Misconceptions
Ancestors
We often hear the traditional black person questioning whether white people have ancestors. White people say “Of course. If we did not have parents then where do we come from?” Well, that is because the word ancestor means two different things in the different cultures. In Africa most people dream of their grand parents while asleep. Their grand parents often instruct them about all kinds of things during their sleep. This is what is called being taught by the grandparents. So when they say they were taught by their ancestors it usually means that this information comes long after the ancestors have died. In fact, after the death of the grand parents a funeral is held and they are duly sent of to the other-worlds to go sort out their stuff. Some two years later those who were recognised as having good qualities are invited back in another special welcoming back party. Now they are back on invitation and once again part of the family.
So the question is, how many white people get instructions during their sleep from their grandparents? How many have an active conscious relationship with their grandparents?
An important part of the training of the traditional healer is to reestablish relationships with their ancestors. Once you are connected to them they can introduce you to other people in the cosmic wide web. Rather like the service provider in the WWW does for you, with virus and content control thrown in.
Trail and error
We think other people all learn by trail and error because this is how we mostly blunder along in the western approach to science. I have seen books on herbs of the world and of the Americans and in them it is written that the indigenous Americans say they learned their herbs from their ancestors and that obviously means their ancestors learned it by trail and error.
Well, Imagine trying to park your car and you cannot see too well behind you, but you can see the parking lot attendant and he is showing to you how far you can still go, when to turn and when to stop. Because he is standing outside and has a clear view, that is quite useful. So now do you call his assistance trail and error? Having an experienced ancestor with clear X-ray vision available is really quite useful. Just because you are not aware of your ancestors does not mean they do not exist.
In fact it is rather difficult to describe a red rose to a blind person.
Scientists in the west sometimes describe their discoveries are due to a hunch they had or even a dream. The discoverer of the Benzene ring struggled for a very long time to figure out the structure of the molecule until he had a dream of six people standing in a circle holding hands. One such “intuition” often lasts a westerner a lifetime of amazement. I have seen the African healers consistently come up with revelations on a daily basis. This technique can be learned and used.
Guidance and social cohesion
Guidance from the spirit world is not necessarily always forthcoming.
It can stop. There are usually two reasons for this.
If you did not act on your last revelation then the guide or ancestor may feel ignored and not bother to give you more information.
The other reason is very interesting. Information will not be revealed that is already known by you or others in your direct environment. The reason is that we are not to be islands. For the sake of social cohesion we need to interact and help one another and talk to one another about our experiences. There is a basic law that we are not here to help ourselves but to help others. That means we also need to ask and receive help from others.
If we could help ourselves exclusively we would all become islands to ourselves and the social order would be destroyed.
If you ask specific information that no one is likely to know like what your spirit name is, or your song to call your ancestors, or the coloured beads and attire you should wear, then the information is directly forthcoming. It is only your inability to hear that stands it the way of reception.
Observation vs Belief
The best thing about the African system is that it is not a belief system. As a trained scientist that was very refreshing to me. It is probably the oldest outcomes based education that uses direct perception as its basis.
When I first heard and read that the white Europeans said the Africans do not have a religion but only a culture, I was upset. I thought I knew they had a religion and seemed to believe in God and honour their ancestors. Later I realized that it was partially true. But what a part!! The ceremonies they go through gives them direct experience of the spirit worlds. They do not need to believe in it because they have experienced it. If you have seen and touched and smelt a red rose, you do not say you believe such a thing is a possibility, you know that you experienced it. Belief is only for those who do not know through experience and who would like to believe something were possible.
There are certain conditions required to do the observations. The first requirement is humility, then observation, then harmlessness and finally purpose. If you have not developed these you are not ready to experience the other worlds. Without the right preparation it will leave you traumatised and endangered. You cannot expect to run a marathon and feel fine afterwards without ever having done any exercise and training beforehand.
Awareness limited to bodily senses
One of the big initial problems for the western person is expecting that awareness extends outwards only as far as the skin and that everything he is aware of is subjective and belongs to himself. This conviction can lead to the aberration of even believing that everything you are aware of through sight is part of you and belongs to you. Kleptomania is the result of this applied belief system.
