Native American shamans have served as spiritual bridges between [the spirit and human] worlds for thousands of years.
These respected healers and wisdom-keepers maintain harmony between humans, nature, and the spirit realm through sacred rituals and practices. Their ancient methods continue to fascinate modern seekers who recognize the profound connection these traditions have with the natural world.
Vision quests: seeking spiritual direction
The wilderness becomes a classroom during a vision quest. Young tribe members venture alone into nature, fasting for days while praying for spiritual guidance.
The physical hunger opens doorways to visions, dreams, and messages from the spirit world. Animals might appear as guides, or ancestors may share wisdom during this powerful journey.
Upon returning, the seeker often receives a new name, reflecting their spiritual identity. This rite of passage transforms not just the individual but strengthens the entire community.
The insights gained during vision quests provide direction for personal growth and sometimes reveal a healing path or special purpose. More
Entheogens for shamans
Inside the hidden world of Ecuador’s last uncontacted tribe The Huaorani are an indigenous group that’s lived deep in the Amazon for generations, mostly cut off from the outside world. Often called “Ecuador’s Last Savages,” they’re known for being fierce warriors — and even now, many of them are still fighting to stay isolated. From poison-tipped spears to mind-bending hallucinogens, here’s how half the tribe has managed to stay uncontacted...
The Siberian cousins of Native Americans: The Ket People
(imshawn getoffmylawn) Nov. 2, 2023: Navajo is an odd language, used by the US military for a unit of "Code Talkers" because it could not be cracked by opponents listening in on conversations. But it may not be the language-isolate it has always been thought to be. It seems to be related to Ket, a Native Siberian language.
0:00 - Introduction
01:12 - Where do the Kets live?
03:18 - Chums and shamans
05:44 - 1580s-1850s: A Swedish army captain, a German scientist, and a Finnish linguist
10:11 - 1920s-1940s: Collectivization and boarding schools
16:37 - 1980s-2000s: Mini-resurgence
17:59 - Statistics and status today + introduction to Ket language
22:53 - Ket number system
26:15 - Phonology
27:41 - Morphology: classes, cases and the Ket verb + examples
35:38 - Dené-Yeniseian [Navajo-Ket] Hypothesis: family and DNA
- YouTube channel archive of native speakers of Selkup, Ket, and Evenki: @siberian-lang
ACADEMIC SOURCES
- English: Ket Language (Alexandra A. Sitnikova, Journal of Siberian Federal University)
- The role of position class in Ket verb morphophonology (Edward J. Vajda, Tandfonline)
- The Ket language: from descriptive linguistics to interdisciplinary research (Elena A. Kryukova, Tomsk Journal LING & ANTROPO 2013)
- Typology of the Ket finite verb (Edward Vajda, Western Washington University)
- A descriptive grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) (STEFAN GEORG, University of Bonn)
- Historiography of Ket Language (Kistova & Pimenova, Siberian Federal University)
- Siberian Landscapes in Ket Traditional Culture (Edward J. Vajda, Western Washington & Leipzig)
Русский:
- Кетский Язык: современный социолингвистический статус и причины, приведшие к нему (на материале полевых исследований) (Юлия И. Козиорова, Институт языкознания РАН, 2013)
- Хакасско-Кетские Лексические параллели. (Aikakauskirja Journal de la societe Finno-Ougrienne, 1992)
- Этнореальность в Фотообъективе, Кеты Енисея (Окстябрьская, Шубская, Рудаков)
- Традиционная Культовая Культура Кетов (Викторовна, МКУ ДО Аист)
VIDEOS
English:
- Ket Language Structure (Edward Vajda)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABFZs...
- Language Connection Between Asia and the Americas?
– The Dené-Yeniseian Language Family Explained (Agma Schwa)
• Language Connection Between Asia and ...
- Ket Shamanism (The Brofessor)
• Ket Shamanism
- Edward Vajda - Tlingit and Dené-Yeniseian Hypothesis (Sealaska Heritage Institute)
• Edward Vajda
- Tlingit and the Dene-Y...
Русский:
- Юлия Галямина
- Кеты и кетский язык (MAFUN Academy)
• Юлия Галямина
- Кеты и кетский язык
- Кеты. Фильм Дениса Жемчугова
• Кеты. Фильм Дениса Жемчугова
- Счастливые Люди (Happy People documentary)
• Счастливые люди | Енисей | Весна (сер...
