The name came from Matt, back when we were all in Florida. We (Matt, Kris, and I), used to spend long hours into the night rapping about life,the universe, and everything.
When I first met Matt, I was still kinda wandering around different ideas and backgrounds of New Age stuffs, Metaphysics, and even a bit of Hermetic magic (I never practiced mind you, I just liked reading about it and even managed to acquire several old, old, obscure spell books on the subject).
My roommate Kris was just into the altered consciousness part of it (the altered states that drugs brought about).
And then Matt was already a LOT farther along the path, into Taoism,shamanism, and BIG TIME into sharing ideas and thoughts that would blow your mind! Just read some of his writings and poems throughout the website!
Well, Matt was waiting on tables at the same restaurant I was working at, and we hit it off and started spending a lot of free time together (NO we’re not gay... inside joke). Matt was the one that first introduced me to Taoism. I’m a Libra and in Chinese astrology I was born under the sign of the Dog to Taoism seemed to be so natural for me, so I quickly started to learn more about that.
As time when on, we all started getting more and more in tune with each other and could talk about things that pretty much everyone else wouldn’t understand, or didn’t care to even bother to TRY and understand.
One late night we were all hanging out and we were stuck with Beaver Enlightenment (Gopher it!!!)...sorry, another inside joke, and Matt came up with the name Techno-Shamans. Even though we were all very nature oriented and into the ways of the Earth and her healing abilities, we weren't in any position to call ourselves shamans, let alone did we think that we were worthy of the title of shaman. But we also love...hmmm, I guess the best name to call them would be ‘trip toys’. Things like fractal and computer animation videos, kaleidoscopes, plasma balls, and any number of electronic ‘toys’ that keeps your mind happy and thinking. So we could never run off into the woods and be happy without our technological ‘stuffs’, and that’s where the name Techno-Shaman came from.
Of course, if you do a search on the web for Techno-Shaman, you get a whole multitude of different definitions now for it, ranging from techno-wizards who can write amazing programs, to ShadowRun characters (a roll playing game), and a whole # of others. Each of them (us) claiming to have originated the term ‘Techno-Shaman’, and in a way we all did. A diamond has many facets, but it’s still a diamond. (Check out the last journal entry for Dec. of ‘96...).
Well, since meeting Matt (about 6 years ago now), we’ve all grown and changed, each taken our paths in life and continue to stay in touch (except when Matt decides to vanish for months at a time!!). Matt’s moved to CA to work on his movies (watch out, he’s the next Steven Speilburg!!), I’ve moved to NC and got married, and Kris has taken his own path and lost contact with us both.
I guess that about covers it.
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