Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit
 |
| The spirit world can appear as weird and strange (Alex Tooth/deviantart.com) |
 |
| Mother Earth, Father Sky, one a womb, the other a seed, brought together by falling rain. |
(KE) The shamans of Mongolia and Siberia who preceded Native Americans illustrate that knowledge of the spirit world is not limited to any culture, group, or period. These Vajrayana Buddhists and animists as well as the rishis (seers) and yogis (hermit-ascetics) of India were well aware of these strange realms and their inhabitants. In northern Europe the spirit world was sometimes referred to as the Wyrd (like our word weird).
Rain Dancing Our Way into the Spirit World
 |
| We dance to make it rain calling on spirit helpers and spirit guides. The rain dance of the Navajo Native American was influenced by the Hopi and others (sonocarina) |
 |
| Dryad or "tree nymph" spirit |
The spirit world (spirit = breath = an invisible force like the wind), according to Spiritualism, is the adjacent world inhabited by spirits. (WQ Rain Dance)
In Buddhism "spirits" are variously called devas, petas, nagas, suparnas, gandharvas, kumbhandas, yakkhas, narakas, and asuras, or "light beings, ghosts of the dead, dragons, avians, fairies, gnomes, hellions, demons, and titans").
Whereas religion concerns the inner life, the spirit world is regarded as an external environment for spirits (Spiritualism - Its History, Phenomena, and Doctrine, Arthur J. Hill 1918, p. 211). Independent from the natural world, both the spirit world and the natural world are in constant interaction.
Through mediumship -- through local shamans, curanderos or healers, medicine women and men -- these worlds can consciously communicate with one other. The spirit world can be described by mediums in trance (Ibid., W.J. Colville, Universal Spiritualism: Spirit Communion in All Ages Among All Nations, 1906, p. 42.Anyone who does not believe the spirit world is real and right there before on blind third eye, there are three dangerous routes to personally prove that it is: drums, drugs, or trying to get through Finnegans Wake in one sitting.
Journeying to Three Realms in under 30 mins.
(NW) Use headphones. This is a shamanic journey led by Glenn Sullivan (NaturalWisdom.ie) explaining the landscapes and calling in the directions with a 16-min. drumming journey. Come together into a sacred circle and learn to journey into non-ordinary states of consciousness. See the spirits, gain a deeper understanding of the "human" plane and its many inhabitants, cycles, and patterns to problem solve in everyday life and the spiritual path.
HISTORY
 |
| Mayan shaman, Day of the Dead (IR-M) |
By the mid 19th century most Spiritualist writers concurred that the spirit world was of "tangible substance" (ectoplasm) and a place consisting of "spheres" or "zones" (John W. Edmonds, Dr. George T. Dexter, MD, Spiritualism, 1853, p. 262). Although specific details differed, the construct suggested organization and centralization (Bret E. Carrol, Spiritualism in Antebellum America (Religion in North America), Indiana Univ. Press, Oct. 1, 1997, p. 62).
The 18th century writer Emanuel Swedenborg influenced Spiritualist views about the spirit world. He described a series of concentric spheres each including a hierarchical organization of spirits in a setting more earth-like than theocentric (Ibid., p.17). The spheres become gradually more illuminated and celestial.
 |
| Spirit travel through astral space |
Spiritualists added a concept of limitlessness (Buddhism's "boundlessness") or infinity to these spheres (Edmonds, p. 123). Furthermore, it was defined that "Laws" initiated by a god apply to Earth as well as the spirit world (Edmonds, p. 136).
Another common Spiritualist conception was that the spirit world is inherently good and is related to truth-seeking as opposed to things that are harmful residing in a "spiritual darkness" (Hill, p. 168; Edmonds, p.143).
This conception inferred, as in the biblical parable of Lazarus and Dives, that there is considered a greater distance between helpful and harmful spirits than between the dead and the living (Hill, p.208).
 |
| Scandinavia: land of the Sami shamans (VN) |
For some the spirit world was "The Home of the Soul," as described by Theosophist C.W. Leadbeater, suggesting that for a living human being to experience the spirit world will be a blissful, meaningful, and life altering experience (Colville, pp. 268-270).
 |
| Most shamans were women (DA) |
Yet, John W. Edmonds states in his 1853 work, Spiritualism, "Man's relation spiritually with the spirit-world is no more wonderful than his connection with the natural world. The two parts of his nature respond to the same affinities in the natural and spiritual worlds" (Edmonds, p. 104).
Edmonds asserts, quoting Swedenborg through mediumship, that the relationship between humans and the spirit world is reciprocal and thus could contain sorrow. Though ultimately, "wandering through the spheres" on a path of goodness "is received at last by that Spirit whose thought is universal love forever" (Edmonds, p. 345). More
(PD/EOC) What begins as a Christian program branches out with science in an attempt at credibility. Is the spirit world real? Who dwells in it? How did the spirits come into being? What do science and religion say about the spirit realm? Does the spirit realm affect us?
The Buddha: Knower of Worlds
 |
| Knower of the Worlds (Amrit Vismay) |
The Buddha frequently said, there is this world and the other (or next) world. And a teacher who is enlightened directly knows and directly perceives these worlds. He frequently is shown to be aware of other planes or dimensions as well as worlds in space and underground (the 31 Planes of Existence). A buddha knows all of these worlds and the paths (karma) leading to rebirth there as well as liberation from them.
 |
| Buddha life panels, Jing'an Temple, Shanghai |
Four worlds he frequently saw and interacted with are enmeshed in this human plane -- the worlds of devas, yakkhas and maras, animals, and hungry ghosts. But he could see and visit all the manifold realms in this world system and even worlds between world systems (the interstitial hells of desolation and isolation). It is not clear if he visited other "world systems" (galaxies or universes)
- First set the intention. Shamanic teacher gets up close and personal with deep training insights on the benefits of a mini healing retreat (thecenterforhealingarts.com).
 |
| "Desert Breath" spiral |
