Unveiling Perception: Shamans, The Oldest Profession and The Key To Your Reality
The Center Of The Universe Is Right Between Your Eyes But Home Is Where The Heart Is By Matthew J. Pallamary
00:00:00 The Center Of The Universe
00:04:14 G. I Gurdjieff, an influential mystic and spiritual leader
00:08:16 In Theosophy the third eye is typically related to the pineal gland.
00:13:23 THE WORLD'S OLDEST PROFESSION
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998680923
*INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD**AWARD WINNING FINALIST*
Based on a lifetime of research into shamanism, visionary states, the evolution of written communication and the roots of storytelling, award-winning author, editor, and shamanic explorer Matthew J. Pallamary takes those with open minds courageous enough to question the illusions that most of us think of as real on an expansive journey that pierces the veil of reality itself.Pallamary's in-depth analysis of human perception, shamanism, visionary states, cognitive neuroscience, plant and animal consciousness, and sacred geometry, as well as the prehistoric roots of our deepest cultural myths not only lay bare the illusory roots of what we have built our failing society on, it provides a detailed map that points the way through the non-sense hall of mirrors that we currently find ourselves trapped in.The Center Of The Universe Is Right Between Your Eyes, But Home Is Where the Heart Is, is Pallamary's thirteenth book, and in it he weaves a convincing tapestry that alternates threads of ancient philosophies and preserved indigenous wisdom with recent discoveries in quantum physics, psychology, and the timeless, persistent archetypes of our subconscious.
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Transcript
The center of the universe is right between your eyes, but home is where the heart is.
Speaker:Written by Matthew J. Palamary.
Speaker:Narrated by Russell Newton.
Speaker:No matter how you choose to define yourself,
Speaker:in the end you and you alone are the one who does the defining.
Speaker:If you define yourself according to the judgment and expectations of others,
Speaker:you have lost yourself to a no-win situation,
Speaker:because no matter what you do,
Speaker:it is impossible to please everyone; yet with so many voices,
Speaker:thoughts,
Speaker:and impulses competing for your time,
Speaker:attention,
Speaker:and energy,
Speaker:how do you find a balance that brings peace?
Speaker:Where is the center?
Speaker:The true center where inner peace can be found lies in the "eye of
Speaker:the storm" that everything in your inner and outer life revolves around
Speaker:and this can only be found by practicing conscious awareness,
Speaker:which is an act of personal will.
Speaker:By paying attention and doing the challenging work that is constantly
Speaker:under assault and derailed by the spinning maelstrom of the monkey mind that is the ego,
Speaker:or more accurately egos that make up our inner lives,
Speaker:we have the ability to unify these disparate
Speaker:energies that spin through us with their own agendas.
Speaker:All of this happens in our minds where we interpret and define our experience
Speaker:of reality at the choice point where we reside between objectivity and subjectivity.
Speaker:If we focus on paying attention we will develop what can be called
Speaker:witness consciousness and discover the meaning of the expression,
Speaker:"Where your attention goes,
Speaker:there your energy goes."
Speaker:If cultivated,
Speaker:witness consciousness becomes the self-created focal point
Speaker:produced by harnessing the energy of awareness that takes responsibility
Speaker:for all of our thoughts and actions by paying attention and simply observing.
Speaker:The Zen concept of non-attachment provides a good example of what witness consciousness entails,
Speaker:which is characterized as a practice of presence and mindfulness,
Speaker:while not allowing our sense of well being to
Speaker:rely upon anything other than our own presence of awareness.
Speaker:It means to be in the world,
Speaker:but not of the world.
Speaker:This is different from detachment,
Speaker:which is distancing ourselves from the world out of disinterest with an
Speaker:aloofness that separates us from the rest of the world,
Speaker:resulting in escapism,
Speaker:another form of suffering.
Speaker:Non-attachment means that our happiness is no longer defined by anything outside of us.
Speaker:It is selfless because our sense of ‘self’ is no longer inserted into every situation.
Speaker:We are no longer self-centered and we can become single-pointed in our awareness of other people.
Speaker:If we allow our sense of self to be emotionally swayed by everything that appears to us,
Speaker:including people,
Speaker:places,
Speaker:perceptions,
Speaker:thoughts,
Speaker:sensations,
Speaker:events,
Speaker:experiences,
Speaker:and all seeming things,
Speaker:then our emotions will forever be taking us on a roller-coaster of ups and downs,
Speaker:swinging between joy and disaster.
