The Big Book of Shaman

Iggdrasil

Iggdrasil

Jedi
I strongly recommend "The Big Book of Shaman" of Vladimir Serkin. There is no translate this book into English, and the author said me, that I cannot translate it and place it here, but I think, that I may place a few excerpts from this book to interest some forum members in Shaman's philosophy.

Preface
***
You need to look at the map. The Magadan region is slightly more than half of the entire European part of Russia. According to the census, 182 thousand people live in this area. Of these, more than 100 thousand people live in Magadan itself, about 40 thousand people live in villages within a radius of two hundred kilometers from Magadan. The remaining 30-40 thousand people live in villages, mainly along the only highway. The villages themselves exist only because and while gold is mined in the regions. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of taiga, tundra, plateaus and mountain ranges are still waiting for their explorer. There is no and never was either socialism or capitalism here. Politics itself seems from here to be a completely meaningless exercise, absolutely unrelated to real life. European states appear from here to be small patches of exhausted, polluted and densely populated land. Their pathos, combined with their complete uselessness and lack of influence on life, is incomprehensible. If any of the locals occasionally watch TV, then the bias of politicians or other figures is somewhat surprising, but since none of them influence anything here, it is quickly forgotten. In 1997, Eveln, who had returned from the village, answered a question about the news that the UN was advancing east. "Not the UN, but NATO," I corrected. Everyone looked at me in surprise, and I realized that here there was no difference between the UN, NATO, RAO UES and other barbaric gibberish. And I had violated etiquette because of nonsense.
***

My note: Evelns are not real nation, just play on words.
***
Approximately halfway between the Eveln routes and the settlements on the coast that are dying out due to the depletion of gold placers, a Shaman sometimes lives. His nationality and age are unknown.
***
The Shaman makes (and still does) a disturbing impression with his asociality. One evening, when we were standing on the top and looking at the distant, orange Magadan in the rays of the setting sun, I glanced at the Shaman and suddenly realized that he did not care what would happen to the city and the people. He was not hostile, but he was not friendly either. Sometimes the Shaman behaves like a kind grandfather - a teacher, sometimes - it seems to me that another creature is hiding behind the human appearance. Perhaps many decades (?) of life with other creatures left this strange imprint on the Shaman. I wrote down in a notebook immediately and as accurately as possible, but the notes cannot be considered verbatim. It is difficult to talk, it is impossible to record on a dictaphone. He does not live in our rhythm, he lives in his own eternity, he can be silent for an hour and a half or two after a question, boil and drink his decoctions, sort herbs or "amulets", and then unexpectedly answer. If I had expected to return to the city by a certain date, I might not have received an answer. But the Shaman remembered the questions and gradually answered them.
 
***
Shaman spends many hours sitting on a specially knocked together bench - chair and looking at the frozen sea. This bench is one of the few places where Shaman sleeps outside the hut. This happens in an unusual way: Shaman suddenly lies down on the bench and immediately falls asleep. After fifteen to twenty minutes, he wakes up completely awake and sits again. Once I observed this three times over the course of five hours.
When Shaman sits on the bench, I can sit down next to him, start a conversation, but it is precisely at these hours that the pauses between my questions and Shaman's answers are especially long. Shaman says that he is looking at "waves of ice", although I always see only an absolutely flat, endless white plane. Shaman believes that the entire life of trees, ice, people, clouds are waves, and sometimes we discuss this.
- Life is a wave?
- Do you see how the waves rise and fall on the sea?
- Yes.
- Mountains are the same waves, only very slow. Can you understand this?
- I guess I can.
- He who sees that mountains are waves, sees that nations are like waves. Now the wave of some nations is on the rise, while others are on the decline.
- What do the rises depend on?
- On the strength of individual people.
- How can you recognize strong people?
- A strong person calmly overcomes new and new obstacles, regardless of whether he foresaw them or not. In other words: circumstances do not break his wave.
***
 
