jerry alan johnson?

[shawnsegler]

DAMN YOU, ASURA!!!

[fuga]

Count Dante had the advantage of being a hair dresser. Not fair.

[dspyrido]

So which do you guys prefer? Mr Sinister or snuffleupagus?

http://thetaobums.com/topic/4488-dr-jerry-alan-johnson-and-taoist-magic/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckpN8TWPbhE

Before I posted I stumbled across the taobums page - I tried (really I did try) reading it and I kept on face palming and moving off. So I posted. This time around I decided "you know I have to read this" and I am glad I did. Sifting through the space cadets & some sad stories there were a couple of really good posts on the background of JAJ (namely guangping post). I also tried to listen to the video .... really I tried.

Old Russian Saying: "whether the water is salt or fresh, shit floats"

Jerry is claiming a PhD now? And he is "a licensed doctor of TCM in China"? To the best of my knowledge he does not speak, read or write Chinese with any facility. I notice that his websites and facebook pages also do not list the institutions that conferred these degrees. Now he is into Taoist Black Magic ("Chinese Black Magic?" "The blackest...")(cue lightening bolts from finger tips...) .. Jerry is a master of finding what will sell to a gullible, well heeled audience.

Edit: Just found his CV. The "insitutions" he lists will provide credentials to the select few who are able to write a check. The academic equivalent of getting your diploma out of a cracker-jacks box.

How dare you say that about the 80th generation disciple of Shang Qing! Look I know you want to retract what you have said about him but don't worry. Send me $10 and I will PM you a great defensive spell.

BTW - instead of buying a copy of his medical book with the hope of flicking through and tossing it into the cupboard I've decided to select one of the wackiest books on his site and go from there. It pays to be gullible and well healed (wait did I get that wrong?).

BBTW - has anyone got his internal martial arts book vol 1&2 books? Anyone want to know why it is not that bad a book?

[Doc Stier]

Not really, but I have a feeling that you're going to tell us anyway.

[lazyboxer]

O my God! - just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water...

[dspyrido]

Not really, but I have a feeling that you're going to tell us anyway.

Nope but it's nice to see one person got to the end of my inane post.

[Andy_S]

I am with Dsprido: Dr. JAJ has apparently transitioned from whacko hippy with bad hair and bad 'tache to badass.

But as for Taoist black magic and shamanism...

I have interviewed a few shamans ("mudangs") here in Korea. They strike me as a dodgy bunch on all counts:
Questionable talents (for reasons I won't go into, I once visited a shaman for advice. She essentially told me what was going to happen next. She got everything wrong.)
Questionable services (telling fortunes, rescuing spirits from "hell," marrying virgin ghosts to other virgin ghosts so they don't haunt the living with erotic dreams and force them into frantic wanking sessions, etc, etc)
Questionable billing practices (I witnessed a good luck ritual where the mark - er, client - supplied, quite literally, stacks of hard cash)
Sure, they all speak in tongues, but I have yet to meet one who can speak a real foreign language (whether learned spontaneously or otherwise - and that includes the famous shaman who claimed to be possessed by the spirit of Gen. Douglas MacArthur: Alas, while she smoked a corn cob pipe, she spoke nary a word of English.)

The one thing that does seem interesting is that they all have rather loose grips on sanity. I interviewed the husband of one shaman; He said she was very hard to live with. I said to him, "Welcome to married life, mate," but when he went into details, I felt he had a point.

I should add though, that here in Korea, Dr. JAJ would be out on his arse. You don't "learn" this stuff or "join the sect of a bearded American wizard: You essentially start suffering from shaman sickness (a mental condition for which there is no medical cure) and your only way out is to be taken under the wing of another shaman. The senior shaman then inducts you into the mysteries.

[Doc Stier]

Ai-aah! Yau mo gau cho aah!

[shawnsegler]

Gesundheit!

[Michael Babin]

Years ago one of my senior students had a Ph.d in Anthropology and had specialized in Native American shamanism as practised on Canada's West Coast. He had lived with tribal groups for extended periods of time over many years while sometimes spending weeks in isolated regions so he could study real native shamans as opposed to the New Age nutjobs now claiming to be shamans. His laconic comment to those of us who quizzed him on those experiences over a beer after class was something like "In my experience, real shamans are more feared, than anything else, and the "normal" people in the tribe avoid you like the plague unless they need your services."

[Peacedog]

Michael, spot on.

Shamanistic/serious metaphysical practitioners in my experience fall on the scary side of the spectrum. They are also some of the most grounded people you will ever know.

One of the most damaging aspects of the New Age movement is the juvenile depiction of these people it created. Also, it opened the door for confusing the real deal with those who are merely mentally Ill.

Both the Old and New Testament give good descriptions. Especially, the lives of the saints. The life of Miyamoto Musashi is telling. Event the old Norse and Grecco Roman tales explain a lot when read closely.

A shaman/man of God is the guy who shows up to punish the wicked, heal the sick, lead troops in battle, etc. The lives of the saints are rarely comfortable and generally not something most people want to be involved with.

Many people, of all the faiths, want to talk about finding God. Few discuss what happens when God finds you.

[Doc Stier]

Well spoken indeed, Peacedog and Michael Babin!

[Andy_S]

SNIP
Also, it opened the door for confusing the real deal with those who are merely mentally Ill.
SNIP

Interesting comment.

When we are talking communing with spirits, black magic, demonologu, etc:
R U sure that mental illness does not go with the territory...?

My sense is that - at least in this day and age - anyone who is drawn to these practices (which are dubious for a huge range of reasons) might be a bit unbalanced to begin with. Subsequently, the training/practices/implicit beliefs would push you further down the road to burbling, ranting and dribbling.

RE: Fear of shamans
Years ago, I took my infant daughter up to the mudang village on a mountainside in central Seoul. When she heard about it, my mother-in-law was horrified, and warned me against doing similar in the future, on the grounds that the tiny one could easily have been "infected by spirits."

If so, I have not noticed any symptoms yet...

[Michael]

Few discuss what happens when God finds you.

Certainly, very few want to listen, lol.

[wiesiek]

I heard the gossip,
that last real shaman left on the planet earth lives close to Bajkal`s lake shore
and
native North American`s tribes shamans had to go there to get "it", `cause their own tradition had been lost...
anyway,
in learning process you have lot out of the body experiences, inducted by sacred plants
and rituals, so it may drive you into weird, danger side