Drugs from Petersburg, politics from Moscow

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Berit ja Terje

All the signs were referring that there was a hippie culture in Soviet Union, but not everybody believed it. Not yet.

Introducing two old hippie souls from Tallinn – Aleksandr Dormidontov and Jaakko Hallas.

Aleksandr Dormidontov, my favourite Sass, trouble with hair since 1968

The directress of Estonian National Museum, for example, encouraged us to meet some prolific cultural researchers, to ask guidance and material. As soon as we had another shooting day planned – as with extremely limited budget, we often had to make 15h working days – we booked the morning for an interview Linnar Priimägi. He’s a recognized art and cultural researcher, but for our mild distress he rather announced that hippie culture was apparent in America only, certainly not here, and then he even added, sounding almost like an apostel, that “it will never return.”

I couldn’t take these words.

Our director of photography Andreas Press, Kiwa, Linnar Priimägi and me

Later on I understood that his rather different understanding from ours was mostly about his rigid definition of what ‘hippie culture‘ is – i.e. living in communes, raising children collectively, dropping lots of acid – all of which indeed was not really apparent in Soviet Union. But which doesn’t necessarily mean that the ‘hippie culture’ was totally absent here. More so, hippie culture emerged most vividly underground and it was not open to public exposure, as this could have been followed by various sanctions by the Soviet authorities (e.g. dropping out from universities, treatment in mental hospital). And even more so, because Soviet hippie culture is something that has not so far been researched and written much about!

But it was Linnar Priimägi, who together with Ants Juske wrote a manifesto of their generation in 1978. The manifesto known as “Tartu autumn” stated their generation as the generation of indolence – taking the long story short, the outside reality is so ridiculous and painful, that you just don’t care nor feel anything about it anymore. And certainly this attitude was part of the local hippie realm.

Meeting Aleksandr Dormidontov, the tailor-Sass

But thank god (e.g. Shiva), already in the afternoon we met some of the living proofs of the Soviet hippie culture – Aleksandr Dormidontov and Jaakko Hallas.

Aleksandr Dormidontov, locally known as tailor-Sass was one of the central character of the hippies in Tallinn, who apparently sewed wide trousers for most of the hippies in Soviet Union. His commune house at Nõmme with its massive book archive of the ninth generation of Estonian Russians – as this is what he is – and record collection dangled intellectuals and vagabonds alike. Sometimes, especially around the 1st of May – which became a legendary meeting point of Soviet hippies in Tallinn, to celebrate the launch of the hitch-hiking season – his house was full of more than 100 people, all longhaired, all into rock’n'roll music from all around the whole Sovietico. Sass explains the relations of Tallinn between bigger Russian cities: “Drugs we got from Petersburg, politics came from Moscow.” I also find his speculation about the collapse of the Soviet Union remarkable: “Lenin didn’t invent rock’n’ roll. That was his trouble.”

Sass’ house at Narva street in Tallinn, opposite to the Tallinn University, is usually open for guests. Gosh, this man is so awesome. Especially I like his beard.

Sass and Jaakko

Jaakko Hallas used to hang out with hippies around 1968-1971 – the time when he experienced emotional high-voltage and enormous inner freedom. His close relationship with hippie world was mainly through his interest in esoterica and Eastern religions. After graduating from university he started learning about everything that was not taught at school or even prohibited. He proudly announces that “Hedonism of the mind is most important.”

As we all sit around the round table, the secret history of the Soviet counter-culture started to leak with some intriguing memories. Sass tells us how once he had a joint in his hand, but had no fire. He then went to ask a lighter from a militia man. The militia just wrinkled his eyebrows murmuring that “This tobacco smells weird…”

Weed was apparently not known as a drug for the authorities back at the time here. So hippies indeed used to smoke quite freely in the cafeterias or on the streets. Only if they had something to smoke – marijuana was certainly not widely available in the 1970s, but it was around, especially when some hippie friends from Petersburg visited Tallinn or someone hitch-hiked as far as Ukraine, Caucasus or Central Asia and brought back a decent handful of weed.

Our director of sound Björn Norralt, Aleksandr Dormidontov, Kiwa, me, and Jaakko Hallas

By Terje

This man is really flying! – how to baptise a documentary film project

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Berit ja Terje

Hiiumaa is a place of magic in Estonia – an island that happened to provide the setting for our first shooting session into the Soviet hippie trail.

Sountrack for the post:

By the time the nights went light in Estonia – in the end of June we have indeed an awesome period of white nights here when the sky gets especially hallucinogenic – our team of hippie trail through Soviet times had grown bigger by young promising producer Liis Lepik who took the courage to lead the game behind the matter of subject where me and Kiwa had already lost our heads.

Poet based in Hiiumaa – Ave Alavainu

We cruised out of Tallinn on a huge jeep ruled by one of our most adventurous friend, known as Fabrique. It was promising a storm, the wind was huge and sky threateningly dark, but we only had a little tent, filming equipment and a crazy idea in mind to catch the ferry to an island Hiiumaa. Namely, one Estonian poet Ave Alavainu is living there and what could be better that to start our journey with a female voice. Ave used to center the avant-garde social life in late sixties of the university town Tartu, reading her lines in the university café along with other progressive thinkers, such as catalyst-provocator Johnny B Isotamm. Btw Johnny B gained a personal myth of being the leading hippie of Estonia, as one foreigner in café in Tallinn once gave him a badge “Make love not war”. Wearing it publicly was already a statement enough for Soviet era.

Ave used to be the vagabond lady, hanging out with various crowds, constantly in love. Later on in Tallinn she used to live in a apartment where she never locked the doors – because the doors are supposed to be open, in order to let the energies flow.

There we were – in the ferry, hopelessly steering into the dark sky. We had agreed an appointment with Ave for the next day, but the night was still young. But just as we saw the first sparks of the setting sun making its way through the thick gray of clouds we suddenly remembered – one legendary drummer from 1970s Paap Kõlar, the founder member of progressive-experimental awesomeness band Psycho, hasn’t stopped advancing his human capabilities attached to the social fabrications. If we’re lucky enough, we might find Paap right here on this island, surfing on the waves, or perhaps flying.

The closer we got the island, the sunnier it went and by the evening we were indeed witnessing how this man gets his ‘high’ not so much from playing drums as no-one had ever heard played in Soviet Union before, but now he indeed is flying (sic).

And so were we. At least in our minds when following with cameras this unknown flying object, listening to the rocking tunes of Psycho.

Legendary drummer and adventurer Paap Kõlar getting ready for the high

Paap hosted us nicely, inviting us for a sauna on the beach and offering us a simple inca tent for a couple of hours of resting, before we had to head out for an interview-appointment with Ave in Kärdla. Later on the surf boys caught a black poisonous snake which we cooked and shared. Apart from that occasion, or maybe just on the contrary, these days in Hiiumaa were the new-age-pagan-psychedelic baptism our hippie trail in time.

Stay tuned!

