pieces and buries them each into the ground, having life-sustaining plants grow from them.  Once the shaman returns to ordinary reality from non-ordinary reality and relates his growth/healing experience to people in his tribe (who may not have ever been introduced to non-ordinary reality subjectively), take it as literal and, as a way of honoring the experience, begin to literally make sacrifices and bury body parts in the ground.  This could very well have been where such ritualistic practices found their beginnings.  By now you can see quite clearly the categorical confusion that comes from lack of discernment from the subjective methodology and  objective observation.


By now, you may be beginning to see that one really important thing to understand is context.  Below I have copied six ways of defining context from a free online dictionary (thefreedictionary.com.)  Even though each 1 and each 2 basically say the same thing, they all vary slightly. 

Context:

1. The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.

2. The circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting.

1. the parts of a piece of writing, speech, etc., that precede and follow a word or passage and contribute to its full meaning it is unfair to quote out of context

2. the conditions and circumstances that are relevant to an event, fact, etc.

1. the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specified word or passage and can influence its meaning or effect.

2. the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.

A little bit of context can always help people to get on the same page.   : )

I have become very passionate, engaged, and full of ideas by writing this article.  At your expense I will leave it at that since it can be a lot to take in.  We still have many more definitions to discuss before we move into other territories. 

; )

Cheers!