Speaker:Our sense of well being will always be based on
Speaker:what we allow ourselves to be emotionally attached to,
Speaker:and when we become attached to something our happiness is
Speaker:based on a shifting duality that defines us by the outside world,
Speaker:rather than our true inner nature.
Speaker:Witness consciousness represents freedom that comes from a self- realization of the truth,
Speaker:that you,
Speaker:the consciousness that resides at the center of
Speaker:the universe that you are taking charge of and responsibility for,
Speaker:cannot be affected by anything.
Speaker:It is only the egoic mind(s) that make you believe otherwise.
Speaker:G.I Gurdjieff,
Speaker:an influential mystic and spiritual leader of the early
Speaker:twentieth century characterized witness consciousness in one of his lectures.
Speaker:"Instead of the discordant and often contradictory activity of different desires,
Speaker:there is one single I,
Speaker:whole,
Speaker:indivisible,
Speaker:and permanent; there is individuality,
Speaker:dominating the physical body and its desires and able to
Speaker:overcome both its reluctance and its resistance.
Speaker:Instead of the mechanical process of thinking there is consciousness.
Speaker:And there is will,
Speaker:that is,
Speaker:a power,
Speaker:not merely composed of various often contradictory desires belonging to different 'I's',
Speaker:but issuing from consciousness and governed by individuality or a single and permanent I.
Speaker:Only such a will can be called 'free',
Speaker:for it is independent of accident and cannot be altered or directed from without."
Speaker:Our five primary mechanisms of perception come from our sense receptors; taste,
Speaker:sight,
Speaker:touch,
Speaker:smell,
Speaker:and hearing.
Speaker:With the exception of our sense of touch,
Speaker:which comes to us through all parts of our bodies,
Speaker:our other four senses come through our head,
Speaker:which filters and puts them together into the unique perspective that we
Speaker:as individuals harbor whether we define the world
Speaker:through "rose colored glasses" or the dingy windows of a depressed outlook.
Speaker:Aside from the subject/object ground zero that puts the center of our
Speaker:universe between our eyes where we decide what our
Speaker:reality consists of according to our interpretation of these impressions,
Speaker:this location is the most logical place to locate it based on the
Speaker:construction of our body and the way our senses are arrayed about our head.
Speaker:This focus of awareness whether physical,
Speaker:mental,
Speaker:or metaphysical,
Speaker:points to the notion of the third eye,
Speaker:also called the mind's eye or inner eye that represents a mystical and esoteric concept that
Speaker:refers to a speculative invisible eye reputed to provide perception beyond ordinary sight.
Speaker:This third eye is considered to be the extension of what the mind perceives
Speaker:in the form of a subconscious awareness of the surroundings and interactions of the environment.
Speaker:In some spiritual traditions the third eye refers to the gate that leads to
Speaker:inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness,
Speaker:and in our present "new age" spirituality it often symbolizes
Speaker:a state of enlightenment or the evocation of mental images having deep personal,
Speaker:spiritual,
Speaker:or psychological significance.
Speaker:Some Christian teachings view the concept of the third eye
Speaker:as a metaphor for non-dualistic thinking; the way the mystics see.
Speaker:The rudiments of a biological basis for the mind's eye is found in the deeper
Speaker:portions of the brain below the neocortex where the center of perception exists.
Speaker:The neocortex is characterized as a sophisticated memory storage warehouse
Speaker:where data received as input from sensory systems is compartmentalized
Speaker:via the cerebral cortex which allows shapes to be identified.
Speaker:Given the lack of filtering input produced internally,
Speaker:we have the ability to hallucinate and see things that aren't received as external input,
Speaker:but as internal.
Speaker:Not all people have the same internal perceptual ability.
Speaker:For many,
Speaker:when their eyes are closed,
Speaker:the perception of darkness prevails,
Speaker:however some people are able to perceive colorful,
Speaker:dynamic imagery.
Speaker:In Theosophy the third eye is typically related to the pineal gland.
Speaker:According to this theory,
Speaker:humans had in far ancient times an actual third
Speaker:eye in the back of the head with a physical and spiritual function.
Speaker:Over time,
Speaker:as humans evolved,
Speaker:this eye atrophied and sank into what today is known as the pineal gland.
Speaker:Dr.
Speaker:Rick Strassman has hypothesized that the pineal gland,
Speaker:which maintains light sensitivity,
Speaker:is responsible for the production and release of DMT (dimethyltryptamine),
Speaker:an entheogen which he believes could be excreted
Speaker:in large quantities at the moments of birth and death.
Speaker:The pineal gland is a small endocrine
Speaker:gland in the vertebrate brain with a shape that resembles a pine cone,
Speaker:hence its name.
