Shamanism and the Internet Aado Lintrop In searching for articles about shamanism on the Internet, it soon becomes evident that links attached to the subject are largely connected to keywords such as pagans, paganism, wicca, magick, newage, techno, psychedelics, drugs, rave, ecstasy, etc. Readers can also come across prophetic writings similar to the following: The shaman seers of the Fourth World generally agree that those who tenaciously cling to the past will fall into mass insanity. The serpent power of the Aquarian Age is upon us. The Kundalini of Gaia is about to awaken. No one can avoid being affected. Most human beings may go out of their minds; others will go beyond mind. (John Hogue. Neuroshaman. http://www.reocities.com/researchtriangle/5657/) He or she might also read announcements like the following: “Shamanic ecstasy is the real “Old Time Religion,” of which modern churches are but pallid evocations. Shamanic, vision- ary ecstasy, the mysterium tremendum, the unio mystica, the eternally delightful experience of the universe as energy, is a sine qua non of religion, it is what religion is for! There is no need for faith, it is the ecstatic experience itself that gives one faith in the intrinsic unity and integrity of the universe, in ourselves as integral parts of the whole; that reveals to us the sublime majesty of our universe, and the fluctuant, scintillant, alchemical miracle that is quotidian consciousness. Any religion that requires faith and gives none, that defends against religious experiences, that promulgates the bizarre superstition that humankind is in some way separate, divorced Shamanism and the Internet 121 from the rest of creation, that heals not the gaping wound between Body and Soul, but would tear them asunder... is no religion at all!” (Jonathan Ott. http://deoxy.org/shaman.htm) THE CLASSIFICATION OF SHAMANIC WEBSITES Having browsed through hundreds of webpages, I realised that all sites connected to shamanism can be divided into five ideo- logical groups. 1. Neoshamanic sites, particularly those based on the writ- ings by Michael Harner. 2. Compilatory sites, deriving from the Neopaganist and wicca strive for harmony and balance. 3. Sites introducing some past or preserved tradition. 4. Sites advocating mainly ecstatic experience. 5. Sites guided by the “That’s great stuff!” mentality. As to the contents the sites could be divided in four major groups. 1. Homepages of Shamanic Centres. Michael Harner’s ‘Foundation for Shamanic Studies’ (http://www.shamanism.org/) Jonathan Horwitz’s ‘Scandinavian Center for Shamanic Studies’ (http://www.shamanism.dk/) ‘FoxFire Institute of Shamanic Studies’ – School of Ex- periential Shamanism and Advanced Healing Arts (http:// www.foxfireinstitute.com/) ‘Buryat Shamanism’ (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/ Oracle/8226/shamanism.html – lost with the closing of geocities.com) These sites provide articles on shamanism, schedules of practi- cal courses, advice for practitioners, chat groups, etc. Foxfire, among other things, has an online store for shamanic supplies and a request form for being included in a prayer circle and for a distant healing session . 122 Aado Lintrop 2. Homepages of Shaman Healers and Healing ‘HealingBear’ (http://members.xoom.com/HealingBear/ shaman.html – no longer available) ‘Dancing Bear’ – Shamanic Practices and Healing (http:// www.dancing-bear.com/shaman.htm) ‘Shamanic and Family Therapy’ (http://www.aracnet.com/ ~lochness/ – no longer available) Don Pedro’s ‘Shamanistic Healing Energies’ (http:// www.prgone.com/bus/dpedro/dpedro.html – no longer avail- able) The above sites mostly contain articles that introduce or propa- gate the healing (of body and soul, primarily) through different compilations, which is called shamanism (on rare occasions also through actual shamanic tradition). Some pages even offer an online healing service. Schizophrenia & Shamanism (http:// www.tightrope.demon.co.uk/skzindex.htm#menu – no longer available) aims to make sense of schizophrenic hallucinations from the perspective of shamanic experience and offers the pa- tient an alternative outlook to his/her formerly diagnosed psy- chotic experience. 3. Websites Offering Personal Views, Experience and Per- ceptions. ‘A Shamanic Path’ (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~airyn/ shamanic/ – no longer available) ‘Magna’ Nordic Chants (http://www.algonet.se/~moon/ magna.htm – no longer available) ‘Medicine Lodge’ (http://members.tripod.com/ ~Medicine_Lodge/medicinelodge.htm) On these sites participants of shamanic workshops and other practitioners of shamanism share their experience and visions. A larger number of similar writings however can be found on the sites of chat groups of different shamanic centres. Shamanism and the Internet 123 4. Websites Containing Mostly Links. ‘Castaneda and New Age Shamanism’ (http:// www.hist.unt.edu/09w-ar7l.htm – no longer available) ‘Ayahuasca’ (http://www.deoxy.org/shaman.htm) These pages often present a wide variety of very different links of the editor’s choice in random order. Links to the use of psy- chotropic substances and New Age material seem to be unavoid- able. (RELIGIOUS) HISTORICAL DIGRESSION From the religious historical aspect it is virtually impossible to differentiate between Shamanism on the Web and Neopaganist and witchcraft (wicca) practices spread via the Internet. The fol- lowing discussion attempts to point out some probable reasons to explain why various religious persuasions are currently so popular. 