Completely empty space with souls

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Berit ja Terje

I’m still not yet over with the very first session of “fieldworks”, meaning, when me and Kiwa met some of the central spirits of the Tallinn’s hippie underground of the 1970s for the very first time. These were warm starlight nights of august, handicam in the pocket. As a result of these evenings with Vladimir Wiedemann and Aare Loit, we kind of started to sense where the hippie dharma would be carrying us. Perhaps we too have already been there, in our own times, with our own means. The road, the time, the political and social situation could be radically different between my generation and those with whom I choose to create cross-generational friendships, or rather, they just happen, but the direction, the law or dharma seems to be quite the same.

Here’s a short video to get a glimpse of the feel, semi-Estonian-semi-English, pardon. Introducing: Vladimir Wiedemann and Babai

What is the center of the world?

You are the center of the world.

Who is the creater of all this?

You are, Allah.

Traces of the Center of Psychotronics of the Soviet Union

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Berit ja Terje

Vladimir Wiedemann and Aare Loit (Babai)

Vladimir Wiedemann was largely influenced by Mihkel Ram Tamm who was a great philosopher and big thinker, and whose work eventually took a shape of zero-philosophy. Ram knew many religions, he synthesized a variety of theories describing the science (or rather something at the borderline between science and religion) of nothing. He did this often by using complex schemes and hypotheses. Out of his notes weighing kilograms, among other things, have been published 900-pages masterpiece Theory-Null-Hypothesis.

As I said in an earlier post, Soviet-time hippies and dissidents gathered frequently at his place, where they made group meditations, practiced telepathy, digged into guru’s library or helped him with everyday work. Wiedemann in his book referred to this place at Langermaa as the Center of Psychotronics of the Soviet Union.
One old hippie Aare Loit, commonly now known as Babai, says that Ram eventually become even too popular. Visiting the guru became a trendy thing to do for alternative-minded youth of the whole Soviet Union – and there were so many! - although they often knew nothing about his zero-philosophy.

There, between the green fields on around 100 kilometer of Tallinn-Pärnu highway we stopped the car and ask advice from a man on a bicycle. Although Ram moved away from here for already more than 30 years ago, he knew exactly what we were talking about.

“Yeah there was one wise man here, still living,” he said, and instantly disappeared as if he was a ghost himself.

New owners of the house who now have lived here for the past 15 years, for our big surprise, did not know anything about the meaningfulness of this house among Soviet counter-culture. We explained a bit the context, but the man spread his hands.
“We have heard some stories about a witch, but …”
“And how about the current energies of the house? Have you felt anything special?” I was curious.
“I haven’t really thought about it!”

We asked the householder kindly to enter the room. Aare’s and Vladimir’s faces shone with some sparks of nostalgia, though, of course, everything had been completely changed. Along with artists Sandra Jõgeva, Minna Hint, Kiwa, magician Hannes Vanaküla and historian Margus Kiis we sat down in circle on the bright carpet, the way as they probably did while making group meditations and discussions. Ram sat in a corner near the stove, now this place was taken by the Aare, as he has the most gray in his hair. We felt the vibrations of the moment, Aare said Buddhist mantra OM MANI PADME HUM.

Aare Loit, me, Kiwa (holding the book of Mihkel Ram Tamm) and Vladimir Wiedemann in front of the house where Soviet hippies used to gather in 1970s

When later in the garden we discussed the mystic theories of Ram and asked about the practices held here from Vladimir and Aare, Ram let us know about his presence quite obviously. Suddenly all the cats started singing loud together, souls were freed on the move.

In the magic of the School of Magicians

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Berit ja Terje

Estonian artist Sandra Jõgeva once noticed a review in newspaper about a book that was talking about the so-far pretty much silenced down underground of the Soviet Estonia. She ran to the shop and purchased more than ten copy of the novel which was illustrated with magical symbols and leaves of marijuana. All Sandra’s friend consequently found “The School of Magicians” (2008 in Estonian, not yet published in English or Russian, but totally should!) by Vladimir Wiedemann (born in Tallinn, 1955) among the stuff brought by Santa for Chistmas.

Writer Vladimir Wiedemann and artist Sandra Jõgeva

Few years later Sandra invited the writer, who now lives in London, to Estonia to give a public talk here about Soviet hippie life. Me and Kiwa quickly booked a 3-days date with Wiedemann in Tallinnn, as in our position of great admiration we couldn’t let this legend get away so easily. Vova arrived in Tallinn, necklace of rastaman colors from Ethiopia around his neck and a 9-year-old son, who likes computer games and computer games, by his hand.

As me and Berit had published our psychedelic chef-d’oeuvre, my friends quickly handed me another piece of written psychedelia, more radical that ours. Apparently young people were experimenting with hallucinogens right here at the time which is quite often commonly known as “the dark days of the Soviet time when nothing was available, people were brainwashed and marching all together in blind belief under the huge posters of Lenin and Stalin.” (trying to grasp the stereotype in one sentence)

No, not at all were things as simple and as black-and-white as that.

For some Soviet hippies the supernal trip experience was magnified with an attempt to fight the Soviet powers with the help of magic. Due to prevalent pohhuism (pohhui directly translated means /along the c*ck/ but in slang also signifies total apathy), ignorance and the lack of choices some more brave and curious long-haired were snuffing cleaning agent called Sopals to get some extra flying dimensions on their reality. Sopals could be bought from the housework utilities shop for 20 kopiki.

The last bottle of Sopals. From exhibition “Soviet hippies: the Psychedelic Underground of the 1970s Estonia” curated by Kiwa and Terje at Estonian National Museum, march-september 2013

Just like in the West in 1960s-70s, also among the Soviet alternative youth varios new-age practices and Eastern-influences ideas became popular. These young people grew up listening to the same albums of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin that made the whole generation in the West go crazy. And the local hippie culture emerged, stating themselves against the values of the little bourgeois, stupid Soviet bureaucracy, inequality, violence and war, praising freedom, love, peace and creativity.

Vladimir Wiedemann in 1970s in his house in Tallinn

Among many hippies in Estonia and from other states, Estonian philosopher and writer, master of Advaita Vedanta and Platonism, Sri Rama Michael Tamm (1911-2002) became popular. Wiedemann was one of the first to so-called ‘discover’ him and remained his close follower until the guru’s death in 2002 in Boston.

Just like Ram Tamm, who accidentally got stucked in Soviet Union and the Soviet officials kept him here against his will for 15 years, Wiedemann also decided to leave Soviet Union as soon as it became possible. The air wasn’t good enough for meditation. If you open your mind towards the universe, it might get wrong influences from the tense environment, which the Soviet Union certainly was.

So Wiedemann spend a year in South-America, traveled many times in Central Asia and visited his guru in US, before settling down to Berlin for almost 20 years. He’s a polyglot, a world citizen, with his roots in Estonia.

As we walked around the old town of Tallinn with him, visiting the places where Soviet hippies used to hang out and listening to his incredible stories, I could sense his strong energy and sharp mind that’s still shining. Seems like he never gets old.

Together with Vladimir Wiedemann and his inspirational book

40 years no go out

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Berit ja Terje

Just as there are its own spritis and ghosts in Tartu, Paris or London, we could aslo find some of incredible souls in the deepest corners of Yogyakarta, Java. Our local friend, performance artist Iwan Wijono invited me and Kiwa along for a visit to these legends – born artists, who have totally abandoned the norms of the conformist society.

