The Oosumich of Open Form: Writing as Vision
Quest
Poetry can be a mode of deepening one’s
consciousness – this I know from personal experience and from stories of how
others lives were turned around by a self-guided exploration of the tradition
and practice of poetry. The case of Jimmy Santiago Baca, who taught himself to
read and write in prison and used his imagination to help overcome
being abandoned by his mother and the abuse of an alcoholic father, is one of
the more remarkable cases. At one point in prison when he was about to commit
murder, a voice in his head with the words of poets was reinforcing – or even becoming his conscience at one point
– giving him the strength to choose a different option. This is one
particularly vivid example of the power of poetry to aid in the process of
aiding the development of consciousness. Noted poet and translator Sam Hamill, who had a similar experience with poetry, refers to
the wisdom tradition the ancient
Chinese and Japanese, especially, have taught him.
Yet the word “consciousness” is a
difficult word to use without some perspective. Robert Ornstein in his seminal
book The Psychology of Consciousness
points out that textbook definitions are problematic, that consciousness is
experiential. He does provide an interesting chart he calls “The Two Modes of
Consciousness: A Tentative Dichotomy.” One
mode can be described as intellectual and active, while the second is sensuous
and receptive. The first is, in his words, “lineal” and the second “nonlineal
and intuitive.” (Ornstein 67).
More recently, John Upledger, whose studies of consciousness have been in the
experiential mode with the healing modality he pioneered known as Craniosacral Therapy, writes: “I don’t think we’ll
ever be able to fit an understanding of consciousness into a provable model
that would be considered scientifically acceptable – a model that could fit
into our concept of an investigation that obeys the rules of experimental
design, and that is able to be duplicated by others” (Upledger
36).
Interestingly, the American public seems
to be more open to more holistic approaches when confronted with chronic
medical conditions such as back problems, anxiety, depression, and headaches.
According to a study cited in the Journal of the American Medical
Association, between 1990 and 1997 there was a 47.3% increase in total
visits to alternative medicine practitioners, from 427 million in 1990 to 629
million in 1997, thereby exceeding total visits to all U.S. primary care
physicians. These folks were paying out-of-pocket, which makes the results all
the more telling (Eisenberg et al. 1).
We see the stirrings of holism in the
mechanistic American public through this and countless other examples, yet
models for a holistic paradigm are ancient. Of those indigenous to North
America, the worldview of the Nuu-chah-nulth people
of
Keesta himself as a whaler would practice what
we’ve called Oosumich…that is a method to acquire
knowledge. A method to access knowledge from the spiritual
realm. And so for that purpose he would isolate himself for long periods
of time and fast, and pray, and deny himself the physical pleasure of the world
in order to focus on the spiritual concerns that he had, assuming that the
spiritual dimension had power, had knowledge, had treasures that he could
access through a correct methodology. Now the fundamental requirement in
successful scientific experimentation, the classical form was neutrality.
Scientists attempted to be neutral in their observations so as not to bias the
information that (was gathered in the experiment. Objectivity.)
…Now this has been challenged by feminist theory, and rightly so. However,
there’s a lot of credence to the classical form of research (which) created
this form of technology…It has served classical science and scientific
methodology very legitimately. Oosumich is also a
methodology. When it’s practiced, the critical stance, according to our origin
stories, is …humility. Objectivity is the proper stance in science. If we merge
the two together, and make a more complete knowledge acquisition system,
scientists will have to buy in to the humility aspect, because without
humility, there is no seeing in the spiritual realm… The word Oosumich has in it the root Oo
which means “be careful” and so it’s based on the view of reality that
perceives it as along a spectrum which might be divided in two. On the one
side, we might call it the dark, evil, destructive aspect of reality and the
other side, the beautiful, the creative, the glorious, the harmonious, the
balance. All of those things that can describe Qua-ootz
– Owner of Reality…We create ceremonies and we create teachings to manage this
reality as we perceive it through Oosumich. We cannot
perceive this reality with our physical eyes, but more with our spiritual eyes
through Oosumich. Physical eyes will corroborate what
we see through the spiritual realm, but the spiritual realm will give you a
greater kind of certainty about the nature of reality… (Atleo)
I am reminded of several things here,
first of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle[1],
which suggests that total objectivity in an experiment is not always possible.