***
Sometimes the Shaman uses unusual objects. For example, a wooden rectangular dish, a needle made of mammoth tusk, a bow made of whalebone or arrowheads made of obsidian. Once, in my presence, he made an ice knife, as if he were chipping a piece of ice, and stabbed a creature (an animal with a fish tail) made of snow, earth and branches with it. The Shaman claimed that such a field creature had become attached to him on the low tide strip, and he wanted to punish and drive it away, but not kill it. At that time, I was still skeptical about his talk about field animals, but my skepticism diminished after a few hours, when we again approached the effigy. It was frosty, windless weather. While we were gone, the effigy bent, and the ice knife came out halfway from it. The Shaman took out the ice knife and smashed it, then carefully destroyed the effigy. - How can you find these sites?
- They are everywhere where there is water, hunting grounds or pastures. Where else do you think people should have lived for thousands of years? Over time, you just feel them.
- Are there any material signs?
- They definitely lived in habitable caves and grottoes on the shores. Mounds with a hole and protruding whale bones are where dugouts used to be.
- How old are they?
- Two to three and a half thousand years.
- And what is older?
- People have always lived here, in the human understanding. That is, as long as there are people, they have lived here.
- Why is this in question today?
- People did not need coal, oil or other energy sources before. Today they spend most of their earnings on this and freeze.
- What can we do?
- This civilization is wrong in that it strives to create the same conditions everywhere. This method is a loser, since it requires a constant influx of energy from the outside. Soon barbarians will study ways to live in the conditions that exist.
- Who are barbarians?
- And were developed civilizations here?
- Yes.
- Why are there no traces?
- They are at the bottom of the sea and on some northern islands. They will find them soon.
- What kind of traces?
- Now, at great depths, only traces of huge structures could have been preserved. For example, airfields, tunnels, canals. And the rest will be found nearby.
- How soon?
- Even during your generation.
***
 
***
- Why can language limit me?
- The words of your language denote objects and actions, but the world does not consist of objects and actions.
- What does it consist of?
- Of what you think about it.
- I am asking about reality.
- You can only think about what you do, and this is your only reality.
- How can you think about another reality?
- You see a flying seagull and say: "The seagull is flying." This is your reality. The ancient Chukchi says a word meaning: "The spirit of the coast manifests itself in the seagull, and I understand this sign." He does this, such understanding is part of his practice, and this is his reality.
- Is there a single reality for everyone?
- Only at the level of coincidence of practices.
***
 
***
- What do you mean by "reverse time reaction"?
- Maybe you can explain it to me?
- Time surrounds a person like your spider arms.
- I don't understand.
- People think that today they react to yesterday.
- Right.
- Half. Half of their reactions are to tomorrow's events.
- But a person doesn't know what will happen tomorrow.
- He doesn't know with his mind, but he knows with his reactions.
- So tomorrow is predetermined?
- No. It's just that time surrounds you from behind and in front, on the right and on the left.
- I don't understand. Can I get sick today because I eat tomorrow?
- Can a person feel the future?
- Feelings are not subject to the social calendar.
- I don't understand.
- You can not age for years: the calendar time goes, but the time of feelings does not. You can age years in days: the time of feelings will overtake the calendar time. And you can become younger if the time of feelings goes back, although the calendar goes forward.
- But where is the logic?
- If you understand that time is spinning, then it is obvious.
- How does time spin?
- Like a blizzard.
- Are you serious?
- And where did you find out?
- From those creatures that, in your opinion, do not exist.
- Can a person somehow turn back his time, become younger?
- There is a practice, but it is not available to you today.
- What kind of practice?
- You need to turn back the entire kaleidoscope of perception with your eyes.
- But a person cannot remember everything perceived.
- You do not need to turn the perceived like a video recording, but to turn the play of light. Then for some period your time will go back, and the experience will be preserved.
- I do not understand what you are talking about.
- I am telling you, this practice is not available to you today. You do not have the corresponding concept.
- Can you tell me this concept?
- No. You don't have enough mastered practices.
- Why can't I understand new concepts without practices?
- Some you can. But in this case, the gap is too big. The concept of practice is part of it. You can't start building a house from the roof.
***
 