Through thick rain shower and rivers of water floating under my motorbike wheels we zigzag ourselves along the narrow streets until we find the house of P’trus. Coming from the gray of the outside we suddenly find ourselves in the midst of the striking psychedelia – the walls are covered with colorful dragon paintings, various masks are hanging on the door. There’s a little baby riding a weird machine on the floor, singing merrily a tune, that somehow reminds me of Pink Floyd‘s early psychedelic chords.

P’trus

P’trus is a legendary street artist, who supposedly used to ride a huge high bicycle around the town, blowing trompet, which sound was known all around Yogyakarta. With this trompet, he sometimes intervened some concerts, no-body minded, it was rather seen as a bliss. Or he was organizing performances on a daily basis, making people happy to be together and share the passion of making art out of life. For him esthetics and ethics are the same. Experiment and spontaneity are his keywords for life. Life is art. Art is life. Smile with tears, as he sais.

Three years ago he found himself a young women, who cleaned his house and made the eyes of this old hippie shining even brighter.

P’trus blowing his magical trompet

When the rain was finally over, we took a ride to a man, who’s living even more radially underground. Iwan told us: “This man, 40 years no go out.”

In the house of Puthut al the things are left as they are. Here’s no electricity, no water. He cooks his meal outside on a tiny gas lamp. The man with dark pony tail smokes his thick roll of tobacco happily and seeks for some pieces of wood under our butts. What first seems to be a pile of trash now rather takes a form of some of his creatures – there are tiny sculptures made of cigarette packages, some retro-spirit works of collage and many other things that Puthut has created along his daily blows of inspiration.

So you never leave the house?

Why don’t I?! As soon as I run out of tobacco I have to go outside to get some more.

He gets the tobacco from just around the corner – 40m walking. He smokes from the moment he wakes up until his eyes fall close again. And he doesn’t fall into bed when it happens, he sleeps gently where he happens to be at the very moment of falling asleep – in a chair, on the floor or on the pile of these unidentified objects, usually in lotus position.

If he doesn’t find a canvas, he can use any other piece of paper, seems to be his artist statement. As we wander around his dark house, I come to realize that probably he approaches any piece of paper or furniture with equal creativity and good-hearted apathy. His monthly costs are around 100 000 rp (10 euros).

The most important … (he first laughs loud at my question)… is to be happy in this life.

What makes a person happy?

There’s nothing particular. It gotta be flow. There’s no certain thing – you can sit in your house and be happy, or travel from Estonia to Indonesia just like you, and be happy.

Just the feeling! sings P’trus happily and Puthus plays some blues.

Exactly one year later I was back in Yogyakarta. I visited Puthus again, and you know what – nothing had changed! Still no bed in his house, no electricity, some wonderful miniature sculptures had appeared in his garden that wasn’t there before, he’s shown some creativity, and… his eyes have the same happy shine, just as a year ago.

Seems like nobody cares if these guys live or die, but I do. Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe myself how much I care for people like Phutus and P’trus, whose existence seems to amplify the colors and richness of life on this planet. Personally even more – when looking back at these sweet encounters now, me and Kiwa consider these two gentelmen giving us the first direct input that led us to the path of the hippie-underground of Soviet Estonia.

Puthus in in his house 2012 - nothing much had changed since one year

Travel in time – a journey into the psychedelic underground of Soviet Estonia

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Berit ja Terje

News from the meanwhile – had my very first curating experience, welcome for a visit in Estonian National Museum in Tartu!

It’s long time since I’ve posted a story to share. Not that we would have buried the blog and lost the passion for writing, but just the past winter has been incredibly busy. In fact I have been busy with another kind of avant-tourism, this time it’s about travel in time – to the period of time that has been haunting me my entire life, that I almost feel nostalgic about although I’ve never directly experienced it. This period of time has inspired me in the music I make, the life me and Berit have led on our vagabondage travels, the values I care for, the smile I shine, the dress I wear, the spirit that burns me inside.

Something important happened in late 1960s. Not only in America, not only in France or London. But you can also find the traces of this - what i’d like to call as psychedelic revolution – in countries with radically different social background such as Soviet Union or Indonesia.

When me and Kiwa were living in Indonesia couple of years ago, we visited some local crazy hippie-artists. They made their turning years of youth in early seventies, they became legendary street artists in 1980s in Yogyakarta and now leading their weird lives in their personal private kingdoms of their little lebenswelt, totally abandoning the norms of the common Indonesian society. One of them hasn’t left his house for 40 years, sleeping wherever happens, there’s no bed, no electricity, but bunch of creatures that have become part of his life, his art, which for him are all the same. Happiness? Happiness is just the flow.

“Just the feelin’” as P’trus sings some blues on the guitar that has lost around 3 strings.

P’trus, happy in his house, 40 years no go out

When already back in Estonia, couple of months later visited Tallinn a legendary hippie a writer and researcher Vladimir Wiedemann, the author of the juicy novel “School of Magicians”, which is the first thorough investigation of the hippie-underground of the Soviet Estonia published in Estonian. As a big fan and curious to draw the connection between the souls of psychedelic revolution between the continents, me and Kiwa settled a 3-days date with him in Tallinn.

We were wandering around places where Soviet hippies used to gather and… got stuck in it… for another couple of years, or perhaps a life-time. Well, time is just another construction, so no matter much of that, but what I’m trying to say is that these interactions with Indonesian old hippies and these days with Wiedemann planted a seed into a project that has now laid out its first eggs – all those in Estonia this summer, welcome to visit the multi-disciplinary exhibition at Estonian National Museum in Tartu: Soviet hippies: The Psychedelic Underground of Soviet Estonia. Yes, the one I had joy to curate together with Estonian artist Kiwa, the one that kept me away from blogging, the one that burns my soul.

Aare with his girlfriend visiting Estonian philosopher Mihkel Ram Tamm who became a source of spiritual inspiration for many Soviet hippies. Photo: from the collection of Vladimir Wiedemann

Soviet Hippies: The Psychedelic Underground of 1970s Estonia

The hippie movement, which converted hundreds of thousands of young people in the West to the cult of “peace, love and freedom” during the 1960s and 1970s and shook the entire world, also had an impact on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Coveting Western freedoms and spiritually inspired by the cultures of the East, a counterculture of flower children developed in the Soviet Union, which was disengaged from the official ideology and expressed itself through rock music, the cult of love, pacifism, actual and cosmic travel, and a physical appearance that was considered unacceptable for Soviet citizens.

The Khrushchev Thaw (1956‒1964) that followed Stalin’s repressions brought a breath of fresh air to some places in the Soviet Union. In Estonia, foreign radio broadcasts kept people updated on the happenings elsewhere in the world. Young minds were enthralled by iconic hippie-era albums from the West that were illicitly distributed and the knowledge that their contemporaries in the “free world” were rocking in the spirit of the slogan “Make love not war.” The stagnation that accompanied Brezhnev’s rule did not leave much room for hope or personal freedom. Thus, against the background of contemporary politics, the generation that grew up in the late 1960s could not do anything but accept the fact that the world was one big lie and it was better just to deal with your own things.

