OVER the past weeks, there has been a constant fervour over a group of pseudo-mystical practitioners advertising for, and benefitting from, the local patronage of superstitious citizenry.
These pandits, supposedly from India, as they have defined themselves to be, carried the most confusing and badly constructed ads for that genre of human activity. They presented themselves, using TV ads like any other business, boasting a composition of imagery mainly of Hindu origin but appealing to every area of belief system familiar to the Guyanese population for every affliction of mental and physical origin.
That their badly constructed ads and unimpressive voice-overs could have attracted so much clientele does speak badly for our society, recognising that the symptoms of a declining social fabric is a rise in religious centres and pawnshops, seriously prevalent for the past eleven years, to be conservative.
It has been argued that the mystical aspect of our nature is wired into our system, from that first human dawn that we have no working recollection of, when we knelt, spear in hand, and looked to the sky in awe, craving answers to the eternal questions; questions like, How did we come to be? From whence did we come? Where do we go when we perish?
Religion is here to stay! And while the political ‘isms’ may fade and religion morphs, the ‘Pandits’ have followed swiftly in the wake of the pornographic10 ‘Pope’ and both investing in similar vein with varied methods, but with a common result. Appalling to us, the witnessing public and some competitors, but not to the immortal sheep [in this case] who stood in line to be slaughtered, again and again.
The belief in Gods and religion, with all its rites and rituals, created our greatest civilisations: Khemet, Sumerian, Hindus, China, Stonehenge, Hebrew, Hellenic, Islam, “Obeah” and numerous other expressions, even deviating expressions emerging from a common prototype.
Out of the logic of creation came the current expansion of the opposing concept of unintelligent design. In Guyana, we call everything that is outside of the Church and Temples “Obeah”, or spiritualists, wuk-man.
When I was much younger, we regarded Middle Road LaPenitence as the ‘wand’: To the east was ‘Mother Archer’, and to the west was ‘Mother Monica’.
SPIRIT WORLD
The belief in the spirit world as a means of resolving feuds and contentions and social obstacles transcend social status. We can find examples among great nations; mystical theories launched significant conflicts from ancient times to current. Alexander (The Great) of Macedonia considered himself a son of the African Creator God, Ammon-Ra, and requested to be buried near the site of the Oracle of Ammon in the Siwa Oasis, after fulfilling a quest that included conquering Persia.
The Kaiser of Germany was possessed, and led by the English mystic, Houston Chamberlain [who professed to be chased by demons] into the First World War. Then there was Rasputin and the unfortunate Romanovs in Russia. And we can go back and forth and find references of mystics and their victims that we will not be able to explain convincingly, and will exceed the space of this column.
The most significant and compelling public incident of mysticism recorded in the then British Guiana is the Kathleen Fullerton- Lilawattie incident at Stanleytown, New Amsterdam in 1949, where, upon the promise of hidden wealth and dreams of Dutch spirits, a ritual of murder was enacted, bungled, and the perpetrators arrested.
Kathleen Fullerton was the second woman to be hanged in our modern history; she was hung in 1950. I featured this story in the graphic edition of ‘Legend of the Silk Cotton Tree’. Young Forbes Burnham represented Kathleen. A new publication by the talented writer, Stephanie Bowry, covered that tragic incident; that book is on sale at Austin’s Book Store.
From a practical `interaction with belief systems, rites and rituals, 98% is tricks and skilful manipulation of such fears that exist in the consciousness of most of our species. Adding to the confusion of the mind that has struggled against superstition is the absence of the science to even explain how the explosion occurred that launched the sudden creation or evolution of a sophisticated civilisation like Kemet, as Egypt was known back then, who, like the Sumerians have accredited their knowledge pool to Kosmic origin shepherd gods. It’s as if we’re supposed to have some basic understanding of the nexus between science and mysticism, and the logic and language of the ancient concepts of origin and destiny to decipher the conmen of our day. One of the facts about magic is that there is a knowledge-base of herbal and other concoctions that can have an effect on the nervous system to produce the ‘stupidy man’. The rites and rituals are decoys that shroud an ancient science of poisons and mind subjective potions that diminish the victim’s reflexes. Until we can discuss the latter openly with students and import what they should know via locally created entertainment, they will remain vulnerable and not be able as adults to register how and what religion is; that spirituality is not an external component that someone else has a monopoly of, and must grant them access to, on condition, but is rather an understanding and culture that they have the capacity to diligently awaken, because it exists within us all, from birth.
To contradict that fact is to pose the question: Where does the young adult/ student begin to decipher that awareness against the swarm of twisted philosophical lures waiting as they step into our adult world.