The impersonal bedrock of shamanism

I've mentioned this before: there are many aspects of Western culture that on the basis of my personal experiences, I simply don't "get". A significant one of these is that personality is something akin to a delicate flower, and that one therefore ought to have great tentativeness when approaching the personalities of others, along with due concern for the fragile manner in which these manage to develop.

Don't get me wrong: this is not meant as heavy-handed right wing railing against delicacy or personality as such -- I'm not even of that political persuasion and I don't have a moral judgement to make about how others view themselves. Pressed for a view, I can only offer that a very refined personality is marvelous in some cases, but less so in others. In all, difference of this sort does not have to have a moral flavor. It's better to simply recognize that there is a difference here. On the one side are those who, having been brought up in a highly individualistic culture, have very complicated layers to their personalities. On the other side are those like I -- who, having been brought up in an impersonal culture -- have a very solid and simple bedrock as the base of my personality.

I've no doubt as to who I am. This may seem as paradoxical as it is true: having been accepted wholly, and unreservedly by others, who grew up alongside me in my impersonal culture, I'm secure in a base level state of impersonal feeling and sensation. Indeed I'm overjoyed if all that I experience is my existence. Brer Rabbit's famous briar patch is greatly to my liking. Moreover, I rarely if ever feel like I'm losing something of myself if I return to the consciousness I associate with impersonal camaraderie, or with closeness to nature.

I'm sure this condition of the mind is qualitatively different from that most commonly experienced by many -- Many, certainly, but not all. For, Mike and I, who were both brought up wild in rural settings, are of the same type. City dwellers, who are often less disposed to shamanistic experimentation, marvel at the fact that we met online, moved in together the same day that he arrived from overseas and now have been together for ten years. No question at all: our arrangement would have been impossible had either of us lacked substantial measures of either self-awareness or maturity.

STAY SANE AND SAVAGE Gender activism, intellectual shamanism