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FOLKTALES

HOW CONTRADICTION CAME TO THE ASHANTI

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THERE WAS ONCE a certain man called Hate-to-Be-Contradicted, and because of that, he built a small settlement all by himself and went to live in it. And the creature called the duiker went to visit him, and he walked with him and sat down at the foot of a palm tree. Then some of the palm nuts fell down. The duiker said, “Father Hate-to-Be-Contradicted, your palm nuts are ripe.”

Hate-to-Be-Contradicted said, “That is the nature of the palm nut. When they are ripe, three bunches ripen at once. When they are ripe, I cut them down; and when I boil them to extract the oil, they make three water-pots full of oil. Then I take the oil to Bantu to buy an Bantu old woman. The Bantu old woman comes and gives birth to my grandmother who bears my mother who, in turn, bears me. When Mother bears me, I am already standing there.”

The duiker said, “As for that, you lie.”

And Hate-to-Be-Contradicted took a stick and hit the duiker on the head, and killed it.

Next the little antelope came along. Hate-to-Be-contradicted went off with it and sat under the palm tree, and the same thing happened. And thus it was with all the animals. Finally, the spider, went and fetched his cloth and his bag, slung the bag across his shoulders, and went off to visit Hate-to-Be-Contradicted’s kraal. He greeted him: “Father, good morning.”

Hate-to-Be-Contradicted replied, “Y’aku, and where are you going?”

He replied, “I am coming to visit you.”

And he took his stool and placed it under the palm tree.

Hate-to-Be-Contradicted said, “Cook food for the spider to eat.”

And while it was cooking, Spider and Hate-to-Be-Contradicted sat under the palm tree. Some of the palm nuts fell down, and Spider took them and placed them in a bag. This he continued to do until his bag was full. The food was brought, and Spider Ate. When he had finished eating, some of the ripe palm nuts again fell down, and Spider said, “Father Hate-to-Be-Contradicted, your palm nuts are ripe.”

Hate-to-Be-Contradicted said, “It’s their nature to ripen like that; when they are ripe. When they are ripe I cut them down, and when I boil them to extract the oil, they make three water-pots full of oil and I take the oil to Ashanti to buy an Ashanti old woman.. The Ashanti old woman comes and gives birth to my grandmother who beats my mother so that she in turn beat me. When Mother beats me. I am already standing there.”

The Spider said, “You do not lie. What you say is true. As for me, I have some okras standing in my farm. When they are ripe, I join seventy-seven long hooked poles in order to reach them to poles them down, but even then I cannot reach them. So I lie on my back, and am able to use my penis to pluck them.”

Hate-to-Be-Contradicted said, “Oh, I understand. Tomorrow I shall come and look.”

The Spider said, “Surely.”

While the spider was going home, he chewed the palm nuts which he had gathered and spat them out on the path. The next morning, when things began to be visible, Hate-to-Be-contradicted set out to go to the spider’s village. Now when the spider had arrived home the day before, he had gone and said to his children, “A certain man will come here who hates to be contradicted, and when he arrives and inquires for me, you must tell him that yesterday I had to take it to a blacksmith to be repaired and, as the blacksmith could not finish it at the time, I have now gone to have the work finished.”

Not long afterward Hate-to-Be-Contradicted came along. He said, “Where has your father gone?”

They replied, “Alas, Father went somewhere yesterday, and his penis got broken in seven different places. So he took it to a blacksmith, but he could not finish the job at the time, and Father has gone to have it completed. You, father, did you not see the blood on the path.”

Hate-to-Be-Contradicted said, “Yes, I saw it.” He then asked, “And where is your mother?”

The spider’s child replied, “Mother, too – yesterday she went to the stream, and her water-pot would have fallen and broken had she not saved it from doing so by just catching at it in time. But she didn’t quite finish saving it from falling and has returned today to do so.” Hate-to-Be-contradicted did not say anything.

Now Spider arrived. He said, “Cook some food that Hate-to-Be-Contradicted may eat.” As the children were cooking the food, they used only one single little perch but an immense quantity of peppers. They made the soup-stew very hot. When they had finished, they set it down before Hate-to-Be-Contradicted. Hate-to-Be-Contradicted ate. Now the peppers pained him; he wanted to die. He said to one of Spider’s sons, Kanfari, where is that water?”

Kanfari said, “Ah, the water which we have here in our water-pot is of three different kinds. That belonging to Father comes first, that of mother’s co-wife is in the middle, and that belonging to my mother is at the bottom of the pot. I must draw for you only the water belonging to my own mother and if i do not take great care when drawing it, it will cause a tribal dispute.”

Hate-to-Be-Contradicted said, “You little brat, you lie.”

Straightway Spider said, “Beat him so that he dies.”

Hate-to-be-Contradicted said, “Why should they beat me so that I may die?”

The spider said, “You say you hate to be contradicted, and yet you have contradicted some one. That is why I say they must beat you so that you may die.’

So they beat Hate-to-be-contradicted until he died. The Spider cut up his flesh in little pieces and scattered them all about.

That is why many persons who hate to be contradicted are to be found in the tribe today.

[ ASHANTI ]

DIVINE, Dreams, Evolution, Gestalt, Inner Senses, Inner universe, Lessons, PROJECTIONS, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Unknown

DREAM EVALUATION

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I believe that normal dreams are the outside shell of deeper inside experience. The interior reality is clothed in dream images as, when we are awake, it is clothed in physical ones. Dream objects and physical objects alike are symbols by which we perceive – and direct – an inner reality that we do not seem able to experience directly. In certain states of consciousness, particularly in projections from the dream state, we achieve a peculiar poise of alertness. This lets us briefly examine the nature of our consciousness by allowing us to view its products – the events and experiences that it creates when released from usual physical focus.