The hippie movement in Soviet Estonia was not a clearly defined phenomenon, but rather the distinctive flow of the era, an explosive youth culture with a perception of life that could unite vagabonds and academicians. However, the mere trend toward hippie fashions, long hair and great rock concerts was enough to make the Soviet authorities see a political threat that could subvert the regime. But the more absurd the reality, the more fanatical the Soviet flower power became. They created their own world in the shadow of harsh rules and repressions, and opposed the ruling system through symbolic expression.

This multi-disciplinary exhibition documents and analyzes the unofficial youth culture and presents an alternative trajectory in Estonian cultural memory by focusing on the manifestations of the hippie movement in Soviet Estonia. In our approach we have also included individuals from Estonia’s music, art, and literature worlds who ignored or opposed the official socialist code of behavior.

KIWA & Terje Toomistu

Exhibition curators

Peace and love! More background stories follow soon…

Life goes in spirals, let’s make this world possible

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Berit ja Terje

This year was full of strong strange vibrations, I’m sure I was not the only one noticing the magical forces floating around the 2012. Exactly one year ago I was doing my fieldworks in a small village in South Sulawesi. The air was warm and sky sunny with some breath sudden tropical rainfalls. I was staying at a wonderful and powerful calabai – a local name for a waria among the Bugis people -, who then invited her friends and local authorities to the front garden of her popular salon and made me and Minna an amazing make-up, as that’s one of her talented skills.

Together with a bunch of funny young calabais we headed down to the center of the village, dancing wild and sexy on the stage, completely sober, as alcohol is generally forbidden here, as it’s considered to be important to keep up the proud morals of decent Moslem people. Besides, as we realized in the afternoon, all nearby houses producing local brew had already been emptied from the popular mild palm wine, that we all could have enjoyed anyway. And I had also discovered myself in the somewhat paradise of gender pluralism – a good start for the year, that was carrying me along this wave – to extensive few months in hot hot Papua, ghostly magical living with Monica in Yogyakarta, along with stripbots and revolution out of control with Monty Cantsin in Tallinn, to radical queer film festival Entzaubert in Berlin with a soul friend Alec Butler, to ILGA world conference in Stockholm, and getting more into visual and vivid with Judith and David MacDougall in utopic and stunning Sardinia, or dreamy days as a press at IDFA film festival in Amsterdam, hanging out with Alvaro, the sweet craziness from five years ago Peruvian Amazon. Lately I’ve been testing my shooting skills on the Gray of Utopia and getting lost in the nighttime underground world of Susanna and Vanessa. If I would give an imaginative title to some of my new friends, then this couple of ladies who have caught my camera would be my persons of the year. Me and Kiwa have been digging out the wonders of the good old Soviet Union – the bittersweet hippie trail on the other side of the iron curtain. And I’m continuously excited about the book of magic by me and Berit – our Seven Worlds is gonna be knocking on the door of 2013!

This year has also seen some shaking weird emotional states, I’ve been low and high, sick and healthy, in love and lonely, motivated to stand out for the raise of awareness and to fight for human rights and freedom of self-expression, and depressed feeling this being a naive dream and impossible mission. But as I’ve always believed – life goes in spirals.

Dear anonymous faraway friends and the ones I’ve had a chance to share some moments of this reality, I wish you warm heart and progressive moves for the coming up 2013. Let’s make this world possible.

And for the fun part, once again, the sexy dance from the village of South Sulawesi:

Cross-continental mental lines: doors to open, love to keep

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Berit ja Terje

One of the stories most hard to understand and admit that ever happened to us along our journeys comes from Africa. It was in 2010 when me and Berit spent an intensive month of experiences in Benin, West Africa, where we were digging into its worlds of voodoo and Rastafarianism. See the stories here.

We also met an incredible soul, a true and humble Rastafarian and promising artist Joel Doussou, who became our Beninois Godfather. I also performed a crazy musical gig on stage with him for 3000 people! When leaving Benin, he gave us his paintings as gifts to remember our shared experiences. Mine had a spider on it – the thing I was afraid the most at the time – to fight my phobia.

A few months later after returning back to Estonia we heard this terrible news. That he had been killed. Brutally murdered. In flames. By radicals. For what? For the sake of some extreme fetishist voodoo? For jealousy of his success? For conservative thought?

This was both as mysterious as a deep personal mental shock that made me feel five years older in two days and didn’t allow me to sleep for weeks. But his beautiful art work is still with me, decorating my room in Tallinn, keeping the memory of his warm nature and sunny smile. Making me still feel close to Joel.

Couple of months ago I met another warm and sunny soul here in Tallinn. He’s a Buddhist monk, an fruitful academic and a funny and caring friend. Chipamong Chowdhury also appeared to be my neighbor in my new temporary living space (seems that I will remain temporal forever, never-ending story in a life of an anthropologist?). And as a caring friend Chipamong offered me a hand while moving my stuff from one place to another. And so I documented with my video camera this little journey where Africa meets Asia, where Rastafari meets Buddhism, where sweet memory meets present testimony, where love meets life, where there’s always doors to open and love to keep.

The Gray of Utopia – short visual essay

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Berit ja Terje

Linnahall or the City Hall in coastal Tallinn was built in 1980 for the occasion of the 22nd Moscow Olympic Games. This short visual essay “The Gray of Utopia” explores how today it finds its new meanings in its ruins.

Then named as V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sport would fint into its amphitheater hall more than 4200 people.

The magnificent limestone complex appeared to be part of the Soviet Union’s project of modernism, which would allow people to be proud of their country and, of course, to send positive signals in vain to the Western countries. On the other hand, City hall opened the city towards the sea, inviting the glances to be turned on the horizon of the vast waters, which could possibly represent the coveted freedom.

After Estonian independency City Hall hosted annual school fairs in each September, Prodigy concert, and many musicals, which we sometimes in the stiff cold could be visited. This was the price to be paid for the pompous design - severe heating rates. In addition to increased pressure to be loss-making the interest for the building torn down in the background of the broader anti-Soviet winds. Although today the building has been included in the list of the prevailing architectural heritage, its fate is still questionable.
Limestone’s sensitivity to moisture and ambitious architectural plan has led a fairly young building into desperate conditions, while the plan of renovation doesn’t seem to be reasonable as well. The proud City Hall has turned into a gray old by the seaside, the gray of utopia, full of ghosts.

Camera & editing by Terje Toomistu. Sound by Jaan Tätte Jr.

Shot in October- December 2012, Tallinn, Estonia.

Thanks and admiration to Rein Maran.

Stalking Pachamama – life-altering CouchSurfing experience

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Berit ja Terje

Me and Berit just love love love CouchSurfing. It has brought us to meet so many amazing people and got us into crazy truthful experiences. And naturally, we always have liked the insiders’ view on some faraway culture. We prefer to stay close to the real social reality, with real local people, weather they are some single geniuses or funny families.

