OK Sonoran Desert SATAN Negev SURE M Sonoran Desert The Surem, about three feet in height, are considered to be the precursors of the Yaqui people. The Surem were nomads who did not know sickness or death and who could communicate with animals and plants, with which they lived peacefully in the wilds. The little people moved about and carried a lake with them, rolled up like a carpet, and whenever they needed water or fish, they would unroll the lake and fish in it. The time during which they lived this way was called the yoania an ancient, nondual, unitary world when all being was psychically interconnected, an enchanted time before the Spanish came, a time that preceded Christianity. The Surem can still be found today living in a concealed parallel universe that remains in the yoania, an "uncivilized" world that exists in wilderness, in wastelands, and in the sacred ta

LOR E The Surem were a peaceful people living in ancient times when one day a Tree (some say a stick) began trembling and vibrating and made strange undecipherable noises. The villagers went to seek the help of a young sea hamut (wise woman), to act as a kind of oracle, for she understood the unknown language of the Tree and was able to hear its message. Some say it was God who spoke through the Tree, but "God" was unknown to the Surem. The young wise woman told the people what the voice prophesied, that soon there would come an entirely new way of life. It would be brought by people who called themselves padres and they would teach the Surem about "good" and "evil," about something called baptism, about marriage, and also about cultivation of seeds, and with these ideas would also come death to all people and to animals and plants. The villagers listened carefully to the message, and then half of them chose to stay and

A FIEL D GUID E T O DEMON S / 140 The two groups held a feast and a dance of farewell as they parted. To this day the place exists: the place of the last dance. Those who stayed became taller and eventually became

Yaquis who married, cultivated the earth, lived, and died. The others went underground to form a world of their own. They remained Surem who live to this day in the yoania. Some say they walked into the sea and live under it; others say their world is under the earth. Some became so small they appeared as ants. Some people say they all are seen as ants to this day. The Surem took all their powers with them under the earth, and in far-off desert places and caves. DISPELLIN G & DISARMIN G TECHNIQUE S Seekers can travel to the distant Surem places to receive these powers, but not without dangerous consequences for those who find them. The Surem are still manifest in many ways even for those who do not travel to contact them. They are associated with seataka, an inborn power of intuitive intelligence that can be used for good or evil. It contains within it the gift of precognitive power, clairvoyance, "second sight," and is seen in people who have a profound connection to the natural world