Consciousness forms its own reality, physical and otherwise. I think there is a “mass” dream experience, however, as there is a collectively perceived physical life and definite interior conditions within which dream life happens. Only inner experimentation will let us discover this interior landscape. Perhaps one day we will move freely within it, alert, conscious and far wiser than we are now.

It is a dimension native to consciousness, I believe, at whatever stage of being, physical or nonphysical. We have our primary existence in it after death and spend a good deal or physical time wandering through it, unknowingly, in sleep. Clues as to our creativity and the nature of our existence can be found there and from it emerges the organizational qualities of normal consciousness as we know it.

I do not believe that there are any more dangers facing us in the interior universe than there are in the physical one. We should explore each world with common sense and courage. The interior universe is the source of the exterior one, however, and traveling through it we will encounter our own hopes, fears and beliefs in their ever-changing form.

FOLKTALES

THE GREED OF THE OLD MAN AND HIS WIFE

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THERE WAS ONCE UPON A TIME an old man who lived in a kraal with his neighbors. And this old man had a wife and a small child, and he possessed a very fine ox.

One day he said to himself, “How shall I slaughter my ox?” And he said aloud to his wife, “My child! I will call the men and tell them that I am going to move. We can then slaughter our ox all by ourselves.”

His wife agreed and, in the evening, the old man blew his horn as a signal to his friends that he had something to tell them. His neighbors came together, and he told them that he wished to move, as the air did not agree with him. The others consented, and in the morning he saddled his donkeys, separated his cattle from the rest, and started off, accompanied by his wife, who was carrying the child.

When they had gone some distance, they halted and erected their kraal, after which they rested.

At dawn on the second day the old man called his wife and asked her why they had not yet slaughtered their ox. The woman replied, “My husband! How shall we manage to slaughter the ox? There are two things to be considered – the first is that we have no herdsman and the second that I am carrying the baby.”

The old man then said, “Oh, I know what we will do. I will stab the ox in the neck, then I will leave you to skin it, and I will carry the child to the grazing ground. But when you have skinned the animal, roast some meat so that it will be ready on my return.”

The old man then killed the ox, after which he picked up his bow and grass, and went to drive back the cattle, for they had wandered far. But when he returned to the spot where he had left the child, he was unable to find it, so he decided to set fire to the grass. “When the fire reaches the child, it will cry, ” he thought, “And I will run to the place and pick it up before it is burned.”

He made a fired with his fire-sticks, and the fire travelled to where the child was . He ran to the spot, but when he reached it, he found that the child was dead.

The old man had left his wife in the morning skinning the ox. And while she was skinning it – she had just reached the dewlap – the knife slipped, and she stabbed herself in the eye. She went and lay down, and the birds came and finished the meat.

After the child was burned, the old man drove the cattle to the kraal, and when they were opposite to the gate, he heard his wife weeping, and saying, “Oh my eye!’ He therefore asked her who had told her the news.

“What news?” she inquired.

“The child has been burned,” he replied.

The woman exclaimed, “Oh, my child!”

The old man then asked where his meat was, and his wife informed him that the birds had eaten it, whereupon he cried out, “Oh, my meat!”

They both wept, the old man crying, “Oh my meat!” and the woman, “Oh, my child! Oh my eye!”

Look well at these people. It was for their greed that they were punished. They lost their child and their ox, the woman lost her eye, and they had to return in shame to their former home.

[ MASAI ]

FOLKTALES

THE SMART MAN AND THE FOOL

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LET US TELL another story; let us be off!

“Pull away!”

“Let us be off!”

“Pull away!”

There were two brothers, the Intelligent Man and the Fool, and it was their habit to go out shooting to keep their parents supplied with food. Thus, one day, they went together into the mangroves swamp, just as the tide was going down, to watch for the fish as they nibbled at the roots of the trees. Fool saw a fish, fired at it, and killed it. Intelligent Man fired also, but at nothing, and then ran up to Fool and said, “Fool, have you killed anything?”

“Yes, Intelligent Man, I am a fool, but I killed a fish.”

“Indeed, you are a fool,” answered Intelligent Man, “for when I hit the fish that went your way, so that the fish you think you killed is mine. Here give it to me.”

The fool gave Intelligent Man the fish. Then they went to their town, and Intelligent Man, addressing his father, said, “Father, here is a fish that your son shot, but Fool got nothing.”

The mother prepared and cooked the fish, and the father and Intelligent Man ate it, giving none to Fool.

Then they went again; and Fool fired, and with his first shot killed a big fish.

“Did you hear me fire?” said the Intelligent Man.

“No,” answered Fool.

“No?” returned Intelligent Man. “See, then, the fish I killed.”

“All right,” said Fool, “Take the fish.”

When they reached home they gave the fish to their mother and , after she had cooked it, Smart Man and this father ate it, but gave none to Fool. As they were enjoying the fish, a bone stuck in the father’s throat. Then Intelligent Man called to Fool and bade him go for a doctor.

“No,” said Fool, “I cannot. I felt that something would happen.” And he sang:

“Every day you eat my fish,

You call me, Fool,

And would let me starve.”

“How can you sing,” said Intelligent Man, “when you see that our father is suffering?”