In 2007 me and Berit were having our magical journey through South America. It was simply Couchsurfing that brought us together with Alvaro Sarmiento – intriguing young film-maker – and our journey turned into a spiritual exploration, under the flag of something we call Avantourism, in spirit of Pachamama.
Couple of years later me and Berit published a shamanic novel entitled “Seven Worlds”, Alvaro as the leading character.
After five years time, in 2012 I met Alvaro again in Tallinn. When he got here, it seemed that he was already well-known for many people here – from our writings. It’s incredible to think that it was Couchsurfing that brought us together at the first place. We travelled for months along Amazon, and the journey had huge impact on our lives.

This video, which is actually also part of the CouchSurfing video contest, hopefully gives you some idea of the Couchsurfing vibrations and all that might follow. Please spread and ‘like’ if you care so.

Non-Places of non-Augé

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Berit ja Terje

Here’s a post that might sound bit boring for some of you in contrast with all the crazy travel stories or weird fieldworks notes. I apologize. It was just that some months ago one of the world’s most recognized anthropologists Marc Augé visited Tallinn, Estonia. I was excited, as contrasts between modern cityscapes and village life sincerity has always intrigued me, as well as marginal places, contested places, and even those which Marc Augé would call non-places.

I was asked to cover the intensive seminar that took place in Tallinn University for an article in Estonian cultural newspaper Sirp. The English version got published in MaterialWorld blog.

But here’s the start for you:

Notes from an intensive seminar Places and Non-Places: Thinking Anthropologically with Marc Augé

Estonian Institute of Humanities and the Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts, Tallinn University, 12th-13th October 2012

When visiting Delhi in 2010, I remember a slight cultural shock from one of the city’s recently completed subway lines. Not that I found something bleakly intrinsic to India, but on the contrary – I was intrigued by the lack of it, or by strange intersections between this ‘lacking’ and various existing or imaginary layers of culture. The new transportation system seemed to be far from what I had remembered from my earlier visit to India. In this heavily conditioned and rather silently sliding subway you could perhaps imagine to be in Singapore or Seattle. There was a Hindu dressed in a bright purple sari scanning over the London-styled subway signs, until from the announcements articulated in high-end English she recognised her own. The doors opened automatically, she drove along the escalator down to the lower floor and stepped from the white floor onto the dirty streets. Among dozens of noisy taxi drivers she waved down a rickshaw-taxi, in which she probably had to sweat for the next half hour in a traffic jam.

According to the French anthropologist Marc Augé these and other similar visible manifestations of globalization can be called “non-places” – a concept he first coined in 1992 in his “Non-Lieux, Introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité” (published in English in 1995).

Augé writes in his book about supermodernity as the opposite side of the coin of which post-modernity shows us only the backside: this is the affirmation of negation. He tells about major changes in our society, which are the excess of events in time and acceleration of history, overabundance of space and the individualisation of references. The direction expressed in these changes, that Augé calls supermodernity, has peaked in remarkable physical alterations, including the reproduction of such places which he calls “non-places”. He opposes this to the concept of a sociological “place”, which traditionally has been associated with space and time limited in a specific culture. If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then it is a “place” – the rest would be “non-places”, such as for example highways, airports and supermarkets.

…….Read the rest at MaterialWorld blog here! please continue to catch the stalkers and the kind.

Dubai, 2006

Revolution of Monty Cantsins

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Berit ja Terje

Interview with the founder of Neoism, Hungarian born video and performance artist Istvan Kantor. He’s amazing.

In the city of Yogyakarta in Java, in the cultural capital of Indonesia and the Mecca for artists and academics – flames arise in front of hundreds of deep brown eyes. I see ten hot women dancing in monotonous electronoise. They dance as none of us is used to see the women in the beginning of 2011 in moslem-dominated Indonesia. Istvan Kantor, the agitator and founder of the neoist artists network, rises up on his arms and walks on his hands towards the light – and this fire is in red flames. As a dextrous 62-year-old somersault he falls into the fire, that swallows the sign: “I SWEAR TO GOD I’LL NEVER MAKE ANY BORING ART”. He sticks the spike into his vein and sucks out some red capsules of blood (he also has papers in medicine).

Blood. That’s what Kantor loves.

Then he turns his ass towards the audience, reveals his buns and sticks the blood capsule to the anus. The secret police hiding in the audience observes it with frustration and calls his boss. Ten dancers in the style of femme-fatale turn into girls whose dignity has somehow suddenly been violated. Here in the moslem mainstream the body has completely different meaning. And also one of my dearest friend Kiwa, a recognized Estonian artist and curator, possibly a neoist himself, is right here. For the first time he flirts with the idea of inviting Kantor over to Estonia.

Kantor is damn good in it – to bring some scandal in the art world. He has been playing tricks in the museums around the world, splashing crosses of blood on the ‘holy’ white walls of galleries, but possibly also on some drops spilled on the works by Picasso. But definitely it’s not only scandals that have caused him some haunting fame. By using various mediums his works deals with downspirals of the technological society, body corporeality, he criticizes mainstream thought (or the lack of it), and seeks for rebellion against authority.

He signs all his works as Monty Cantsin and warmly welcomes all of us to use the name already since 1970s, when the open pop star Monty Cantsin came to life. All different kinds of Monty Cantsins are drawn together by the principle of anti-authority.

Kantor is a legend and a somewhat syperstar – but the one whose fame has not been so easily convertible into money. He condemns the expensive Toronto, although he has risen up three kids over there. But how the hell could a man, who’s guiding line is “REVOLUTION OUT OF CONTROL” accumulate anything else than ideas, fresh and bloody ideas?!

Visiting borobudur temple in java with kiwa and istvan, february 2011

One and half years after our meeting in Indonesia (we three with Kiwa and Istvan even visited the holy Borobudur temple together, see the pics above), Kiwa indeed brought Kantor to Estonia. Rebellious technorobotism, machine-like sexuality and The book of Neoism, which includes all the information in the world conquered Estonian contemporary arts museum (EKKM) with the exhibition “Rebellious neoist” (17.06-18.07), but there were also some neoist action happening around Tallinn, Riga and Pori. Bitter flavor of burnt blood was floating in the air during the opening night. We had bodies turned into zombies, that were exposing signs such as 24H BRAINWASH or BURN BABY BURN, calling up to rebel against sexualized corporeality, lighting up some irons in flames.

We all turned into Monty Cantsins. It was always six o’clock.

Istvan Kantor, EKKM, Tallinn 2012

In the booklet IRVE (see here) that was produced for your exhibition in Tallinn, among other things there was also published your writing about how Monty Cantsin came to be. There was a passionate description about sexual activity, topped with a question – does it change the activity when you change how you name it or you change the context?

In the book of Neoism I use lots of porn texts, which get plundered and changed into Neoist theoretical writings. Sex and Neoism go hand in hand. The work of Wilhelm Reich was always very important for me, as an inspiration. He was the one who made the statement, that sex is the driving force of the society. I added that sex and technology are the driving forces of the society. When he said that sex is the driving force of society it was a very radical statement to be made in the 1930s. He was a student of Freud, a psychoanalyst, who went deep into research of sexuality. His work has been an inspiration for me to create some performances with “Machine Sex Action Group” which explore technology and sex.

You can plunder things from other people, you learn something and you change it into your own theoretical ideas and rename it, which is almost same thing, but it generates more interest, because all ideas with old names become boring. For example, when you take a work of a painter, like Picasso, you are already bored to look at Picasso! But when you add something to Picasso or you take the image and vandalize it, it becomes very interesting. It renews the work and puts it into different perspective and changes people’s perception.

