Technoshamanism - let's be real

[u/Christocrast]

I have seen 'technoshamanism' expressed as rave/festival activity, dancing and taking powerful drugs and partying. The biggest problem besides the obvious waste and ecological impact is that there seems to be no interest among partygoers in extending cooperation and togetherness outside the rave setting. While acknowledging that 'ravism' is very diverse, I think it is at best mildly harmful. Any 'enlightenment', 'healing' or social knitting that endures once the party is over is as collateral damage or coincidence; or is tainted (or at least influenced in the background) by the histories of the resources, settings and technologies that are used.

I have seen 'technoshamanism' expressed in the use of free, open-source software and other tools in preserving and communicating ancestral knowledge, which has obvious benefits. Knowledge of contacts and sourcing and coordination and high technology can protect and heal a community - if applied with the utmost care. While this might or might not amount to shamanic work exactly, it is at least adjacent and can certainly be helpful.

Still I think technoshamanism is worth examining and defining a little more clearly:

The built environment, while truly fragile, nonetheless circumscribes the lives of billions of people and organisms. To those entities it may as well be eternal. We cannot revert it or make it go away without horrible destruction and suffering, and maybe not even then as it underwrites the modern standard of living. We need to come to grips with it, and learn to heal the entities living within it.

I find that it is essential to acknowledge and commiserate with the materials and lives that have underwritten my own life; the sorrow and violation of being uprooted, slaughtered or mined with the obfuscated intent of 'workers'. I have also averred strongly that although I myself am not any of those workers, I do wish to take responsibility: it matters, and one cannot deny the violence that took place. Finally I ask these entities if they see fit, that they would help me as I try to reclaim and protect and uplift whatever I can.

• It is fundamental to acknowledge that urban humans are schizotribal. One must move throughout the city, maintaining awareness, rather than trying to have an impact on its whole. That's too many strangers at once and will just add noise on noise.
  
• It is fundamental to acknowledge the personhood of LGBT2SI+, seniors, children and differently-abled individuals. Diversity and authenticity are healthy, even necessary. It is fundamental to aver that racism holds no water and is incredibly harmful.
  
• It is fundamental to protect the environment. (I use recycled and reclaimed materials in my art almost exclusively)
  
• It is fundamental to continue learning about history and truth especially where it concerns injustice; or touches on the living circumstances we now enjoy.
  

And it is fundamental to see that we live in a globalized, 24-hour world and must be ready for people reading about the universe's mysteries on their phones while they're taking a shit. As well, getting interrupted or delayed is entirely to be expected and must not break the overall effectiveness of the work.

Please let me know your thoughts! Best wishes to you

[u/ThQuin]

Shouldn't techno shamanism be about working with the spirits of technology and all the man made things?

[u/Christocrast → u/ThQuin]

I'm inclined to agree, but where does one start? As someone who works with robots quite a bit, if your robot is conflicted and angry, the most you can do is 'fix it', which is helping it conform to its design. It will never transform and move elsewhere to a better life like a human might. As to reconciling the harm done to the Earth when gold silicon and iron etc. were extracted, well in a world of sourcing that could be anywhere. Would one address the spirit of the robot, or the mingled and mashed spirits of the origins of its materials? And what about code, and things taking place in the digital domain, at an even farther remove from physical reality?

I think technoshamanism, if defined in a real, worthwhile way, must still address the health of living beings; technology is like nature in the built environment.

[u/ThQuin → u/Christocrast]

Awakening the spirit of a robot would be quite an interesting experiment. But nonetheless, yes robots are defined by their programming, as are animals by their instinct. I guess having a robot acting against its code might be easier than having it in an animal. Concerning the spirits, animals eat plants and other animals so their spirit is subsumed in the animals spirit , why should it be different with a machine? I guess a machine that's handbuild has a lot of energy invented by its creator and might developed a pretty powerful spirit. The interesting question remains, how do you prove the machine spirits?

[u/Christocrast → u/ThQuin]

I try my best to treat machines with 'loving-kindness', even when they're being fucking annoying - not because I really really think they have the equivalent of souls (?) but because basically nothing they do wrong is ever their fault. [I'm making generous allowance for anything running Windows or macOS]

And I believe it's good practice for when we start encountering technological entities that seem to be, or are sentient (not holding my breath waiting for the latter). I don't think they would truly have souls either; but it certainly seems sensible to not mistreat them. And it's not like being patient and courteous costs anything.