But Fool went on singing:

“You eat and eat unto repletion;

A bone sticks in your throat;

And now your life is near completion,

The bone is still within your throat.

“So you, Intelligent brother, killed the fish,

And gave the fool to eat?

Nay! but now he’s dead perhaps you wish

You’d given the fool to eat.”

While Fool was still singing, the father died. Then the neighbors came and joined the family circle, and asked Fool how it was that he could go on singing now that his father was dead.

And Fool answered them saying, “Our father made us both, one intelligent man, the other a fool. The Fool killed the food, and they ate it, giving none to the Fool. They must not blame him, therefore, if he sings while they suffer. He suffered hunger while they had plenty.”

And when the people had considered the matter, they gave judgment in favor of the Fool, and departed.

The father hied, and so had been justly punished for not having given food to the Fool.

He who eats fish with much oil must suffer from indigestion.

And now I have finished my story.

Tomorrow may you chop palm-kernels.

[ BANKONGO ]

Dreams, Energy, Evolution, Gestalt, Inner Senses, Inner universe, Lessons, Metaphysics, Ontology, Physical Life, PROJECTIONS, Thought, Time, Uncategorized, Unknown

BASIC REALITY IN THE DREAM STATE

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You will sometimes automatically translate this reality into physical terms. Such images will be hallucinatory, but it may take awhile for you to distinguish their true nature. It must be understood, however, that all physical objects are hallucinatory. They may be called mass hallucinations.

There is constant translation of inner reality into objects in the waking state and a constant translation of ideas into pseudo-objects in the dream state. Within a certain range of dream reality, ideas and thoughts can be translated into pseudo-objects and transported. This is what happens when you adopt a pseudo-form in projection, though I am simplifying this considerably.

When you travel beyond a certain range of intensities, even pseudo-objects must vanish. They exist in a cluster about, and connected to, our own system. The lack of these, obviously, means that you have gone beyond your own camouflage system. If it were possible, you would then travel through a range of intensities in which no camouflage existed. Then you would encounter the pseudo-camouflage of the next sytem. This would or would not be physical matter, according to the system. You would then encounter the heart of the camouflage area. The completely uncamouflaged areas at the outer edges of the various systems should remind you of the undifferentiated areas between various life cycles in the subconscious. This is no coincidence.

As a rule, you see, there is little communication within the uncamouflaged areas. They act as boundaries, even while they represent the basic stuff of which all camouflage is composed. (Without the camouflage, you would perceive nothing with the physical senses.)

The sentence is really meaningless, however, because the physical senses are themselves camouflage. There would be nothing to translate. It is only the inner senses that will allow you to perceive under these circumstances. Theoretically, if you can bridge the gap between various reincarnations, then you can bridge the gap between our system and another.

Once more: The undifferentiated layers are composed of the vitality that forms the camouflage of all systems. Such an area is not really a thing in itself, but a portion of vitality that contains no camouflage, and is therefore unrecognizable to those within any given system. We are in touch with infinity in such areas, since it is only camouflage that gives us the conception of time.

Now, during some projections, you may be aware of nothing as far as surroundings are concerned. There will only be the mobility of your own consciousness. If this occurs, you will be traveling through such an uncamouflaged area. You could then expect to encounter next a more differentiated environment, that seems to become clearer as you progress toward the heart of another system.

The completely uncamouflaged layer would be rather bewildering. You might automatically be tempted to project images into it. They would not take, so to speak, but would appear and disappear with great rapidity. This is a silent area. Thoughts would not be perceived here, as a rule, for the symbols for them would not be understood.

If a certain intensity is reached, however – a peak of intensity – then you could perceive the spacious present as it exists within your native system. You could, from this peak, look into other systems, but you would not understand what you perceived, not having the proper root assumptions. I have used the idea of neighboring systems for simplicity’s sake, as if they were laid out end to end. Obviously, such is not the case. The systems (of reality) are more like the various segments of a tangerine, with the uncamouflaged boundary areas like the white membrane between the tangerine sections.

The tangerine, then, would be compared to a group of many systems, yet it would represent in itself but one portion of an unperceived whole. The tangerine would be but one segment of a larger systems. You can see, then, why some projections would lead you in a far different direction from our linear sort of travel and why time as we know it would be meaningless.

Nor do such projections necessarily involve journeys through space as we know it. There are systems, vivid in intensity, that have no existence in physical reality at all. It is now thought, I believe, that time and space are basically one, but they are both a part of something else. They are merely the camouflage patterns by which we perceive reality. Space as we perceive it in the dream state comes much closer to the reality.

Projections within our own system will, of course, involve us with some kind of camouflage. If none is present, you will know you are out of the system. The dream universe is obviously closely connected with our own, since pseudo-objects are present. Even there, we are to some extent free from the space-time elements of our own system. Within the dream state, then, we are in the ‘outward’ areas of the physically oriented universe.

One point: There are other systems all about and within our own. The undifferentiated areas move out like spirals, through all reality. Little resistance is encountered within them. They represent inner roads that connect systems, as well as divide them. The traveler must leave his/her own camouflage paraphernalia behind him/her, however, or he will get nowhere.

It is possible, theoretically, to travel to any system in this manner and bypass others, you see. Such a traveler would not age physically. His/her body would be in a suspended state. Only a very few individuals have traveled in this manner. Most of the knowledge gained escapes the ego, and experiences cannot be translated by the physical brain.

