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?” That is because the word ancestor means two different things in different
cultures. In Africa, most people dream of their grandparents while asleep. Their
grandparents often instruct them about all kinds of things during their sleep. In
dreaming, the ancestors teach their grandchildren. So when they say their ancestors
taught them, this information usually comes long after the predecessors have died.
In fact, after the death of the grandparents, a funeral is held, and they are duly
sent off to the other worlds (heaven) to sort out their stuff. If they did not get
to heaven, they are predecessors, wandering ghosts. Two years later, those ancestors,
recognized as having good qualities, are invited back to another party. Now they
are back on the parent’s invitation, again playing a part in the family life.
So,
how many westernised people get instructions during their sleep from their grandparents
that have already been to heaven? How many have an active conscious relationship
with their grandparents?
An essential part of the training of the traditional healer
is to reestablish relationships with their ancestors. Once reconnected to the ancestors,
they can introduce you to other people on the cosmic wide web. Rather like the service
provider in the WWW does for you, with virus and content control added.
Trail and error
We think everyone learns by “trial and error” because this is how we mostly blunder
along in the western approach to science. I have seen books on Herbs from the world
and the Americas. The texts mention that indigenous Americans learned about herbs
from their ancestors. It “obviously” means their ancestors knew it by “trial and
error” and told them while on earth. What an assumption!
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 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 trial and error? Having an experienced ancestor with clear X-ray
vision available is quite helpful. Just because you are unaware of your ancestors
does not mean they do not exist.
It is rather difficult to describe a red rose to
a blind person.
Scientists in the west sometimes say that their discoveries are due to a hunch or
even a dream. The discoverer of the Benzene ring struggled for a very long time to
figure out its molecular structure until he dreamt of six people standing in a circle
holding hands. One such “intuition” often lasts a westerner a lifetime of amazement.
I have seen African healers consistently come up with multiple revelations daily.
This technique can be learned and used.
Guidance and social cohesion
Guidance from the spirit world is only sometimes forthcoming. It can stop. There
are usually two reasons for this. If you did not act on your last revelation, the
guide or ancestor might feel ignored and not bother to give you more information.
The other reason is fascinating. Spirit guidance will not reveal information if you
or others in your immediate surroundings already know it. The reason is that we are
not to be islands. For social cohesion, we need to interact, help, and talk to one
another about our experiences. There is a fundamental law that we are not here to
help ourselves but to help others. That means we also need to ask for and receive
help from others.
If we could help ourselves exclusively, we would all become islands to ourselves
and destroy the social order. Suppose you ask for specific information that no one
is likely to know, like your spirit name. Or your song to call your ancestors or
the coloured beads and attire you should wear. In that case, the information is directly
forthcoming. If you keep asking, you cannot hear. Listening is needed to hear.
Observation vs Belief
The best thing about the African system is that it is not a belief system. I had
trained as a scientist, and that was very refreshing to me. It is probably the oldest
outcomes-based education system that uses direct perception.
When I first heard 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 faith and seemed to believe
in God and honour their ancestors. Later I realised that it was partially true. But
what a part!! The ceremonies they go through give them direct experience of the spirit
world. 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 would like to believe something is possible. Then
I discovered the word “belief” had been even more mangled by some dogma to mean that
you believe it can save your soul from damnation. You are not allowed to think that
you have experienced its presence.
There are certain conditions required to do the
observations. The first requirement is humility, being the observer, kindness, harmlessness
and purpose. If you have not developed these, you are not ready to experience the
other worlds. Without the proper preparation, you will be traumatised and endangered.
You cannot expect to run a marathon and feel fine afterwards without ever doing any
exercise and training beforehand.
Limiting awareness to our bodily senses
The initial big problem for the western person is expecting that awareness extends
outwards only as far as the skin. He also believes that whatever he knows is subjective
and belongs to himself. This conviction can lead to the aberration of even thinking
that everything you are aware of through sight is part of you and belongs to you.
Kleptomania is the result of this applied delusion 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 classify them as deluded. Combining 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.
Many diseases can infect your senses. You will feel lonely if you or your forebears
have contracted TB. So now you think you are lonely. So just because you feel this
way does not mean you are lonely. It is just the sensation created by the disease.
The phenomenon has to be objectified, both the illness or interference and the action
of your senses.
There are many more examples demonstrated in Homoeopathy, 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, holding it in your hands while looking at
it intensely with your eyes open for about five minutes. At the same time, you are
smelling it, feeling its surface, comparing colours with sensations in your fingers,
listening to both ends, etc. Then continue studying it with your eyes closed for
two minutes. On opening your eyes a second time, 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. The observation of being
an observer is a fundamental shift in the observer’s consciousness.
Now you are becoming aware of your body, your disease, and the needs of your unborn
child. Awareness now extends to beings in your body, such as ghosts that lobby and
ancestors who come to guide and advise you. Lucifer tempts you to feel important,
and satan criticises you. The titans come to bully you. What a racket.
We are our history
In the western sense, education is often only a process of conditioning or programming.
We learn to respond in a specific way to a particular input. That is artificial intelligence.
It is pure programming. It can be the concepts we learn at school or social norms.
It can also simply be a fundamental behaviour that has long since outlived its usefulness.
A baby will automatically cry for attention. If it gets quicker attention when it
screams louder, it will learn to start crying louder sooner. Conditioned response;
need something; cry. Later, when the baby grows up, everyone disdains the crying
child who could be helping himself. Then eventually, he realises that there is no
point in calling out in this society. He learns a new response, such as demanding
something when he feels he needs it. If this works, he will keep on using it. This
way, our response to 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. At this point, he is no
more than what his history has adapted him to. Even when we make great efforts to
reduce our conditioned responses, we are essentially a product of the collective
memory contained in the history and language of the people around us. In the western
world, we grow up with preconceived ideas or assumptions different from tribal societies.
It is only in comparing our beliefs with those of others that we become aware that
we have these assumptions, which we assume to be absolute truth. New experiences
can prove our assumptions ungrounded.
Understanding a story
A story is an excellent way to understand things because it paints a picture. Then
I realised that retelling a story is also a way to remember things. Hearing someone
else retell it makes it more objective. Life, like a story, presents surprising situations,
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 understood how to tell a story backwards
yet, but we can recall once we have the full account.
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” sounds like 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 their symptoms. This response is, however, the standard way
to consult the igqirha. The silence is to test if the igqirha 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, of which you are unconscious. 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 patients’ consciousness but
not to others. It does not mean he is a bad doctor if he cannot access you. It 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 in the transaction,
and there are no misunderstandings. Secondly, it means you want it to work. If you
say you will pay later, you trip yourself up if you do not want to pay. You say to
yourself afterwards that it did not help. If you prefer to keep your pain, 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?
Misconceptions