NAFPS Forum
General => Member Introductions => Topic started by: Autumn on April 15, 2013, 03:09:18 am
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Hello, everyone! I have been on the forum for almost two years and I realize now that I may have insulted you by never introducing myself. Please forgive me if I have. I feel that you already know a good bit about me by my posts, but I did sort of slip in the back door and start posting.
I was first led to the forum when I started doing research on Little Grandmother. I was sent one of her videos inside a newsletter I subscribed to and definitely was not impressed, as so many others were. She looked spaced out and I suspected she was on drugs. I was alarmed she was collecting such a following and have been mesmerized ever since by the sort of nonsense she comes up with and by her defenders. What strikes me as very bizarre is when people defend her by saying “She RESONATES with me!” I have to ask them, “Do people win Academy Awards because they DO NOT RESONATE with you?” It’s acting! It’s a good script, a story! If there were an Academy Award for spiritual teachers (or whatever she is), she would win it hands down.
As to myself, I am a late middle-aged white woman who currently lives and has lived most of her life in central Ohio, with brief stints in Philadelphia, PA and Oakland/Berkeley, CA. I am unmarried and own a lot of cats. I communicate with animals every day. My furry friends say “I am hungry” all the time and I say “Okay” and feed them. I am a college graduate and am semi-retired. I worked most of my life as a secretary, office manager, and/or bookkeeper. I was retired for about a year and a half but currently work part-time as a housekeeper for a sorority, so I am working harder now, at least physically, than I have ever worked in my life. Go figure!
Before I joined this forum, I really didn’t know about cultural appropriation or much about NDN’s other than what I saw in movies (which I know was inaccurate) and what I learned in history class. Years ago, when I was in college, I remember reading “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” and also hearing about the Trail of Tears. Ohio has a rich NDN heritage, but I must admit I am not knowledgeable about it. I remember going to the Ohio State Fair in years past and seeing the beautiful beadwork done by NDN’s and being amazed at their intricacy. There are many NDN names used in towns and cities throughout Ohio, also. The only NDN tribes that I am really aware of in Ohio are the Shawnee and the Miami, but I know there were 11 according to online sources.
I find this forum so fascinating and have gotten quite attached to the regular contributors. I have so much respect for all of you. It is really interesting to see people join and then quickly disappear when they are questioned about their background and/or beliefs. I have to ask why they bothered to join in the first place, but maybe they are just not up to the task of being questioned and really are not that interested in being educated.
As to my personal beliefs, I am not really into “organized religion” because I feel it is a type of programming. I was raised as a Methodist, however, so I am sure that affects my thinking in many ways. I have never been involved in a cult, but I have seen the personal cost of a cult first-hand when the daughter of a close friend totally derailed her life when she came under the influence of a Svengali-like person who took total control of her mind. She totally cut herself off from her past life – husband, children, mother and father, siblings, church, beautiful home – and moved in with this man. Thankfully, she seems to be out from under his control and is starting to rebuild her life. I know she has a long, hard road ahead of her.
I have been heartbroken so many times on this forum when reading about the kind of abuse that goes on with plastic shamans and new age frauds. It is inconceivable to me why people go to such lengths to put on sweat lodges, vision quests, etc, when they have no right to do so, and when their only motivation is making money. I want to say to them, so many times, “Get a real job!” They do so much damage and they just can’t own up to it. Personal responsibility is a hard lesson I have learned in life, and they just refuse to take personal responsibility for their actions. The only explanation I can find is that they are lost and the people who fall under their spell are lost also. I have been educated so much by visiting this forum regularly and I understand how wrong it is to claim something that is not from the tradition you were born into. It seems to me that nowadays people are interested in “secrets” and “discovering lost knowledge” and that leads them to do some strange things, when I really think that the answer is much simpler than that. I think there is a lot in life that we will never understand and the rest of it will come to us when it is time for us to understand. Of course, I am not coming from a place of severe childhood abuse and I don’t want to judge someone who feels tremendous pain and is searching for a lessening of that pain. But I think we all have our burdens to bear and no one is immune from suffering, but we should not compound the suffering by causing suffering to others, which is what the plastic shamans and new age frauds do. The suffering they cause may not be immediate to their followers, but it will show itself somewhere down the line when they will turn around and say to themselves, “How in the world did I fall for that?” and then it will take them a long time to get their lives back on track.