However, it is possible to travel under such circumstances and some of the data would be retained by inner portions of the self. In a creative individual, some of this information might be symbolically expressed in a painting or other work of art.

Each brushstroke of a painting represents concentrated experience and compressed perceptions. In a good painting, these almost explode when perceived by the lively consciousness of another. The observer is washed over by intensities. The excellent work of art recreates for the observer inner experience of his/her own, also, of which he/she has never been aware. As you know, paintings have motion, yet the painting itself does not move. This idea should help you understand experience in terms of intensities and projections of the movement of consciousness without necessarily motion through space.

True motion has nothing to do with space. The only real motion is that if the traveling consciousness.

FOLKTALES

THE SLAVE GIRL WHO TRIED TO KILL HER MISTRESS

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A MAN CALLED THIEP, who was native of Sango, a town in the Oyo country, admired a girl called Lith very much. She lived in Oyo and he wished to marry her, as she was the finest girl in her kraal.

It was the custom in those days for the parents to demand such a large amount as dowry for their daughters that if, after they were married, they failed to get on with their husbands and could not redeem themselves, they were sold as slaves.

Thiep paid a very large sum as a dowry for Lith and she was put in the fatting-house until the proper time arrived for her to marry. Thiep told the parents that when their daughter was ready they must send her over to him. This they promised to do.

Lith’s father was a rich man. After seven years had elapsed and Lith came out of the fatting-house to go to her husband, her father saw a very fine girl, also just out of the fatting-house, whose parents wished to sell her as a slave. He therefore bought her and gave her to his daughter as her hands-maiden.

The next day Lith’s little sister, being very anxious to go with her, obtained the consent of her mother, and they started off together, the slave girl carrying a large bundle containing clothes and presents from Lith’s father. Thiep’s house was a long day’s march from where they lived. When they arrived just outside the town, they came to a spring where people used to get their drinking water. No one was allowed to bathe there. Lith, however, knew nothing of this. The women took off their clothes to wash close to the spring, where there was a deep hole which led to the water juju’s house. The slave girl knew of this juju and thought that, if she could get her mistress to bathe there, her mistress would be taken by the juju and she would then be able to take her place and marry Thiep. So they went down to bathe and, when they were close to the water, the slave girl pushed her mistress in, and Lith at once disappeared.

The little sister began to cry, but the slave girl said, “If you cry any more I shall kill you at once and throw your body into the hole after your sister.” She told the child that she must never mention what had happened to anyone, particularly not to Thiep, as she was going to take her sister’s place and marry him, and that if she ever told anyone what she had seen, she would be killed at once. She then made the little girl carry her load to Thiep’s house.

When they arrived, Thiep was very disappointed at the slave girl’s appearance, as she was not nearly as pretty and fine as he had expected her to be; but as he had not seen Lith for seven years, he had no suspicion that the girl was not really Lith for whom he had paid such a large dowry. He then called his society together to play and feast and, when they arrived, they were much astonished and said, “Is this the fine woman for whom you paid so great a dowry and whom you told us so much about ?” And Thiep could not answer them.

The slave girl was then for some time very cruel to Lith’s little sister and wanted her to die so that then her position would be more secure with her husband. Every day she beat the little girl, and she always made her carry the largest water-pot to the spring. She also made the child place her finger in the fire to use as firewood. When the time came for food, the slave girl went to the fire and took a burning piece of wood and burned the child all over her body with it. When Thiep asked her why she treated the child so badly, she replied that she was a slave whom her father had bought for her.

Now when the little girl took the heavy water-pot to the river to fill it, there was no one to lift it up for her, so that she could not get it up on her head. She therefore had to remain a long time at the spring and at last began calling for her sister Lith to come and help her.

When Lith heard her little sister crying for her, she begged the water juju to allow her to go and help her, so he told her she might go but that she must return to him again immediately. When the little girl saw her sister she did not want to leave her and asked to be allowed to go into the hole with her. She then told Lith how surely she had been treated by the slave girl, and her elder sister told her to have patience and wait, that a day of vengeance would arrive sooner or later.

After seeing her sister, the little girl went back to Thiep’s house with a glad heart, but when she got to the house, the slave girl said, “Why have you been so long getting the water?’ and took another stick from the fire and burned the little girl and starved her for the rest of the day.

This went on for sometime, until, one day, when the child again went to the river for water. After all the people had gone, she cried out for her sister, but for a long tIme she did not come. There was a hunter from Thiep’s town hidden nearby, watching the Lith hole, and the water juju told Lith that she must not go. When the little girl went on carrying so bitterly, Lith at last persuaded the juju to let her go to her sister, promising to return quickly. When she emerged from the water, she looked very beautiful with the rays of the setting sun shining on her glistening body. She helped her little sister with her water-pot and then disappeared into the hole again.

The hunter was amazed at what he had seen, and, when he returned, he told Thiep what a beautiful woman had come out of the water and had helped the little girl with her water-pot. He also told Thiep that he was convinced that the girl he had seen at the spring was his proper wife. Lith, and the water juju must have taken her.

Thiep then made up his mind to go out and watch and see what happened. So in the early morning, the hunter came for him, and they both went down to the river and hid in the forest near the waterhole.

When Thiep saw Lith come out of the water, he recognized her at once, and he went home and considered how he should get her out of the power of the water juju. He was advised by some of his friends to go to an old woman who frequently made sacrifices to the water juju, and consult her as to what the best thing to do.

