Are Mystical Religions a Fifth Dimension?
By
C. Reeder
DETERMINING THE NATURE of an ecstatic experience during the ritual of
any mystical religion is subjective. In my own life, I’ve experienced out-of-body
adventures and 3D visions (not related to drug use) that would be impossible to
prove scientifically or even explain to a person who has had none. Just as it is
difficult to convey how it feels to be pregnant to a person who has never been
pregnant or adequately express a feeling of paralyzing grief to someone who has
never lost a loved one, it is all the more tricky to analyze the metaphysical
experiences of the African religions or any so-called encounters with possession
during a ritual without experiencing it directly.
Disclaimer: Although I have
visited Cuba, published about
Cuba (EQ 1999)
Figure 1 Oshen
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lived years in Miami, NYC and New Orleans, cities with large numbers of AfroCaribbean people, and been exposed to some of the Santería/Vodoun rituals and
icons, I cannot speak in the first person about Santería possession or trance;
however, credible authors such as Maya Deren and Joseph Murphy shared their
close experiences with possession, providing a small window.
Figure 2 African Powers
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Are metaphysical encounters, ritualistic or otherwise, merely the by-product of
brain synopsis or is there a region outside of our solid awareness, a dimension
that our bodily senses cannot easily detect, and could this region be shared by all
humans, a realm in which any person from any race or ethnicity can access under
the right circumstances?
The religion of Santería or the way of the saints, also called Regla de Ocha, was
constructed by West African priests/priestesses kidnapped by slavers, since
among many other similarities, the liturgical language is a dialect of Yoruba or
Lucumí, a language of West Africa, specifically Nigeria. (2) In the Caribbean, the
African religion hid behind the saints inside the Catholic Church foisted on the
slaves. Enslaved Africans noted the similarities of their native gods or orishas
from their African homeland with that of the Catholic Saints.
The orishas were paired (hidden) behind their Catholic counterparts. Elegguá
embodies St. Anthony — fate and justice; Orúla embodies St. Francis of Assisi —
divination or wisdom; Changó or Shangó embodies St. Barbara — passion or
power or thunder; and Oshún embodies Our Lady of Charity or Caridad
(Cuba) — eros or love, marriage and gold. Each orisha is associated with its own
color and number.
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In the African Yoruba tradition, there are over 600 orishas or elemental spirits, a
complex intricate system of ritual, dance and lifestyle. African religions, of which
there are many incarnations on the continent, all share some similarities of a
spiritual hierarchy, a monotheistic religion “where secondary divinities, spirits
and ancestors provide measured access to sacred power” (Grillo).
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Figure 3 Oshun's Altar
For example, Oshún’s color is yellow and responds to the number five (Murphy
43). Africans in slavery kept their orishas alive in their hearts and minds, along
with their ancestor rituals, which are seemingly the foundational rituals.
According to one Santeria church, “if we stand tall it is because we stand on the
shoulders of our ancestors and are reaching for the orishas.”
Joseph Campbell talks about a “fifth dimension” where people experience a bliss
or “Earthly Paradise,” even though in the physical world this same blissful
person may seem to another observer as “a squalid heathen in a shattered hut”
(Deren xii). So, it is all about perception, once again: personal space or fifth
dimension? (The vote is out as to whether there is even a 4th dimension, so
beware of anyone with so-called facts.) And, where is this other, extradimensional space, next to our own or is it simply in our heads, in a room of our
own personal space? Whether or not a god appears in this “fifth dimension,”
incorporating separately from human consciousness, is entirely another,
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improvable matter to the scientific community that demands a tangible proof
untenable to measure with current technology.
The other choices in this dithering around the sacred are the obvious sneers from
the peanut gallery: drugs or hallucinogens. Yes, maybe some, but not all, not
even close.