Ket:
- Kotusov singing
• Алла Пугачева
- Lady talking about her grandparents, used in video
• В Бахте
- Ket Language example with subtitles and translation (ILoveLanguages)
• Ket language, people, and culture
WEBSITES/OTHER
English:
- “A Bit Lost” in the Siberian Ket Language (Chris Haughton) https://blog.chrishaughton.com/a-bit-...
- The Ket and Other Yeniseian Peoples (Edward Vajda) https://web.archive.org/web/201904062...
Русский (worth checking out even if one does not speak Russian):
- Вернер Г.К., Николаева Г.X. Букварь для 1 класса кетских школ https://www.twirpx.com/file/2375471/
ABOUT: Disney+ is the only place to stream favorites from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and more. Access it all at disneymusic.co/JoinDisneyPlus.
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"The Day of the Dead" (Dia de Los Muertos), celebrated primarily in Mexico, falls on the Saturday before Nov. 2, 2023.
Dia de Los Muertos is a holiday that remembers the LIVES of the deceased with food, drink, and celebration, reviving warm memories [because those beings are still alive in the afterlife, their rebirth, the world to come, the beyond].
Why are you guys celebrating? I'm Death!
Hollywood Forever Cemetery's annual Dia de Los Muertos is a daylong festival that features gorgeous altars, Aztec dancers, five stages of music and dance, arts and crafts, a ritual procession, and much more.
National Geographic, Oct. 21, 2008; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Ananda, (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Indonesia is the site of the world's largest excavated Buddhist temple complex: Borobudur
Five Genders? | National Geographic
(National Geographic) Through many options for gender expression, including recognizing five genders, this [indigenous] Indonesian community finds balance and peace and prays to share this with the world. It is not part of the original Buddhism that covered the island, nor the subsequent Hindu and Islamic influences that dominate today.
This funded white lab coat says I'm the authority.
WQ COMMENTARY: Does having five basic genders make sense? It does and has since ancient times. Even ancient India recognized that some people might be:
male,
female,
ambiguous or androgynous (both male and female)
male feeling like a female
female feeling like a male.
If the last two want to identify not as they were born but as they now feel, we might well designate those individuals "transgender" or transsexuals or crossdressers or expressive nonnormative individuals.
Group 3 used to be called hermaphrodites with attendant organs or vestigial components of both organs and/or chromosomal deviations from the standard binary categorization the medical field imposes on a population. Moreover, it would make sense that some humans are asexual (not sexual), eunuchs (neutered/spayed), or gay, bisexual, heterosexual, pansexual, or questioning and fluid, "heteroflexible."
So while this might seem confusing, it is actually not that complex. The growing complexity of LGBTQIA[LMNOP]+ is confusing and left undefined.
This discussion already took place in ancient Buddhist times, and the great commentator Ven. Buddhaghosa and others of his day opined that apart from males and females, they are pandakas ("perverts," deviants, gender-benders, crossdressers, humans with ambiguous genitalia and therefore "eunuchs," which could be karmic in origin -- usually spoken of as the result of past sexual misconduct -- or simply within a biological spectrum of what's normal for human earthlings, as opposed to the humanoids that live elsewhere throughout the galaxy and universe, within and outside of this world-system).
ABOUT: National Geographic [claims that it] is the world's premium destination for science, exploration, and adventure. Through their world-class scientists, photographers, journalists, and filmmakers, Nat Geo gets closer to the stories that matter and past the edge of what's possible. More:
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Trees hold a special place in our hearts, as they possess a longevity that surpasses most other creatures.
These remarkable organisms can live for thousands upon thousands of years. In fact, the oldest recorded tree boasted an incredible age of over 5,000 years!
Its roots reached back to a time when Rome stood at the peak of its glory -- an inspiring testament to the longevity of trees, making them some of the oldest living beings on our planet.
We acknowledge that trees are alive, for they harness energy to sustain their existence [and ours]. Though they lack the organs found in mammals like us, trees possess their own unique set of structures that enable their survival.
But being alive, do they possess a heartbeat?
Mystery of the Heartbeat
While trees do not possess a heart in the same way humans do, the idea of them having their own rhythm and pulsation is not as far-fetched as it might seem.
A recent study conducted by András Zlinszky, Bence Molnár, and Anders S. Barfod from Hungary and Denmark has shed light on an extraordinary aspect of trees: They possess a special type of pulsation akin to a heartbeat. More
There are 31 Planes of Existence (and countless individual worlds) one might be reborn in, in accordance with one's deeds as their resultants come up at the time of dying.
One of the "unfortunate destinations" (niraya, the downfall or downward path) is the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.
Not all ghosts are hungry and suffering in the same way, as they are very diverse in accordance with their deeds, but deprivation is common on this plane.
