(no subject)
It's far from done but I wanted to keep track of the progress and have avenues of any sort of input.
La Paz is approaching in a few short days, ranks of many looking to not only legitimize the modification of the physical self as a valid art form but also to spread the knowledge and meaning behind such things. A deeper sense than just how far the man made tool can penetrate the flesh. We are humans are a holistic piece, a modification done to one aspect will effect the other parts of the whole. What we do to the physical self should be taken into spiritual consideration, most specifically in “Rites of Passage” and most severe modification rituals. Myself I have chosen in life to focus almost primarily on the Kavadi/Hindu belief system, in paring with ritualistic suspension. The Kavadi is one of the most important spiritual and sacred practices in the Hindi religion. In such (in western culture’s eyes) followers would mutilate themselves, wearing cages of hooks or spears, performing cheek skewering, or ball dancing (which is the hooking or sewing of small weights that do eventually tear from extended dancing). The Kavadi exhibits both this worldly and transcendental dimensions. Motivation for the Kavadi are directed towards actions and gain of this world, however the underlying ideas and symbolism are far more profound and concerned with the ideas of self-negation and salvation in the other world. The bearer of such a physical taste is not overwhelmed with the desires of an over bearing god, nor are they doing this out of penance for wrong doing. In fact the case is exactly opposite, for the bearer of Kavadi this is a state of fervor a state of great joy and ecstasy. The most potent propitiatory rite that a devotee of Lord Muruga undertakes to perform is what is known as the "Kavadi". The benefits that the devotee gains from offering a Kavadi to the Lord are a million fold greater than the little pain that he inflicts upon himself. The temporary pains of the flesh and the overcoming of these pains will allow for the transcendence of the spirit, and the growth of the self as a whole being. The spirit is not a tangible object like the flesh and therein we must try to go through the flesh to modify our spirit.
Fakir Musafar[1] argues “that in many people there is a sort of instinctive drive that will lead them to seek out the rites of passage to the extent that if society is lacking of such things, or bars them from doing such they will in fact create their own.” The major function of a rite of passage is in fact to affiliate with, whether it is to an age group, a secret society, religious group or just society as a whole. However there are many other factors that come into being with dealing with a Rite of Passage; trust, pain, spiritual-religious connotations. A Rite merely marks the transition from one life crisis to the next, a line of life, birth to maturity to marriage to eldership to death. In ALL cases if a rite is to be self imposed, rather than culturally there must be not only trust between those carrying out the rite but also between the individual and the group which they are being affiliated to via the rite.
But this is not seen as such a beautiful thing in the Western world, I know such from stigma I have gained just for sharing my beliefs and the importance of ritualistic suspension (among other practices) in my life. In the Western Contemporary world, we separate psychology from religion. Emotional problems have to do with personal trauma in the family or in childhood, rather than with the cultural loss of spirituality or our sense of interconnectedness to each other and to our community as a whole. We do not diagnose the absence of personal and/or cultural spiritual sensibility or deep meaningful myth and rite. But through ritual, we access the spirit and move closer to what our souls aspire, yet when culture does not fulfill a human need for myth, ritual and a spiritual life a person is deprived, suffers and according to Moore becomes “Symptomatic”. The symptoms of BPD (or Borderline Personality Disorder) are in themselves impulsively ritualistic and while not culturally sanctioned, replete with cultural meaning.
Moore states (1992)
“…Persons who are starving themselves in an anorexic fashion evoke in their ascetic… food rituals, vestigial forms of religious practice . . . and as our society’s symptom, anorexia could be trying to teach us what we need, a more spiritual life…”
Basically we are starving ourselves spiritually rather than fasting in a sacred way, from a vision or transcendent experience. We have found a lack of culture, a starvation of spirituality, a suffering a deprivation of spirit. But at the same time we have the tools and the abilities to overcome such obstacles; we have the power to realize the spirit that has been lost over time. With our own rituals and practices we create an idea of self awareness and fill the gap lost inside. We have an image of ones self that is bettered, combined with the ability to overcome fear and pain. The being can find themselves more fundamentally complete as well as emotionally complete, and their connection with god (or a higher power) be far more defined
“We have learned that there are spiritually conditioned processes of transformation in the psyche which underlie, for example the well-known initiation rites of primitive peoples and the states induced by the practice of Hindu Yoga. But we have not yet succeeded in determining their particle uniformities or laws. We only know that a large part of the neuroses arise from a disturbance of these processes. Psychological research has not yet drawn aside the many veils from the picture of the human psyche; it remains unapproachable and obscure as all the deep secrets of life.”[2]
Such practice has been perceived as a sort of self torture and self loathing, as if caused by a form of mental illness. In fact that very idea of the preoccupation with pain being the motivating factor is a quite large one in this society, and for many it is false. We can not assume that all people who participate in suspension are doing such because of spiritual matters or the fact that the ability to transcend one's perceived weakness, or the fear of pain, has enormous power, however we can think such of those taking the steps to create the ritual from such. Ritualistic suspensions require many preparatory steps many of which are never observed in “suspension” settings.. The obvious physical and material aspects include choosing hook gauge, choosing the suspension rigging appropriate to the style of suspension, and selecting a site appropriate for the event. In addition, the choice of music, lighting, and scent (incense) represent important aspects that influence the atmosphere of the ceremony. However, the physical aspects also pertain to the individual preparing to suspend. Common preparatory rituals include fasting, removal of all body hair including the scalp, and ritualized bathing.
[1] Fakir.org, he has been working in the world of primitive body decoration as well as shamanistic rituals for the past 50 years. Introducing concepts and practices for the “body-first” approach to explore spirituality in art, body modifications as well as body play. His writings have been included in many scholarly works such as Bodies under Siege (1996, Favazza, Armando. M.D. a psychiatric text published by John Hopkins University)
[2] Jung, Carl. “The basic postulates of Analytic Psychology.” Chapter IX, Modern Man in Search of A Soul
October 15 2002 http://www.marxists.org/references/subject/philosophy/works/at/jung.html