A good place to start the search for an answer might be to start at the beginning
of the story — the beginning of humans. (Spencer Wells: The Human Journey)
Recent research in the field of DNA genetics, specifically mtDNA, the
mitochondrial DNA passed down through the mother, reveals what archaeology
has failed to prove, that the human species most likely originated out of Africa,
and our ancestral Eve lived around 150,000 years ago; “the oldest genetic
lineages are found in people living in central and southern Africa” (Wells 40). If
the bodily DNA of all humanity is the same, why wouldn’t the unconscious
realm be similar, as well?
Figure 4 Hula Kahiko (ancient style)
UNK Photographer
Trance-like ceremonies happen all
over the world in all types of
religions. In Hawaii the ecstatic
nature of the Fire Dance invokes
the Volcano Goddess Pele to enter
the body and give the dancer or
chanter strength, energy and
creative ideas. Participants of Pele
fire rituals experience a “fullness
of knowing that the gods of
Hawai’i are never so far off that
we cannot see their faces, or hear
their thoughts, or feel their breath
on our necks” (Tangaro xxiv).
One of the biggest exports of India is their
culture of possession by Shakti — a snaky
Goddess of energy that invades or revives the
body, depending on the slant. Shakti theoretically awakens the sleeping energy
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of kundalini, a corporal energy situated at the base of the spine, which then
enlivens the chakras (energy points) placed at various points along the
spine/body and out the top of the head.
Figure 5 Meditation Kriyas
In Shakti chants, I have personally witnessed and experienced frenzied bodily
movements (kriyas) where the body moves without a conscious effort on the part
of the owner, real-life moments of an awareness that does not exist in the
physical plane, but in some construct of mind or consciousness, the intangible
arenas that are as real (to my mind) as the chair I’m sitting in.
Some of my genetic ancestors are from the Religious Society of Friends or
Quakers. Derisively called Quakers, the word “quaker” is how outsiders
described what the Friends did while meditating in silence, their way to
personally receive the “indwelling Spirit of God” without the aid of a priest or
ornamental ritual.
Figure 6 Shaker Dance 2
Considered devilish in 17th century England, the Quaker belief system incurred
the wrath of the King, the Church of England and even The Puritans. (4) “Their
intensity of focus sometimes resulted in involuntary physical quaking and
weeping” (Larson 19). What these trancelike states have in common is that they
are all altered-state experiences of the human mind — altered or theoretical, only
) Picture of “Shaking Quakers” in a dance: http://www.utopiabritannica.org.uk/Assets/Shake2.jpg 13 Dec 2012
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in the sense that it is a mode of being that our current science cannot explain, or
in some cases, even acknowledge as purposeful events. Since humans share a
common ancestor, it seems plausible that our mental maps, wherever they
lead, may also share some similarities in our journey of the mind.
Figure 7 A Santero Priest 3
For those who practice Santeria, “the trance opens the doors to spirit possession,
and the gods, or orishas, briefly enter the trance-induced body and use it for
earthly advising” (Gage). A sensitive person involved in the ritual dance
propelled by the drums willingly becomes possessed or “mounted” on an orisha
who can then communicate to the group or answer questions. While in this state
the person does not look like himself and talks with the authority of the orisha,
(5)“the animating force of his physical body” (Deren 16).
The Haitians have a saying, “When the anthropologist arrives, the gods depart”
(Deren xvii), much like the old saying “a watched pot doesn’t boil.” And even
though a watched pot does boil, there is a question of how we measure the time
it takes to boil and that leads to the woo-woo world in science called quantum
mechanics. Quantum mechanics can offer a way to think of these in-between
states of circling gods or pre-boiling water, curious events that seem to be
affected by the attention, maybe even intention of our thoughts.
I lack the 15 years of mathematics needed to even approach quantum mechanics,
a scientific theory that defies the usual rational explanation, but I am not alone in
A Santero priest prays during a ceremony in honor of slaves rebelliousness, as
part of the 30th Caribbean Festival in Loma del Cimarron, El Cobre, Cuba.
http://news.discovery.com/human/santeria-trance-spirituality-brain.html 12
Dec 2012
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this quantum conundrum. Richard Feynman, a nuclear physicist, famously said,
“No one knows why it is that way. That’s just the way it is” (qtd. Sagan 249).
Quantum mechanics research shows through repeated experiments that light
(and therefore matter) is neither a wave nor a particle until the collapse and this
prequel arena, the waiting area for a temporal existence for the light or matter, is
what physicists call a state of complementarity.
In his analysis of the relationship between quantum physics (mechanics) and
psychology, C. G. Jung noted the synchronicity, especially in the two fields
sharing this aspect of complementarity, comparing the unconscious state of the
mind before action in the body to the prequel state for matter/light, that arena of
neither/nor. In this state of complementarity “the consciousness is once more
isolated in its subjectivity” (qtd. in Romanyshyn 32).
Consciousness is a certainty. Without consciousness, there are no thoughts
available to imagine objects and then manifest them in the real world. An
architectural draft created in the mind of an architect becomes manifested in the
material world with the building of a skyscraper from the draft. We know we
have a consciousness, but without tools to measure it in the scientific method, we
have no way to prove its existence other than the fact that we know we are
thinking, just as I must think the word before I type it. Not typing the word does
not mean I didn’t think the word. The word existed as a thought whether or not
it exists as a word on a page.
But how do we determine if our thoughts are our own or that of another entity’s
thoughts? And how do we prove that thought entities or deities exist without
tools to measure them? One way may be to measure the affects on a known
object, such as the way astronomers find planets, not by direct observation, but
by using the “wobble method” as a way “to track the host star as it is tugged to
and fro by the planet’s gravity” (Overbye). If there is an entire field of science
devoted to examining planets not visible to the naked eye, then why shouldn’t
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thoughtful people examine the possibility of a “fifth dimension” not visible to the
naked eye, as well?
Figure 8 Dr. Amit Goswami
“In quantum physics, objects are not determined things — objects are
possibilities. Possibilities of what? Possibilities for consciousness to choose from”
(Goswami The Quantum Activist). Consider this: in the practice of Santería, the
body is the object of a consciousness or an orisha and the body (light) as an
object can be possessed by an orisha (wave) from somewhere (which I am
arbitrarily calling a fifth dimension), or not possessed but experiencing
something (a particle?) in her/his personal space triggered by ritual. The
animating influence, whether that of the person animating himself or something
“other” animating him in a “fifth dimension,” is an indeterminate by the current
laws of science, but nonetheless, the possibility of this animating “other” from
somewhere (a fifth dimension?) exists and the proof of that possibility is the
affected body of the possessed person like the wobble of a host star.
In quantum mechanics’ experiments, the result of whether light becomes a wave
or particle depends on the type of measuring device used, and by comparison, in
Santería, the appearance of the gods or orishas depends on the type of measuring
minds in attendance and the procedures taken to create the fertile ground to
attract the orisha, such as the use of certain colors, candles, chants, rhythms,
incantations etc., that are particular to the orisha the group wishes to invite. For
instance, Erzúlie or Oshún, the goddess of love expects sacrifices of jewelry,
perfume, sweet cakes and liqueurs, and is attracted by the colors gold, pink, blue
and white. Philbert Armenteros, an Afro-Cuban musician and Santería
practitioner believes the music is not enough to attract a deity, that “the full
effect is more likely when all the right elements are present in a ceremony”
including the aforementioned items, as well as, a spiritual Santería leader or
babalawo” (Gage).
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Figure 9 Santería Altar 4
Even if it’s something from the “fifth dimension” is it a self-contained entity
with a life of its own or is it an energy or color or wave or particle that inhabits a
collective unconscious outlined by Jung as a second psychic system of a
collective, universal, and impersonal nature,” (Jung, Archetypes 43).
The psychic contents or the orishas animating bodies in Santería rituals could
be the inherited collective unconscious of the African experience.
