The PK Man Seen From an African Perspective

Awo Fa'lokun Fatunmbi

I have been fortunate over the past ten years to have had the opportunity to study
the shamanism used in the rain forest of southwestern Nigeria. This is the
traditional home of the Yoruba Nation which is one of the largest cultural groups in
Western Africa consisting of over twenty million Yoruba speaking people. The
shamanism of southwestern Nigeria is called "Ifa" which means "wisdom of nature".
Based on my experience in the study and practice of this tradition I believe that
there is value in examining the world view of Ifa as one possible paradigm for
explaining the data collected by Dr. Mishlove in his study of the paranormal activity
associated with Ted Owens.

All Things Have Some Consciousness

The world view of Ifa differs from the world view of mainstream Western
metaphysics in two ways; Ifa teaches that everything in nature has some form of
consciousness called ori, and it teaches that the world is a multi-dimensional reality.
Most forms of shamanism teach the idea that the visible world is influenced by
invisible worlds that co-exist in the same dimensional space as the physical world.
The invisible realms are usually called "Spirit Worlds". The word "spirit" means
"essential nature" or "essence". From a shamanistic point of view Spirits are
fundamental Forces in Nature that help shape the physical reality perceived by the
senses in a non-altered state of consciousness.

Ifa teaches that all things in the world have some form of consciousness. The first
step in developing the shamanistic skills of an Ifa initiate is to learn how to
empathize with the consciousness of non human Forces in Nature. One of the
easiest ways to do this is to sit in the presence of an Oroko tree. In Africa the Oroko
tree can have a trunk the size of a house. Biologists estimate that as many as a
thousand different life forms co-exist within the sphere of influence of one of these
trees. That would include everything from tiny microbes living under the earth to
birds and mammals living near the top of the trees. The cumulative effect of this
vast network of consciousness involved in the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth
within a confined space can be extremely informative. Merely being in the presence
of the tree produces an altered state of consciousness that seems to generate
information that transcends the experience of the person involved in the encounter.
The tree is a universal symbol of spiritual growth because a tree is capable of giving
instruction to those who are willing to watch and listen.

Communication with non human forms of consciousness is generally described by

anthropologists as "possession." There are two Yoruba words for this phenomena;
"Ini" meaning "I am", and "ogun" meaning "medicine". The student of Ifa who learns
to empathize with the consciousness of various Forces of Nature uses their ability
as a problem solving tool. From an Ifa perspective learning how to empathize with
the consciousness of a cloud is a way of retrieving information related to future
weather conditions. It is also the first step in learning how to influence the weather.

Shamanistic Weather Control

Dr. Mishlove makes reference to numerous examples where it appears that Ted
Owens effected the weather and appears to have caused lightning to manifest. In
Ifa the invocation of lightning is used as an instrument of warfare. There are very
specific and detailed rituals that are designed to produce and direct this natural
phenomena. I have personally witnessed enough examples of Ifa initiates invoking
changes in the weather that it now seems normal rather than abnormal.

From a parapsychological perspective claims of effecting the weather result in a

debate between two possible explanations. One explanation is that the person has
a telekinetic influence on conditions that produce the weather and the other is that
the person has powers of precognition and is simply predicting events while
claiming to exert some form of control.

From an Ifa perspective these two points of view are not necessarily mutually
exclusive. Ifa makes extensive use of a variety of divination systems that are used
to predict the future. If a predicted future event is deemed favorable, rituals will be
performed to insure that the anticipated good fortune becomes manifest. If a
predicted future event is deemed unfavorable, rituals will be performed in an effort
to alter destiny. To me this ritual process suggests that there is a interactive
relationship between precognition and telekinesis that does not appear to have
been fully explored by Western scientist who research paranormal phenomena.
This polarity would be extremely difficult to analyze in a laboratory setting. In
personal terms it is the polarity between optimism that generates good luck and
pessimism that generates bad luck.
It is interesting to read that Ted Owens appears to have had a certain amount of
ambivalence about this subject. Early in his career he believes that he is the sole
agent responsible for effecting the weather then he believes that he is the
messenger for entities who actually cause the event. There also seems to be some
limitation on his ability to effect the weather instantaneously. His predictions
typically come within varying time frames suggesting to me that there is a
precognitive component to his process. This does not suggest that Ted Owens was
being deliberately deceptive. It is quite possible that his intuitive understanding of
the weather was expressed as the desire to invoke specific weather conditions. On
an unconscious level this would be consistent with the Ifa process for invoking good
fortune.