If you do something under the name of Monty Cantsin, what will happen with the substance?

We just let people to use the name of Monty Cantsin. But you have to be conscious about this. All those who use Monty Cantsin can be part of the endless game that can always bring out new ideas, because each Monty Cantsin is different. They are just using the same name. When you use the same name for different people, then control is impossible and total freedom rules.

Just to provoke some thoughts – if you say that name yourself Monty Cantsin and do everything in the name of Neoism – does not that itself sound a bit authoritarian?

No, it is not authoritarian. I’m not demanding that you do that. If you want to call yourself Monty Cantsin, call yourself Monty Cantsin. In the context of Neoism there is no rules. If you don’t want to use the name Monty Cantsin, you don’t have to. If you don’t want to do everything in the name of Neoism, you don’t have to. It’s just that if you want to be part of the game, that’s the way it goes, because otherwise there’s no background for it. Basically there are two names that determine the situation, but it’s not anything forceful.

When a baby is born, then the baby doesn’t have a name but we give a baby a name to be defined. But this name doesn’t mean anything until this baby grows up and through history creates content for that name. That’s the same with Monty Cantsin. It becomes more important when it’s in use. Without the use it doesn’t mean anything.

You strive towards revolution out of control – this is one of the principal guiding forces in Neoism. If I were to name myself Monty Cantsin, then I would do it, because chaos is also part of me. And revolution out of control - isn’t it the most chaotic thing?

Definitely revolutions are very controlled, and basically that is what destroys every revolution at the end, because when the revolution is very victorious, then the system changes the revolution into different system that wants to present this force to the people and will basically subject them to that authority. That’s why I always say that only the failed revolutions are real revolutions, because they never loose revolutionary ambitions because they never get corrupted. It’s because every revolution gets corrupted after the victory. Hungarian revolution was a failed revolution, so it never got corrupted. But for example, the Cuban revolution degraded into system that today is not serving at all what it was supposed to. It’s only serving the dictator that keeps the system going and people are not really happy with the situation.

The revolution that you express in your artworks rarely wants to exceed the world within art world.

Basically when I talk about revolution, it’s not always an organized kind of system that would have all the necessities what a revolution needs – that is a conspiracy to get rid of the old system. When I talk about revolutions I’m not necessarily talking about political revolution, but I’m dealing with smaller communities where everybody has some place, especially in culture, arts, in the creative parts of the society. I’m opening up questions and discussions and want to keep talking about revolution, which seems like in the society that is so much about control and authority, is obsolete.

But in today’s system it’s not obsolete, because there are newly organized somewhat victorious revolutions going on all around the world. It’s interesting to have this discussion to bring history in today’s situation and to deal with art system as a place where revolution is needed. It’s a smaller system that also has all the structure that the political system has. The artists are the slaves and museums and galleries are basically the government. They all relate to each other in a similar way that the political system works. I’m interested in the system, how artists can find themselves and keep themselves free from this kind of authority.

It’s also interesting that your struggle becomes most real within the institution that is the closest to you – that is the art world. Is it because this is the closest authority you have to face with? Or you feel that you have the authority to fuck it up, because you are an artist?

I don’t have any authority. The only authority I have is how I define Neoism or create my own works. But besides that we don’t have any authoritarian system or corporation, not even a registered group. Everybody shares the same space. We communicate with each other in a brotherhood type of way, that obviously uses certain iconic images and ideas of dictatorships and religious faces, all kind of conceptual ideas that makes it look like an organized system. But in fact it’s not – it’s a kind of fake science.

But based on the current exhibition and your previous activities we could see that this is the sphere where your revolution becomes most real – this fight with institution of museums and galleries.

I’m not fighting against them, but I’m fighting against their way of dealing with artists. I find museums are important places for communication and they should be like temples. But they are not, because they are taken over by banks and corporations, by all kind of rules that the board of directors would present, how things have to look like and be exhibited. They create their own esthetics that is very much like mainstream and similar to television and other communication systems that are serving mainstream culture.

One of these days I was visiting you in EKKM. You were making a mural and you said that you don’t want your work look too finished. I added that they should remain open.

I understand that artist have some sort of authority, that an art has to be finished in some ways and that it represents a certain authority and determine certain esthetics and makes a statement that would provide people with the way of thinking. But that’s the same with philosophy and science or anything else that concerns thinking and communication.

To leave the artwork open for interaction, for somebody else to continue the work – that’s what’s happens when you plagiarize or plunder. That’s what already Marcel Duchamp introduced first by taking any random object from the street and calling it artwork or vandalizing a postcard of Mona Lisa. Today when we talk about Neoism then that would open up the situation and we would like to see every artwork open. In the museums also, they artworks should have different access not like as today under total control as if the museums were prisons, as they are guarded by security and surveillance, absolutely alienated from people.

You have the concept of open time also – why it’s always 6 o’clock?

This is the basic concept of Neoism. We see the whole system of communication at different perception. It’s not linear anymore – we are not talking about the history that happens at certain year. So we are not going on the axis of X, but we take the Y, which is vertical. It’s basically a visual representation of this idea that everything accumulates and gets bigger and bigger. This is how I imagine this 6 o’clock time – that past, present and future are not separated, but they are happening at the same time.

When you cut a second in film into frames – you get 24 frames. Usually we watch the movie from the beginning to the end, so it follows the linear time. But if I cut the film into frames and throw them in the air (he takes some coins and throws them in the air), I can see the whole film at the same time.

For me, your works often communicate the very essence of creation, the really deep essence that is always about chaos and destruction. Am I reading you right?I don’t think it’s about chaos and destruction actually. I definitely have to recognize the fact when I was a child and the Hungarian revolution happened. I came out from the shelter and I saw all the destroyed streets, buildings, all the dead people and fire and blood all over the place. That had a big effect on me and ever since that’s the kind of esthetics I like. I like decay, I like ruins, death, all the destructive landscape. But this is not something unusual, because that exists in today’s technological society. It’s not that you would see dead bodies and ruins everywhere, it’s hidden, but when you enter the junkyards and you see all this trash and wasted material, you are shocked. But this is the landscape of our society – destruction. The whole idea of technological society is built on this destruction, because all the nature has to be destroyed in order to build cities and rebuild cities.

I was stunned by one feature in your art practice. What is a stripbot?

Stripbot is a stripper robot. These are very exotic creatures. If you go to strip bar you will see all these exotic dancers and in real life they are also extended by technology, they relate to music, especially when they are dancing. They relate to the beat.

I see them as robots, just as much I see fashion models as robots. Stripbots in my work represent the changes in this technological society where everybody is extended with technology and uses technology to change their body. Use silicon to create different body and all kind of little devices to make your heart work better or change bones, even your brain soon. So people are becoming more like androids. People are really changing in the relationship with technology.

I pretty much see people as technological units and machines. There’s nothing new in that, because I think in history people were more robot-like than they are today. I think that the brain got diminished and we have forgotten some ways of communication like telepathy that was used when people were more like machines.

