the psycho-logic of shamanism: very straightforward!

Now, I can very clearly see how the logic of shamanism is interlinked. “Facing death” frees the ego from its social and ideological contraints, which enables it to recapitulate the past in such a way that one transcends not only one’s psychological limitations (eg. the unconscious habit of deference to authority, which would have been hard to resist as a child in the thrall of adults), but one also gets to make oneself anew, by accessing the lava-like heat and creative power of the “lizard brain”. Furthermore, by retracing one’s early developmental processes, but now with a more mature mind, one is able to understand that evasive notion of “human nature” so much better. Like I said, one particularly understands the little, unconscious deferential tendencies one has developed, as so one overcomes them by virtue of seeing more clearly the damage they do. So the whole of shamanism has a simple internal logic involving:

1. gaining internal freedom by facing death

2. “recapitulation” — involving the dissolution of weak aspects of the character structure and regeneration along stronger lines.

3. Controlled regression and return from that state gives one knowledge of the very structure of the self as well as how human identity in general is formed.

These are all logically (specifically, psychologically) interlinked, and straightforward.