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When he went to her, she told him to bring her one white slave, one white goat, one piece of white cloth, one white chicken, and a basket of eggs. Then, when the great juju day arrived, she would take them to the water juju and make a sacrifice of them on his behalf. On the day after the sacrifice was made, the water juju would return the girl to her, and she would bring her to Thiep.

Thiep then bought the slave and took all the other things to the old woman and, when the day of sacrifice arrived, he went with his friend, the hunter, and witnessed the old woman make the sacrifice. The slave was bound up and led to the hole, the old woman called to the water juju, and she then cut the slave’s throat with a sharp knife and pushed him into the hole. She then did the same with the goat and the chicken and she also threw the eggs and cloth on top of them. After this had been done, they all returned to their homes.

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The next morning at dawn the old woman went to the hole and found Lith standing at the side of the spring. She told her that she was her friend and was going to take her to her husband. She then took Lith back to her own home and hid her in her room and sent word to Thiep to come to her house and to take great care that the slave woman knew nothing about the matter.

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So Thiep left the house secretly by the back door and arrived at the old woman’s house without meeting anyone.

When Lith saw Thiep, she asked for her little sister, so he sent his friend, the hunter, to bring her from the spring. The hunter met the child carrying her water-pot to get the morning supply of water and brought her to the old woman’s house with him.

After Lith had embraced her sister, she told her to return to Thiep’s house and to do something to annoy the slave woman, and then she went to run as fast as she could back to the old woman’s house where, no doubt, the slave girl would follow her. There she would meet them all inside the house and would see Lith, whom she believed she had killed.

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The little girl did as she was told, and as soon as she entered the house, she called out to the slave woman, “Do you know that you are a wicked woman and have treated me very badly? I know you are only my sister’s slave, and you will be properly punished.” She then ran as fast as she could to the old woman’s house. When the slave woman heard what the little girl had said, she was quite mad with rage and seized a burning stick from the fire and ran after the child; but the little one got to the house first and ran inside, the slave woman following close upon her heels with the burning stick in her hand.

Then Lith came out and confronted the slave woman, and she at once recognized her mistress whom she thought she had killed, and she stood quite still.

Then they all went back to Thiep’s house, and when they arrived there, Thiep asked the slave woman what she meant by pretending that she was Lith and why she had tried to kill her. But, seeing she was found out, the slave woman had nothing to say.

Many people were then called to play and to celebrate the recovery of Thiep’s wife, and when they had all come, he told them what the slave woman had done.

After this, Lith treated the slave girl in the same way as she had treated her little sister. She made her put her fingers in the fire and burned her with sticks. She also made her beat fufu with her head in a hollowed-out tree and, after a time, she was tied up to a tree and starved to death.

Ever since that time, when a man marries a girl, he is always present when she comes out of the fatting-house and takes her home himself, so that such evil things as happened to Lith and her sister might not occur again.

[ EFIK-IBIBIO ]

FOLKTALES

The Woman Who Killed Her Co-wife

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ONCE A MAN MADE, a double marriage, one with a superior and one with an inferior wife. The inferior one then prepared a drug and caused the death of her mate, the owner of the hut.

When she was dead, the people said, “Let us bury her in the village.”

But the guilty woman said, “No, not in the village. That would no do, rather at the back of it. I feel the loss of my mate too much.”

The mourning was kept up for a long while. At last the chief said, “Let them eat, otherwise they will die.”

When this word was uttered, the women folk said, “Let us go to do field work.”

So they dispersed in order to go to the fields. But the guilty woman went up to the granary and took out some ears of corn. She then called to the dead woman, Saying, “Come and shuck this.” So saying she went and dug her mate out until she came forth from the grave in which she had been covered with earth, in order to go and shuck the corn.

When the dead wife had finished shucking it, she winnowed and sifted it, then took it to the grinding stone, and began to prepare this stone for use by beating it with a smaller one.

Mean while in the hut the living woman was cooking porridge. When she had finished stirring it, she said, “Come and have some food.”

Go into the hut! That is what her mate would not do. So the living wife said, “Then go and grind. You are a fool.”

The dead woman went to the stone and ground, singing all the while:

“First let me hand over to you little things,

my lady.

Lady Kois, let me hand over little things.

Kois, I have left you the husband;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the cowries;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the children;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the slaves;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the cotton goods;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the chickens;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the wild guinea chickens;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the baskets;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the fire;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you everything;

break me in two, yes.

Let me hand over all the rows.”`Let me hand over all the rows.”

She disappeared before the people came to the village.

The following day the people again dispersed in order to go to the fields. The woman also went, but soon came back and went to the granary and began to take out grain. All of a sudden she started toward the place where she had covered her mate with earth, saying, “Now, now! Come, shuck and grind; the sun is sinking.” And she went and dug her out.

The dead woman shucked and shucked. When she had finished shucking, she took the grain to the grinding stone, then once more began to beat it with another stone.

“Come along! said her mate, “come and have some food.”

“No,” she said, “I do not want any. Food is not what is in my heart.”

“Well!” said the other. “Where are the people who are going to look at you the whole day long? You died long ago.” Then she added, “What, eat! That is what you will do…. Then go and grind, dear, the sun is shining.”

Then the dead woman bent over the stone and began to grind, singing:

“First let me hand over to you little things,

my lady.

Lady Kois, let me hand over little things.

Kois, I have left you the husband;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the cowries;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the children;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the slaves; break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the cotton goods;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the chickens;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the guineas-chickens;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the baskets;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you the fire;

break me in two, yes.