***
- The body can produce almost all substances. You just need to force it.
- How?
- Three types of activity: emotional, physical and volitional.
- Have you noticed any reasons for emotional activity?
- You don't feel the way I do. And I don't live here all the time. New impressions are needed to force the body to work properly.
- If there are enough types of activity, a person will be healthy?
- He will hardly age.
- Why?
- After fifty, you will understand that a young person is always in shape, and an old person sort of gathers himself for life every morning. The right combination of types of activity allows you to stay in shape longer.
- After fifty - is the normal average lifespan?
- The average for a modern person is after forty. But you learned to walk in the tundra in winter. This practice either takes everything away from a city person or adds ten years to his shape.
- How do you know?
- I grew older and older, and if I hadn't mastered special practices, I would have been gone long ago.
- How did you know you were getting old?
- I lived in the city and celebrated everything that was coming for the last time.
- How is that?
- For example, the last game of football - the years will no longer allow you to play. The last hunt - age will no longer allow you to hunt. The last drink - health will not allow it, the last woman - so that you will not have to puff yourself up anymore. This is how a modern person waits for the last day.
- How did you overcome this?
- I was lucky. Life put me in such conditions in which there really was nothing to lose. I did not choose this, and no one will choose this. And since there was nothing to lose, I began new practices. Most people die from this, but only a few out of tens of thousands survive. I think there are many like me.
- Do you have to lose everything?
- How did you start new practices?
- I began to be creative in my life.
- Why do most people die from this?
- All truly new practices begin with a crisis.
- Is that necessary?
- For example, a child crawls well: quickly, accurately, safely. But when he stands up and takes his first steps: slowly, inaccurately, and even falls and hurts himself.
- I see. What you said about creativity gives the right emotional activity.
- Yes. But I wasn't just talking about creativity. Creativity helps you understand the idea of yourself.
***
 
***
The shaman is very calculating, therefore, the practice that makes him trust in chance must be very important.
- What are you doing at this time?
- I correspond to the idea of myself.
- What is this "idea of myself"?
- There is an idea of each person: Ivanov, Petrov, you, me. And there are real incarnations: Ivanov, Petrov...
- So what?
- The more the real Ivanov - Petrov differs from their idea, the more they are destroyed.
- What do ideas have to do with it?
- Ideas are indestructible, they are outside of time and space.
- How so?
- For example, Plato's idea about the world of ideas. Plato is long gone, but the idea is there. Where is it? When? In you, me, in a Moscow professor of philosophy, in Plato? Outside of time and outside of space.
- Are Ivanov - Petrov's ideas also outside of time and space?
- Of course. Therefore, they are indestructible.
- Can a person be indestructible if he or she lives up to his or her idea?
- I don't know. But of course, such a person will retain his or her form much longer than an ordinary person.
***
 
***
I have no doubt that the Shaman can do many things that are inaccessible to ordinary people. At the same time, the Shaman himself claims that, for example, there is nothing mystical in his communication with plants, animals, streams and clouds, but there are certain practices. The Shaman ignores requests to show something special, but I constantly observe his disappearances and appearances, calling fish into a trap, whistling to scare away mosquitoes, threatening mice and other "everyday practices". The Shaman rarely discusses these practices with me, making excuses for the underdevelopment of my language, but sometimes he explains something.
- Are you saying that you can exist simultaneously in different points of space?
- For your reality.
- How is that?
- Here is a spider crawling. You put your hand in its path, the spider turns around. You put your other hand. For the spider, your hands are two different creatures, but you are one: both in front and behind at the same time.
- If two wolves attack me, are they two wolves or one creature?
- Wolves, bears and all animals - can be the hands of the Spirit of the area. Do not irritate him, and no one will attack.
***
 