Pretas (Sanskrit प्रेत, Pali peta, Tibetan ཡི་དྭགས་ yi dags, Japanese gaki, Thai pret) are also known as "hungry ghosts," the Sanskrit name for a type of being described in Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion.
Beings reborn among them undergo suffering generally greater than that of humans, particularly an extreme level of hunger and thirst [1].
What must it be like in the Land of the Dead?
With origins in India's Dharmic religions, they have been adopted into East Asian religions via the spread of Buddhism.
Preta is often translated into English as "hungry ghost" from Chinese and East Asian adaptations. In early Buddhist sources, such as the Book of Ghost Stories or Petavatthu, they are much more varied.
Descriptions here apply mainly in this narrower context of those deprived of food, drink, shelter, and possessions clung to from their time on the human plane.
The development of the concept of the preta started with just thinking that it was the ghost and gandhabba (or intermediate conscious continuation of a person) once that person died on one plane.
But later the concept developed into a transient state between death and obtaining another rebirth in accordance with that person's deeds/karma [2]. We make our own fate.
In order to successfully pass through this phase of the cycle of karmic rebirth (samsara), the deceased's family are thought to have to engage in a variety of rituals and offerings to properly guide the suffering spirit into its next life [2].
If family or friends do not engage in these funerary rites, which last for one year, the person (spirit) could remain suffering as a preta for an indeterminate period of time that may seem like an eternity [2].
Karma (deeds)
I now love filth. I love smearing it on my face.
A preta was a false, corrupt, compulsive, deceitful, jealous, or greedy person in some previous life. [This may not be the immediately previous life but any life in the past from innumerable lives already lived.]
As a result of that person's deeds (that store of karma), one is afflicted with an insatiable hunger for some particular substance or object.
Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as feces or cadavers, though in more recent stories, it can be anything, however bizarre [3].
In addition to having insatiable hunger for an aversive item, pretas are said to have disturbing visions [4].
Pretas and human beings (and also animals) occupy the same physical space. But while humans looking at a river would see clear water, pretas see the same river flowing with a repugnant substance. Common examples of such visions include pus and filth [4]. More
Ancient Vedic, Hindu, and Buddhist wisdom all agree on ahimsa, or "nonharming," advising that we should be like the sandalwood (Santalum album) tree that sprinkles its sweet fragrance even on the axe that cuts it down. From time immemorial something special was sensed about the scent of the sacred sandalwood tree.
Why sandalwood is so expensive
(Business Insider, March 12, 2022) Sandalwood is one of the most expensive woods in the world: One kilogram of Indian sandalwood can cost $200. Its unique, long-lasting aroma makes it extremely sought after. And when that aroma is distilled into oil, a single kilogram can cost $8,000. Today, sandalwood oil is a coveted ingredient for perfumes, soaps, and incense sticks. What's so special about sandalwood's aroma? And is that why the wood is so expensive?
Tampa megachurch held a packed service this Sunday, despite dire warnings by the CDC and other health officials to promote social physical distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The "Main Event" service, hosted by pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, was broadcast live on YouTube for more safety-minded congregants to watch from home, but the church was clearly packed in person.
"Of course we've got the, what they call 'social distancing' in here in this room, and [toxic hand sanitizer at the entrance] there's people in other places and whatever," said Holy man Howard-Browne, to a room full of people standing much closer than six feet apart.
"Corona" is the cell expelling toxins - Steiner
"We believe in laying our hands on the sick and they shall recover."
"I know they're trying to beat me up for having the church operational, but we are not a non-essential service," said Howard-Browne to applause. "And, just so you know, we are totally covered by the law. And people say, 'what law are you covered by?' And I say the First Amendment to the Constitution."
Howard-Browne recently claimedthat he will cure Florida of coronavirus, and that he was also able to cure Zika virus.
On Friday, Right Wing Watch posted a video of Howard-Browne with his wife and fellow pastor Adonica Howard-Browne, claiming he will continue to hold services because his church is the most sterile building in America, as it contains 13 machines that can instantaneously kill any virus, adding, "If they sneeze, it shoots it down at like 100 mph. It'll neutralize it in split seconds."More
From Fart God to farting out one’s soul: The historic ritualization of flatulence
They command attention, bring silence into noisy environments, and have been associated with the utterances of gods for thousands of years. In fact, entire rituals have been designed around them. Farts. Who would believe it?
The spiritualization of farting was not restricted to northern latitudes. Specialist in the history of gastric wind Prof. Valerie Allen wrote the groundbreaking book On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages, in which we learn that most medieval theologians recorded farting as “the product of decomposition…the mark of death.”
