THE GREAT SWINDLE

CONTENTS

• Actual Psychic Breakthrough
• 'Faking' It
  • Potions & Talismans
• Natural & Supernatural
  • Supernatural Means Not Understood
  • Connotations of 'Supernatural'
  • Supernatural Beings
  • Manipulation of Supernatural Beings
  • Beginnings of Religion
• Shaman's Monopoly on 'Magic'
• The Modern Shaman
• Mystics / Faith Healers
• Fragmentation of Monopoly

At the time of the beginning of the development of socialization in mankind, knowledge of the pragmatic workings of the world in which men found themselves was all but totally lacking. All the kaleidoscopic events of life, including our entry into and exit from this life, and almost everything in between, was a wondrous and awful mystery.

Being IGNORANT of the FACTS, and uncomfortable in and FEARful of that IGNORANCE, men lusted after a sense of certainty in a life so sorely lacking in such certainty. They craved to be able to make some sense of, and to be able to exert some control over, a world they lacked the resources to truly understand. And, this craving for understanding where none existed, created a vacuum that didn't last for long (and led to our first major step into Erroneous "knowing").

Enter on center stage at this point the initial conduit of the Great Swindle.

The Shaman - The Witch Doctor - The Medicine Man.

In point of FACT, some Shamans likely did, in actuality, attain a spiritual/psychic break-through of social and cultural conditioning so as to be able to perceive the underlying REALITIES of existence, which realities cultural conditioning usually blocks out for most of us.

Those who actually did so, likely could attune themselves with the underlying Creative forces of existence in such a way as to possess, in the eyes of the average, 'normal' person, what appeared to be 'supernatural' abilities.

There have always been a few individuals who have managed to break free of the Great Swindle of their particular culture, and do this.

In primitive cultures, those who did so, quite likely became Shamans. However, not all Shamans were ones who had attained such a break-through, and not all those who did attain it necessarily became Shamans.

And, whether Shamans or not, those of TRUE attainment of such a breakthrough, were likely seen by others as mystics and healers, or as enlightened teachers and prophets.

But even for those with genuine abilities beyond what was deemed 'normal', it didn't always work, or come through as clearly, or in the manner, hoped for.

Consequently, even the genuine ones would sometimes feel the need to 'fake' it.

And, those among the Shamans who had attained no genuine breakthrough at all, had to 'fake' it all the way.

Recognizing the strong desire of his fellow men for some sense of understanding and control over the mysteries of nature and life, the Shaman undertook to provide it. And, in so doing, he soon discovered that his fellow men were often not only willing, but insistent upon, submitting to his domination over them ('Who? Little Ole Me?') and his personal profit at their expense for his services.

So long as he maintained the appearance of possessing some special 'magic' by which he could influence the mysterious and magical forces of the world, and thereby allay the discomfort and FEAR of his fellow men, they would fall all over themselves in holding him in high and reverent regard.

And, he soon learned that in order to maintain the appearance of his own special powers, it was helpful to wrap the whole process of his personal 'magic' in its own shroud of mystery, so as to be beyond the comprehension of his fellow men every bit as much as the mysteries of nature were beyond their comprehension.

Without the shroud of mystery around his magical powers, his people would too easily realize that he didn't necessarily KNOW as much he claimed - and they hoped - he did, which realization would quickly eliminate his credibility as a magician, and his special status along with it. (Indeed, such a realization might even mean the end of his life, as a result of the extreme disappointment and resentment his people might feel at the loss of the illusion of his magical powers).

Consequently, complicated and mysterious chants, rituals, potions and talismans became the Shaman's stock in trade. These were the devices by which he was able to maintain the aura of mystery around his magical powers.

And the illusion really didn't have to be all that perfectly executed, either. So long as the Shaman made a halfway decent attempt at providing the illusion, his grateful and willing audience would gladly fill in whatever gaps his primitive props might have left. So long as he did his share in providing the illusion, they would see to it that he, and the Swindle, would succeed.

By taking a close look at how the Great Swindle first became institutionalized, and how it worked at this basic and simple stage of its development, we can attain a solid foundation for understanding how it operates in today's more complex and diversified society.

For, the FACT is, the basic situation is still the same today, and the position of the modern day successors to the Shaman is still based pretty much upon the same illusions it has always been based upon from the beginning.

At this point, it is necessary to clarify the difference between what is 'natural' and what is 'supernatural'. This distinction is crucial to fully understanding how people have perceived "reality", and how the Shaman developed as a result of that perception.

