Vectors & awareness

How I speak in terms of shamanism's altered states of consciousness may seem misleading on the surface of it.   Looked at superficially, it seems that I'm inviting people to go mad.  Altered states of consciousness are, to varying degrees, states of madness, insofar as they depart from everyday waking states.  Madness, intoxication, altered states of consciousness, have all received a bad rap.  Nonetheless, according to Nietzsche:

For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.

The means by which shamanism becomes a creative source is thus made clear:  altered states of consciousness are states of intoxication, which are conducive to creativity.  Perhaps this can be grasped intuitively, or ought to be self-evident.   Nietzsche is merely pointing out that it is not some higher power, or some form of inner genius that gives birth to creativity.  The prerequisite is intoxication.  (Certainly, one can also be "intoxicated" on all sorts of "normal" things, for instance on life, on hormones or erotic feelings).

This much is clear.  But it is not the key point.  "What is the key point?" you ask, breathlessly and excitable.

Where does a shaman's wisdom come from -- presuming that he actually has any, and is not just bent on finding a delightful name to call his psychosis?

Altered states of consciousness are potential sources of wisdom, and that is because they offer opportunities to follow the scientific method and to engage in mathematics and physics.

To experience one state of mind is to create a vector.  To experience two states of mind is to create another vector.   One vector is the path followed by the left eye.  The other is the path followed by the right eye.  The brain puts them together, and suddenly one has depth perception.

Similarly, one creates "controls" (in memory) when one moves away from normal consciousness and re-enters it again.   And, that which one experiences in the movement away from normal consciousness modifies the perceptions one has upon returning.   One does not see the same reality in the same way after engaging in shamanistic dialectics.  Hopefully, one makes progress.  Although progress is never assured through any kind of shamanistic engagement or technique, the methods necessary to improve self-awareness are, however, built-in to the structure of the shamanistic experience.