During a Cuban bembe, a sacred style of drumming, Joseph Murphy, a scholar
and Santería initiate witnessed a possession, “an altered state of consciousness
both in the “horse” of the orisha and in the community in the orisha’s presence”
(Murphy 165). “One woman in particular is carried by this energy […] Her eyes
are closed, and she is whirling and whirling. […] she falls to the ground. {…} Her
eyes are open now and gigantic, their focus open to the whole world. Her face is
illuminated with an enormous smile, and she moves her shoulders and hips with
sensuous confidence. Oshun has arrived” (96). This woman had mounted the
divine goddess, Oshun. She changed her clothes to gold trappings and moved
around the crowd possessed with the mannerisms of the erotic goddess, blowing
kisses and laughing. Murphy had already gone through weeks of initiation rites
before the event and was very much a sympathetic observer and participant. He
looked into the woman’s eyes and was “paralyzed.”
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Oshun altar found here.
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Figure 10 Oshun symbol: her sacred peacock
He wrote “this is not a human being before me. It feels as though the drums are
inside my head.” Murphy then experienced “strange sensations and deep calm
[…] and can see every slap of the drummer’s hands.” He was aware but not
alarmed about his voice changing and the unfamiliar words he spoke — African
words. It seemed he had channeled the majestic orisha, Shango. Murphy
hyperventilated, but his handlers blew in his ear and calmed him (97). He felt
this was “the heart of the religion at last, a harmony of the human and divine in
dance and joy” and called this “paradise,” but even after all that he stated “the
people have brought the orishas out of themselves” (98) an indication that even
after his own close encounter with the god, even then he can only be sure that it
came from somewhere inside of himself, origins still unknown. The drum
rhythms, the chanting and the dancing seem to be “directly conducive to the
state of possession, suggesting the possibility of self-hypnosis as a precursor to
the trance state (González-Wippler 8).
After the loa or orisha left the body, the return to reality was accompanied with
spasms or jerking movements, but in all the cases the return left the possessed
with a new clarity. “How clear the world looks in this first total light” (261) — “a
5
Loa is the term for the Haitian deity (Vodoun), which is called an orisha in
Santería. Although there may be some cultural differences in names or vevers
(sacred symbols), for this discussion of the fifth dimension, loa and orisha are
interchangeable. The loa-possessed person transmits energy or even the loa deity
to other people with the left hand.
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call to a new reality” (98). This same description could be applied to an
encounter with the angels of Christianity or those who are “born again.”
Depth Psychologist Carl Jung was convinced “the collective unconscious is
common to all; it is the foundation of what the ancients called the ‘sympathy of
all things’” (Jung, Memories 138). If the “fifth dimension” or the abode of the
collective unconscious exists, the nature of this dimension, whether it is a shared
area of complementarity, the area of pre-material existence in quantum
mechanics or a doorway for unexplainable entities to interact with humans
remains a mystery. These experiences of possession in African ritual are too
ritualized, too similar, not only among their own African religions of origin, but
also with many religious experiences around the world.
In my own experience, I did not invite or expect an explosion in my stomach,
which then traveled up through my spine and out the top of my head or the
events that happened thereafter. When I spoke of these events to a swami at the
ashram I had been attending, I expected him to be surprised, as if this had never
happened to anyone but me. Instead, he casually explained it as a common
occurrence or kriya among people in the vicinity of a powerful guru, much like
the loa jumping from one person to another — also, reminiscent of Deren’s story
about “a man standing on the sidelines […] who keels over […] the loa can come
like this, without warning, as a wind” (255). I wasn’t even in the ashram when
my event or kriya happened. I was reading a magazine article about this guru in
the comfort of my home miles away.
The African cosmos (and other rituals) may offer a gateway for studies in the
new frontiers of metaphysical dimensions with or without the scientific
method — hard for me to say since I’ve subscribed to skeptics.com since forever.
Regardless, at the very least, the religions of Africa are a powerful tool. A people
so abused, so tortured as African slaves survived unimaginable horror with the
help of this powerful, humanitarian tool: a mystical religion.
And so, I am happy to entertain these ideas and experience the joy of being in the
company of a powerful, life-enhancing dynamic, especially with a seemingly
golden goddess, either real or imaginary.
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Figure 11 Señora de Guadalupe
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Conrad Reeder holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of New
Orleans and is currently studying Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate
Institute in Santa Barbara.
http://conradreeder@gmail.com