Week 4- Marisa Gee
In John Broomfield’s article, “’We
Are Not Alone,’ The Shamans of the World Tell Us,” he discusses the power of
animism or the phenomenon of everything in the natural world (including what we
traditionally view as inanimate objects) as possessing a soul, intelligence or
wisdom. He also goes on to talk about the role of the shaman as a guide within
the fluidity of consciousness that makes up our Earth, where they can access
the wisdom of trees, rocks, ancestors and even other animals. While the shaman
almost always serves as a proctor of healing the overarching goal according to
Broomfield, is to help the future generations prosper by maintaining a balance
and connection with the environment and physical world along with the spiritual
realm.
Another great point I think
Broomfield makes is the critique to institutionalized education. He argues that
our curriculum should include time in nature, away from cities and
industrialization in order to produce a more well rounded body of knowledge. I
think this is interesting because to an extent the education system does
support this. I’m sure we all remember field trips in elementary, middle and
high school. But at what point does this experiential learning stop? In my
experience I have no been on a field trip in college and in part that is due to
resources and the fact that we are all at a fairly large university so logistic
wise it would be a nightmare. However, I still find it interesting that the
administrators in education do recognize the value of experiential learning yet
caps it off and limits it as another form of control.
The final thought that the article
left me with was reflecting on children’s movies, particularly Disney movies. I
feel that there is an extensive influence of animism. In particular, Pocahontas and the very recent film Moana, both display animism. While there
is some debate about whether or not this is because these are categorically
more “ethnic” films, the fact remains that spirits of the natural world are
very clearly represented. I think this instance shows two things. For one,
society classifies animism and believing in spirits to be an extension of a
child’s imagination, a phase that they will eventually grow out of. Secondly
and related to the first point, I think it brings up the idea that children
maybe are just inherently closer to the spirit realm. What adults chalk up as
playful imagination could actually be a reality in the sense that children may
be less corrupted by societal influences and in a way more connected to the
natural world. I was wondering what you guys think? Are kids just naturally closer
to the spirit world?
References
John Broomfield. (2015) “We are not alone,” The Shamans of
the World Tell Us. The Scientific and
Medical Network.
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