If we understand how something in life or in nature operates, then it is not mysterious to us. If we do so understand it, and it isn't mysterious to us, it never surprises us in its operation.

For example, if we understand that 'A' causes 'B', then if 'A' happens, we know that 'B' will follow, and we are not surprised when it does. We also know that if 'B' is seen to occur, then 'A' likely happened before hand.

Anything we are this knowledgeable about, is 'natural' to us.

On the other hand, if we do not understand how something operates, it is mysterious to us. If we do not recognize the causal relationship between 'A' and 'B', we cannot predict the result of one from the other, and the event taking place is always a surprise to us.

Anything we are so un knowledgable about is not 'natural' to us.

Consequently, since it is not 'natural' to us (ie., understandable by us), it must therefore be 'super natural'.

'Supernatural' merely means beyond  'natural', which, in effect, simply means beyond our ability to understand.

That is really the only distinction between natural and supernatural. If the cause of an event is understood by us, then, in our minds, that cause is quite 'natural'. If that cause is not understood by us, then the cause is 'supernatural'.

In primitive times, just about everything in life had a 'supernatural' cause, which is simply another way of saying that the cause of just about everything was not understood by men.

As the knowledge of the workings of nature gradually increased, the area of the 'natural' increased, and the area of the 'supernatural' decreased accordingly.

But, what is crucial here is the connotations the concept of the 'supernatural' acquired at this early stage, and still carries with it today.

By saying that supernatural simply means 'not understood', that doesn't seem to say enough, does it?

The term supernatural carries with it connotations of mystical beings, such as spirits and demons and gods and the like. It always has, from the very beginning. And, those connotations have had, and continue to have, a tremendous impact on the development of the original Shaman, and the continuance of his successors in their share of the Great Swindle today.

Out of FEAR, men are seldom satisfied with simply acknowledging that they don't understand something and just leaving it at that. Instead, they attempt to explain it as best they can figure out how to do so (which, of course, is fertile ground for entering into Erroneous "knowing").

And, given the amount of IGNORANCE in which primitive men lived, the best they could figure out was that 'supernatural' events must be caused by equally supernatural, and intelligent, beings . And, having nothing else upon which to base their imaginative gropings, those beings were likely similar to the 'natural' beings they were familiar with, only more 'super'. So, they came up with supernatural gods and spirits and demons, all of which were similar to people or other animals.

And, having done this, two critical implications followed, almost as a matter of course.

First, since the assumption is that there is some intelligent being or beings behind all the mysterious events of life, those events must be susceptible to being influenced in our favor, if we can just figure out how to manipulate the supernatural beings who cause and control them.

After all, natural beings are usually susceptible to at least some form of manipulation to our benefit, and the supernatural beings are  similar to the natural ones.

Second, all of these unknown causative agents - the supernatural beings - tend to be lumped together in our minds as being essentially the same and of one broad category.

These two factors converge and produce the Shaman as a social function, and as a figure of significance in that function.

Firstly, the BELIEF that there even were such things at all as supernatural beings who can be manipulated by men, is what created the function of the Shaman in the first place. If men hadn't BELIEVED this, there would never have been a job for the Shaman to do, and the function would never have developed.

Secondly, as a result of the lumping together in our minds of the supernatural into one broad category, it was assumed that if a Shaman could reach and manipulate one spirit, he could reach them all. Usually, there wasn't one Shaman to influence the rain god, and another to placate the earthquake god, and yet another to appeal to the god of the hunt, and so on. In most cases, there was just one type of Shaman, or group of Shamans, whose bailiwick was all  of the supernatural beings.

(Even in the less usual instances of different types of Shamans, they nonetheless were performing similar functions, and tended to support one another as brethren under the skin).

This lumping of the supernatural into one broad category is what laid the ground work for the Shamans' ultimate monopoly over the supernatural, which monopoly was a critical factor in creating an institution within society in which the Great Swindle could become entrenched.

So, we now have supernatural beings susceptible to human influence, and human beings purporting to have an ability beyond that of the average person to do the influencing, and to do that influencing with respect to all  of the spirits and gods that exist.

Would the services of this Shaman be of value to us? How could they not be? Indeed, what services could possibly be of greater value to us than the manipulation of those supernatural beings who have such a pervasive impact not only on the quality of our lives, but on life and death itself?!

We laymen certainly don't understand the workings of the supernatural. Whatever impact our pitiful forms of personal magic have on the supernatural spirits isn't much, and we KNOW it. And that fact scares and worries us quite a bit.