The researcher can have an effect on the outcome. Second, the application of an
Open Form writing practice to the deepening of one’s consciousness. In one of
the most comprehensive outlines of this writing stance, Charles Olson writes of
the need to get “rid of the lyrical interference of the ego and also to
achieving an humilitas sufficient to make him (the
poet) of use” (Olson 247).
Like the vision quest described by Atleo, the poet working in Open Form is on a vision quest
in the realm of the consciousness of a particular moment in time. This work may
be rewarded through publications, occasional paid readings or workshops, but
the poet who earns a living simply from poetry is rare, and is not usually of
the caliber that stands the test of time. So the rewards of writing tend to be
of the spiritual nature. Yet, like the Oosumich
practitioner, one cannot use the linear, the rational/intellectual
consciousness to access those deeper realms of existence. It is why Olson
suggested a process which “engages
speech where it is least careless – and least logical” (241). Perhaps it can be seen as a modality
that could fill the vacuum created by the absence of ceremony in Western
culture. Again, while the Oosumich practitioner uses
the spiritual eyes the Open Form
practitioner uses the spiritual EARS in a use of language that has more in
common with music than with linear thought. And it is partly developing the
trust in a process with its nonlinear gaps that allows the deepening of consciousness
available to the Open Form practitioner. To trust the odd phrase because it sounds good and to have verification
of the deeper meaning years later is an experience all writers should have. The
experience of Eileen Myles in the composition of the poem Milk, written before the 9/11 terror attacks in the town she has
called home for many years, is telling:
Milk
I
flew into
and the season
changed
a giant burr
something hot was moving
through the City
that I knew
so well. On the
plane though it was
white and stormy
faceless
I saw the sun
& remembered the warning
in the kitchen of all places
in which I was
informed my wax
would melt… (103)
These kinds of things (coincidences,
synchronicities?) come from a stance deeper than Ornstein’s Phase One of
consciousness. The Open Form practitioner, at best, is like that Oosumich practitioner, seeking to tap into knowledge that
is mysterious and greater than him or herself. It is not subject to the rules
of linear time. It is perhaps only in fleeting moments between medical
appointments as in the case of William Carlos Williams, achieving a different
kind of mind of which Krishnamurti knows: “A mind
that listens with complete attention will never look for a result, because it
is constantly unfolding; like a river, it is always in movement. Such a mind is
totally unconscious of its own activity, in the sense that there is no
perpetuation of a self, of a “me” that is seeking to achieve an end.” (Krishnamurti 2)
The proof that an Open Form
practitioner uses this method to deepen his or her own consciousness may not be
duplicatable in a traditional scientific
methodological way, but to Krishnamurti “…there is no
arriving, there is only the movement of learning – and that is the beauty of
life.” (Krishnamurti 2)
WORKS
CITED
Atleo, E. Richard. “Tsawalk:
A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview.”
Atleo, E. Richard. Personal
interview. March 25, 2005.
Baca,
Jimmy Santiago. “
Eisenberg,
David M., MD; Davis, Roger B., ScD; Ettner, Susan L.,
PhD; Appel, Appel, MS;
Wilkey, Sonja; Van Rompay, Maria; Kessler, Ronald C., PhD JAMA. 280 (1998); 1569-1575.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/280/18/1569.
Krishnamurti, J. “Can Humanity Change?”
Myles,
Eileen. “Skies.”
Olson, Charles. “Collected
Prose.”
Ornstein,
Robert. “The Psychology of Consciousness.”
Upledger, John. “Cell Talk: Talking to Your Cell(f).”