Urban Shaman
Selected Extracts:
Based on the ‘Hawaiian Way of the Adventurer’ by Dr. Serge Kahili King Ph.D.
When the teacher is ready, the student will appear.
A ‘warrior’ shaman tends to personify fear, illness or disharmony and to focus on the development of power, control and combat skills in order to deal with them. An ‘adventurer’ shaman, by contrast, tends to depersonify these conditions (i.e. treat them as effects, not things) and deals with them by developing skills of love, co-operation and harmony. If you are emotionally upset, the ‘adventurer’ shaman would teach you how to harmonise your energy, so that you remain calm and even become a source of healing for the other person. The adventurer’s path is, by its very nature, quite social. (p.15)
The urban shaman is a healer. Shamanism is completely non-sectarian and pragmatic. It is a craft (like yoga and tai chi), not a religion, that can be practiced alone or with a group. The nature of shamanism is that while you are healing others, you are healing yourself and while you are transforming the planet, you are transforming yourself. (p. 16)
A true shaman keeps no secrets about knowledge that can help and heal. (p.19)
As a manifester, shamans are trained to increase prosperity. As a peacemaker, the shaman is trained to create harmony within him/herself, within others, between people, between people and Nature, and within Nature. (p.28)
The adventurer shaman has a focus on love (aloha) and the expansion of self. He/she is trained to be flexible, to be comfortable with change and to direct it in a positive way, to be free to explore new ways and means of doing things, and to constantly update his or her knowledge by travel and study with other teachers. (p.29)
The seeds of change among Hawaiian kahunas were sown by the social revolution of the 1960s and the sprouts of change continued to grow into the 1970’s and 1980’s. As a fear response, the churches made attempts to associate kahuna lore with black magic. (p. 33)
Hawaiian shamanism and the spirit of aloha on which it is based represent a way of life with great value for all of humanity. (p.34)
Hawaiian spiritual masters came to the same conclusions reached by others in various times and places; that there is an aspect of covertly and indirectly (the subconscious); that there is an aspect of consciousness which operates openly and directly (the conscious mind); and that there is an aspect of consciousness which transcends yet includes them both (the super-conscious). In Hawaiian adventurer shaman thought, this translates into nature, function and relationships. As an example, it is like an orange – skin, pulp and seeds. (p.35/6)
If you keep your muscles relaxed, it is physiologically impossible to get angry. Anger cannot exist without muscle tension and neither can fear. (p.40)
The primary function of the heart (ku ) is memory and it’s primary motivation is pleasure. To put it more accurately, the ku’s motivation is toward pleasure and away from pain.(p.42)
The Seven Shaman Principles
IKE – The World Is What You Think It Is. Experience is determined by your faith, by what you believe in. If the world is what you think it is, then you ought to be able to change your world by changing your thought (pp. 53-57)
KALA – There Are No Limits. The Universe is infinite as it would have to be if the world is what we think it is and it’s all a dream. The rules of the game are limitations created so you can play the game. That’s how the shaman views life.
MAKIA – Energy Flows Where Attention Goes. Everything is energy.
MANAWA – Now Is The Moment Of Power.
ALOHA – To Love Is To Be Happy With.
MANA – All Power Comes From Within. Everything has power.
PONO – Effectiveness Is The Measure Of Truth.
The Seven Shaman Talents
Seeing
Clearing
Focusing
Presence
Blessing
Empowering
Dreamweaving
Health is a state of peace and harmony while sickness is a state of war and conflict. The urban shaman seeks to create harmony.The shaman approach is that all sickness is considered to be self-generated as an effect of stress. The location is simply where the stress is focused. (p. 82)
Viruses certainly exist but in the Huna view they are the effects of stress not causes of sickness. Bacteria certainly exist but they don’t cause sickness, they just take advantage of it.(p.83)
The source of stress is resistance. (p.86)
By recreating the pattern (re-patterning), you can change the ending. (p88)
Resistance also comes from fear and anger. We end up becoming angry at the memory rather than the actual person or situation. (p.90)
Fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) is simply the expectation of pain, the result of projecting the imagination into the future. (p.91)
Whenever we resist anything, we generate stress. Mental resistance differs from emotional resistance in the same way that evaluation differs from analysis. (p.92/93)
One of the craziest ideas modern society has is that criticism is good for you or it helps you learn. (p.93)
Finish interactions with a compliment.
Think of people across all cultures both past and present who could be said to have these qualities. Within my culture, I can think of Nelson Mandela, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Diana Spencer, Barack Obama, Buddha, the Dali Lama , Jesus Christ, John Lennon, Aristotle and Martin Luther King Jr. to name but a few. Can you add to my list?
