The future of shamanism
I can’t help but have mixed feelings about the future of shamanism. Psychedelics have ripped a hole in the collective psyche of Western man. On the one hand, I can see how much good they have done.
On the other hand, I’ve read declassified documents where the government dosed unsuspecting people with psychedelics to develop mind control. Similarly, I have also seen countless people return from the Amazon with nightmare Ayahuasca experiences, only to be plagued by mania and more problems than they started with.
Most pressing of all is that most people don’t understand how much more there is to shamanism beyond psychedelics, and that is the most tragic aspect of all. Indeed, there are profound depths to the path, yet many pass through without deeper experience.
There’s an event on the horizon that reveals the psychedelic resurgence is just the beginning: AI. The rapid creation of online avatars that look deceptively human is a serious problem. However, shamans offer a straightforward solution to this challenge.
Does the person have an energy field? Whenever I encounter a suspicious video now, I use my psychic sight to see if it has an energy field and whether it's a real human. While humanity as a whole seems to have largely lost this ability, I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts to reawaken on a mass scale.
Shamanism has more to offer, though. Meanwhile, AI will excel at anchoring rational aspects of our society. Consider the jobs it’s targeting first: law, accounting, and software—professions rooted in logic. In contrast, at the highest level, artistic professions may be spared because humans love things created by other humans.
With the rational parts of society taken care of by AI, many people will turn towards metaphysical pursuits. The best of us will use the extra time to devote ourselves to our spiritual lives or artistic expression. Shamanism inhabits the intangible realms of life and offers a wealth of insights in this regard.
Shamanism has an important place in the future beyond psychedelics. In particular, it offers help to a population confronting a rapidly changing landscape. Therefore, despite my mixed feelings on how it’s understood, I’m deeply optimistic about its inherent usefulness.