***
- Are there snowmen?
- Yes.
- Have you seen them?
- Yes.
- What do they look like?
- Very frightening for a human.
- Are they dangerous?
- No. They don't care about us.
- Still, what do they look like?
- Imagine a bear-man taller than a tall tree with glowing eyes and a very predatory muzzle.
- Ten meters tall? Why can't anyone catch them?
- They have one more sense than we do. Human hunting for them would be like the blind hunting a sighted person.
- So, if several divisions cordon off a large section of the taiga and comb it thoroughly, they will definitely be caught?
- Don't look for adventure...
- But is it still possible to catch them 100%?
- It's useless. They will go into their tunnels. The whole division will pass by.
- What kind of tunnels?
- A person with his geometry and energy can move only through certain tunnels on Earth, although it seems to him that he moves freely.
- No wonder. All good science fiction writers are psychics. And your book says that these tunnels are inhabited?
- No.
- You see. And people cannot just get into the tunnels of other creatures.
- So we will not meet snow people?
- Those who are called snow people can move through our tunnels too, although this happens rarely.
- Snow people see tunnels.
- This is commonplace for them.
- How did you meet them?
- And can ordinary, non-snow people somehow find out about snow people?
- (Pause. The shaman noticed that I was being ironic, but immediately noticed that I was very worried). An ordinary person cannot realize that they are nearby in their tunnels. At this time, he experiences a special feeling of anxiety. You can learn to isolate this feeling.
- I don't understand.
- When you pass by an anthill, the ants do not realize your presence, although you can destroy their lives with a kick. They experience a special feeling of anxiety.
- So the inexplicable anxiety is caused by the fact that the yeti are nearby?
- Not only anxiety and not only them.
- Are they nearby now?
- Yes. Rather, it is.
- I asked you because I felt it?
- You just feel anxiety. And I asked because I felt my knowledge about it.
- Why don't they take over the planet?
- Have you ever wanted to take over the world of walruses or the world of seagulls?

Having understood the reason for my anxiety, I calmed down and began to try to feel the presence. The shaman told me to take five steps to the left and forward. When I took the fifth step, stretching out my arms, the Shaman burst into laughter. I felt sad, lowered my arms and walked on, so as not to say something rude. Almost immediately, I felt as if I had stumbled upon some kind of air compaction. At that very moment, an invisible soft brush seemed to slide across my face and chest, and the compaction disappeared. The Shaman's laughter suddenly stopped. I looked around and saw that he was waving his hand at me.
- What was that?
- I didn't want you to reach her. But it's okay. She left without irritation.
- Could it have been dangerous?
- It's unlikely. You don't get irritated when a half-blind puppy bumps into your leg. You'd rather pet it.
- Where did she go?
- Just out of your way. To a place where a person can't get.
- Can't at all, or are there practices?
- Yes, all sorts of pentagrams and hexagrams. But keep in mind that they usually lead to used roads and paths similar to ours. The probability of meeting is too high.
- I have a feeling that something like this has happened before.

I look at the sea, the mountains on a distant island, trying to imagine tunnels in the transparent air going in all directions, filled with various creatures. Most often, I imagine people: modern and ancient, of different nationalities and... civilizations.
- And people all walk through the same tunnels.
- No.
- But all people can meet.
- No. You will constantly meet people from your tunnels, although it seems that the probability of meeting is small. You will never meet others.
- Yes, I often meet Magadan residents in the metro, although in Moscow it is almost impossible to accidentally end up in the same car.
- More often than simple probability?
- Much more.
- Soon science will have to take on these tunnels.
- Why do I end up in these human tunnels and not others?
- Japanese fishermen used to say: "Karma".
- And you?
- Energy, speed.
***
 
