The Qualifications of a Shaman

This time of the year seems to be an opportune time for people who profess to be experts or 'special proponents' of supernaturalism to crawl out of the woodwork and make more money. People want to know what the next year will bring. Will they find a new love? or will their current relationship improve or their finances or career take a turn for the better. Who else to seek advice from but someone who appears to have special powers and insight? A shaman, priest/ess, obeah wo/man, psychic, faith healer - whatever they choose to call themselves. They fall into the same category.

Leslie A White, a cultural anthropologist wrote a fascinating book: 'The Evolution of Culture - The Development of Civilisation to the Fall of Rome' (1959), (sadly out of print), where he explains the cultural purpose of these people. Here is an excerpt:

"...Let us turn first to the qualifications of a shaman.

 Traffic with the supernatural world is by its very nature mysterious. Extraordinary abilities are therefore required or are at least an asset. Epileptic fits, trances, hallucination, and hysteria are mysterious experiences, and hence eminently suited to communication with the supernatural world. Dreams during trances are interpereted as visits to the land of the spirits; fits and hysteria are states produced when a spirit seizes and possess the body the shaman. This conception is preserved in our word "epilepsy" (Gr. epi, upon; lambano, seize). Hence neurotic, abnormal, and unstable individuals are better qualified for the profession of shamanism than are normal and stable persons. As Tylor long ago observed: '...In all quarters of the world the oracle-priests and diviners by familiar spirits seem really diseased in body and mind...'  More recently, Lowie has commented upon the abnormal character of the shaman: 'From Africa and Oceania, from Siberia and Tierra del Fuego we thus have evidence that shamans are either abnormal or at least temporarily capable of passing into abnormal mental states.' The advantage of abnormality in trafficking with the supernatural world is further indicated by the widespread use of drugs, liquor, fasting, self-torture, and solitude to produce temporary pathologic states as a means lor a condition of supernatural experience. Thus we see that some individuals are better qualified to become shamans than others."

Black Female Atheists

As promised I am conducting some research regarding black atheists and thought I would salute the first person who had a video worth watching. It proves there are women who happen to be black who are thinking for themselves and throwing off the shackles called theism. This woman was raised a Jehovah's Witness and after years of indoctrination was able to free her mind.

If you are a theist you could too. My aim is to make this blog a haven for all people who are freethinkers/atheists. Religion has become part of the social fabric of most black communities and it is wrong. But this site is not for black people, nor is it particularly about black people. I have a worldview that includes all - I just don't want to be part of the system that causes atheists to remain in the closet for fear of losing their job, their livelihoods, their support systems and I stand ready for all the verbal attacks coming from the mouths/pens of theists. If I don't speak up to highlight the horrors visited on humanity in the name of supernatural who will? I refuse to see 'racism' as the focal problem. It goes deeper than that. When you have a system which uses fake texts to subjugate people, when those same texts are misogynistic and racist amongst another thing and then the very people who cry foul about how 'people of colour' are treated 'praise the Lord' you know humans are in bad shape. All people.

I'm immensely pleased that black atheists are becoming more visible. I am pleased that I am one of them.

Where Are We...?

I have been trying to find black atheists on the internet and am dismayed at how few black people, particularly in the highly populated USA, are willing to publicly acknowledge themselves as rational, freethinking atheists. It is worrying.

Then like an oasis in the desert I came across Frank the Financially Savvy Atheist who's blog entry dated 6 March 2006 I have reproduced in full below:

'Where the hell are they?
Stop. Think about a famous atheist you know. My personal finance readers might have thought about Michael Newdow, the atheist who is trying to get the words "under god" taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

My atheist readers might have thought about Sam Harris, Isaac Asimov, or Bertrand Russell.

"Hold it!" my female atheist readers protest, "There are several famous women atheist as well". Examples include Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (HT: Escape from the Meme Machine). Right you are my female atheist readers. (free thought mom and Atheist Mama)

But my question is this: Where the hell are all the black atheists famous and otherwise?

When you think of some of the famous black people in the media (that are NOT rap artists or athletes) and you have Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, quite far from atheism. There's Colin Powell and Condi, who's (ex)-boss probably required them to be Christian in order to get the job. Who else is there? Oh wait, the rest are media personalities that prey on gullible housewives (Oprah), atheletes, or rap stars. Rap stars who are at least nominally theistic who can thank god when winning awards and giving them so much "bling", while at the same time glorifying a nihilistic life-style that blacks who try to emulate it will find themselves ignorant, debt-ridden, and thinking that the lottery is the best way to get rich.

Blacks are almost always portrayed as devout believers in the media. I remember when I still went to church in high school, our pastor would rant and rave that Michael Jordan wouldn't thank god for winning games/being such a great player like he [Jordan] should. Did you get that? So it was our duty as "good black people" to penalize the "bad black people" for not praising the same god that put us in slave chains for all those years. What a crock of sh*t.

There needs to be a new spokesperson for blacks in America. Not another god-damned hypocritical preacher in the vein of the Sharptons and the Jacksons. A rational spokesperson. Someone that is not afraid to be an intelligent black person who can speak English and can evoke actions from other blacks without relying on antiquated religious notions. This person, man or woman, will be the face for the black freethinkers: the black atheist, the black agnostic, the black materialist, and everything else in-between. He/she will be a foil for the vapid, idotic, untrue sound-bites from our religious counterparts (example: see here)

No longer will rap stars, idiot preachers, and a cultish day-time talk show hostess define us to the rest of America. We will redefine what it means to be a black american. We will rise above the mediocracy that has plagued our race. We will fulfill our potential for greatenss. We will do it all without relying on unnecessary, irrational, and destructive beliefs.

But, before we can, we need to answer this question: Where the hell are the black atheists?''

The amazing thing is this is an old post that is still even more relevant 2 years later. Where are we? Why are we not brave enough to break through the mould set by those who wish to control? If we spend our time thrashing out against racism and don't see just how insidiously wicked all forms of the supernatural are to our well being, then why bother?

I will follow up on the people who made comments on Frank's blog updating us about the black atheists. You might care to do the same. I'll continue my research and do a write up on my findings shortly.