shamanic doubling

As much as we find it distressing, shamanic initiation does involve the thinning of the psychological membrane, at least during the initiatory process, as this is what enable one to “see”.  It is the wounding that enables the vision of our own metabolic or appetitive processes.  Most people have no awareness of these at all, we can concede – and sometimes that is a very good thing, too, since they are very well adjusted to their environments and everything goes along swimmingly, but at other times the lack of awareness can lead to a blunting of appreciation for the here and now and for the experiences one is having.

Of course, there is all the difference in the world between someone who is simply over-reactive and “sensitive” (in the conventional pejorative meaning of this term) and someone who uses the wounding for good effect to see under the very membranes of society itself and to understand society better in this way,  through understanding himself.

In first case, we have an overly shrill mad person or typical hysteric.  In the second case we have a shaman.