Kois, I have left you everything;

break me in two, yes.

Let me hand over all the Kois.”

Meanwhile everyone left the fields and came back to the village.

The next morning people said, “Let us go to the fields.” After having gone to the field, the woman once more came back before the sun was high and went up to the granary. After that her mate again shucked, took the grain to the stone, and began to grind, singing the same song as on the previous days.

At dawn the next morning people said once more, “Now let us go to work.” But this time a number of people remained hidden in the grass. Then, fancy their surprise, they saw the woman go up to the granary, start taking some ears of corn and, on coming down, go and unearth her mate. Seeing that, they said, “This time it is plain, this is the woman who killed her mate.”

Then, as they saw the dead woman shuck the grain and go and bend over the millstone and heard her saying, Let me begin to grind,” and when they further heard the song, “First let me hand over… ” then, by the ghosts! They were all in suspense.

“Now,” said the dead woman, “let me move away from the stone.”

At this moment they got hold of the murderer…. “Let me go,” she said, “first hold a court of inquiry.”

But they just went and dug up a poison and mixed it and made her drink it by force. Meanwhile her dead mate had vanished.

Bakoo! They made a heap of firewood, dug her heart out, and burned her over the fire.

Now, little iron, my little story stops. Little iron, the end.

[ BENA MUKUNI ]

FOLKTALES

HOW an UNBORN CHILD AVENGED ITS MOTHER’S DEATH

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A MAN HAD TAKEN a wife, and now she had the joy of being with child, but famine was acute in the land.

One day, when hunger was particularly severe, the man, accompanied by his wife, was dragging himself along in the direction of there mother’s home in the hope of getting a little food there. He happened to find on the road a tree with abundant wild fruit on the top. “Wife,” he said, “get up there that we may eat fruit.”

The woman refused, saying, “I, who am with child, to climb up a tree!”

He said, “In that case, do not climbe at all.”

The husband them climbed up himself and shook and shook the branches, the woman meanwhile picking up what fell down. He said, “Do not pick up my fruit. What! Just now you refused to go up!”

And she: “Bana! I am only picking them up.”

Thinking about this fruit, he hurried down from the top of the tree and said, “You have eaten some.”

And she: “Why! Of course, I have not.”

Then, spear in hand, he stabbed his wife. And there she died on the spot.

He then gathered up his fruit with both hands. There he sat eating it, remaining where the woman was stretched out quite flat.

All of a sudden he started running. Run! Run Run! Without stopping once, he ran until he reached the rise of a hill.

There he slept, out of sight of the place where he had left the woman.

Meanwhile the child that was in the womb rushed out of it, dragging its umbilical cord. First, it looked round for the direction which its father had taken, then it started this song:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The little wonmbless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?

The little wombless….!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

That gave the man a shake… “There,” he said, “there comes the thing which is speaking.” He listened, he started in that direction…. “This is the child coming to follow me after all that, when I have already killed its mother. It had been left in the womb.”

Then rage took his wits away, and he killed the little child!…. there he was making a fresh start, and going on. Here, where the little bone had been left: “Little bone, gather yourself up…. Little bone, gather yourself up.”

Soon it was up again, and then came the song:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The Little wombless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?

The little wombless….!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

The father stopped…. “Again the child that I have killed! It has risen and is coming. Now I shall wait for him.”

So he hid and waited for the child, with a spear in his hand. The child came and made itself visible at a distance as from here to there. As soon as it came, quick with the spear! He stabbed it! Then he looked for a hole, shoveled the little body into it, and heaped branches up at the entrance.

Then with all speed he ran! with all speed!

At last he reached the kraal, where the mother of his dead wife lived, the grandmother of the child.

When he came he sat down. Then his brothers and sisters-in-law come with smiling faces…. “Well! Well! You have put in an appearance!”

“We have,” he says, “Put in an appearance.”

And a hut was prepared for him and his wife, who was expected.

Then the mother-in-law was heard asking from afar, “Well! And my daughter, where has she been detained?”

Said he, “I have left her at home. I have come alone to beg for a little food. Hunger is roaring.”
“Sit down inside there, father.”

Food was procured for him. So he began to eat. And when he had finished, he even went to sleep.

Meanwhile, the child, on its part, had squeezed itself out of the hole where in it had been put and, again, with its umbilical cord hanging on:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The little wombless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?

The little wombless…!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

The people listened in the direction of the path… “That thing which comes speaking indistinctly, what is it?…. It seems to be a person…. What is it?…. It looks, man, like a child killed by you on the road…. And now, when we look at your way of sitting, you seem to be only half-seated.”

“We do not see him distinctly…. It cannot be the child, Mother; it remained at home.”

The man just got up to shake himself a little. And his little child, too, was coming with all speed! It was already near, with its mouth wide open:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The little wombless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?“

The little wombless….!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes!”

Everyone was staring. They said, “There comes a little red thing. It still has the umbilical cord hanging on.”

Inside of the hut there, where the man stood, there was complete silence!

Meanwhile the child was coming on feet and buttocks with its mouth wide open, but still at a distance from its grandmother’s hut. “Straight over there!” noted everyone. The grandmother looked toward the road and noticed that the little thing was perspiring, and what speed! Then the song:

“Father, wait for me,

Father, wait for me,

The little wombless.

Who is it that has eaten my mother?

The little wombless….!

How swollen are those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

Bakoo! It scarcely reached its grandmother’s hut when it jumped into it…. and up on the bed:

“Father, wait for me.