Speaker:It is located near the center of the brain,
Speaker:between the two hemispheres,
Speaker:tucked in a groove where the two halves of the thalamus join.
Speaker:From the point of view of biological evolution,
Speaker:the pineal gland represents a kind of atrophied photoreceptor,
Speaker:and in the epithalamus of some species of amphibians and reptiles
Speaker:it is linked to a light-sensing organ known as the parietal eye,
Speaker:which is also called the pineal eye or third eye.
Speaker:Philosopher René Descartes believed the pineal gland to be the "principal seat of the soul."
Speaker:Phenomenology is the Western philosophical tradition that has most forcefully called
Speaker:into question the modern assumption of a single,
Speaker:wholly determinable,
Speaker:objective reality and it has its source in
Speaker:Descartes' well-known separation of the thinking mind or subject,
Speaker:from the material world of things,
Speaker:or objects.
Speaker:This philosophy formed the basis for the divide-and-conquer western
Speaker:scientific method which has shown us many things,
Speaker:but ultimately falls short in comprehending the vastness of
Speaker:reality the way that shamans who are in touch with the natural world do.
Speaker:Instead of showing us more,
Speaker:our divide and conquer mentality has largely resulted in isolating us through technology
Speaker:and civilization in a divide that has grown by greater and greater degrees in modern times.
Speaker:In terms of this growing separation,
Speaker:French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty stated:
Speaker:"All my knowledge of the world,
Speaker:even my scientific knowledge,
Speaker:is gained from my own particular point of view,
Speaker:or from some experience of the world without which the symbols of science would be meaningless.
Speaker:The whole universe of science is built upon the world as directly experienced,
Speaker:and if we want to subject science itself to rigorous scrutiny and arrive
Speaker:at a precise assessment of its meaning and scope,
Speaker:we must begin by reawakening the basic experience of the world,
Speaker:of which science is the second - order expression...
Speaker:To return to things themselves is to return to that world which precedes knowledge,
Speaker:of which knowledge always speaks,
Speaker:and in relation to which every scientific
Speaker:schematization is an abstract and derivative sign-language,
Speaker:as is geography in relation to the countryside in which we have learnt beforehand what a forest,
Speaker:a prairie or a river is."
Speaker:Regardless of our conception of the third eye or the mind's eye,
Speaker:whether physical,
Speaker:mental,
Speaker:or metaphysical,
Speaker:we cannot disregard the fact that the primary focus of our
Speaker:awareness and the creation of reality as we know it lies in our subjective
Speaker:interpretation of a world that exists through us and around us.
Speaker:Aside from these physical,
Speaker:mental,
Speaker:and subjective indicators of the location Descartes refers to as the seat of the soul,
Speaker:for the more scientific minded among us there are objective indicators evident in physics,
Speaker:the branch of science concerned with the nature and properties
Speaker:of matter and energy that includes mechanics,
Speaker:heat,
Speaker:light and other radiation,
Speaker:sound,
Speaker:electricity,
Speaker:magnetism,
Speaker:and the structure of atoms.
Speaker:This phenomenon is known as the observer effect,
Speaker:which is the fact that simply observing a situation necessarily changes it.
Speaker:Physicists have discovered that even passive observation
Speaker:of quantum phenomena can in fact change it.
Speaker:No matter how you characterize the subject object paradox,
Speaker:the fact of the matter is that in the end it comes down to a matter of perception;
Speaker:something that brings us all back to our primordial roots.
Speaker:Who better to teach us about the nature
Speaker:of perception than the ancient masters of perception themselves,
Speaker:shamans,
Speaker:who train to master extreme altered states of consciousness that makes
Speaker:them masters of a flexible perspective which gives them the ability to navigate
Speaker:multidimensional realms and energies that the uninitiated can scarcely imagine.
Speaker:THE WORLD'S OLDEST PROFESSION
Speaker:The World's Oldest Profession is not what we have been told by popular culture.
Speaker:The real world's oldest profession is shamanism,
Speaker:which is an amalgam of the world's oldest professions with roots that
Speaker:range well beyond our historical stereotypes of witch doctors,
Speaker:wild men,
Speaker:and demonically possessed primitives.
Speaker:Among other things,
Speaker:shamans were the first doctors,
Speaker:performing artists,
Speaker:musicians,
Speaker:storytellers,
Speaker:teachers,
Speaker:priests,
Speaker:psychologists,
Speaker:and magicians,
Speaker:who performed critical functions in their societies.
