by bosco

bosco (Ben) was a Minnesota-based practitioner and one of the steadiest voices on alt.religion.shamanism in 2006–2007. He wrote with dry humor about his daily life with spirit helpers, but occasionally reached for something more reflective.

This April 2007 post was prompted by a thread he found in the group archives about free will and shamanism. bosco sidesteps the argument and offers something more personal: a reconstruction, in dialogue form, of the "interview" he imagines must have happened when he was a very young child — the moment spirit beings looked at his record and decided he was suitable for the work. He had invisible playmates. He saw things others didn't. He had trouble fitting in.

The dialogue is warm and gently comic — the child asking about pay, about whether it's like robbing banks, about whether it's dangerous. The spirits patient and slightly evasive. bosco never names the beings. He does not need to. The reader understands what happened, and that the child, half-consenting, half-baffled, eventually grew into the man who posts about Otter and Mrs. Fields cookies.

I was reading the archives a few days ago and there was a short thread from '99 about free will and Shamanism. I can see both sides of the thread, but I think about it a little differently. I am sure free will plays a part, and I am sure I started out on this path long before I knew what I was doing, but it does not seem like the job I had in mind all those years ago. Here is what must of happened, but was I too young to remember?

I went for a job interview a long time ago, so long ago in fact the memories of it are pretty dim but it went something like this.

Them: We have read your resume and your life experience and we think we have the perfect job for you.

Me: I didn't know I was old enough to work yet.

Them: You are not, not really, but in this job, really a life job, your age does not matter as it will take you a long time to get ready to do it.

Me: Are you sure?

Them: Oh yes, we are sure. You have all the qualifications we need, your interests suggest that you will be perfect for this line of work.

Me: How can you tell already, I do not even know what a job is yet as I never had one before?

Them: We know because you talk to people no one else sees, you know, your invisible playmates. You also see things and have impressions that no one around has. Also we noticed you have a little trouble fitting in and feeling normal around the other kids your age. Yes, we think you will do just fine.

Me: What will I do?

Them: Nothing yet, nothing for a number of years. You still need to grow up, have a few life changing experiences, and arrive at a time and place where you no longer care and you will be ready to start accepting your new line of work.

Me: You mean I won't like it?

Them: Oh you will like it well enough once you come to terms with the idea that it goes against everything you will ever have believed or thought possible.

Me: Will I work in a big company with many other people? Like one of those yucky factories doing the same thing day after day?

Them: You might, but that is not the job that we care about, the job we care about is much more shall we say, discrete?

Me: What does discrete mean?

Them: Let us just say, that you will not be sharing with the world what you do, they may not fully understand you know.

Me: You mean robbing banks or something like that?

Them: No, nothing like that, it is a job that not many can do, and even less can understand. Although it will become a way of life for you once you accept it and start doing it.

Me: Uhhh, okay, how much does it pay?

Them: We can not say yet, maybe nothing in money, but a lot in other things.

Me: Hmmm, well when do I start?

Them: We will get back to you on that, the start date is open, and you may decide not to fill the job at all, although things may not go well for you if you do.

Me: You mean it is dangerous?

Them: Well, it could be, but it could be more dangerous not to accept our offer in ways you do not even understand yet. It could have a detrimental effect on your spirit.

Me: What is detrimental?

Them: What people are that are not of sound minds.

Me: Oh. Well what do I do now?

Them: Just run along and grow up, we will be getting back to you when the time is right.

Colophon

Posted to alt.religion.shamanism on 18 April 2007 by bosco (Ben), a Minnesota-based practitioner. The post was prompted by a thread he found in the group's 1999 archives about free will and shamanism. Rather than argue the question, bosco reconstructed the "interview" he imagines must have preceded his calling — a tender, funny, quietly profound account of a very young child agreeing (more or less) to a life of work he could not yet understand. The thread drew warm responses from Allan, Bob Thomson, and Sally Short.

Original Message-ID: 2007041819334227544-boscopelone@yahoocom

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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