...And We Will Have Snow

Tengri's Talk

It was one of those evenings on the island when many of the residents were off on assignment here or there. Xayna was visiting the WBI facility for the first time, so Bear and Sedna had a respite from their usual duties to help her get physically acclimated to the reality of what she had previously visited only in spirit, through the Q. As it turned out, they had the lounge to themselves.

Xayna turned to Sedna. "Bear has told me a lot about the way of things here, and the story behind it," she said, "but he's also told me that you have a different perspective, a better grasp than he of the long shaman traditions that guide what we do. I know only the Haida version of such things. What am I missing?"

Sedna hesitated. "There's a lot I could tell you about the different shaman systems of belief that have arisen in various parts of the world, it's true. But they all spring from the same spiritual roots. It would be better if you had a grasp of that first. That would make it easier to understand what all the traditions have in common, as you begin to learn about their peculiarities. I wish Tengri was here..."

"I am," he said, walking in the door. "What is it you think I can answer for you?"

Xayna was fully in awe of Tengri. Bear had told her that, just as his mother Dema was the original Lamia returned, and his father Cern was a return of Cernunnos, the stag-horned man, Tengri was a return of the sky spirit revered by shamans all across northern Europe and Asia, often represented as a white wolf. 

And, she thought, as Bear himself was the spirit bear of her people. Her spirit bear, named so by her father Ghandl. Tengri's presence reminded her of Ghandl, but with an air of mystery about him in place of her easy familiarity with her father. Tengri's opportune arrival only heightened the effect. She was, in a word, speechless. So Bear spoke for her. "Xayna asked Sedna about shaman traditions in other places. Sedna wanted to defer to you."

"I think Xayna needs to hear about the common spiritual roots, before I try to tell her about the different traditions," Sedna told him.

Tengri settled himself into an easy chair facing the three. He rested his elbows on the arms of the chair and steepled his fingers against his chin, in a gesture of contemplation very familiar to both Bear and Sendna. After a moment he spoke.

"Then I should speak of the multiverse and the Q," he said. "Both are examples of fundamental infinities. Infinities are notoriously hard to grasp, but they are the foundation of all thought. Shamans in general have a natural grasp of the way of such things. Let me try to explain."

Bear and Sedna both linked their perceptions with Xayna in the shaman way, so she could share in their understanding of what Tengri had to say, and he wouldn't be interrupted too often by the newness of it for Xayna.

"There are various interpretations of reality present in modern thought. The idea that every one of the infinite alternate possibilities available in every instant is realized in a new branch of the multiverse is one such. It has influenced the thinking of many who should know better, and been popularized enough to distort common understanding."

Xayna nodded to indicate she had heard of this idea.

"Occam's razor is especially applicable to such thoughts. It tells us that the simplest form in which the implications of a thought can be captured is the one best qualified for acceptance."

Bear silently helped Xayna understand this reference, and she nodded again.

"There is an alternate view that offers a lower order of infinity than the multiverse to explain our reality. It postulates that every last particle in our universe has an infinite number of possible states in relation to each other particle. I should mention that this may be an infinite number of particles as well, if our universe is truly flat in a topological sense, not curving back on itself in a way that limits its extent." This time Tengri himself painted a mental picture of the difference, so Xayna could see what he meant.

"So, we are already speaking of an infinity of infinities. But Occam suggests that in each instant of each particle's existence only one of those possible states is real for that particle. Thus the path of its reality through the infinite possibilities is unique. The full infinite range of possibilities remains, but the added infinity of infinite bifurcations into alternate realities is dispensed with. Our fanciful visions of possible futures remain, but only one future, likely unimagined, will occur."

Bear and Sedna both began nodding their agreement at this point, and Xayna understood it with them.

"This is the common sense shamanic view. It also presumes that each particle's existence is on the edge of its own time dimension. That in the ongoing expansion of the four dimensions of space-time, we remain by definition at the frontier of all four in our personal experience. Given this view, it becomes clear that our perception of the extent of the spatial dimensions is inherently an observation of the past. We exist in our own present, but what we know of others through our physical perceptions is always in their past. As we now know, the past resides only in the Q, and the Q is the realm of thought.

"Focusing on this understanding, the shaman sees that each particle in existence has not only its own timeline but its own unique path through space as well. And so we realize that, like ourselves, each particle in existence is, at its core, a particle of thought, of consciousness. Then it becomes clear that each particle's path is influenced by every other particle, through what is now called entanglement. This is a product of the fact that each traces its origin back to a single combined consciousness, a superconsciousness, if you will.

"It is this complex connectivity, this precedence of interactions, that enters our awareness as the structure and history of the physical world. Our individual awareness is by definition limited by our particular path, but our path to come is determined by our own choices. Our choices for the future are guided by the precedence and influence on our awareness of our own choices in the past. But it is ultimately not constrained by them.

"Our present consciousness is an emergent quality, compounded of our entanglement with the many physical particles with which we most closely associate. Body, home, friends, communal interests, all influence and guide our choices. But we as individual awarenesses are free to step aside from all that, to experience the world from other points of view.

"It is, in fact, exactly this ability that guides our choices. At every level, we intuitively use this ability to inhabit other viewpoints, to inform our choices. Whether we consider this ability to be a construct of our personal inner reality or a presently perceived product of our associations and entanglements is moot. The fact remains that we all have the ability to perceive and internalize exterior viewpoints, other realities."

Tengri paused to assess the reception of what he had said so far. It was pretty much what he had expected. The three young shamans were experienced enough that their own inner realities agreed with it. He went on.

"The quality of such perceptions is not guaranteed, however. The process of internalization usually channels them through many filters, subjects them to biases and distortions. Nevertheless, it is the combined quality of all such perceptions that guides our choices. All creatures, all points of consciousness, have the ability to perceive through their entanglements the views of other such points. Thus when you are aware of another, that other is inevitably aware of you. Most people limit their own perceptiveness for this reason, fearing the effects of what they might reveal about themselves. The uniqueness of the shaman is only an understanding of this ability, a fearless willingness to use it, and a practiced ability to consciously direct and control it.

"All shamans, of whatever cultures, have opened themselves in this way, to a greater or lesser degree, and with greater or lesser understanding. I'm happy to see that all of you are already open to it, and are willing to open yourselves farther."

With that Tengri stood, and his audience stood with him in acknowledgement, but when he turned to leave they remained standing, more in awe of his presence than ever, all three feeling a heightened sense of the freedom a shaman could enjoy, and a renewed sense of the responsibility to others that this very freedom evoked.