Through experience you can become aware of the feelings of those around you. When we hear of people who claim to be capable of that we generally class them as being mad. Often they are mad because if you combine the belief, that what you are aware of is you, with the experience of the feelings of others, you start thinking you are everyone else too. Confusion reigns.
Your senses can be infected by many diseases. If you have contracted TB or it is in your make up due to one of your ancestors having had it before your birth, then you will feel lonely. So now you think you are lonely. So just because you feel this way does not mean that you are. It is just the disease. This is why it is so important to objectify both the disease or interference as well as the action of your senses.
There are many more examples demonstrated in Homeopathy such as:
Guilt with gonorrhoea, victim-association with lice, frustration with cancer, self destructive behaviour with syphilis.
One of the best ways of experiencing the objectification of sight is doing the fruit studying exercise. You take up a fruit, hold it in your hands while looking at it intensely with your eyes open for about four minutes while also smelling it, feeling its surface etc. Then continue studying it with your eyes closed for two minutes. On opening your eyes again you will observe how you look at the fruit through your eyes, not with your eyes as you previously did. You are no longer your eyes but look at them looking at the fruit. This is a fundamental shift into the observer consciousness.
Not only can you become aware of your body, your disease, the needs of your unborn child, but also of the beings that can climb into tour body, such as ghosts, as well as beings like ancestors who come to guide and advise.
We are our history
Education in the western sense is often only a process of conditioning or programming. We are taught a specific conditioned response to a specific input. This can be the concepts we are fed at school as well as the social norms that are held up as the correct way of doing things. It can also simply be a basic behaviour that has long since outlived its usefulness. A baby will automatically cry for attention, and if it gets quicker attention when it cries harder then it will learn to start crying harder sooner. Conditioned response; need something; cry. Later when the baby grows up everyone looks with disdain at the crying of the child who could be helping itself. Then eventually he realises that there is no point in calling out in this society any more. He learns a new response such as demanding something when he feels that he needs it. If this works he will keep on using it. In this way the response we get from our environment helps form our conditioned reactions. While a person follows a predictable response, that person will not learn anything new. He is simply utilising a system that has worked for him in the past. At this point he is no more than what his history has turned him into. Even when we make great efforts of reducing our conditioned responses we are largely a product of the collective memory contained in the history and language of the people among whom we grew up with. In the western world we grow up with many preconceived ideas or assumptions that are totally different different tribal societies. It is only in comparing our assumptions with those of others that we become aware that we have these assumptions which we assume to be absolute truth but new experiences can prove ungrounded.
Understanding a story
I used to think a story was a good way to understand things, but then I realised that the telling of a story is a way to remember things because it is continuously surprising. Life, like a story is surprising and fortunately that makes it interesting. The saying is also that one is wise after the fact. Well this is what is so stunning about understanding. It only works when we think backwards. We have not quite got it as how to tell a story backwards but we can think back once we have the whole story.
Consulting an igqirha
There is a big difference between consulting a doctor and an igqirha ( pronounced I -qhi -ga . The q is a hard click produced by sucking the tongue off the palate. The g pronounced as in clearing the throat. ).
When consulting a doctor, a rural tribal person will sit quietly. The doctor complains that the tribal people will not tell them where it hurts or what their symptoms are. This is however the normal way to consult the igqirha. This is to test if he is the right person for you. He has to say where you hurt or what you dreamed last night. If he can do that he is in touch with your feelings and you can trust the other things he tells you about yourself that you are not conscious of. It proves that the healer can delve into both your conscious and unconscious. That is why he needs no certificates. It is every patient’s responsibility to test the healer individually, both for certainty and for individuality. Some igqirha have access to some patient’s consciousness but not to others. If he cannot access you it does not mean he is a bad doctor, it just means he is not the doctor for you, irrespective of how well he has worked for others. Then you pick up your money and leave.
That is another thing. You put down your money right away. That way everyone knows what money is involved and there are no misunderstandings. Secondly it means you want it to work. If you say you will pay later, then you trip yourself up if you do not want to pay. You say to yourself afterwards that it did not really help. You prefer to keep your pain, then you feel justified that you do not have to pay him later. So do you want to get better or not? You have to take responsibility for your health. The igqirha is only a facilitator to help you see your follies. Are you going to accept his help?