metamind*medicine - urban shaman - 2nd principle: KALA

affect the part of the web it touches more than the rest, though the whole web may quiver.

Although the web is a common traditional metaphor used to explain an actual metaphysical connection between everything, some people might find it easier to think of the connection in terms of an electromagnetic metaphor of fields within fields in infinite array.

By assuming such an interconnectedness, we can assume the possibility of influence at a distance, which the shamans do and which they use for many types of healing and manifesting.

Travel between the stars is possible, but the only way it is expressible in our current culture is through movies or books (except for the claims of certain individuals who may or may not have had a physical experience).

According to Christian scripture, even Jesus had difficulty in his hometown doing miracles because the people didn't believe the carpenter's son could or should have such powers (as has been pointed out to me, however, other interpretations of this event are possible).
At any rate, the more people who believe that the change you want to make is possible, the easier it will be to make it.

At first glance this seems absurd because we can experience limitations all around us. Our bodies can only grow so much, we can only see so far, we can only hear within a certain range, we can only live so long without breathing, the earth is only so big, and we have only so much money in the bank. No limits?

Yes, no limits.
The universe is infinite, as it would have to be if the world is what we think it is and it's all a dream.
How, then, to explain the limitations we experience? One way is to recognize two kinds of limitations: creative and filtered.

An infinite universe implies infinite experience, which is the same as no experience because there wouldn't be any differentiation, contrast, or sensation of change. The concept of creative limitation assumes the purposeful establishment of limits within an infinite universe in order to create particular experiences.

Our realm of physical experience, for instance, is arbitrarily limited by our natural perceptual range of the frequencies of sight, sound, touch, gravity, distance and time, to name the most prominent, plus the extensions of those that we can make with mechanical instruments and psychic abilities.

Without these apparent limitations, however, we couldn't even experience this dimension.

......................................................................................

Now actually there is nothing really preventing you from kinging all your pieces before you start, grabbing your partner's pieces whenever you want to, or throwing his pieces across the room so he can't move them.
You could do that, but you wouldn't be playing checkers anymore.
The rules of the game are limitations created so you can play the game.

That's how the shaman views life.
Only the shaman's game is more like using the same board but changing the rules and the pieces so you can play chess, thereby expanding the possibilities of experience within the same dimension.

Creative limitation allows us to improve our creative abilities by enforcing a focus on a certain range and interpretation of experience.

In many traditional shamanic cultures the idea that everything is connected is usually represented by the symbol of a spider web.
The shaman is the spider who weaves the web of life in a lucid dream out of fine threads that come from within.

The web not only represents the dreaming of life, but also its interconnectedness.
Every part of life is connected to every other part, and what affects one affects all to varying degrees.
A single thought of love or hate affects the whole Universe, but your body will probably be more affected than the star Betelgeuse, just as a fly or a leaf will

If there are no limits, then of course anything is possible. All you have to do is believe it (which comes from the first principle).

However, because you are not alone in the Universe, the degree to which something can be shared depends on the beliefs of others around you.

You may be able to levitate in the privacy of your bedroom, but you might not be able to do so in the presence of others because of their disbelief.

On the other hand, someone else's belief in levitation may be so strong that you can do it in their presence, but not when you are with others or by yourself.

I have known people to get so caught up in the idea and experience of connections and relatedness that they are immobilized by the fear of unforeseen consequences springing from their slightest thought or action, or they drown in empathy with the pain and suffering of others.

At such times it is healthy to inject a little creative separation in order to function better.

Fear makes you lose sight of your role as the dreamweaver, and the assumption for a while of the

independence of all things will help bring you back into balance.
Likewise, pure empathy makes you as helpless as the one suffering. A solution is to add a dose of separation by switching to compassion, in which you are aware of the suffering while realizing it isn't happening to you.

Then you can help the sufferer move out of it.

The main point is that there really are no limits, so as an urban shaman you can feel free to create limits when it's useful to do so.

If you assume an infinite universe, there is no logical reason why there couldn't be other beings just as physically real to themselves as we are to ourselves who see in the frequency range of ultraviolet, hear in the range of ultrahigh frequency, and touch in the range of radio waves.

For all we know, each of us experiences the others' slight intrusions into our "home ranges" as static.

So this physical universe of our perception may be the effect of creative choices of limiting factors on the part of God our our own Higher Selves that enable us to experience life on Earth.

Let's bring this topic down to a more manageable scale. Life is like a game of checkers (if it can be a bowl of cherries, it can be a game of checkers).
On a checkerboard, representing the physical dimension, there are sixtyfour squares - half black and half red - and twenty-four checkers, twelve of each colour.

At the start of the game you have your pieces ranged on one side and your partner has his ranged on the other.
The rules say that you can move forward and take your partner´s pieces when you jump them, and double up or king your piece when you reach the other side, which gives you freedom to move in any direction.

......................................................................................

Even in the limited game of chess, human minds have still not figures out all the possibilities.

In contrast, filtered limitation is used here to mean limitations imposed by ideas and beliefs that inhibit creativity rather than enhance it, like beliefs that engender helplessness and hopelessness, or revenge and cruelty.

Recently I spoke with a person who expressed helpless rage at a world full of pain and suffering.
And we were discussing this in a place full of love and peace and harmony.
This person's obsession with suffering was filtering out contrary experiences and making it nearly impossible to do anything about the suffering.

Filtered limitations generate focus without the potential for positive action.

With another person or several, put your hands out, palm to palm, a couple of inches apart.

You may soon feel a sense of warmth, a coolness, or a tingling. If you move your hands toward your partner's very slightly, you may even feel a sense of pressure, as if you were pushing against a magnet or a very light balloon.
Now move your hands even farther away and check for sensations again.
How much you can feel as you move farther away will depend on your sensitivity.

The most important thing is to realize that you have been touching that person directly.
You were touching his or her energy, which is as intimately a part of a person as the body.

We do not end at our skin.

Our energy, or spirit, extends to the ends of the Universe.

We are all connected to everything because there are no limits.

— top

x