The Shaman says he has a better understanding of the supernatural beings than we do, and that he can better influence them to our benefit. And to prove his power, he has magical chants, potions and procedures which are just as mysterious to us as are the supernatural events themselves. Does not the very mysteriousness of his magical paraphernalia indicate that he does, indeed, partake of the powers of the supernatural beings themselves?

Do we believe him?

Well, we would sure like to.

After all, his magic working in our favor is likely better than our own, and certainly better than none at all.

Yea! We believe him.

And, before long, it becomes routine and normal for us to seek his services in obtaining blessings for our activities, and cures for our distresses. And, of course, it is only fitting and proper that we compensate him appropriately for such valuable services. Indeed, those services are so valuable to us that it seems only proper that he be given special status and deference among us. After all, how much influence can he have with the spirits, if we don't treat him as something special ourselves?

As time goes on, and as his elevated status in our society becomes more entrenched, and as his procedures become more complex and mysterious to us, his power in our lives becomes more and more solidified.

His services are no longer just something better than nothing in placating the gods. They are now a necessity . And, his powers of influence over the gods are no longer simply more effective than ours. They are now the only  powers of any  effect whatsoever.

In time, the Shaman's impact in our society becomes so firmly entrenched that his function becomes a fundamental institution within our society.

He becomes the core of the institution of religion.

BELIEF in a supernatural spirit/mind force can exist in society without the existence of a Shaman, and without the existence of a social institution surrounding it. It can exist in the minds and hearts of individuals, without ever becoming institutionalized. (See The 'Arrest').

But as a result of the Shaman, and of the factors which brought him into existence in the first place, such BELIEFS have become institutionalized and, indeed, in the eyes of many, can only exist within the framework of this institutionalized form.

And, with the institutionalization of such BELIEFS into the institution of religion, the institutionalization of the Great Swindle began.

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* For a discussion of how the institution of religion has also, and from the very beginning, been 'piggy-backed' upon - even hijacked - by the institution of government, in an equally Swindlous way, see The Arrest .

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As society grows larger and larger in size, the Shaman evolves into the priest class of the society's religion. But, however large it might grow, the social status and power of the Shaman - or priest class - is always based upon the same foundation - his monopoly over the magic by which the supernatural beings can be influenced for the benefit of men.

And, the Shaman, with his monopoly over the power to influence the mysteries of the supernatural, is still very much with us today. He is doing quite well with his share of the institutionalized Swindle. Of course, he now operates under different titles, and the tools and trappings of his trade have a more modern, and varied cast to them. But, his function, and the basics of his part in the Great Swindle, are still precisely the same.

Now to locate the Shaman in his modern day role.

First off, we must recognize that in modern society there are many more forms of organized religion than there were in primitive society. For the primitive tribe, there was usually only one religion that had the group's stamp of approval.

Today, we have not only the basic religions themselves, ie., Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and a few other less well known ones, but we also have a myriad of sub-divisions and sects within each of these religions (eg., in Christianity there are the Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Protestants; and, the Protestants, in turn, break down into Baptists, Methodists, Anglican, Church of Christ, etc., etc.).

As a result of this diversity, the leaders of some religions and/or of some sub-sects within some religions, are more obviously and directly similar to the original Shaman in outward appearance than are others. For instance, the priests of Buddhism, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity all make far more use of the trappings of the original Shaman class (eg.,distinctive religious dress, magical chants and rituals, magic potions such as 'holy' water), than do the Rabbis of the Jewish synagogues or the pastors of the Congregationalist Christians.

Similarly, some religions are more like the religion of the Shaman priest class in being more rigidly structured and controlled than others (eg., Catholicism and Mormonism vs. Christian Methodists and Evangelists).

These differences do have an impact on the degree to which the Shaman, in his original overall form, has survived in his modern day descendants.

But, it must be recognized that such differences as do exist between modern day Shamans are of no great importance as far as the Great Swindle is concerned. The Great Swindle has been institutionalized in the institution of religion as a whole. The differences between denominations and sub-sects, with respect to the Swindle, are, at most, differences of degree and not of substance.

For the basic fact still remains that all of them, in one way or another, still purport to fulfill a useful function in influencing the supernatural in our lives beyond what we can do for ourselves alone, and they still derive substantial compensation in Money/Power/Status for so doing.

The Great Swindle, in the institution of organized religion, may not be as blatant and obvious today in some of its aspects (at least not to us) as it appears to us today as having been in earlier times.

But it is still every bit as widespread, and its effects are every bit as much a part of the Swindle, as it ever was.

And this brings us to another form of the Shaman as he has survived into modern times, and yet which is not a part of the mainstream of the Swindle in organized religion, per se.

