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Paul Devereux - On the role of the out of body shaman
Identifier
011442
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Flight routes could be reused.
If you ever wondered how it was that man could navigate his way round a world which had no paths, which was thickly forested, that had many wild animals of sometimes rather dangerous disposition and still find game food and water, this is how it was done – out of body flight. If you ever wondered why it was the shaman of a tribe or village was so revered then again this is why – the whole village or tribe’s survival depended on the being able to ‘fly’. No flight, no food, no water.
A description of the experience
Paul Devereux – Sacred Sites
Shamanic sacred landscapes were marked directly on the ground in various ways and usually ignored the actual physical terrain. This is because no matter how stylised and structured they may have become in some cultures, their origins lie in the experiences of altered states of consciousness … They represent the direct mapping of mindscapes.
There are three basic types of these landscapes
- Ground markings that depict geometric non representational lines
- Terrestrial effigy figures
- Straight line markings, paths or roads