The shift from thinking he was solely responsible for effecting the weather, to
believing he had extraterrestrial help may have been a consequence of the
improvement of his ability to see a broader range of hidden influences on his work.
The idea of being a parent only becomes real at the birth of a child. Understanding
evolves with experience. I would be more skeptical of Ted Owens if he claimed to
have fully developed paranormal abilities that came complete with coherent
explanations and impeccable laboratory proof of their existence than I am of
someone who shows signs of gradual development in all three areas.

Based on my own experience I have seen shamans invoke rain and watch the rain
manifest. I have seen shamans invoke the spirit of lighting while their invocations
were punctuated by bolts of lightning hurling across the sky. I have seen shamans
command the wind to blow and demand that it stop. On one occasion a wind storm
disrupted a ceremony that I was participating in, and the Ifa initiate who was leading
the ceremony poked his head out of the door of the room that we were in and yelled
at the wind to stop blowing. There wind stopped until after we had finished. When I
asked how he did that, he answered; "You have to believe that you can." This
answer is not flip. Believing that you can means that you have worked through
doubt, fear, hesitation, and confusion. These are all emotions that would restrict
access to ase or inhibit the manifestation of kundalini (as it is known in the yogic
traditions).

Alien Intelligence

The problem encountered by Ted Owens appears to have been that he was trying
to understand what was happening to him while his skills were developing. He
appears to have devoted much of his time and energy to the task of convincing
others that his paranormal abilities were real. The effort to convince a skeptic,
especially around issues that generate hostile emotional reactions, is not a
conducive environment for formulating clear theoretical explanations of paranormal
phenomena. This is a challenging effort for a trained scientist who has no personal
investment in the results of his research. For this reason I do not believe that Ted
Owens' explanations about how things happened need to be accepted in order to
accept the possibility that they did in fact happen. I also believe that any difficulty in
accepting his explanations is not an automatic basis for doubting his sincerity. In
contemporary American society hairless beings with thin limbs, large back eyes and
small mouths would frequently be called "aliens". Those same beings in medieval
Celtic culture might be called "ferries". In Ifa such beings are called "aja" which is
the Yoruba word for dog. In Ifa cosmology dogs are the messengers of the wind.

In the early days of my studies of Ifa I heard stories that I assumed were
exaggerated, apocryphal, or simply symbolic. As I gained more direct experience of
various phenomena, two things happened; I discovered that more of the stories
were true and accurate than I had originally believed, and I discovered that my
understanding of phenomena made a radical shift every time I initially encountered
the phenomena. Before I experienced possession for the first time I assumed that it
was a projection of some hidden aspect of the inner self. Now I believe that there is
a merging of personal consciousness with the consciousness of something outside
of the self. The shift in explanation is based on continuous evaluation of ongoing
experience.

The west African shaman Malidoma Some tells a story of being told to sit in front of
a tree until he was able to speak to the spirit of the tree. After many long hours of
no results he decided to pretend that he was talking to the tree. One of his elders
admonished him for making the conversation up. Sometime later Malidoma reports
that he was able to communicate with the tree and that as the tree began to speak,
it took on an anthropomorphic form. At that point the elder agreed that he was in
communication with the tree.

This is a common account among those who are being trained in various forms of
shamanistic discipline. An inanimate object will become transformed in the minds
eye leading to a dialogue between the object and the observer. This suggests that
there might be some mechanism that is latent in human consciousness that
stimulates an anthropomorphic image when communication occurs between people
and things. If this is true and if all things do have consciousness, this mechanism
would not necessary bias the message and the mechanism could work differently
for different people. It is possible that this mechanism is similar in function to the
way in which we translate information when speaking in a second language. A shift
occurs that enables us to start thinking in the second language so that literal
translation is no longer necessary.

