Observations placeholder
Seven Ages of Man - Thomas Keightley et al - Spiritual capabilities
Identifier
021845
Type of Spiritual Experience
Environmental influence
Invisible input - wisdom
Invisible input - healing
Invisible input - prophecy
Out of body
Out of time
Background
All the previous ages of man besides this current one appear to have been highly tuned to the spiritual world, so in tune they were to all intents and purposes a part of it. As such they did not have 'gods' or worship 'gods', because they were in constant communication with the spiritual world anyway. One does not worship a god if one is one.
Because they were hugely spiritual in nature, they appear to have been unafraid of death, because in effect death for them did not really exist. They were a soul that had acquired a body and after death they would revert to soul.
Although the dead were treated reverently and it is clear that there was sorrow at the parting of someone loved, there is no evidence in archaelogical remains of the huge burial rituals that we see for the last age of man. The need for highly ritualised ceremony and elaborate burial only arises to peoples who fear death, who don't see it as a sort of unimportant stage in the soul's progress. The more fear, the more elaborate the ritual.
In a sense therefore, although these may have been ‘shamanic’ societies, there is the real possibility that the vast majority of them, if not all, would be today classified as natural shamans at birth – ‘gods’.
This is in marked contrast to the homo sapiens who followed them who, because their contact with the spiritual world was greatly reduced, at first greatly revered them, then as other religions spread regarded them as heathen and ungodly. For their beliefs the Neanderthals/Dwarfs, for example, were at times persecuted and in European culture in particular regarded with great suspicion. They could work ‘magic’, so they were feared.
There is evidence in a number of the stories of the Dwarfs ability to shape shift, heal, fly about ‘invisibly’ – levitation and out of body - and even the possibility of being able to apport.
The following observations are just a selection of abilities:
A description of the experience
Reverence for the dead
The Neanderthal's Necklace – Juan Luis Arsuaga
“… mountain goat horns surround a Neanderthal boy at Teshik Tash, Uzbekistan; bear bones [are] carefully arranged with a skeleton in a grave covered with a stone slab in Regordou, France; a sculpted stone is placed on the heart of a child in Dedireyah, Syria; flowers are placed on human remains at Shanidar, Iraq; and hematite powder is sprinkled on remains at Le Moustier France”
Shape shifting
The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People compiled by Thomas Keightley
“These beings have some very extraordinary and useful properties; they can for example, go about invisibly or turn themselves into any shape.
Apporting
Grimm's Deutsche Sagen Source Thomas Keightley
“This Hill-people are of flesh and bone, like mankind, they bear children and die, but in addition to the ordinary faculties of humanity, they have the power of making themselves invisible, and of passing through rocks and walls, with the same facility as through the air. They sometimes appear to men, lead them into the clefts and if the strangers prove agreeable to them present them with valuable gifts”
Alchemy
It also appears that the dwarfs – Neanderthal man - had knowledge of the use of crystals to obtain spiritual experience. Minerals that are in the form of crystals can induce resonance and resonance can be used to induce a trance state. The same method is employed by foundations such as the Monroe Institute, which uses sound resonance to provide ‘spiritual seekers’ with experiences ranging from reviews of past perceptions to full out of body experiences. Although Stonehenge has multiple purposes – astronomy, religion etc, it is also clear with their choice of stones, that many of the standing stones could have been used to induce ‘resonant frequencies’ and thus trance states
The Heldenbuch
“They knew also for what stones were good. Some stones give great strength; some make those who carry them about them invisible, that is called a mist cloke [nebelkap] and therefore did God give the Dwarfs skill and wisdom”
Healing
There is also evidence in myths that dwarfs/Neanderthal man had the shamanic ability to heal
Muller, Bilden and Sagen Source; Thomas Keightley
“The land was …. occupied by a farmer, a churlish unfeeling man, who though wealthy, let his only sister struggle with the greatest poverty in the valley beneath. The poor woman at length having fallen sick and seeing no other resource, resolved to apply to her brother for the means of employing a doctor. She sent her daughter to him; but all the prayers and tears of the poor girl failed to move him... …... she departed and as she went along a Dwarf appeared to her. She would have fled, but he gently detained her and telling her he had heard all that had passed, gave her a parcel of herbs, which he assured her would cure her mother ….. on trial the herbs quickly produced the promised effect"
Prophecy
And they had the ability to prophecy – predict or anticipate the future
Idyllen, Volkssagen, Legenden und Erzahlungen aus Der Schweitz – Professor J Rud Wyss 1813 Source; Thomas Keightley
“Often too the peasants were incensed to find the corn which was scarcely yet ripe, lying cut on the ground; but shortly after there was sure to come on such a hailstorm, that it became obvious that hardly a single stalk would have escaped destruction had it not been cut, and then from the bottom of their hearts they thanked the Dwarf people”