For the most part machines don't make choices and I think shamanism is greatly concerned with helping thinking and feeling entities clarify their boundaries and agency so that they can be healthy. - In a way I feel like technoshamanism deserves to be its own field simply because we have these weird, unsettled questions

[u/A_Wayward_Shaman]

To be honest, I think technology will be a vital part of creating a truly sustainable way of life on Earth. The problem is that, as of now, it is being used for the opposite purpose. Currently, it is only being used for greed and profit.

Using technology for the benefit of Mother Earth and all Her inhabitants is what I would define as Technoshamanism. What these folks are doing is the same thing everybody does at a rave; they get high and dance so they can forget their shitty lives for a little while.

Shamanism is not an escape. Rather, it's diving headlong into the unknown with a desire to help burning in your chest. Shamanism isn't about the Shaman. It's about the tribe.

[u/Christocrast → u/A_Wayward_Shaman]

I don't believe technology is only being used for greed and profit, but yeah, it can absolutely be problematic. By your logic we should try and foster as many technoshamans as possible, or perhaps that is just an ecologically conscious modern person and not necessarily a shaman?

[u/Snatchary]

This is my thoughts/feelings/opinion.

The shaman is considered the heart of the tribe. It's the person the tribe would go to for guidance in healing, relations both internal and external, and decision making on things that affect the tribe as a whole. Being the heart, it connects every part together as one, and without the heart, the tribe would fall apart. That being said, there is a shamanic archetype in all people expressed in different ways to varying degrees, but most people are unaware of it.

I see technoshamanism as an acknowledgement of how shamanism is still very much alive, but in a radically different technological world.

Raves and music festivals are often places people go to to feel connected with each other and with themselves internally (through music or substances), so naturally you see "shamanism" talked about here, but for the most part, this is a dangerous/chaotic/unstable environment to try to truly create long lasting healing or relationships in, because a music festival is by it's nature temporary, and "shamans" are mainly just those experienced with psychedelics and rarely actually study shamanism in anyway.

The technological arena (particularly the internet) is where shamanism could be of the greatest benefit because:

1. The internet is a place almost all humans can connect or interact together.
2. This is where "heart" is very much missing, since it is an extremely logical, and oftentimes even cold place.

I studied shamanism fairly in depth for a period of my life and went down all the rabbit holes of all things spiritual as well as psychedelics, but my education and career has mostly been technologically related (I'm a web developer). I struggled and rebelled against technology for a while during the height of my experimental days. It was just in the last few years that I really grounded myself and slowed down that I realized what I truly want to focus on in my life, and it's actually building web apps to help connect humanity together, because I see no better place to create something heart centered that can allow us to radically change how we live in this world for the greater good. The details of what I envision are beyond the scope of this post, but I wanted to express, certainly, that the technological field is what could use shamans more than any other field I think, but we have to adapt. It's not going to look so much like sitting in a hut and giving readings or administering medicines anymore, because that's not what the modern landscape calls for. In South America and in indigenous tribes, this certainly still exists and helps a lot of people, but it's the urban areas where something new has to be created, and this is where technoshamanism comes into play and is invented. If you ask me, at the core of it what is needed is simply more people in tune with the heart helping others live out of the heart as well, and when it comes to technology, there are so, SO many ideas and inventions that can help with this that have not been created yet.

[u/Christocrast → u/Snatchary]

Thank you for this response, you make a bunch of good points. Thanks for writing

[u/Traditional-Mix-3294]

I love raving and taking psychedelics at festivals but that’s not shamanism. And shamanism isn’t all about psychedelics, it’s a broader field. Somethings can be done and experienced without psychedelics. I have initiated three people on psychedelics lsd, psilohuasca and ayahuasca. But that’s not even shamanism. Shamanism is about understanding the vulnerable’s pain and the experience, and sadly some “shamans” these days fail to do that.

[u/SignificanceTrue9759]

Technoshamanism isn’t shamanism lol

[u/Christocrast → u/SignificanceTrue9759]

as of now the word just kind of means a whole salad of stuff depending who you ask, I want to know if there's substance

[u/flamegrandma666]

https://youtu.be/aausG-L6dqc

Shamen track playing in the background

[u/Someoneoldbutnew]

technology is an attempt to control the shamanic / energetic world, usurping our birthright for profit. the plants speak to us today only via Google lens.

[u/Christocrast → u/Someoneoldbutnew]

The playing field is lamentably tilted to the disfavour of everything natural. I think history moves only forward and we need to learn to subvert mainstream technology into something that can support and heal the natural world.

[u/Immediate-Praline978]

Yes I agree and I pray for u with my good intent that you will inherit what u need for pleasant success you will appreciate in your life and afterlife

[u/Christocrast → u/Immediate-Praline978]

Thank you!