Valuable Contribution to Spiritual Tradition

books:


	• The World We Used to Live in: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men Vine Deloria Fulcrum Publishing, 2006 - 237 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Secret Powers

Grandma once said, "I don't know how you boys are doing it, but you are bringing back ways that were lost--ways that I only heard about as a child." This book tells about ways that were lost, be they the making of little clay Indians and buffalo that the medicine man then animates to run around the lodge, or fantastic healings, this book is an in-depth look into what our ancestors use to be able to do. Tons of examples and references are included in typical Deloria fashion.

This book is not an instruction manual, but Deloria does offer his understanding as to how these things were done, calling upon his research into quantum physics to back him up. Reading this book will offer insight into some of those things that the boys are bringing back much to Grandma's delight.

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Spirituality....Not Just for Sunday Morning

Anyone with an iota of knowledge about Vine Deloria Jr.'s scholarly background could accuse him of being a sentimental crack pot fallen prey to tall tales and rural legends. Finally someone who is not afraid to be taken for such has written about paranormal encounters with powers that actually exist beyond special effects studios. However, those who like to imagine that only THEIR cultural/ethnic group has been chosen will find it disconcerting that Native Americans have had an on-going relationship with God and spiritual forces for thousands of years. This is an unapologetic as well as unsensationalized account of personal experiences with the real powers of the world.

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The World We Used to Live In

This may be Vine Deloria's finest and most appreciable work. It is the kind of literary rarity that, when you realize the man has passed away, makes you weep that nothing more may be forthcoming from his genius. The collection of accounts and anecdotes is surprisingly complete to get his point across, namely, that the post-natural civilized world we live in today has forgotten something of great importance. The narrative is divinely inspired.

Valuable Contribution to Spiritual Tradition

This book is a compilation of the accounts of disinterested and often hostile observers of the amazing and often inexplicable workings of Native American medicine men and shamans. Most of the stories are drawn from 19th century books, while some predate that era.

Vine Deloria Jr., a wise and intriguing writer whose recent passing is a great loss, categorizes these accounts and discusses their credibility, based on the perspectives of the correspondents, and his own common sense and analytical ability. The stories range from the simple doing of medicine to heal sick and wounded people, whether Native or not, self-healing, protection from attackers, summoning of storms and rain, manifesting the growth of plants before one's eyes, communicating with spirits through animals and even stones, prophecy and clairvoyance, and general mystical topics including manifestation of the spirits of the dead, and accounts of the afterlife.

This book also has a good set of end notes for further study of these anecdotes, and a good bibliography. Deloria places the medicine man and shaman traditions in the context of wider spirituality and quantum physics.

Any serious student of spirituality and mysticism should become acquainted with the powerful Native American traditions, which were, and in many places still are, practiced all over North America. These stories compare favorably with the stories of yogis in India, and occidental accounts of ancient and medieval Europe, not to mention classical Greece, with the Delphic tradition.

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Before his death, Deloria was re-examining Native spirituality. His years of collecting Native stories of the medicine men, and exploring spirituality from different perspectives are brought together in this book. Although Deloria was annoyed and disapproving of the commercialization of Native spirituality, Sweat lodges conducted for $50, peyote meetings for $1,500, medicine drums for $300 he did not wish to chastise those finding solace in these pseudo rituals. Instead, he wanted to open people's eyes to the rituals and ceremonies as they were originally intended. To stop the empty recitation of songs and blessings and bring meaning and spirit back to the sacred Native rites. To do so, he explored the medicine men, their powers, and the Earth's relation to the cosmos.

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