Not sure if anyone really know what was - or is - really going on in those kivas.
You are right. However, the modern version of the kiva appears to be the sweat lodge, which is associated with rites of purification, prayer and healing (although the New Age crowd seem to have jumped on board as usual). This doesn't necessarily mean that ancient kivas were used for the same purposes but, even if they were, the ceremonies or rites may have become greatly debased over the centuries judging from what the C's said here about shamanic rain dances being corrupted:
Session 16 July 2009:
Q: (Ark) So it's much like these shamans dancing to get the rain, yes?
A: That was corrupted. They had already lost the knowledge that this is a group thing and no one individual has the "being" to stand alone in 3D {against 4D}.
Q: (L) But the Indians would do rain dances together, wouldn't they? I mean the Native Americans, excuse me. (A***) Feathers, not dots! (laughter)
A: Yes. But they too had lost much knowledge.
Below is a picture of a
Hupa (a Native American group based in north-western California) underground sweat lodge building covered with wood plank roof and surrounded by a wall of large rocks. It does look like a crude version of the ancient pueblo kivas at Chaco Canyon.
View attachment 77404
After thinking about it a bit, I realized that I may have some idea of what goes on in kivas based on what I've learned about Native American sweat lodges.
As you say, a sweat lodge is generally associated with healing, purification and prayer. An important caveat, though, is that a sweat lodge can be thought of as another kind of radio, a piece of hardware with human beings as the batteries or software. Like any radio today, it can be used to broadcast just about any kind of message, good or evil or a blend of both.
There are a number of elements that go into the hardware of a sweat lodge. There's also a high degree of specificity for each lodge, but this would be a general guide:
(1) gathering of materials, usually involving significant prayers of thanks to the firewood, the stones, the willow for the frame; instruments like the water bucket which is made of wood, the bison horn which is used as a dipper, fans made out of eagle wings, rattles made of turtle shell, stuff like that; the blanket coverings, tobacco offerings, the various types of smudge like sage or cedar, etc. - in essence, each object is treated like a being with a spirit in the animist way, and these beings are asked for their assistance, which is thought to infuse all ingredients with good intentions prior to their use
(2) the building of a specifically-shaped fire, with rocks inside for heating (the number of rocks vary depending on the lodge in question, but they are generally the same non-exploding variety!); everything is geometric, with the fire aligned with the four directions, and the doorway of the lodged generally facing East towards the rising sun
(3) when entering, the men are usually one one side, the North, and the women sit on the South; there are also men-only and women-only variations, too; inside the lodge it is often understood to be re-entering the womb, as it is dark, low, hot, wet, earthy, and can result in a re-birth of sorts
(4) the hot rocks are brought in; sometimes there are four rounds, with each round sometimes having a specific theme for the prayer; sometimes all the rocks are brought in at once, as in the case of male-only warrior sweats with tons of hot rocks designed to really amp up the intentional suffering - and no one is allowed to leave, so it can also be an intense form of initiation
(5) sometimes a peace pipe is passed around (which is like a high calibre fibre optic cable for transmitting messages to the spirits, tobacco being understood as a microphone); and sometimes there is a general statement of intention; there is the invocation of various spirit helpers, guides, ancestors, animal spirits, etc.
(6) door goes down, leading to absolute darkness, which is said to stimulate certain brain chemicals
(7) prayers begin, or sometimes songs (resulting in limbic resonance and group cohesion), and water is put on the rocks, resulting in hot steam; this is when the intentional suffering begins, paired with the understanding that if you want to pray for something, you have to pay in advance with your own pain; the emotional energy of these prayers are understood to suffuse the steam itself (as in Emoto's work with water); when the round is over, the door is opened, and this prayer-laden steam is thought to go out into the world and do its work, sort of like homeopathy for the planet
(8) Afterwards there is usually a feast and a feeding of the ancestors
I knew a Cree medicine man back in the day, and he had just walked away from one sweat lodge because it was no longer 'upright'. It's not uncommon for prayers for Greta Thunberg or words of gratitude for the fall of Gaddafi to be heard at these rituals. So all in all, there's nothing particularly woo about a sweat lodge - it's a religious technology that does work, so long as the hardware and human software is in place. Like all religious technologies, there are perhaps some benefits to the participants. Some prayer and suffering may be better than none. But the meat of the matter is whether or not the participants are aligned with the truth or with lies.
My general sense is the whole show leans pretty heavily towards the Way of the Fakir described by Gurdjieff, to work mostly on the body, which has its benefits, including the most obvious one of detoxing via sweat. After all, tho, it is a ritual, therefore the energy and prayers of good intent is liable to drain directly to STS. It could all be a case o crystallization on the wrong foundation. Maybe it is less of a radio and more of an energy-extraction apparatus.
If I don't know what an Organic Portal really means, nor do I know exactly what is meant by psychopath, within the context of this network, then I'm lost from go. That doesn't mean that the subject doesn't interest me, or that if I did understood the topic a little better, that I wouldn't have something to contribute. It just means that the sensible thing to do is to try and move Political Ponerology a little higher up on my to-read list. Otherwise, interpretations of what we are studying, observing and seeking to understand, clash. And since I obviously already have my own perspective, the wisest thing to do is to understand your perspective, then compare notes. But there was something that I read within the post, from the 14 Sept 2002 Session, that grabbed my attention:
