The first comprehensive presentation of the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the Tribal Elders.
The first comprehensive presentation of the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the Tribal Elders
• Reveals how the Bushmen are able to receive direct transmissions of God’s love for healing and spiritual transformation
• Explores tribal legends and teaching tales, the importance of dreams and animals, and the origins of their dances, rituals, and ceremonies
Step into the imaginative realm of one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth, the Kalahari Ju/’hoansi Bushmen. Translated by Beesa Boo, a Bushman, and interspersed with detailed commentary from Bradford and Hillary Keeney, this book presents the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the tribal elders themselves. Decades in the making, it constitutes the first comprehensive work on the world’s oldest tradition of healing and spiritual experience.
Told in their own words, these teachings reveal how the Bushmen are able to receive direct transmissions of God’s love in the form of the universal life force, n/om. The individuals who are filled with this force describe it as an awakened, energized feeling of love that inspires a spontaneous and heightened ecstatic awareness that opens mystical perception. Having your heart transfixed by this force enables true healing and spiritual growth to occur. Experiencing the force in your entire being, through a vision of “God’s egg”, awakens deep spiritual wisdom and extraordinary healing gifts. Those who “own the egg” are blessed with the ability to have direct communication with the Divine, a “rope to God,” and can communicate with others for all “ropes” are connected.
Conveying the deep love that is the dominant emotion of Bushman spirituality, the book explores tribal legends and teaching tales, the importance of dreams and encounters with animals, the origins of their dances, such as the giraffe dance, and specific rituals and ceremonies, including puberty rites for boys and girls.
“As the elder teachers of the Ju’/hoan Bushman (San) people, we hold the most enduring traditional wisdom concerning healing and spiritual experience. This book is a testimony of our ecstatic ways. We happily share our basic teachings about spirituality and healing with those whose hearts are sincerely open.”
“Bradford and Hillary Keeney have broken through the dusty curtain that often separates anthropologists from the people whose beliefs and practices they want to understand. Instead of writing exclusively about their own impressions, they foreground the teachings of Ju’hoan Bushman elders from northeastern Namibia. Their parallel commentary shows how a form of circular interaction and change-oriented activities have kept the ancient religion and its practitioners alive and successful despite major social upheaval in their community over the past century or more. It is a poignant reminder that the opportunity to share the experiences described with rare insight in this ‘bible’ may never arise in the same way again.”