Speaker:Magicians,
Speaker:whether modern entertainers or indigenous
Speaker:tribal sorcerers work with the malleable texture of perception.
Speaker:Ecologist,
Speaker:philosopher,
Speaker:and sleight-of-hand magician David Abram,
Speaker:Ph.D.,
Speaker:tells us in his brilliant work on language and perception titled,
Speaker:The Spell of the Sensuous: "In tribal cultures
Speaker:that which we call "magic" takes its meaning from the fact that humans,
Speaker:in indigenous and oral context,
Speaker:experience their own consciousness as simply one form of awareness among many others.
Speaker:The traditional magician cultivates an ability to shift out of his or her
Speaker:common state of consciousness precisely in order to make contact with the other
Speaker:organic forms of sensitivity and awareness with which human existence is entwined.
Speaker:Only by temporarily shedding the accepted perceptual logic of his culture can the
Speaker:sorcerer hope to enter into relation with other species on their own terms;
Speaker:only by altering the common organization of his senses will he be able to enter
Speaker:into a rapport with the multiple nonhuman sensibilities that animate the local landscape.
Speaker:It is this,
Speaker:we might say,
Speaker:that defines a shaman: the ability to readily slip out of the perceptual boundaries that
Speaker:demarcate his or her particular culture — boundaries reinforced by social customs,
Speaker:taboos,
Speaker:and most importantly,
Speaker:the common speech or language — in order to make contact with,
Speaker:and learn from,
Speaker:the other powers in the land.
Speaker:His magic is precisely this heightened receptivity to the meaningful solicitations — songs,
Speaker:cries,
Speaker:gestures — of the larger,
Speaker:more than human field.
Speaker:Magic,
Speaker:then,
Speaker:and it's perhaps most primordial sense,
Speaker:is the experience of existing in the world made up of multiple intelligences,
Speaker:the intuition that every form one perceives — from
Speaker:the swallow swooping overhead to the fly on a blade of grass,
Speaker:and indeed the blade of grass itself — is an experiencing form,
Speaker:an entity with its own predilections and sensations,
Speaker:albeit sensations that are very different from our own."
Speaker:The magic of shamanism constitutes a prehistoric belief system that not
Speaker:only carries the same traditions and practices across cultures worldwide,
Speaker:it also continues to infuse our world with deeper meaning.
Speaker:Shamans were the first medical specialists in indigenous communities whose traditional
Speaker:methods have been effective in treating both physical and psychological ailments.
Speaker:The chemical components of plants used in shamanic healing rites have the potential
Speaker:to be building blocks for new drugs or cures for such scourges as cancer,
Speaker:heart disease,
Speaker:diabetes,
Speaker:Alzheimer's,
Speaker:and many others.
Speaker:The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of the people in developing countries
Speaker:still rely on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs.
Speaker:Without money,
Speaker:access,
Speaker:or faith in modern facilities,
Speaker:indigenous people depend on shamans and herbal healers for their survival.
Speaker:Shamans also play a crucial role in helping scientists to discover the potentials of plants.
Speaker:As one scientist has said,
Speaker:"Each time a medicine man dies,
Speaker:it is as if a library has been burned down."
Speaker:When asked about the roots of his tradition,
Speaker:an aging jungle healer stated,
Speaker:"I am a plant man.
Speaker:My father was a plant man as was his father before
Speaker:him and his father before him as far back as can be remembered."
Speaker:This simple statement is living testimony to prehistoric wisdom
Speaker:still being passed on through myths,
Speaker:practices,
Speaker:and belief systems kept alive through oral traditions the way they have for
Speaker:thousands of years from a distant past with roots that extend well
Speaker:beyond anything conceivable in our present "information age",
Speaker:and in many respects far removed from it.
Speaker:There is added depth to the uses of plants and other healing knowledge carried in the cultural
Speaker:collective that can only be accessed through direct subjective experience learned in visionary
Speaker:states engendered in a multitude of ways aside from or in combination with entheogenic plants,
Speaker:among these methods fasting,
Speaker:dancing,
Speaker:extreme diets,
Speaker:vision quests,
Speaker:ordeals,
Speaker:and many other time tested methods known to alter consciousness.
Speaker:In the Peruvian Amazon and throughout much of South America,
Speaker:the primary shamanic healing practice is centered around the Ayahuasca Vine,
Speaker:referred to as the "Mother of the Plants." In these traditions,
Speaker:"Mother Ayahuasca" works with a multitude of other teacher plants,
Speaker:each with their own unique healing properties in special
Speaker:diets and treatments referred to as dietas.
