Observations placeholder
A P Elkin - Aboriginal men of high degree - Dieri kunki
Identifier
003502
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The circumcision would have added extreme pain as a mechanism to those of overwhelming fear, if it is a literal act, which in those days it might not have been
A description of the experience
Aboriginal men of high degree – A P Elkin
One Dieri kunki related to Siebert that, when still a boy, he was made by being tied up, taken to the Ranges, and placed in a dark place, where a pointed stick was placed in the ground near him. He was asked whether he could see kutji, and when he answered no, he was told that he would see him.
Later, when he was in seclusion, following on his circumcision, he suddenly saw a light going and coming near him. Terrified, he fled from the kutji. But now he was qualified to become a medicine man and was admitted into the mysteries by his father, a kunki.
Obviously, the Dieri candidate is conditioned in body and mind for the traditional visionary experience. The spirit materializes and makes him; after this, he can be trained.