Fasting
Fasting, sometimes for days at a time, is a common way of undermining the Bodily Ego and inducing a Connection Experience
Connection Techniques
Connection Technique > Affirmation, Affirmation of Connection, Autogenic Training, Biofeedback, Bornless Ritual, Breathing, Caloric Reduction, Cocooning, Connection Visualization, Dance, Deprivation, Detachment, Dhikr, Drumming, Fasting, Flow Control, Flow Purification, Graduation Invocation, Holotropic Breathwork, Hypnotism, Hypoventilation, Intent, Intent to Connect, Japam, Mantra, Meditation, Mindfulness, Musical Audition, Mysticism of the Historical Event, Poetry, Power Quest, Receptive Seeking, Relaxation, Sensory Deprivation, Spirit Canoe, The Method of the Lamp, The Way of the Hollow Bone, Thought Control, Vajra Breath, Vision Quest, Visualization, Writing, Zazen
Notes
The Ojibway encouraging fasting as a way to induce a connection experience. When a young females begins to menstruate, they "...must go into the forest, build a ba-ca-ne-ge, a small lodge for herself, and fast. There she will stay for a period of ten days, or as long as she can. During this time she has no contact with anyone. She will neither leave the lodge for a long period of time nor go very far from it. The longer she fasts, the clearer will be her dreams of what she will do in life. If she is a Dreamer or a Medicine Person, her visions will confirm this."[1]
"Among some Inuit of the Arctic, one way to have a successful quest for power was to spend four or five days in a special isolated igloo in the depths of winter without food or water. When the specified time elapsed, an elder, usually a shaman, opened the igloo and brought the person home. The igloo did not have even an oil lamp to heat it, so the suffering from extreme cold was combined with suffering from lack of water and food."[2]
"A persisting feature of preparation for shamanism is fasting. This, when coupled with loss of sleep, stress, and hypnotic suggestion, can certainly lead to the mental state in which visions an dhallucinations ocur..."[3]
Footnotes
- ↑ Ignatia Broker, Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative (Minnesota: Minnesota Historial Society Press, 1983: 95).
- ↑ Harner, Michael. Cave and Cosmos: Shamanic Encounters with Another Reality. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2013.
- ↑ Rogers, Spencer L. The Shaman: His Symbols and His Healing Power. Illinois: Charles Thomas Publishers, 1982.
