book review: mutant message downunder part 1

i just finished reading a remarkable book, mutant message downunder. this is not a new book. the copyright is 1991, but it was new to me, and i was assured by alec nicholls, who sold it to me at the january NLP meetup, that it was an excellent read. alec was right.

first, an aside. as a book editor, i wish the author had used an editor. the book is self-published. in some ways, that helps her message come across as personal and heartfelt. what distracting are typos, missing words, inconsistencies, and odd spacing between sentences. nevertheless, the story is so remarkable, i have to recommend it. do not try this at home! hire an editor!

marlo morgan was an american woman in australia, 50 years old, divorced, with grown children. her work was in the line of social work and public health. she had been honored for her work with young half-breeds in an urban area, and when she received an invitation to receive an award from an aboriginal tribe, she assumed it would be more of the same--a banquet, a plaque, recognition.

litle did she know that what lay ahead of her would profoundly change her life. she had been summoned by an undocumented nomadic group of 62 aborigines to join them on a walkabout for three months in the outback. during that time, she adapted to their lifestyle, a necessity for her survival, but not without difficulty. she took these people into her heart, and they took her into their hearts.

in this book, she documents her transformation to the way of life of a very remarkable group of people, who it turns out summoned her to walk with them and then commissioned her to take a message back to civilization.

note: i've read of one other instance of someone in a shamanic, preliterate culture summoning someone from the first world. martin prechtel in his books "secrets of a talking jaguar" and "long life, honey in the heart" relates how in his young adult life in new mexico he had a series of dreams, following which he began a slow and sometimes arduous journey south, through mexico and into guatemala. he recognized a village near lake atitlan from his dreams and then met a man who appeared in those dreams, chiv, whose first words to young martin were "what took you so long?" chiv was a shaman who apprenticed martin into the ways of the tzutijil mayans, and when civil war and americanization disrupted centuries-old village traditions, prechtel--by now a full-fledged tzutijil shaman himself--fled back to the u.s., with a lot of stories to share.

back to mutant message downunder. to this group, anyone who is not part of their tribe, or at least living in the traditional aborigine way, is alien. they are so tuned into emotion and intent, so close to nature, and so in touch with what they call divine oneness, that people who aren't like them seem to be aliens, or mutated humans. their name for marlo morgan was mutant. their name for themselves was the Real People.

in a harsh climate, they survive without modern tools, of choice. they make fire by rubbing sticks together. they cook on hot rocks. they sleep on the ground. they don't bathe. they eat worms and insects and raw meat. they don't need much water in a climate often 100-plus degrees. they are well adapted to the australian outback.

marlo's translator is named ooota. he had been taken from his mother at birth and raised in urban australia. at 16 he had run away to find his roots. now about 30 and the only member of the real people who spoke english, his task was to fetch marlo, convince her to stay, and help her assimilate.

early on, marlo felt a special connection with a man who was the tribal elder, or chief. she describes looking into his black velvet eyes and feeling complete peace and security. later, she discovers an incredible connection.

to be continued...