People who are full on psychopathic personality types seem to have an impairment at a really basic level. It seems they have detached themself from real connections with people and the subtle social feed back we all get which keeps most of us on track. These people have become a law and a reality unto themselves and their only way of being socially connected seems to be through being able to manipulate people , and being able to feel they had some impact on others. With these people it seems the normal two wy feed back loop got broken and they are not impacted by the social feedback they get from others. They don't feel other peoples pain or pleasure and their social identity and sense of personal value seems to be more defined by isolating themself in their own power and perhaps the social payoff is NOT being impacted by anyone.
Excellent summation. I strongly agree. This also applies to those who have lesser, but still active, degrees of sociopathy, such as found in narcissistic personalities.
When it comes to Native traditions , if these people are in a Native community they have peers to continuously provide a social perspective. In a knowledgable community almost everyone who isn't really really old has Elders or at least the collective memory of Elders , so even if someone is very gifted the community will know and remember many people who were also gifted .so peoples egos tend to be kept in perspective. Peoples families know them as human beings and remember their mistakes and what sort of a journey they traveled to get where they are. I think all those things help keep traditional Spirtual leaders who live in Ntive communities in balance . Their communty plays a vital role in keeping them real.
But when these traditions get removed from the context of a native community sooner or later they seem to begin to be influenced by the feedback coming from non native people looking for salvation from reality.
So, so true. First warning sign: check person's current address, and addresses over the past ten years, against that of the Native community they claim to be from. Are they on good terms with their family, community, and others who've known them for their whole lives? If they don't speak to their family, live off the rez, and have nasty things to say about all their exes, beware, even if those who've only known them superficially or for a short period of time have good things to say.
I have known people who have a real *gift* who get put up on an artificially high pedastle by people who need something to believe in.
Yeah, me too. It's heartbreaking.
If a bunch of people begin telling you that you are really really special and start giving you gifts and attention, it seems it is just human nature to like that and do more of whatever you did that got those nice rewards.
So over time even good people can loose their sense of direction and begin to get lost.
Yes. Then, it seems like, when confronted, they can either show humility and listen to their peers and elders, make restitution and get back on the right path... or they can respond with defensiveness, ego and hostility. We see this over and over on here, often even when someone is just put in "Research Needed." Are they, or their supporters, capable of calmly discussing the situation? Or do they lash out, make personal attacks on those raising the questions, or, even worse, attack the very people who try to intervene and help them?
I think it usually starts out with what may be some sort of real *gift* or an appealing idea that is a bit sensational , but if this leads to getting some attention and feeling valued and appreciated , then people conclude , this must be real and right because people value and appreciate it.
This is especially a problem with white frauds - or those of any race who were raised by mainstream white people - who maybe have never experienced anything particularly spiritual or metaphysical. If they grew up as agnostics or with a religion that felt superficial and empty to them, their first exposure to anything real, or even something illusiory that moves them, can be so heady that they blow it out of proportion. They can become grandiose and full of self-importance, comforted by their delusions and even more alienated from reality. Then, without feedback from a solid community, without experienced elders and stable, traditional friends to keep them down to earth, they can get into really dangerous and/or offensive territory.
It seems a lot of these plastics have never acheived a lot of personal success , and their relationship with reality is usually a bit wonky , so they tend to have self esteme issues. They often don't really understand why their lives haven't worked out as they wished or why their relationships turn sour. If they did they wouldn't have set up these problems for themselves. From what I have seen they often tend to have a bit of a persecution complex or bitterness . They also tend to get quite defensive if anyone tries to point out how they set these situations up themselves . These people generally see themselves as the victim. In other words these people are not empowered in themselves , and they are usually hungry for this.. and clueless how to acheive this in a real way. So they can be quite vulnerable to getting lost in a fantasy . These people are also vulnerable to abusing whatever power they may have, to try and get more.
Again, you hit it right on the head with this one.
If people with this sort of personality finds a way to create some sort of alternative reality where they are special and valued , and they can attract an audience hungry to believe in something , it can quickly snowball into a full blown plastic shaman.
And this also applies to those who aren't plastic - those who may have started out legitimate but who turned to exploiting people out of greed or the emergence of the sort of psychological problems we discuss above.
Again, in these situations, if someone can honestly admit what they did, get help and make amends, perhaps they can be healed; perhaps the community can be saved from further harm. I always hope that in those situations a true return to a trust in the powers can help them, but the offender has to be truly willing to change and to take those steps in honesty and humility.
They are offering something of value.
Why should they do it for free? Isn't their time worth anything ? They have already felt worthless most of their lives and no way are they going back there.
Money is energy ...
And here we have the divide between traditional cultures, traditions of providing for one another's needs in community, vs the white capitalist mindset of just placing a monetary value on everything.
A really horrible but slightly different thing I've seen with the more wealthy nuagers is that, when their lives have been really easy, or they've had an unusual stretch of good luck after struggle, it makes them really keen to adopt the whole "we create our own reality" schtick. The whole Healing for the Already Healthy approach. Superficial remedies for minor problems, very effective for those susceptible to the Placebo Effect.
Often these personal issues get mixed in with cultural assuptions of White prilidge. White privilidge just can't comprehend Native people are real , have a right to control their own culture, resources and political identities , have more knowledge than White people as to how to do this. White privilidge just can't quite understand how it is that Native people do not exist just to serve White people and have a right to say NO which needs to be respected.
Yup.
But I guess I believe that at the bottom of every New Age plastic shamon and their followers there is usually just a bunch of confused and lost people. I like to think if they knew better they would chose better, which I guess is why I like to hope education is a possible solution.
Education only works on those who are well-intentioned but confused. The racists and the con-persons... no, education doesn't work on them, only consequences.