Neoist disaster performance, Kiwa with accordion

Stripbot, EKKM, Tallinn

The book of Neoism, EKKM, Tallinn

Oh mirror mirror, who’s the greatest neoist in this world?

Estonia – the new international meeting hub

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Berit ja Terje

Arriving in Estonia is magical. After being away from home for almost two years, I enjoy all the tiny details that were never important to me before Indonesia.

Here are trees and green fields everywhere. The cities are full of parks and the highways are packed with forests for endless number of kilometers.

Here is so much fresh food, fresh air and fresh ideas around.

Here people care about you, not about who you date, who leaves your house after 10pm, who your parents are or if you go to church every weekend.

Here when it’s hot I can wear a cooling dress with no sleaves without anyone staring at me. Or actually do anything without getting too much attention.

Here you can get privacy. Go swimming in a lake, naked, and be alone; walk in a forest and be alone; even when at a party you decide to be alone, you have the chance.

Here everything is so close and mobile. I can travel around festivals throughout the country and still meet the same friendly faces, who have been looping on the road since the days got warm.

Here are festivals each weekend, using full Estonia as a kind of stage for excitement – from the prison halls, from the rooftops to the huge crop fields in the countryside.

And the funniest thing – all my friends from around the world are suddenly in Estonia. Marie, who I met in Indonesia; Taras, from the time I lived in Russia; Patrick whose couch I surfed on in Kuala Lumpur and a long list of others coming to visit this new international meeting hub in Europe .

When tourism industry goes wild about shamans – interview with a legendary shaman researcher Mihaly Hoppal

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Berit ja Terje

Couple of last posts at Avantourists were about the local (mostly transgender) shamans called bissu in South Sulawesi. Although that world around bissu was very far from the tourist beaten track, it seems to be a good time to publish an interview with a legendary and world recognized researcher on shamanhood – Hungarian professor Mihaly Hoppal.

Soon reaching his 70. jubilee, he has done fieldworks in Siberia, Korea, in Manchuria in China since early 1980s. And produced some series of documentaries on shamanhood. Yes, shamanhood is the word he prefers, to refer to the local nature of any form of shamanic belief.

We met couple of months ago when he was a special guest on a festival of visual anthropology (Worldfilm) in Tartu, Estonia. The interview (bit shortened) was published this month in Estonian largest travel magazine Go! in a special issue dedicated on shamanism.

When meeting him on this snowy spring evening, we briefly shared some of our experiences – me about my experiences with ayahuasca-shamanhood in Amazon, he about Siberian shamanhood – and I hadn’t even pressed the record button of my voice recorder, when our conversation had already touched the issues around intersectionality of tourism and shamanism.

I was visiting these shamans near Iquitos in 2007. Their looks in casual T-shirts and a ritual hold in the same room with pigs and ducks might not go for any tourist though. But I don’t want to buy my spirituality either, especially when its nicely served and neatly packed.

During the recent years we can notice more and more phenomenons such as spiritual tourism or travelling (i.e. money-making) shamans. How do you see the state of shamanism in the light of these processes, which we could even see as the commercialization of shamanism?

It’s really a problematic question, especially for me. Because sometimes I feel that what happened is not something that went in a right direction. But immediately I have to admit, that this is not something that depends on us. With the very few, not more than 12 or 20, scholars from the beginning of the 1970s we started to re-study the shamanism. Because some of us realized that most of the scholarly literature was just scratching the surface. For instance, beautiful articles appeared in the scholarly literature without pictures. So how can I really see what they saw?! Why were the pictures missing? Because in most cases they saw nothing! The studies were some kind of fantasy description. I decided to change the course and we established an International Society (The International Society for Shamanistic Research – ISSR, T.T.) for scholars. I decided to personally visit as many places as I can.

Going back to the beginning, then this new type of freedoms that we saw after the 1950s or 1960s also included Russia. And somehow the shamans were allowed to come out. And that was exactly when the tourism industry started. And in the end of the 1980s, the big changes occurred all around the world, especially in the socialist world of Russia. Publicity and television all helped this movement. Television wanted to show something funny and new, and the shamans who had just came out and appeared as singers, writers or dancers on festivals – they got media attention. And they thought: „Oh, this is interesting. Maybe I can ask some money for the performance?” In many places like in Tuva, in Buryatia (in Russia – T.T.) – they got money. That was also at the time when the healing system in the Soviet Union collapsed, there was practically no medical care. Thus people instead went to dungur (shamanic drum in Tuva language) society that had just been established.

So the local people made use of the tourists, and the whole industry started. Thank god, when I was there I was able to make some nice films with old shamans, who were not interested in money. But whenever a Japanese film crew came, they made money. And the film we saw today (“Shaman’s revenge” by Laetitia Merli) – this guy was completely fake, he’s just a lyer.

Of course in some different places, and I’m glad it happened, shamanic practices made the local people more aware of their identity. They just picked up one feature of their own traditional culture and showed it at the festivals, which were organized everywhere. And then UNESCO came.

Or another example – one of my friend went to Iquitos and asked a shaman if he could try to make some drawings out of his (ayahuasca – T.T.) visions. And he did. And it turned out fantastic, colorful, crazy, whatever – sellable! So he made a wonderful big book out of it.

Sometimes I feel myself a little bit guilty, but that was a normal development.

But then again because there is more money moving around shamanism, or shamanhood as you prefer to say, then there is perhaps also more people interested in learning this ancient knowledge, so that in a way these processes can save it.

Yes, it is. I don’t want to say that all these movements are stupid or not reversed to exist. But still you can trace these elements… for instance – these costumes! Some parts of the costumes are ok, but some features are not the imitations from the old ones. That’s why I know that this is for a show. But if they can make good living out of this show – what can I do? I’m just happy that shamanism is still surviving. The important thing is that tradition is saved and followed, even when it’s not completely traditional. The main thing is to do it, acting out, to be within the tradition, to do what they think is their own tradition. So it is not necessarily 100% accurate. That’s why whenever I make some criticism against these fake shamans I’m still happy. Because at least he’s in it, he’s doing something, not just drinking. Anyhow, that’s a complex phenomenon. This is something which I don’t like very much personally, but I know that it can happen everywhere.

By the way, in China somehow they are much more faithful to their own old tradition. During the Maoist time there was persecution, but it was much more against the intellectuals, not so much for poor shamans. But somehow they survived and after the Mao time they just started flourishing. China was a little bit more flexible, so there was not so severe persecution against shamans like in Russia.

Every place is diverse, and we have the only task to go there, make a nice description, collect the material which is available and write a nice dissertation, will you do it?

Yes, but on a slightly different topic. I study transgender in Indonesia. But do you have any idea how many shamans have you met during your life-time? Because you have been studying it already since the 1970s…

Actually from the 1980s, it takes time. Usually you have to go back again when you can really get a possibility to meet a shaman, especially in the East. When you meet first time, it’s ok. For the second time, they say „Oh, you came back! Sit down, welcome!” When you go back third time, you are a friend. But when you go back 4th time or 5th time, then you will be close friend, or even a family member. So I followed this strategy, and it worked. So they got open and I heard more and more background stories. Unfortunately I was not able to stay for a long time.

