Passage from Chapter Three

 Is There More To Life Than What We Know?

The Shaman

There was an elder who lived alone in the mountains many miles from a settlement and away  from his tribe, because he refused to live on a reservation. When in need of supplies, he would travel down the mountainside to the settlement.
The town’s people thought the elder was crazy and senile and others would make fun of him. He was treated with prejudice and unkindness. The elder would appear to have conversations with himself, as if someone were there. At times, he would laugh out loud for no reason and when he brought his furs for trade, he would ask the imaginary person if the trades were fair.

Not everyone thought him to be crazy. So it eventually came the day that while traveling back to his home in the mountains, a fellow tribesman came to him.  He treated the elder with great respect, as if he were chief. He begged the elder to return to the reservation for he was needed spiritually. The elder agreed to return.  When he arrived, the people cheered and presented him with gifts. The chief of the tribe welcomed him with honors and invited him to share the fire circle.

You see, his people knew that the elder was a shaman, a spiritual leader: the one who talks to the Great Spirit.  As the tribal council sat around the fire, the chief asked, what lessons have our spiritual brothers brought to us? The shaman closed his eyes and invited the spiritual brothers to join their circle to teach a lesson. They brought this lesson that I now share with you:

"We are Spiritual Brothers who reside with the Great Spirit and coexist side by side with the earth. There is a veil that separates our world from yours. The shaman has the gift to see beyond your world into other coexisting worlds. We are master and teachers of the Great Power of the Universe. Most of the people of the earth have forgotten where they came from and have forgotten about the Great Power of the universe. This is why so many are blinded to enlightenment, for they do not understand. When you are enlightened to the Great Power, you then own the Universe.”