1. Disillusioned in science After the huge leap in scientific and technological progress in the early 20th century and into the 1960s (antibiotics and organ transplantation, the application of transistor, landing on the Moon and the application of nuclear energy, to mention just a few achievements) faith in the omnipotence of the scientific-techni- cal revolution faded in the 1970s. Humankind was faced with the fact that for the time being interstellar distances would re- main unscalable, various diseases still incurable, and inexhaust- ible sources of energy a mere fantasy. At the same time hypoth- eses about the dark matter of the universe and the black hole theories inspired grandiose fantasies about short-circuiting space or travelling and communivating through hyperspace. Unable to launch a real space expansion, people set out to conjecture it in their minds. The realisation that science has remained pow- erless in solving several problems gave rise to numerous secret practices. Religious ideas inundated not only the sphere of sci- ence fiction but also that of science. 124 Aado Lintrop 2. The happy savage – a new human ideal The definition of the future human ideal underwent consider- able transformation. While some early 20th century thinkers with pagan conceptions envisioned a human spirit free from all societal barriers, whose actions are beyond all human standards, a powerful teacher (Zoroaster, for example), whose hatred for everything bourgeois could release destructive forces in order to renew mankind through death and suffering, then the post- war world weary of ravages yearned for a new myth. This was found in an ancient concept recognised in onr form or another in different cultures, in which humans used to exist in harmony with nature and the human race. They revered the elemental forces and exerted their own influence on it by practising differ- ent rites. Perhaps it was not just the ravages of war people had to suffer, but also the concept of the so-called happy savage, re- vived by anthropologists-ethnographers, that affected this new way of thinking. The latter definitely influenced the subsequent formation of the Hippie Movement, which was a form of social protest. 3. The powerful progress of countercultures During the same years when the first gigantic computers ex- changed the first bits of information, social protest reached its height in the countercultural movement. The world had seen it all before, like so many other recurrent tendencies in the his- tory of humanity. Even early Christianity might be regarded, in a way, as a counterculture to the ancient world that was dying. The aspirations of the whole generation were voiced as a be- lated manifest by the rock group Pink Floyd in their album The Wall: We don’t need no education We don’t need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teachers leave them kids alone Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone! All in all it’s just another brick in the wall. All in all you’re just another brick in the wall. Shamanism and the Internet 125 The hope was to break through the wall generally known as western civilisation, built by previous generations. Perhaps it was also predisposed to this due to the thriving popularity of Afro-American music, which spoke of a totally different worldview. Be as it may, the countercultural movement differed from all the previous ones in that all events were rapidly broadcast to millions of people. The younger generation with its as yet un- derdeveloped worldview, who realised that the message was ad- dressed to them directly rather than to their parents, was most vulnerable to its influence. 4. A wish to expand the mind People soon understood that only a few could live out the slogan all you need is love longer than the tumultuous years of youth. Those, who had no intention to die young, turned in their search for new ways and new meaning in their lives to the East and into their inner selves. They discovered things that had always existed, but had never gained much popularity except in smaller circles, like meditation, for example. Protesting and using drugs for a mere kick was substituted with “expanding the mind”. In 1968 John Lilly, who had become famous for his experiments in isolation tank and the study of dolphin’s brain, published his work “Programming and Metaprogramming the Human Biocomputer”, which was guided by the principle that humans are essentially a biological computer, which uses innate and ac- quired programs. The ability to take in new information and to develop ideas beyond these innate programs depends on our ca- pacity for “metaprogramming” or learning to learn.