The Monthly Aspectarian: Oscar, you have your feet very firmly
planted in two worlds, the modern Western world and the ancient shamanic
world. How did that come about for you?
Oscar Miro-Quesada: The reason I've been able to bridge both worlds
is due to the background I was born into in South America in Lima and
the Andean area. My father, a physician, raised me with a very scientific,
mechanistic approach to disclosing the Divine, so my initial quest was
to find a rational explanation to supposedly unexplainable phenomena.
So I did the whole left brain trip, going to universities and specializing
in fields that would give me some sort of interpretive model in which
to understand pure thought. Doing that provided me with a language I can
use with various groups of people and reach them on topics and areas that
sometimes are ineffable because of their experiential nature. In other
words, my immersion accounts for my comfort in the Western tradition.
My spiritual experiences are of a much more transpersonal or non-ordinary
state of consciousness, and that accounts for my level of comfort with
the unseen world. At this point the veil that separates the seen from
the unseen really is transparent, if I can say so therefore, I can access
information from states of clairsentience, clairaudience and clairvoyance
as well as from the sensory world the experience of reality that we perceive
with our five senses. Putting them together into a system of teaching,
knowledge, ceremony and ritual, it reaches peoples' hearts and this is
what the goal is.
I attain that goal much easier when the "I" is not present,
of course, when I can step out of the way and surrender to the process
as it's occurring. That is one of the seven fundamental characteristics
of the shamanic path of service in which you are not doing the work, the
work is doing you. Much like when you get to a certain point in using
a silent mantra, raja meditation, the mantra mantra-izes you.
TMA: I've found it very interesting that how as we go
further into the modern world with breakthroughs in science and understanding
the modern model we seem to have need of more and more of the most ancient
ways.
OM-Q: Yes, and that has happened globally, almost like an epidemic
not of a disease state but an epidemic of a state of wholeness in which
people are realizing that yes, we're out of touch with the spiritual dimension
in life. No matter how elegant and useful all the advances in science
and technology and modern discoveries that have been provided humankind,
there's still this yearning, a daemon, a full urge to simplify and return
to something much more core. In my opinion, that is why the resurgence
of shamanism in the world today.
The shamanic tradition, as well as emphasis on reciprocity with the Earth
Mother, with natural forces, allows us to connect, to experience rather
than to understand through mind. That provides a sense of belongingness
and a participatory approach to life rather than an analytical or controlling
approach.
TMA: It seems to me that on the surface, modern science and the
ancient ways are inimical. And yet it also appears to me that really,
they're complementary and it's necessary to bring them into balance.
OM-Q: I could not agree with you more. The language creates the
separation yet the essence of the search is exactly the same in both.
As you well know, it was the most recent discoveries in advanced physics
and also in astro-physics as well as in super-string theory and in fractal
theory and chaos theory and even molecular genetics where they are discovering
the exact patterns of human experience (of course at very minute levels)
that shamans, mystics and seekers of knowledge from all ages have purported.
Yes, they are the same.
It's a matter of convincing or not convincing those who really need to
hold onto one way of attaining peace through knowledge that the
other ancient indigenous approaches have value. Even in my own country
that supports millennial traditions so openly, that's a challenge.
TMA: It seems to me that they are not only complimentary, the
same thing, but there is a necessary blending of the two to bring us into
wholeness. At the same as you can fly on the Concorde from here to Europe
in three hours and get on the Internet and talk to anybody in the world,
we also need these most ancient of ways.
OM-Q: This is not about substituting one for the other; of course
not. It's the dance of both of them together. Without that equilibrium
of balance on a collective as well as on an individual level, wholeness
will never be experienced because without it, it's exclusionary. I'm very
optimistic, and not in a Pollyanna sense. I really see a shift in awareness
occurring at an accelerated rate that the bridge is real and unstoppable,
no matter what the conditions on the phenomenal plane sometimes indicate
. . . with famines and environmental degradation and war and craving for
control and approval that lead our leaders to make foolish mistakes sometimes.
At a grassroots, networking level, all that is being brought into awareness.
We need to read between the lines. There is a lot of good stuff going
on out there that is not reported in the media.
TMA: I always thought, even fifteen, twenty years ago before Michael
Harner became well known and shamanic studies broke into the mainstream,
that indigenous cultures almost certainly harbored environmental technologies
that we in the modern world need to embrace to facilitate healing
the planet.
OM-Q: I'm so glad you're bringing this up because that's one of
my passions. The shamans are intimately in touch with the cycles
of nature and intimately involved in the refinement of agricultural
as well as harmonic production tools and techniques to just take sufficient
out of the earth rather than just waste it. Specifically, when it comes
to the Andean tradition, there are advances that are still being used
today that date from 3,000-3,500 B.C. in the use of certain waterways,
the conservation of the earth, the rotational techniques of crops, being
able to create freeze dried food and store it for decades, that are still
respected and honored. And also the creation of new hybrids of plants
and vegetable products that are extremely high in protein content which
eliminates the need for the use of animal protein.
They're very sensitive to the Earth Mother. They have been in all cultures.
I may just have a bias because of my studies in the Andean and Amazonian
traditions of South America, but I can earnestly say that they were the
most sensitive to the heart of the Earth Mother when it came to what to
plant, when to plant it, how to ceremonially ask for permission and how
to reap the most extraordinary products from it.
TMA: There are people who get caught up in this who seem to want
to take us back to hunter-gatherer societies which is not going to happen.
OM-Q: No, we're way beyond that.