Iggdrasil said:
***
- Are there snowmen?
- Yes.
- Have you seen them?
- Yes.
- What do they look like?
- Very frightening for a human.
- Are they dangerous?
- No. They don't care about us.
- Still, what do they look like?
- Imagine a bear-man taller than a tall tree with glowing eyes and a very predatory muzzle.
- Ten meters tall? Why can't anyone catch them?
- They have one more sense than we do. Human hunting for them would be like the blind hunting a sighted person.
- So, if several divisions cordon off a large section of the taiga and comb it thoroughly, they will definitely be caught?
- Don't look for adventure...
- But is it still possible to catch them 100%?
- It's useless. They will go into their tunnels. The whole division will pass by.
- What kind of tunnels?
- A person with his geometry and energy can move only through certain tunnels on Earth, although it seems to him that he moves freely.
- No wonder. All good science fiction writers are psychics. And your book says that these tunnels are inhabited?
- No.
- You see. And people cannot just get into the tunnels of other creatures.
- So we will not meet snow people?
- Those who are called snow people can move through our tunnels too, although this happens rarely.
- Snow people see tunnels.
- This is commonplace for them.
- How did you meet them?
- And can ordinary, non-snow people somehow find out about snow people?
- (Pause. The shaman noticed that I was being ironic, but immediately noticed that I was very worried). An ordinary person cannot realize that they are nearby in their tunnels. At this time, he experiences a special feeling of anxiety. You can learn to isolate this feeling.
- I don't understand.
- When you pass by an anthill, the ants do not realize your presence, although you can destroy their lives with a kick. They experience a special feeling of anxiety.
- So the inexplicable anxiety is caused by the fact that the yeti are nearby?
- Not only anxiety and not only them.
- Are they nearby now?
- Yes. Rather, it is.
- I asked you because I felt it?
- You just feel anxiety. And I asked because I felt my knowledge about it.
- Why don't they take over the planet?
- Have you ever wanted to take over the world of walruses or the world of seagulls?

Having understood the reason for my anxiety, I calmed down and began to try to feel the presence. The shaman told me to take five steps to the left and forward. When I took the fifth step, stretching out my arms, the Shaman burst into laughter. I felt sad, lowered my arms and walked on, so as not to say something rude. Almost immediately, I felt as if I had stumbled upon some kind of air compaction. At that very moment, an invisible soft brush seemed to slide across my face and chest, and the compaction disappeared. The Shaman's laughter suddenly stopped. I looked around and saw that he was waving his hand at me.
- What was that?
- I didn't want you to reach her. But it's okay. She left without irritation.
- Could it have been dangerous?
- It's unlikely. You don't get irritated when a half-blind puppy bumps into your leg. You'd rather pet it.
- Where did she go?
- Just out of your way. To a place where a person can't get.
- Can't at all, or are there practices?
- Yes, all sorts of pentagrams and hexagrams. But keep in mind that they usually lead to used roads and paths similar to ours. The probability of meeting is too high.
- I have a feeling that something like this has happened before.

I look at the sea, the mountains on a distant island, trying to imagine tunnels in the transparent air going in all directions, filled with various creatures. Most often, I imagine people: modern and ancient, of different nationalities and... civilizations.
- And people all walk through the same tunnels.
- No.
- But all people can meet.
- No. You will constantly meet people from your tunnels, although it seems that the probability of meeting is small. You will never meet others.
- Yes, I often meet Magadan residents in the metro, although in Moscow it is almost impossible to accidentally end up in the same car.
- More often than simple probability?
- Much more.
- Soon science will have to take on these tunnels.
- Why do I end up in these human tunnels and not others?
- Japanese fishermen used to say: "Karma".
- And you?
- Energy, speed.
***
Click to expand...
My notes: The snowman is Yeti
 
***
- Why don't we take guns?
- We're going to set up loops. Guns won't let us do it well.
- Why?
- To set up loops well, we must rely only on loops.
- Should we always have one option?
- No. Then you'll miss chances.
- When should we have several options, and when one?
- Taking guns now would be a sign of weakness, in another situation, not taking them would be weakness.
- How do you know what the situation is?
- A person always knows this if he listens to himself.
- Where from?
- All so-called new knowledge is a manifestation of what you've always known.
***
 
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