But do you have any clue how many shamans have you met. I ask because I’m curious – how can you distinguish between the charlatan shaman and a shaman who really has capabilities?

For one trip, I usually met as an average 3-5 shamans. Since I had more than 10 or 15 fieldwork trips, so I have met around 40-50 shamans. I don’t want to say that all of them were real or all of them were charlatans. Some of them want to make money, or just a decent living – they are poor people. One of my old Tuva friend build a big house, but he’s not able to finish it. So he’s living downstairs on the ground floor in a very small room. Even if they are faithful for traditions, they are not so successful. That’s my problem with all these new self-made shamans, because a shaman has to have an initiation from someone or by someone who may lead them or teach them how to behave.

An elder shaman?

Yes.

One of the grounding principles in interpretive anthropology is that in order to understand something you need to become part of it, you have to get as close as possible. Shamanism – it is a different world. How is your personal experience with crossing these limits?

Theoretically you have to put your feet on the ground, you have to sort out what you really have to do. I was trying to compare different situations, making multi-sited ethnography, which means visiting different places to collect material and at home you make a nice description, comparison, nice films etc. This is what I did. I am a little bit too old for what you mentioned – to be involved with what you study. My daughter always asks me why I never tried ayahuasca. It’s because my best friend told me that you will have a terrible vomiting. And I was thinking why I have to vomit two days just for some visions! I was more interested in the question of identity.

I even realized that some shamans used me to empower themselves, in order to show for the local authorities that they are important – because a great scholar came from Europe. So it was an interesting double-play. But yes, I took shamanism a little bit in a traditional sense, however I’m quite aware of the fact that everything is changing.

You mentioned before that you have some amulets, such as an eagle around your neck to protect you while travelling. So you practice something that is driven from the shamanistic world?

I don’t want to deny that I’m a little bit superstitious. I need to do a lot of flying, so I put a protecting spirit here.

Is it from a shaman?

No, this is an archeological finding. When I was in United States with Michael Harner (well-known American promoter on neo-shamanism– T.T.) an eagle started flying above me. Downstairs in the shop there was an Indian rattle with an eagle and I decided to buy it. From this sign, I know that eagle is my helping animal, my helping spirit. Whenever I went to the field in Tuva always eagles were showing up, it was meant for a lucky day.

Do you have a particular shaman with whom you have a very good connection, not only as scholar-informant, but as something more personal, like a mental teacher?

One of the Tuva shaman asked me to stay with him. „You are my son,” he said. But I had a plane ticket that cannot be changed. Besides, I’m not so young anymore. I had my job and family at home. Another Korean lady also told that „Oh, I can give you old knowledge and everything.” Of course, I was completely amazed, because she had three beautiful young Korean women as her disciples. So it was a great temptation to stay, but how can I do when I have my family, I have my wife back home. That’s why it’s good to do fieldwork when you are young, because later you will face difficulties.

Have you ever experienced that the shaman is healing you or using her/his powers on you?

Once in Japan I had a back pain and a female healer shaman was beating my vision instrument thahh-tsahh, and after it was good.

Look, maybe I am a bit skeptical in this sense, because I’ve always tried to be a little bit outside, as I decided not to mix the role of the scholar and to be very much inside of the story. When you are very much in, you can lose your objectivity, which is maybe not true, but that is still my opinion.

Have you ever felt that some shaman is playing tricks on you?

No, no, never. First of all those shamans that I have met belong to the older generation and they simply follow their own way. After some minutes when they are getting more and more involved with their rituals, they just don’t care about me. They are communicating with the spirits. Even when we were making films, they were in another world. I was just there and they didn’t care.

So you have never felt endangered that maybe they can put a spell on you?

No, no. And the second point is that I’m a lovable person. With the first shaman I met, a Manchu, we were not able to exchange a single word. But we were just looking into each other’s eyes, and it was it. We started to trust each other, we started to like each other. It was natural, it was trust.

What is it that keeps you passionate about shamanism? It was been more than thirty years now.

Actually this became my life. I’m the president of the International Society, ten times re-elected. I wrote books, and my books on these shamans are already published in German, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Estonian, Finnish, Turkish, and in Hungarian of course. It’s a great gift for me, to have found this particular theme for myself.

Do you think the knowledge of shamanism has helped you personally?

Yes, it has helped me to be a kind of person, who is self-assured. I can be very nice to you and for everyone, because I got practically everything from life. Shamanistic healing is nothing else than keeping balance. When keeping balance, you are healthy. Healing is prevention in shamanistic sense. They are usually not like us in our highly advanced technical culture, where we are calling the emergency when we are ill. They go to visit a shaman when they just don’t feel very well.

Once in Tuva we went to make an interview with a shaman and a family came. I asked the stupid question – what is the illness of this young gentleman. The mother said: „Oh, nothing very special, but he felt not very well himself.” So they came for purification.

We can witness a growing interest for shamanism in the West or even worldwide, it’s like a shamanic boom. What do you think lies behind it?

It’s an interesting thing, kind of mystical and there’s a kind of fog around it, which I don’t like personally, but what can we do?! Somehow it is a hot topic! I can admit that I was a little bit behind the whole movement too, because of this International Society. And so was Michael Harner, of course. He was also an anthropologist at the very beginning, he went to the Amazon and tried ayahuasca.

Did he come back? There were plenty of those who never got back.

He did. We immediately got a good contact. I realized that he also liked to be a little bit out of the play, so I liked his approach. Like the real shamans, he was always making jokes, trying to keep a balance, not to take everything so seriously. This is a shamanistic technique too, and of course, travelling is a shamanic technique.

Many people have got the initial interest into shamanism through the writings of Carlos Castaneda. What is your opinion about him?

I have my opinion, which is quite negative. I once wrote a long article about that. When his first book „The teachings of Don Juan” appeared, I immediately bought it. But when reading it, I became suspicious. I realized that the nature of the conversation was somehow too beautiful to be true. There was too much philosophy in it.

Then very quickly new and new volumes came out, and also his American colleagues got more and more suspicious. And there was a guy who got really angry and went after him to check all the statements. And suddenly Castaneda’s dissertation disappeared from the library! And soon he became a millionaire, because of the selling of his books. And more and more books, more and more philosophical bla-bla. That contributed again why shamanism is a hot topic now.

Now couple of times I realized that younger shamans in Russia also quoted Castaneda. But Castaneda have nothing to do with Altaic shamanism! Unfortunately I’m old enough to know what happened.

Now there are travelling shamans asking loads of money for ayahuasca rituals.

I’m categorically against those things. Without the local context these travelling shamans are nothing. It’s just a misunderstanding. Same for me with ayahuasca. I’m not belonging to ayahuasca culture, ayahuasca mythology, ayahuasca belief-system, so I don’t believe that I have to do it. Probably it’s not meant for me. If I want to go to altered state of consciousness, let’s make love! That’s an altered state of consciousness.

And his lover from Hungary called again. It was already the 3^rd time during this interview. He said, it’s a gift to experience love, especially at his age.

Tartu, March 2012. Shortened version published in Go travel magazine in Estonia, june 2012.

avantourists

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination – O.Wilde

Category Archives: Estonia