TMA: What we need to do is figure out ways which I believe are
totally possible to work in cooperation with the earth to maintain and
even enhance the quality of life we've attained by raping it.
OM-Q: We can learn very much from our ancestors. There are projects
that are being carried out right now in South America that are really
mind-blowing in terms of crop yield and recycled fertilization of the
earth. And in pretty desperate areas, how to create ecological niches
that would maintain the temperature as well as soil quality so that you
can grow a broad range of plants that would otherwise need to be at sea
level . . . and other technologies of the sacred [laughs] if you can call
them that.
TMA: I think some of the people who are representing the shamanic
path are able to tap directly into what are thought of as nature spirits
. . . and can even work out a healing of the planet on that level. People
think the planet is nearly dead. That's not really the case.
OM-Q: It's very alive, thank you. It was here way before us and
will be here way after we're gone.
TMA: As has been said by so many people, it's quite capable to
shaking us off like a bad case of fleas if it needs to. Yet we do have
some problems that I believe by working in cooperation with the planet,
with nature spirits, could be cleaned up a lot easier than people tend
to think.
OM-Q: I agree wholeheartedly. When you tap into this hierarchy,
there are various unseen influences that permeate the natural world that
seed it as well as seed us. They are indispensable for a balanced approach
to living. We have various kinds of devas or nature spirits. The tirakuna,
for instance, which are the watchers, are in charge of looking over the
human community and making sure they are making the proper earth offering
to Mother Earth. They go to the individual communities and hang out behind
rock outcroppings and little streams and trees and sometimes even ceremonial
burial grounds, and the people seed the earth with either a burnt or buried
earth offering, a combination of mineral, animal, vegetable and human-made
products. It's a very reverent, consecrated practice that brings forth
a reciprocity with the Earth Mother and its consciousness it's like a
recognition of the great web of life that maintains the fertility of all
sentient beings, not just those with consciousness. From an energetic
point of view, offerings are very much part of the sustainability of the
planet. We are feeding Mother Earth, therefore Mother Earth has the sufficient
strength to go ahead and distribute her gifts to us in a proper manner.
Then we have, of course, the nature spirits, much like the devas and
some of the fairy creatures of Celtic traditions, that you also have to
enter into relationship with and communicate with and ask them what their
opinion is regarding the harvesting of a certain plant. It's all about
asking permission before you just go and take. Then you have the benevolent
old grandfathers and grandmothers that look after us and protect us. And
the tree spirits. And the most important of them all, of course, are the
apus, the mountain lords. Those are the sacred peaks around the
world with which the mediator of the community can determine which type
of earth offerings are most propitious in the certain condition that's
affecting the townspeople or a larger region. They enter into communion
with the spirit lord or tutelary spirit of the particular mountain that
overlooks the region, and receive guidance as to what cycle has been violated
or intruded upon and then restore balance to it.
Once you enter into that ceremonial and ritual understanding of the interconnectedness
between humans and the Earth Mother, then the physical process of planting,
harvesting and living in communion with the Earth just takes care of itself.
So it's right in tune and in alignment with the understanding of these
ancient people, that we must work at the energetic level before we start
playing around with the phenomenal world, the world of form. It's very
important.
TMA: What can people do now? What are you teaching now?
OM-Q: Basically, the focus of these trainings are to bring ceremony,
ritual and a practice of a balance of one's power into the middle world.
The trainings that I do focus around what is known as the mesa, which
is the very ancient sacred ground that is set up on the floor that's what's
called the mesa it's been mistakenly been called a medicine wheel,
but it really isn't you draw parallels, but it works as an expression
of a microcosmic reality As above, so below.
Within the mesa, we work three distinct energies that could be
akin to weak and strong nuclear forces, electromagnetism and gravity,
yet they really are a vital life force and an animating essence for the
healing of physical bodies or of material conditions in one's life, emotional,
mental and spiritual conditions. We're bringing them into balance rather
than fixing them and there are very specific, prescribed uses of auditory
or vibratory frequencies, sacred sound, invocations, singing chants and
the use of the activation of the luminous body, the direction of the particular
types of forces that we have available from the unseen world, and projecting
them both on individual and collective levels for creating gentle transformation
in both individuals and collective circles.
The most important thing, though, is a return to a state of reverence
and gratitude for who we are and the privilege it is to be incarnated
right now, rather than get into a victim trip and start to say how screwed
up the world is.
I'm here to do the work and tell people, avert any catastrophe and create
a new mythology and write a new future for our planet based on the teachings
of my indigenous ancestors. That's basically what I'm here to do, and
bring as much information that is practical and hands-on through the tangible
applications of these energies, because you feel them, you sense them,
you live them you apply them in ceremony, you see the results, and after
that it's up to you to continue to use them.
Oscar Miro-Quesada is a Peruvian-born transpersonal psychologist and
gifted teacher of cross-cultural shamanism. He holds degrees from Duke,
West Georgia and Emory Universities and is a Fellow in Ethnopsychology
with the Organization of American States. His involvement with the OAS
led to the development of a satellite program in mental health that mainstreamed
native folk healers into Peru's national public healthcare system at a
national level. A former Professor of Psychology at the State University
of West Georgia and Clinical Director of the Institute for Transformative
Medicine in West Palm Beach, Oscar (along with Raymond Moody, Mike Arons
and William Roll) was also founder and board member of the Parapsychological
Services Institute in Atlanta. He has been leading ethnospiritual pilgrimages
to the sacred sites of Peru and Bolivia since 1986 and facilitating experiential
workshops on the integration of millennial and contemporary wisdom teachings
and healing practices in the USA and abroad since l979.
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