Manichaeism was a mystical religion based on dualistic principals that at one time claimed to have had St. Augustine among its members. He believed farts were the act of "freeing divine light from the body” and St. Augustine also referred to people who could produce odorless “musical sounds” like “singing” from their behinds.
The philosopher Pythagoras believed the soul (pneuma) was breath [spiritus, prana], and because a fart was a sort of breath, as he was struggling with the mechanics of trigonometry, he was also concerned that if a person pushed hard enough they might “fart out his or her soul.”
The ancient origins of “fart fearing” is better understood when we consider that several wars having been directly provoked by farts. In Book II Chapter XI of Josephus’ Wars of the Jews we are told it was a “randomly presented fart” that set off a chain of events that led to the revolt against the 6th century King Apries of Egypt.
He wrote “an irreverent Roman soldier lowered his pants, bent over,” and “spoke such words as you might expect upon such a posture.” A steely silence spread over Jerusalem and because the unforeseen incident took place shortly before the Passover, a riot broke out to capture the farter “that led to the deaths of over 10,000 people.”
.
Hegassen scroll detail of a "Fart Battle," 1864, Japanese art (wikimedia)
Interestingly, what is considered by many historians to be the oldest joke in the world is a fart joke. An ancient Sumerian proverb dated to about 1900 BC reads:
“Something which has never
occurredsince time immemorial:
a young woman did not
fart in her husband’s lap.”
[Modern Christian fart joke told in the style of a Confucian aphorism: “Man who fart in church sit in his own pew.”]
Historian Robert Bartlett in 2000 published England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225, in which he told the story of Roland le Sarcere, also known as "Roland the Farter."
This court minstrel to King Henry II of England did a famous dance that ended with the execution of “a jump, a whistle, and a fart.”
For his anal accomplishments, Roland was gifted a manor house in Suffolk with 100 acres of land. Roland’s fart act was so beloved that subsequent chroniclers repeated his story and expanded his biography, “a process that inadvertently extended his lifespan to 120 years.”
For thousands of years, the ancestors of the Mushuau Innu (or Montagnais) people inhabited the northeastern portion of the present-day province of Quebec (above the state of Maine) and parts of the eastern portions of Labrador, known as Nitassinan (“Our Land”).
Scholar Marie Wadden, in her 1991 book The Innu Struggle to Reclaim Their Homeland tells us, “The people trapped moose, caribou, deer, and small game, and they also farmed and fished.”
The native Innu people (DER) Slow genocide: Ruined life of First Nations people of Labrador, Canada, the Mushuau Innu
The Innu have an odd god. Their language is known as Innu-ainum, part of the "Cree" language group (Algonquian). Speakers of this language worship a range of hunting- and animal-gods [kami], while paying homage to animal spirits.
In 1987 American researcher Peter Armitage wrote "Religious Ideology Among the Innu of Eastern Quebec and Labrador.” In it he studied the Innu god Matshishkapeu ("The Farting God" or, lit., the "Fart Man") and commented on his “unusual omnipresence,” which makes him unique among mythological beings:
“He is everywhere, both inside the tent and outside; he is always with you no matter where you may travel.”
Although Matshishkapeu existed everywhere, he was best known to the Innu as the “fart god,” and this “spirit of the anus [rectum or colon] conversed with the Innu with great frequency” especially while hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering (Armitage, 1987).
Matshishkapeu was a humorous god, and his “popping up,” was an important source of laughter to the Innu while facing the life-threatening hunt, but he was also thought of as one of the most powerful spirits, able to control the “Caribou Master, as well as humans.”
Matshishkapeu was the most powerful spirit in the Innu world, and he often roared when “the Caribou Master refused to give the Innu caribou to eat.” Scholar B. C. Goddard wrote Rangifer and Man: An ancient relationship in 2003 and observed that within Innu myths, Matshishkapeu “cursed the Caribou Master with constipation and then cured him of his ailment.”
Furthermore, Armitage noted in his 1987 paper that “Matshishkapeu’s utterances are usually cryptic,” according to what “an Innu hunter said.”
Legends and myths state “that you have to concentrate hard in order to understand what is being said,” but “every single fart,” no matter how glorious or humble was believed to be Matshishkapeu giving an important message.
A sudden unannounced rumble required immediate translation. And a surprise fart, delivered at an inappropriate time, interrupting the tranquility of camp life, called for a specialist interpreter who questioned all the witnesses and let everyone know what the fart was saying. More
(CBC) First Nations "Land and Sea: Mushuau Innu," circa 1970
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