Assuming that this analysis has validity, the implications of this theory leads to a
serious problem. If the mind is able to create anthropomorphic images of inanimate
conscious objects while those inanimate objects are attempting to communicate
with human consciousness, how do you make the distinction between valid
messages coming from Nature, and the possibility that the image is simply a
figment of the person's imagination. It is very interesting to me to note that my
teacher's in Ifa are very concerned about the possibility of confusing these two
functions of the human mind. Ifa teaches that true communication with Nature
requires that the person receiving the message has access to ase. In other words
communication with Nature involves a rekindling of the kundalini experience. When
this occurs there are easily observable shifts in the demeanor of the person who
enters that state. Imagination does not require ase. Malidoma's teacher knew that
he was not communicating with the tree because Malidoma was not in the right
state of mind for that type of communication to occur.

Ted Owens states that he used imagination and visualization as a key to gaining
access to the paranormal. It would be fair to wonder why if the process began as
imagination, it did not simply continue in the same vein and to assume that the
entire event is nothing more than personal fantasy. I have found that I can access
ase by repeating the invocations that were said at the time of my initiation into Ifa. I
also have discovered that I can access ase by remembering the sights, sounds and
smells that occurred during my initiation. Both mechanisms have the same
triggering effect. All this is to say that I suspect that it was possible for Ted Owens
to use visual images that gave him access to his telekinetic abilities and that these
images may have been effective without necessarily generating accurate images of
the true source of his power. Most shamanistic traditions have what could be called
the Spirit of Fire. For Yorubas this Spirit looks like an African Warrior, for the Lakota
Sioux this spirit looks like a Native American Warrior. Both images may be an
authentic gateway to some form of transcendent interaction, two different forms
accessing the same elemental power. Perhaps the gateway that made the most
sense to Ted Owens was the image of an alien from another planet.

The discussion of a possible explanation for the physical appearance of non human
life forms does not necessarily call into question the material reality of these life
forms. I think that it would be more accurate to say that there are a variety of
shapes and forms that these life forms can take when they make themselves visible
to human powers of perception. This may have more to do with human bio-
chemistry than it has to do with metaphysics. It is also a possible source of the
popularity of the image of shape shifters in Shamanistic literature.

The perplexing aspect of the Owens story is the question of UFO's. In the West
mention of the word UFO implies visitors from another planet. Based on the
scientific understanding of cosmology and physics the possibility of contact
between life on this planet and life from another planet ranges from slim to non-
existent. For most scientist the possibility that the number of encounters that have
been reported represent real interaction between humans and alien life forms is an
absurdity unworthy of serious consideration.

In my own study of Ifa I have identified at least forty different categories of inter-
dimensional beings, and each category has a number of sub-categories. The
shamanism of west Africa and south Africa makes clear reference to Alien life forms
who visit the earth from different dimensions of reality and some who claim to be
from specific places in the visible universe. Similar material appears in the
shamanistic traditions of Native Americans, most notably the Hopi who dance in
honor of their alien visitors. The Hopi are extremely reluctant to speak about their
relationship with alien visitors, not out of fear of being called "crazy", their
reluctance is based on a concern for the safety of the aliens themselves. Elders
among the Zulu teach a form of sign language used to communicate with visitors
from other planets. Efforts have been made by the Zulu elders to publish this
material for the benefit of everyone. Some of the material has reached the printed
page most of it has been rejected by publishers as non credible. It seems to me that
the issue of credibility should be left to the reader and that any effort to edit ideas
that are uncomfortable to the Western reader takes the entire concept of
colonialism to a new level of insidious sophistication.
Psychic Energy

Every form of martial arts that I am aware of teaches techniques for using mental
ability to influence the out come of a fight. The martial art that was developed in
Yoruba culture is called "Aki" meaning "bravery". The physical techniques taught
are relatively simple and are very similar to wrestling. The mind control aspect of
Aki is extremely sophisticated and includes incantations for causing different levels
of damage as the situation warrants. I have seen fighters pass out as a result of
words that were spoken to them prior to any physical contact.