Speaker:Though it is the name of the actual vine,
Speaker:Ayahuasca refers to an entheogenic brew
Speaker:made out of the Ayahuasca vine known as Banisteriopsis caapi,
Speaker:and the Psychotria viridis leaf,
Speaker:referred to as Chacruna,
Speaker:a dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-containing plant species.
Speaker:In the Quechua languages,
Speaker:aya means "spirit,
Speaker:soul,
Speaker:corpse,
Speaker:dead body",
Speaker:and waska means "rope" and "woody vine" or "liana." The
Speaker:word Ayahuasca has been variously translated as "liana of the soul",
Speaker:"liana of the dead",
Speaker:and "spirit liana."
Speaker:This brew made from the two plants is taken in a ceremonial setting where it induces healing,
Speaker:cleansing,
Speaker:and purging as well as intense visionary states that communicate
Speaker:information in nonrational ways through alien-feeling symbols,
Speaker:concepts,
Speaker:emotions,
Speaker:thoughts,
Speaker:vistas,
Speaker:and other mixed perceptions.
Speaker:Dense information unfolds through rapidly transforming geometric colors and patterns,
Speaker:often in the form of synesthesia,
Speaker:where perceptions cross.
Speaker:While all of the senses are heightened and transformed in inexplicable ways,
Speaker:what stands out in these altered states is that sound can be seen,
Speaker:color can be heard,
Speaker:and feeling can come in hues and colors that defy description.
Speaker:Much of the traditional music of the Peruvian Amazon plays
Speaker:an integral part in Ayahuasca ceremonies.
Speaker:Songs are sung and music is performed as offerings to honor,
Speaker:flatter,
Speaker:and serenade the Mother,
Speaker:showing respect,
Speaker:as well as the healing and helping spirits of other plants and animal
Speaker:allies working with her so they will gift the petitioner with power,
Speaker:healing,
Speaker:wisdom,
Speaker:or other special gifts.
Speaker:In jungle lore,
Speaker:Mother Ayahuasca is the river that you journey upon and the
Speaker:sacred songs known as icaros are the boats that carry you on that journey.
Speaker:The multi-sensorial,
Speaker:multi-dimensional Ayahuasca journey is something that can never be fully
Speaker:articulated in any medium and can only truly be known through direct experience.
Speaker:By gaining experiential knowledge given to them by
Speaker:the plants and the patterns of Mother Nature herself,
Speaker:shamans understand on an intuitive level that nature’s designs are energy flows.
Speaker:Since prehistoric times,
Speaker:they have learned how the matrices of nature work together and with this knowledge they
Speaker:live in accord with these forces by embodying a balance of power that puts them in harmony with
Speaker:the forces of nature instead of in opposition to them the way we are in today's world.
Speaker:Aside from being a bridge between the worlds,
Speaker:the path of the shaman is to become a man or woman of power and the way to accomplish
Speaker:that is to learn how to master energy in all of its manifestations and dimensions.
Speaker:Learning how to master the energies of altered states puts the shaman in a multitude of
Speaker:unpredictable and inexplicable subjective experiences that alter their perception
Speaker:of reality by changing their experience in the same way that a radio receiver changes
Speaker:the station it is receiving by tuning in to a different carrier frequency.
Speaker:By continually "changing stations" and assimilating different realms and experiences,
Speaker:including plant and animal realms,
Speaker:the shaman breaks the station
Speaker:lock of consensual reality which brings them a greater flexibility of perception,
Speaker:freeing their perspective from the narrow way most people experience the world.
Speaker:This is especially true in indigenous groups who by breaking the perceptual
Speaker:lock that most of us live in give equal weight and validity to waking,
Speaker:dreaming,
Speaker:and visions,
Speaker:so that they all cross over each other into one big palette of experience.
Speaker:This freeing of perception brings the magic and flexibility of the non-physical realities
Speaker:of dreaming and visions into the present moment of their "waking world" of consensual reality,
Speaker:rewarding them with an expanded awareness and fuller presence in
Speaker:whatever transitory moment they happen to be experiencing at any given instant,
Speaker:regardless of the energies or realities they may be tuned in to.
Speaker:In spite of its seeming solidity and permanence,
Speaker:the physical waking world of consensual reality that we all share is in fact transitory.
Speaker:This inarguable point is driven home by the inevitability of our impending death.
Speaker:This has been The Center of the Universe is right between your eyes, but home is where the heart is.
Speaker:Written by Matthew J. Palamary. Narrated by Russell Newton.
Speaker:Copyright 2017 by Matthew J. Palamary. Production copyright by Matthew J. Palamary.
