“…Harnessing this power could not only solve the energy crisis, but would provide the nation with enough electrical generation to last approximately half a dozen centuries…”
In many ways shamans are astronauts of the spiritual world. Shaman rituals involve a highly trained individual’s contact with other worlds in the hope of obtaining answers benefiting his or her community. Many incarnations, like those in Central Asia, involve a shaman’s animalistic transformation. Also common is the act of contacting a ‘Power Animal’ who imparts knowledge. I want to bring this funny connection with space travel into literal representation, relating allegorical images of wildlife with cosmic exploration to present an idealized marriage between science and spirituality.
In Galactic Shamanism, NASA footage and interviews with western authorities on shamanism merge with my own narrated fiction, providing a documentary-like vignette into a fabricated past. A number of my other works are tied to this project as well.
BORYS TARASENKO 