Traditional Yoruba hunters use similar techniques to track and capture game. Some
Yoruba hunters go into the forest at night without weapons. They use incantations
to call animals out from their hiding places, then they use incantations to paralyze
the animals which are simply picked up by the tail and brought back home. When it
is time to eat the animal, the hunter will say something into the animals ear and it
will expire quickly and without the necessity of drawing blood. For most Westerners
this is shocking and hard to believe. In Yoruba culture it is simply a skill needed to
insure survival in the rain forest.

Based on my experience there is no doubt in my mind that Ted Owens may well
have had the ability to do many of the things that he claimed. I base this opinion on
the fact that I have witnessed similar abilities used by the Ifa elders of southwest
Nigeria. What is remarkable to me is that I have been given instruction in the
methodology for accessing what Western science calls PK ability and have found
the methodology to be effective. I have also discovered the methodology is most
effective when it is applied to solving a real problem as compared with being used
simply to prove that it is possible.

Ted Owens spend most of his life trying to convince others that his abilities were
real. I believe that this effort effected the ways in which he chose to use these
abilities and in retrospect I think it would be fair to say that some of his choices
were overly emotional and counter productive. This is not a judgment of the man,
disbelief of what is true and real in your personal life can be a devastating
experience. Ted Owens did remarkably well considering the circumstances.

Ifa is based on the idea that some people have more life experience than others.
Those with more experience are considered elders. It is the task of an elder to
guide those with less life experience towards those experiences that will bring
wisdom, clarity and understanding of both the self and its relationship to the world.
If there are elders who claim to have interaction with visitors from different
dimensions of reality and visitors from different places in the universe and if these
elders are will to share the wisdom of their experience I believe that this offer
should be taken seriously. In the world of shamanistic belief taking this offer
seriously does not mean asking the elders to prove their world view in a laboratory
setting. Taking this offer seriously means having the courage to surrender to their
process of instruction. You can't learn how to ride a horse by simple reading about it
in a book, at some point you have to climb on to the horse's back. Any real
understanding of UFOs requires a similar effort.

I believe that Ted Owens suffered needlessly because he invested so much time
and energy into trying to convince his peers that his abilities were real. In my
experience it is much easier to develop paranormal abilities in an environment of
support rather than an environment of hostile skepticism. Hopefully the lessons that
we can learn from an examination of Ted Owens life will allow us to move beyond
the "is it real" phase of our understanding of consciousness into the much more
rewarding phase of applying the optimal levels of consciousness to the task of
solving real problems. Shamans invoke spirit beings from invisible realms of reality
to effectively improve the quality of life in their communities. Shamans tend to view
this interaction as benevolent, desirable and part of the scheme of things. Skeptics
either dismiss this all together or become extremely hostile about the notion that we
are not alone. Hostility is rooted in fear and overcoming fear is the function of
initiation. Every ritual initiation has a segment that challenges the courage of the
initiate. Understanding the life of Ted Owens could be just such a challenge.

Biography of Awo Fa'lokun Fatunmbi

In 1989 David Wilson, who has an academic background in law, traveled to

southwest Nigeria where he became a member of Egbe Ifa Ogun ti Ode Remo
which is a society of Yoruba diviners living in the west African rain forest. At this
time he was given the name Awo Fa'lokun Fatunmbi and has continued his study of
traditiona Yoruba spirituality on four subsequent trips to Nigeria. This tradtion is
called Ifa. Awo Fa'lokun Fatunmbi has written three books on Ifa, Iwa Pele: Ifa
Quest the Search of the sources of Santeria and Lucumi, Awo: Ifa and the Theology
of Orisa divination, Iba se Orjisa: Ifa Proverbs, Folktales, Sacred History and
Prayer.

http://www.williamjames.com/awo.htm