I hate to label myself here, but in many ways I could be considered a “new age” person. The reason I say that is that I have read a lot of the books from people like Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay, Caroline Myss, Eckhart Tolle, etc. and feel that I have gotten a lot of inspiration from them. I have never spent any money by going to seminars, have never owned a crystal, and have never felt the need to do something because a teacher tells me to. I thought it hilarious that people were going out and buying crystals and then throwing them into a stream or river because that is what Little Grandmother told them to do (after they had infused them with their positive thoughts and prayers). I feel there are some “new age” leaders who are not always frauds. A fraud, to me, is someone who lies and then piles more lies onto those lies, and that is something I just cannot tolerate. Also, if they are caught in even one lie, then I really have a hard time trusting anything they say.
Five years ago, in a short span of time, I lost two members of my family--my mother (81) and my niece (33)--and that is when I started doing a lot of questioning which has taken me in a lot of different directions. I felt tremendous pain after their deaths and I just felt the need to heal and gravitated to those who could offer healing. I have come to the conclusion that a lot of damage was done to us when we were children, and that we spend the rest of our lives trying to undo the damage. I also realize that this damage was not intentional, but hurtful nonetheless, and that the way to undo the damage is by forgiveness, both for ourselves and for the other person. Forgiveness it not easy at all and is an ongoing process.
Sorry if I have been going on too long. Thank you for taking the time to read my introduction. You know all about me now. I have no more “secrets” to tell!
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Hi. Nice to meet you. :)
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Thank you for introducing yourself.
I talk to animals every day, too. My dog says, "Let me out or I will pee on the floor." and the other dog says, "Oh yeah, she means it!" So I say, "OK." ;)
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Hey Autumn,
Well met! ;)
I don't think you're a 'new ager', it sounds more like you're well informed. If people were labelled by what they read and can do, my Gran would've been a new ager as well. It's always interesting to read other people's take on a subject and get introduced to yet another view of things. As long as you're able to draw your own conclusions, I'd say you're "safe" ::)
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Good to meet you Autumn. :)
I'll stand up and be counted as one who talks with animals too. In fact just today one cat requested food, as I filled the bowl I said "Here you go.". ;)
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With 5 cats, 1 dog, 1 parakeet and 1 field mouse I just don't listen anymore. I'd go mad *grin* They do get fed of course, goes without saying ...
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I talk to animals too. My one dog says "HEY! That's MY toy!" And another says "Isn't it time for a treat?" While the smallest says "I want in bed. NOW!" Haha! As for what you read, it doesn't make you a nuager. I read a lot too. Sometimes things get me thinking and that is good. It's when you buy into all that stuff it gets strange.
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Thanks for all your welcomes. I am glad to see so many animal lovers here, also.
Thank goodness you don't consider me a new ager, because they don't seem to fare too well here, but I did want to be honest about my interests.
Yes, I like to read a lot of spiritual or mystical/metaphysical things and get my mind wondering about what could be the ultimate truth, if there is indeed an ultimate truth. There sure is a lot of strange stuff out there on the internet, but if it is a little too hard for me to grasp, I stay away from it. I am also fond of reading history, biographies, and auto-biographies.
Looks like the kind of animal communication that all of you have is the kind of animal communication I have!
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i eat the dogs ;D ;D
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We got to watch out for you Lakotas. Hide the puppies! ;)
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but puppies are so good the milk feed ones just fat mmmmm
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i eat the dogs ;D ;D
No! No! No! (You had better be kidding or I am coming to get you. Puppies are the last straw, because puppies are even cuter than kittens.)
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I have to laugh Lakota-Dakota-Nakota eat dogs mostly puppies as
a healing food. I often wonder why people tend to make us these
earth loving harmony joy joy people when we are warriors and
we eat dogs ;D
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No rainbow unicorns for you ;)
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Thanks, Earth. I am so sorry if I caused offense.
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Guess it depends on the culture. People who have a whale in their backyard pond are probably against eating sushi as well ::)
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I always wonder what people really think about us as Native people,
we try and tell people who we are really are but they say oh you lost your
culture or something dumb.
Our culture is very much alive and well and we have defind who we are
because the ideal people have of us is so strange. we have to get the truth out
there. Dont worry we only eat puppies ;D
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Actually, Litsehimmel, there are coastal tribes who eat whale. The whale hunt is a ceremony for them.
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Some people are vegetarian (I’m not), some people eat sushi (I don’t), some people eat kutti pi http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061121-goat-video.html (no thanks!), some people eat insects, some people eat rats, and on and on it goes. Food gives us life and, at the same time, so many of the foods in our grocery stores today are devoid of life and it seems like the more we eat, the less we feel that vital life force.
