In a traditional/tribal culture, the most important element is the tribe. In our modern culture, the most important element is the "rugged individualist". How did this happen? Social evolution. Some would say that this transformation is a bad thing and that we have suffered because of it - and I can't completely disagree with them. However, without this radical shift in social consciousness, we would not be living in the peculiar world we find ourselves in today. There would have been no industrial revolution, no democracy or women's lib - we would still be living much the same as we did thousands of years ago.

Good or bad - it's where we find ourselves, and it's certainly not boring.

One of the biggest mistakes we make coming from our post-tribal culture and looking at the tribal community is that we don't realize how fundamentally different we have become. And yet the same basic needs, hungers and synapsis are all there. We have become like the pearl divers of the south Pacific. We can hold our breath for so long that - to those who don't have our training - we seem super human. And yet, we still need to breathe. In the same way, we can act the part of the rugged individual, but we still need connection. Eventually that need will require an answer. Until then it will distort our perceptions and actions until we become even more lost than we already are.

I dream that one day we will make the next step in our social evolution and discover what it's like to be a community of sovereigns.

namaste,

Kenn
www.shamanstouch.com