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www.shamansociety.org 27 discussed. Michael Conforti Jungian Analyst author of Field Form and Fate calls the whisper of the ancestors or the elders a sottovoce. Whether we hear one whisper or many depends upon the receiver but gone are the days when hearing voices was a sign of madness. It could even be argued that those who hear only their own voice are poten- tially the craziest among us. Perhaps Conforti proposes we can find some modern amphitheater within which to amplify and listen to this message of underlying unity between individuals and between matter and psyche.5 If we dont listen choosing to ignore or silence or drown out the sottovoce with the chat- ter of mainstream culture the ancestors might resort to other ways of getting our attention. There are plenty of examples in classic shamanic literature where the reluctant shaman is picked up by the spirits and forced to undergo horrific trials geared to dismemberment and magical reconstitution because they know he or she wont take the initiative. The materialistic life is very lulling our reluctance to change our ways is epic. Many of our receptors for spiritual in- formation are switched off or blocked by excessive sugar salt TV compulsive sex movies meetings street drugs prescrip- tion drugs music the internet coliseum scale sports events books sight-seeing package tours propaganda coming in from a myriad directions. Dreamtime For an appreciation of how initia- tion works or worked until recently in a culture that is famously nonmaterialis- tic and initiation based the Australian Aborigines automatically come to mind. The Aborigines until recently seem to have had access to a fast track to shaman- hood. In Aboriginal culture the fine line between matter and energy space and time spirits and non-spirits simply isnt there. Their middle world seems to rest as resiliently and delicately as a spider web upon an immense geneti- cally refined respect for the place they inhabit that holds them and maintains them together like a vibrating gravity of ubiquitous connection. Their Dreamtime an abstraction to us is the essence and fruiting of a 50000-year-old memory-based relation- ship with Earth In Voices of the First Day Robert Lawlor says succinctly The Australian Aboriginal culture is founded entirely on the remembrance of the ori- gin of life.6 The word Aboriginal is ac- curate because the suffix ab means of or from the Aborigines are literally of or from the beginning. They are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent. Dreamtime dissolves the line between yin and yang releasing the dream power that dwells at the heart of every scintilla of creation. Compared to this kind of access this living knowledge this quality of reciprocity nothing we know or have invented is worth a cent not if we want to walk into the future and not if it mat- ters to us that our mother Gaia is about to abort us. We should be begging the Aborigines to teach us what they know. The White Rabbit What if the middle worldwhat we call realityis just an old-fashioned psy- chiatric hospital All the psychotics and the depressives are medicated but they are still miserable and ranting or dream- ing about the end of the world. Who are the sickest The ones who are staring out the window or having polite conversa- tion or watching TV Of course the ones who are hardest to control are the ones who are about to walk. There are spirits everywhere who want to help us. If we dont see them the reason is we are blind. Just as a blind per- son knows there are stars in the heavens and mountains and bats flitting around on a summers night just as we know there are creatures who shine like constel- lations in the deepest cellars of the sea . . . just so there are spirits ancestral spirits spirits as old as time mountain spirits forest spirits land spirits. The eyes and the ears to perceive these spirits do not just appear gratis any- more than one would expect to see a bat in a hospital a snake under the bed. Then again its not as if they arent trying. In The Matrix Morpheuss advice to Neo was to follow the white rabbit. Whatever it takes to snap us into lucidity before we dream ourselves out of options it seems timely to turn to shamanism for that wake-up call. Endnotes 1 Broderick Damien. Outside the Gates of Science. New York Thunders Mouth Press 2007. p. 278 2 Halifax Joan. Shaman The Wounded Healer. London Thames and Hudson 1982. p.94. 3 Peat David. Blackfoot Physics. Boston MA Weiser Books 2002. p.143 4 Thoreau Henry David. Walden Pond. P. 5 Conforti Michael. Field Form and Fate. Louisiana Spring Journal Books 1999. p. 60. 6 Lawlor Robert. Voices of the First Day. Rochester Vermont Inner Traditions 1991.p.14. This article is a revised excerpt from Lindorffs forthcoming book New Wasi- chu Crossing Our story is just beginning. About the Author Gary Lindorff resident poet of Thiscantbehappening.net Transformational Counselor specializing in dreamwork and shamanic techniques lives in rural Vermont with his wife and two cats. He has a website at Bigdreamsweb. com and can be reached at maleottergmail.com.