"Food is often the subject of taboo or disgust because it is internalized. Any revulsion we have for the food is magnified by the thought it will become part of us," said Carole Counihan, an ethnographer at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. Counihan studies the relationship between food, culture, and gender and is author of Around the Tuscan Table: Food, Family, and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence.
And, this is a biggie for me (so sorry, Earth):
Food is a window into culture, and in many ways our comments on what other people eat says more about us than them, Counihan said.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0419_040419_TVfoodtaboo.html
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I like that and i do believe that
It is why I said it because these people who want to
pretend to be us dont really know about us.
One day i will tell you why we eat dogs but not on
public form
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@all ...
Well, although you won't catch me dumping the family pooch into the cooking pot (even though sometimes I'm sorely tempted) people who are dead set against it should realize that they eat dog too. And so does their own pet dog or cat, basically turning them into cannibals. During the process of 'rendering' - which is converting protein unfit for human consumption into cattle and pet feed - euthanized dogs and cats are used as well. So ...
And I know about cultural differences, and how most city folk view cultural habits. We Frisians - as a cultural group genetically different from the average Dutch person, with our own language and culture - encounter much objections against the annual tradition of ljipaai sykjen which means finding the first egg of the Northern Lapwing or Peewit. This cultural phenomenon is now blamed for the drastic reduction of Northern Lapwings in this country, while in actual fact it has nothing or very little to do with it. People looking for these nests usually mark them so they can follow the progress and development of the chicks, as well as warn farmers.
However, soft-hearted and citified Dutch people have created such a storm around this Frisian cultural event - basically because they just don't understand the challenge and thrill of finding that year's first egg, and later caring for these nests - that Dutch law is trying to have it abolished. Us Frisians are flabbergasted, but hey, we're also considered to be the 'primitive numbnuts' of the nation. We poach, eat hare, goose, slaughter our own chickens, etc. Primitive and barbarian compared to the dandies buying their food all pre-wrapped and devoid of any sign of where it originally came from.
I grew up in South America (Surinam) and as my best friend was a Lokono indian, for years I spent several weeks each summer in his village, I've eaten stuff that would make most folk shudder. It seemed pretty natural to me then. For me, the most important distinction between human(e) and barbaric is the manner in which animals are treated. If I see somebody from Korea slowly strangeling a dog "because it enhances the flavor" my blood will start boiling. I also refuse to eat lobster and 'frog legs' because of the manner in which they are killed. I have my morals and values and will stick to them no matter what. Having said that, I don't flinch when chopping off a chicken's head or butchering a still-born calf. And if I hit a hare or partridge on the road, I'll first see if I can help it and save it. If not, and it's fit for consumption, it comes along to my kitchen. It's something city folk cannot or will not understand. The fine line and balance between taking care of nature and letting nature help take care of you.
Funniest thing ... most of the citified people accusing us of being barbarians are the same people who ensure that over 75% of cattle in The Netherlands never see the light of day (stuffed together is far more economical) and that chickens are flayed alive because the demand for chicken is so high that 'humane slaughter' has been moved to the back burner because it's too expensive.
LH
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Actually, those of us who raise some at least some of our own food and get the rest from local farmers, and who don't eat fast food or processed food, are not eating random animals. Please don't assume you know how we all live, Litse.
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Kathryn ...
I wasn't criticizing people on this forum, just explaining how my culture functions and how the general urban population in our country views us. The problem is that, in describing or discussing issues, one cannot escape the tendency to generalize and in doing so inadvertently drag people into the equation who should not be a part of it to start with.
I apologize if my posting has insulted you, as that definitely was not my intention. Maybe I should've been more clear in stating that this was my personal opinion as well as how most urban people in my country view us. And by no means did I mean to imply that my way is the best way, either. We all follow our own road to wherever we're going. It's not up to me to criticize another person's journey.
LH
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My heart is pumping a mile a minute as I read the current posts on LH's and my thread. I am so sorry about any hurt feelings and I am not sure where we will go from here. I know this forum has been in existence for a long, long time and that many people who have been exposed here have attempted to derail the forum, and so far have not succeeded.
I hope we can all take a deep breath and re-focus our efforts. I thank you so much, Litsehimmel, for all you have brought to the forum and hope that you will continue to contribute.
P.S.: I can't translate your Facebook page from Dutch to English for some reason, but I have the feeling that you took a lot of hard knocks for pointing out KC's lies.