Why Shamans retire and "go corporate."

   It’s something that probably makes sense to only Shamans but in E mails and past conversations about our efforts out and the lack of perpetual motion in projects or towards Shamanism in general we have to ask ourselves “what’s the point?”.

   I look back at all the projects I’ve been part of, helped form or led and the hundreds of people I have worked with individually, plus the groups and classes in this country and others as an evaluation of time in and notable results. I have to say that if this were a business, traditional Shamanism is perpetually bankrupt. While I am recognized as going farther and doing more in this field than anyone else, I haven’t seen or heard of anything that stemmed from those efforts. There have been a handful of people (count them on one hand) that have completed full apprenticeships and gone out to positively influence those in their surroundings but all in all there have been a lot of resources and time out to people’s nifty trend in spiritual development.

   I have seen such waste from apathy, lack of discipline and self motivation on projects that range from meditation centers, spiritual retreats and worst of all, organic farming. People like to share their dreams but the truth is told in their actions, or in most cases, lack of. As we look back at people we work with and see how they excelled in the beginning, only to let themselves fall back into condition worse than when they started their persuits, we ask again, “what’s the point?” As we feel ourselves get older with nothing to show for our efforts than past events we start to look to our future and plan for ourselves.  We remember the Spiritual Retreats and Healing Centers we helped build and how they were sold as turn key businesses upon completion because the owners spirit guides told them to (again?) and we wonder what tropical beach they are kicked back on. We look at the people that took our level one courses and immediately became wealthy teachers using our material.

   For the last six years I have been part of a business project formulation and we are a few weeks away from starting. It’s a “green” product that will change the fossil fuel industry and cut billions of tons of pollution from waterways, ground water and the atmosphere and have the largest beneficial impact than any green effort whatsoever, not to mention be extremely lucrative for me. I looked at the possibilities of buying distressed houses and properties and set up community gardens and continue other Shamanic work but remember projects where people didn’t get out of bed till late, no work was done in a fashion that showed commitment or even appreciation for the project and wonder why I should go through that again when I could just have a nice home? I thought of building a motorless sailing ship for ocean research but asked myself if I want to spend the effort in maintenance and cleaning up after people who have no vested interest in it when it would make a nice personal yacht for me. I thought of buying land and having a large organic farm but remembered other farm projects where our labor was hungry minimalists trustafareans wandering in to work a few minutes, if at all, for free food. I’m sure I’ll have all kinds of great ideas brought to me after the money comes in but I’ve resolved that those ideas need to have good business plans attached and if they don’t look profitable, I’m not doing them. (If a project doesn’t make a profit, it can’t expand and do more of the intended beneficial work.)  I don’t need the practice.

 So why do Shamans go corporate? In my case it’s the only route where I can see my efforts materializing into something tangible and I won’t have to spend as much time on personal survival as I do on projects. I would go corporate as a “thank you” to myself for all the sacrifices I made for others and the things I put up with from project owners so the people involved at the lower levels would benefit. I would consider the capital gains as compensation for working in negative double digit cold, extreme heat, giardia (really not fun) poisonous stings and bites and of course the all the events and side effects that go along with working in war zones. I would be there for those who have shown self motivation, discipline and lived as examples of community minded people and help them create a successful business so they have the time to persue their spiritual quests.