significance of the caves in their influence on the evolution of mythopoeic
consciousness.
I discuss shamanism not in its anthropological context but more in terms of
cognitive archaeology, ontology, and as a parapsychological phenomenon that, in
turn, reveals a profound spiritual implication: that the human psyche has a narrative
imperative that emerges out of a dynamic affiliation between the places we inhabit
(physically and imaginally) and the Self, between the Mundane and the I maginal.
Shamanism is believed to be the earliest form of spiritual practice (Tolstoy,
1985:124) and I suspect that because of the prehistoric shaman’s use of paintings
on the walls of caves, early shamanism illustrates, and may even have intensified, a
unique relationship between the human psyche and place. Shamanism thus may
then be understood as a dimension beyond ordinary conscious and sensory
awareness and the purview of rational thought but one that is still embodied within
human cognition. I also describe the links between Sufi mysticism and the Romantic
Movement in literature and the involvement of the Imaginal Realm as conceived by
Henry Corbin. Finally, I describe a form of mythic thinking or enchantment, MLC,
which is detectable in certain instances of contemporary literature that I have
categorized as mythopoeic literature.
I n Part I I , Prospero’s Books: Empirical and Textual Research, I develop the
issues and questions that arise out of the narrative presented in Chapter 2. Chapter
3 explains my research methodology and design, which consists of empirical and
textual research, explains the necessity of textual research and presents the
research questionnaire. My empirical research was based on an analysis and
interpretation of the responses to the research questionnaire of two practicing
shamans, both of whom hold professional positions, three writers, David Malouf,
Thomas Keneally and Colleen McCullough and five readers; the readers were
selected primarily on the basis of their known propensity to love reading poetry and
serious fiction. An analysis of all responses is presented in Chapter 4.
The textual research, based on selected works of the three writers,
complements the empirical research by elaborating on and exemplifying major
points of the thesis and is presented in Chapter 5. The textual research proved to
be so edifying that I have referred to it throughout the dissertation together with
examples drawn from the work of other writers. By incorporating an approach that
included both empirical and textual research regarding the writers, the outcome
proved to be more illustrative and substantial than either by itself would have been.
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(Ron)
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