We are speaking now of those individuals who act more or less independently, and who may or may not be directly affiliated with any particular organized religion, yet who set themselves up as having some special connection with the supernatural, and some form of influence over it, in much the same way as did the original Shaman. These are the modern day evangelistic 'healers', and other traffickers in the 'supernatural' who operate under such varied methods as 'psychics', palm reading, astrology, spoon bending, etc.

Since these people act more or less independently, they are not necessarily directly involved in any particular religion in its organized form (although many faith healers are indirectly connected with some church or other). Yet, they are most definitely a part of the Great Swindle as it has come to be institutionalized in the institution of religion.

In fact, many of these people are more directly like the original Shaman in their operation of the Swindle than are most of the leaders of organized religions. Their claims to magical knowledge and powers over the supernatural, and to be able to influence the supernatural for the direct benefit of their followers, are even more blatant than are those of the vast majority of the leaders of organized religions.

And, despite their independence from the major branches of organized religions, they are nonetheless very much a part of the Great Swindle in its institutionalized form. These individuals could not operate their form of the Swindle were it not for the common BELIEF in the validity of such claims to magical powers, which belief is nurtured and maintained in society by the institution of religion as a whole. Independent or not, these people are direct beneficiaries and supporters of the institution of religion, and are thus a direct part of it.

And, with that, we have pretty well located the Shaman in the various aspects of his modern day role.

Initially, the Shamans had the Great Swindle all to themselves. They didn't have to share it with anyone else. They had a total monopoly on the special pipeline to the supernatural beings, and that was the only 'game' in town. Since the supernatural beings directly controlled every important aspect of life (or so the people BELIEVED), the Shamans' "knowledge" and power to influence those beings was all the useful "knowledge" there could be with respect to the important aspects of life.

The Shaman's monopoly over the supernatural lasts forever, at least in its institutionalized form. And, his monopoly of the Institutional 'Sting' of the Swindle lasts a good, long time.

However, eventually, his monopoly over the Institutional 'Sting' breaks down, and he is forced into sharing it with others.

This comes about for two reasons.

First, as KNOWLEDGE increases as to how the world around us actually works, the jurisdiction of the supernatural decreases proportionately. In other words, the arena of the 'natural' (that which we understand) enlarges, and the arena of the 'supernatural' (that which we don't understand), the Shaman's arena of operation and monopoly, shrinks.

Second, as pragmatic KNOWLEDGE develops and becomes more complex and specialized, such knowledge takes on many of the same characteristics of mysteriousness in the mind of the average layman as the Shaman's supposed "knowledge" had. This creates another vacuum similar to that which induced the rise of the Shaman, himself, initially.

And, this vacuum has been filled by the Shaman's cousins in the modern world, ie., the 'Experts' in specialized fields of knowledge.

The original Shaman, owing to his supposed influence over the supernatural, was supposed to have all the influence that was humanly possible over human physical and spiritual health, and all the processes and events of the earth and the heavens above.

Today, his role is pretty much circumscribed to that of having an influence over the state of people's 'spiritual' health only.

The function of influencing physical health has been taken over by the physician (excepting, of course, for the residual physical healing role that is still performed by the faith healer).

Indeed, even a portion of the Shaman's role as influencer over the spiritual has been pre-empted by the physician in the form of the psychiatrist and psychologist, who have re-defined the spirit and soul as the 'psyche', and treat it accordingly.

As to the arena of physical phenomena in the earth and heavens, the geologist, meteorologist, astronomer, chemist and physicist have pretty well established their domain to the exclusion of the Shaman.

But, the Shaman hasn't been put out of business by this development. Although his relative share of the total Institutional 'Sting' of the Swindle has decreased due to his having to share more and more of it with other institutions not under his control, the size of the Institutional 'Sting' as a whole has grown well beyond what it once was, due to increased population, and, the Shaman's actual market is even larger now than it was before. So, the size of his brand of the Institutional 'Sting' of the Swindle is still plenty big.

But, his monopoly over the total 'Sting' has definitely been broken.

So, the Shaman still exists as the influencer of the supernatural that he has always been. The only difference between the role of the original Shaman and that of his modern day successor, is that the arena of his operation within the Institutional 'Sting' has shrunk, as a percentage of the whole.

Fortunately, this difference, while not one of any basic differentiation in the processes of the Great Swindle then and now, is sufficient to provide for us today the possibility for overcoming the Great Swindle that has never existed in the past, as will be discussed in our last chapter (The 'Arrest').