My “religion” is intellectual shamanism -- a form of atheism, since I believe that religious experiences occur only in the brain.
Intellectual shamanism propounds that one should try to do with the scaffolding of civilization as much as possible. This is by no means because civilization is evil. To the contrary, it is an overwhelming good. Rather, one should not rely on systems of support because there are nearly always power interests embedded, that would “assist” you at the cost of your subjectivity.
Intellectual shamanism upholds one’s subjectivity as the pearl beyond any price. One loses that and one loses one’s very self. And, it is all too easy to lose aspects of one’s subjectivity through contemporary pharmaceutics, through submission to authorities, religious and secular, and through playing safe.
One must therefore go out to meet one’s fears, including fear of death, so as to free one’s subjectivity from various unseen binds. The recovery of oneself through such a practice of facing what one fears the most is the ecstasy that marks a shamanistic healing.
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