Blog #7

In describing shamans, one of the men in Other Worlds said, “time and space doesn’t exist around them, only the present.” I didn’t think much of this quote at the time, since it was just one point in a list of shaman qualities, but upon further reflection I see it as very important to our class. It emphasizes the idea of man as a continuum, rather than one restricted by time, and it connects to class discussions, The Field, and Castaneda.

I remember the day some of our class discussion was spent on the topic of time. In defining it we used such words as “measurement” and “limitation.” We discussed the possibility that man, as a being, exists beyond time and that time is simply our structure for measuring change. That is why I earlier described man as a continuum; because the whole of idea of a beginning and an end don’t apply to man if we take away the structure of time. The man in the movie seemed to agree with this idea when he said that shamans only experience the present. As more spiritually-aware beings, shamans aren’t restricted by the manmade construct of time and they are able to see past it and exist only in the present.

This idea extends even further into our reading of The Field. Near the end of the book McTaggart explains the abilities some people have to see places as they were in a past state. I recall that at one point someone visualized large tanks at a certain area. During the time of that vision the tanks were not currently there, but they had been in the past. Perhaps this is a stretch, but I would say the person in McTaggart’s example is practicing a shamanistic technique. In order to “see” something from the past—something which he would normally have no way of knowing about—he must drop the structures of time. Without them he is able to understand that which, under the constructs of time, we would say he should not be able to see. So in this way I see a possible connection between the insights of Other Worlds and the material we read in The Field.

The last connection I made was with Castaneda’s book. While having his first smoke with don Juan’s pipe Castaneda explains how don Juan kept singing to him during this experience. He says that “Don Juan’s words were a distant echo. They recalled the forgotten memories of childhood” (109). During this experience Castaneda seems to have transcended time. By being in the present and beyond time’s structures he is able to recall forgotten memories. Similar to this, another person in Other Worlds describes how he realized “I had never stopped being a child.” In this respect it’s seen how “adult” and “child” are simply words to describe change, but at his deepest part each man is a being independent of time.

As we’ve gotten further along in our class it’s been interesting to see how everything ties together. Other Worlds, the class discussion, The Field, and Castaneda all took place on separate occasions, yet they all tied together with one little quote. I'm excited to see what else starts to come together as we continue the class.