Call of the Great Spirit

http://www.rambles.net/lakethom_bear01.html
The above website is a review of "Call of the Great Spirit" by Bobby Lake-Thom.

July 1st 2010
My wife went out this morning and found and bought me a book called “Call of the Great Spirit” by Bobby Lake-Thom. Bear and Company in Rochester, Vermont publishes it. I thought this must be one of the sons of Charlie Thom, a Karuk Medicine man who I studied with starting in the 1980s. Though I did study formally with another medicine man to say I studied with Charlie Thom I’m not sure is correct because what I mostly did was sweat with Charlie Thom. However, in the process over many years he taught me many things always when I least expected it. . Because Charlie Thom, Bobby Thom’s father was and is a crazy wisdom(the wisdom beyond logic) Medicine man which who is very spontaneous in all the healings that take place around him physically and spiritually. One day I was going to a sweat and I knew that one of Charlie Thom’s sons was leading it because Charlie couldn’t be there for some reason or other. And it was during this sweat in 1982 when the Great Spirit came to me and told me to go on a vision quest and I was also shown where I should do this and so as soon as possible I did go and do my vision quest. This vision quest of 4 days and nights with no water or food in the wilderness next to the Trinity River Completely changed my life in a variety of ways. In some ways to honor this process I am writing this now as a way to thank the Great Spirit for all the blessings that have come to me without limit and that continue to come to me without limit.

Bobby Lake-Thom is a very good writer. For example, the following he wrote is very beautiful and applies to almost everything I write too. I quote from the preface on page viii, “The information you will read here will probably be considered fiction by most people because they have very little knowledge and experience with the world of spirituality, psychic phenomena, and nature. But to me, it has all been real. What might be considered “Supernatural” to one person or group of people may, indeed, be very natural for someone else. So in this respect what follows is more of an autobiography than fiction.”

Though this quote is from Bobby Lake-Thom’s book this also could be said of almost everything I write as well.

I recently met an old friend who has climbed most of the tallest mountain peaks on earth. I hadn’t seen him in twenty years, and even though he is now 52 our mutual friend said later of him, “Even at 52 he is still in good enough shape to run up almost any mountain. But he has rescued so many people off of peaks now and had to bring so many bodies of deceased climbers down that weren’t as good of a climber as they thought they were, (or more correctly the mountain was more than they expected) that it gives him pause. So he doesn’t climb as much now because he would just rather still be alive.”

Well, my climbing friend had done his vision quest the same year that I had, my wife had another friend had and his girlfriend had. So, the 5 of us did our vision quests under the watchful eye of the same medicine man at Eagle Cliffs on the South Fork of the Trinity River. So even though we all chose our own times and locations, it was almost as if we were like a class of students or apprentices at this time. So seeing my old friend on his land up in the mountains soon after he returned from Hawaii was in some ways like a class reunion of those times when we all did our 4 days and nights of no water or food there on the south fork of the Trinity River at Wilderness Locations of our choosing.

This mutual friend who took me to see my old climber friend and I agreed on something. We both agreed that, “It is more important for people to believe what they need to believe to stay alive and not directly or indirectly commit suicide, than it is to have a formal religion.” This is important because of how often religions drive crazy or kill so many millions every year around the world. So, just finding a way to stay alive seems more important. Because if you don’t stay alive there is no one left alive to be “Saved” by any religion. Others of you have given up temporarily or permanently on all religions. The way I have been treated by religions and driven to the point of suicide myself as a young man, I’m very inclined to side with you who have temporarily or permanently given up on ALL religions. But what drove me away from most organized religions also drove me to becoming more and more spiritual. So, though I don’t consider myself to be religious I’m likely far more spiritual and serious about how I treat all life in the universe 24 hours a day than most “Religious” people are. So, I prefer to be the way I am because it works for me and I can help many more people this way to stay alive and to help them find their paths whatever they may be.

However, since all religions historically began with the primal nature of worldwide Shamanism, maybe in order to understand what it takes to survive we should start there. Before every religion on earth became formalized and codified its seeds began with shamanism somewhere on earth. And shamanism is in the end not so much a religion but a method of physical and spiritual and psychological survival for every tribe on earth. For religions if you really study them carefully are designed to control and to subdue large groups of people and to subjagate them away from their more primal instincts. Whether this is a good thing or bad I’ll leave you to decide.

Shamanism also helps people to become more civilized within their families and tribes. What I like about shamanism is that generally, everyone’s visions and dreams in a tribe are important and potentially prophetic. This empowers every tribal member to experience “The Great Spirit” (God) all the time. Because if God lives in your thoughts and dreams then you ARE a part of God just like God’s fingers and toes here on earth. And in knowing your place as a part of God (The Great Spirit) this empowers one to greatness in all ways starting with true nobility in the way such a one treats All beings here on earth and beyond.