Father, have you come?

Yes, you have eaten my mother.

How swollen those eyes!

Wait till the little wombless comes.”

Then the grandmother put this question to the man: “Now what sort of song is this child singing? Have you not killed our daughter?”

She had scarcely added, “Surround him!” when he was already in their hands. His very brother-in-law tied him. And then…. all the spears were poised together in one direction, everyone saying, “Now today you are the man who killed our sister.”

Then they just threw the body away to the west. And grandmother picked up her little grandchild.

[ BENA MUKUNI ]

Dreams, Electrical Reality, Feelings, Inner Senses, Inner universe, Lessons, PROJECTIONS, Thoughts, Uncategorized

PSYCHEDELIC AND PROJECTION

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Root assumptions represent the basic premises upon which a given existence is formed. These are the ground rules, so to speak. Your physical mechanisms are equipped to function in such a way that reality is perceived through the lens of particular root assumptions, then. Using the physical senses, it is almost impossible for you to perceive reality in any other way.

Physically speaking, you will find nothing to contradict these assumptions, since they are all that you can experience or perceive physically. These root assumptions are the framework of the camouflage system. As you explore other realities, you almost automatically interpret such data in terms of the root assumptions of your own system.

This highly falsifies such information. The inner senses are not bound by those assumptions, however. This is why so many psychic or subjective experiences seem to contradict physical laws. You must learn the ‘laws’ that apply to other systems.

The root assumptions that govern physical reality are indeed valid, but within physical reality alone. They do not apply elsewhere. There is a natural tendency to continue judging experience against these assumptions, however. With experience, the habit will lose much of its hold. Inner experience must be colored to some extent by the physical system, while you exist in it. In order for such data to rise to conscious levels, for example, it must be translated into terms that the ego can understand, and translation is bound to distort the original experience.

The whole physical organism of the body has been trained to react to certain patterns, these based on physical root assumptions. The nervous system reacts definitely to visual block images. Such images are received through the skin, as well as through the eyes. The whole system is highly complicated and organized. This is obviously necessarily for physical survival.

The organization however is, biologically speaking, artificial and learned. It is no less rigid for that reason. This organizational structure of perception can be broken up, as recent LSD experiments certainly show. This can be dangerous, however. The fact that this does occur shows that the systems of perception are not a part of over-all structure biologically, but learned secondary responses. It is disturbing to the whole organism, however, to break up the strong pattern of usual perception. Inner stability of response is suddenly swept away. Changes that are not yet known occur within the nervous system under these circumstances, both electromagnetic and chemical.

The inner senses alone are equipped to process and perceive other reality systems. Even the distortions can be kept at a minimum with training. Indiscriminate use of the psychedelic drugs can severely shake up learned patterns of response that are necessary for effective manipulation within physical reality; break subtle connections and you disturb electromagnetic functions. Ego failure can result.

Development of the inner senses is a much more effective method of perceiving other realities, and, followed correctly, the ego is not only stronger but more flexible. Even consciousness of physical reality is increased. Such development becomes an unfolding and natural expansion of the whole personality.

These root assumptions are so a part of your existence that they cloud your dreams. Beneath them, however, portions of the self perceive physical reality in an entirely different fashion, free of the tyranny of objects and physical form. Here you experience concepts directly, without the need for symbols. You have knowledge of your ‘past’ personalities and know that they exist simultaneously with your own.

The practice of psychological time will allow you to reach these portions of the self. The ego is not artificially disorganized by such practice. It is simply bypassed for the moment. The experience gained does become a part of the physical structure, but there is no massive disorganization of perception, since the ego agrees to step aside momentarily.

It is not bombarded, as with the drug experiments, and forced to experience chaotic and frightening perceptions that can terrify it into complete disorder. Survival in our system is dependent upon the highly specialized, focused, limited but specific qualities of the ego. It should not be rigid. Neither should it be purposely weakened.

The root assumptions upon which physical reality is formed represent secure ground to the ego. We always operate with the ego’s consent. It interprets the inner knowledge gained in its own way, true, but it is immeasurably enriched by so doing.

The ego can exist only within the context of these assumptions. The primary dream experience is finally woven into a structure composed of these assumptions, and it is these you remember. These serve you as basic information but the information is in symbolic form. Objects, you see, are symbols. Dream objects are often symbols of realities that the ego could not otherwise perceive.

4th Dimension, DIVINE, Dreams, Energy, Etheric Body, Evolution, Feelings, Gestalt, HEALING, HYPNOSIS, Inner Senses, Inner universe, Lessons, METAPHYSICAL EXERCISES, Metaphysics, Ontology, Physical Life, PROJECTIONS, Thought, Time, Uncategorized, Unknown

NON-PHYSICAL LOCATIONS

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We agree to accept certain data in the physical universe. We agree to form this into certain patterns, and we agree to ignore other data completely. These now, called root assumptions, form the main basis for the apparent permanence and coherence of our physical system.

In your journeys into inner reality, you cannot proceed with these same root assumptions. Reality, per se, changes completely according to the basic root agreements that you accept. One of the root agreements upon which physical reality is based is the assumption that objects have a reality independent of any subjective cause and that these objects, within definite specific limitations, are permanent.

Objects may appear and disappear in these other systems. Using the root assumptions just mentioned as a basis for judging reality, an observer would insist that the objects were not real, for they do not behave as he/she believes objects must. Because dream images may appear and disappear, then, do not take it for granted that they do not really exist.

