The husband rides in a carriage
While the wife peels and scrapes.
Advantage lies with the King's aunt;
No advantage with the Duke's family.
I later found out that the Challenger had blown up that day (almost at that very moment).
315
Accumulation improving; advantage.
Coercion to the limit results in calamity.
Working with experiences of other realities seems similar to shamanism. I live in Santa Fe where many many people from therapists to accountants claim similarities between their professions and shamanism. Mircea Eliade in his book, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques in Ecstasy, says that "shamanism is precisely one of the archaic techniques of ecstasy - at once mysticism, magic, and 'religion' in the broadest sense of the term."
We consider it advantageous to restrict the use of the words "shaman" and "shamanism," precisely to avoid misunderstandings and to cast a clearer light on the history of "magic" and "sorcery." For, of course, the shaman is also a magician and medicine man; he is believed to cure, like all doctors, and to perform miracles of the fakir type, like all magicians, whether primitive or modern. But beyond this, he is a psychopomp, and may also be a priest, mystic, and poet. In the dim, "confusionistic" mass of the religious life of archaic societies considered as a whole, shamanism - taken in its strict and exact sense - already shows a structure of its own and implies a "history" that there is every reason to clarify.1
316
Active flux.
Pure and simple, hard and enduring,lasting, unyielding,
The myriad things.
There is nothing that has not CHIANG
The boundary, and a bridge.
Some composers might be compared to shamans. John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, and Jerry Hunt are good examples for discussion. All live simple lives and have sacrificed a great deal for their art. Their art is often said to have healing properties and is designed for the exploration of new worlds of perception by inducing a kind of trance in their audiences and/or themselves. Other spirits are not generally referred to but are sometimes implied. John Cage's work (and even his presence) seem to evoke a collective spirit between audience and performers through "chance operations."
317
Therefore hearing, therefore clearly,
To the left and to the right
The pounding drums, the pounding drums.
Each of these composers lives lives that seem to demonstrate the philosophical basis of his/her work. As performers, their success seems determined by the effect of their work primarily on themselves and, secondly, on others. Jerry Hunt's absurd actions seem similar to those performed by shamans during trance. Pauline Oliveros spent ten years doing formal research in music meditation and has created many works with healing as their main purpose. She has referred to herself as a shamaness.
1 Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism; Archaic Techniques in Ecstasy; n.d. ; rpt.1989; Viking Penguin..