There is a cohesiveness to the inner universe and to the systems that are not basically physical. But this is based upon an entirely different set of root assumptions and these are the keys that alone will let you manipulate within other systems or understand them. There are several major root assumptions connected here and many minor ones:

  1. Energy and action are basically the same, although neither must necessarily apply to physical action.
  2. All objects have their origin basically in mental action. Mental action is directed psychic energy.
  3. Permanence is not a matter of time. Existence have value in terms of intensities.
  4. Objects are blocks of energy perceived in a highly specialized manner.
  5. Stability in time sequence is not a prerequisite requirement for an object, except as a root assumption in the physical universe.
  6. Space as a barrier does not exist.
  7. The spacious present is here more available to the senses.
  8. The only barriers are mental or psychic ones.

Only if these basic root assumptions are taken for granted will your projection experiences make sense to you. Different rules simply apply. Your subjective experience is extremely important here; that is, the vividness of any given experience in terms of intensity will be far more important than anything else.

Elements from past, present and future may be indiscriminately available to you. You may be convinced that a given episode is the result of subconscious fabrication, simply because the time sequence is not maintained, and this could be a fine error. In a given dream projection, for example, you may experience an event that is obviously from the physical past, yet within it there may be elements that do not fit. In an old-fashioned room of the 1700’s you may look out and see an automobile pass by. Obviously, you think: distortion. Yet you may be straddling time in such an instance, perceiving, say, the room as it was in the 1700’s and the street as it appears in your present. These elements may appear side by side. The car may suddenly disappear before your eyes, to be replaced by an animal or the whole street may turn into a field.

“This is how dreams work,” you may think. ‘This cannot be a legitimate projection. ‘Yet you may be perceiving the street and the field that existed ‘before’ it, and the image may be transposed one upon the other. If you try to judge such an experience with physical root assumptions, it will be meaningless. As mentioned earlier, you may also perceive a building that will never exist in physical reality. This does not mean that the form is illusion. You are simply in a position where you can pick up and translate the energy pattern before you.

If another individual under the same circumstances comes across the same ‘potential’ object, he/she can also perceive it as you did. He/she may, however, because of his/her own make-up, perceive and translate another portion of allied pattern. He/she may see the form of the man/woman who originated the thought of the building.

To a large extent in the physical system, your habit of perceiving time as a sequence forms the type of experience and also limits it. This habit also unites the experiences, however. The unifying and limiting aspects of consecutive moments are absent in inner reality. Time, in other words, cannot be counted upon to unify action. The unifying elements will be those of your own understanding and abilities. You are not forced to perceive action as a series of moments within inner really, therefore.

Episodes will be related to each other by different methods that will be intuitional, highly selective and psychological. You will find your way through complicated mazes of reality according to your own intuitional nature. You will find what you expect to find. You will seek out what you want from the available data.

In physical experience, you are dealing with an environment with which you are familiar. You have completely forgotten the chaos and unpredictable nature it presented before learning processes were channeled into its specific directions. You learned to perceive reality in a highly specified fashion. When you are dealing with inner, or basically non-physical realities, you must learn to become unspecialized and then learn a new set of principles. You will soon learn to trust your perceptions, whether or not the experiences seem to make logical sense.

In a projection, the problems will be of a different sort. The form of a man/woman, for example, may be a thought-form, or a fragment sent quite unconsciously by another individual whom it resembles. It may be another projectionist, like yourself. It may be a potential form like any potential object, a record of a form played over and over again.

It may be another version of yourself. We will discuss ways of distinguishing between these. A man/woman may suddenly appear, and be then replaced by a small girl/boy. This would be a nonsensical development to the logical mind; yet, the girl/boy might be the form of the man’s/woman’s previous or future reincarnated self.

The unity, you see, is different. Basically, perception of the spacious present is naturally available. It is your nervous physical mechanism which acts as a limiting device. By acting in this manner it forces you to focus upon what you can perceive with greater intensity.

Our mental processes are formed and developed as a result of this conditioning. The intuitive portions of the personality are not so formed, and these operate to advantage in any inner exploration.

We are basically capable of seeing any particular location as it existed a thousand years in your past or as it will exist a thousand years in your future. The physical senses serve to blot out more aspects of reality than they allow you to perceive, yet, in many inner explorations you will automatically translate experience into terms that the senses can use. Any such translation is, nevertheless, a second-hand version of the original – an important point to remember.

Dreams, Electrical Reality, Energy, Etheric Body, HYPNOSIS, Inner Senses, Lessons, METAPHYSICAL EXERCISES, TELEPATHY, Thought, Uncategorized, Unknown

THOUGHT FORMS

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Now, there are ‘objective’ realities that exist within the astral system. There are more than your own thought forms, in other words. Your own thought-forms can be definite aids when you are in the proper mental condition, and they can impede your progress if you are not. For example, a man in a desperate frame of mind is more apt to emphasize the unpleasant aspects of the news and to see bitterness rather than joy in the faces of those he/she meets. He/she will ignore a contented child playing on one side of the street and notice, instead, a dirty ragged child, even though he be further away. So your frame of mind when projecting will largely determine that kind of experiences you have.

The original intensity behind the construction determines its duration. Left alone, any such construction will eventually vanish. It will leave a trace, however, in electromagnetic reality where it can then be activated by anyone when certain conditions are met or are favorable.

Denying energy to such a construction can be like pricking a balloon. Then all attention must be taken from it, for it thrives on attention.