Judy Antoine opened our topic with a reading from DailyOm.com, a website that sends daily messages about the interconnection of mind, body and health. This reading concerned healing our bodies with loving touch. Judy read that when we embrace, we feel energy passing between us and creating bonds that hold us together. She asked us to share this energy by joining our hands in a large circle; then Judy squeezed the hand of a woman next to her, who in turn squeezed the hand of the woman on her other side, and so on around the circle. When the squeeze returned to Judy, she reversed the direction, starting the squeeze around the circle once again. While all this was happening, Judy played the perfect song, “Body is the Temple,” by Libby Roderick from her CD, If You See a Dream. It was fun to watch the smiles arise as each woman received and then passed on the squeeze, not once but twice.
The practice of shamanism has existed since prehistoric times in virtually every culture of the world. We invited three women to share their life path to the study and practice of shamanism and its role in the work that they do.
Our first speaker was Rev. Tanya Atwood-Adams, director of spiritual care at InterFaith Works and a chaplain who specializes in palliative care and hospice work. She is a Reiki master. She also is a shamanic practitioner who is apprenticed to a Lakota Sioux shaman and whose healing practice is registered with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, founded by anthropologist Michael Harner. Tanya began her formal study of shamanism at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies five years ago, after realizing that the guided imagery work she was doing with patients raised an awareness similar to that of shamanic practice. Tanya specializes in journey work, identification of spirit guides, end-of-life growth and healing, destination of souls, transformation, and transition.
Some cultures consider shamanic powers to be inherited, and in Tanya’s case, her grandmother and father had unusual capabilities. When Tanya was five years old, she was in a bathtub full of bubbles. A bug happened by, and she splashed it, intending to drown it. Although successful, she felt instant remorse and prayed fervently, “God, make the bug live!” The bug then revived, and the bathroom was suffused with warm, bright light and a deep feeling of love that remains with her today. Tanya also remembers a large, backyard tree that, though one of many, was her special tree. She recalls sitting high up in this tree in a comfortable space that cradled her; she would rock and hear the wind talking to her, a beautiful experience. Although the family moved away from the house and tree while she was still young, she eventually asked her father what type of tree it had been. Her father identified it as an alder, a species that has historically symbolized protection.
Tanya explained that modern shamanism is a revival of common practices of ancients from virtually all cultures, practices that are amazingly similar the world over. This uniformity indicates that Neolithic people, through trial and error and without modern scientific knowledge, came to similar conclusions and, in their own way, obtained knowledge of what worked. Tanya said that shamanism is a methodology, not a religion, not a form of pantheism or nature worship. Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices that considers the entire universe to be alive and interconnected.
The term shaman comes from a root word meaning “she/he who knows.” Other terms, such as medicine woman/man, are used in various cultures to denote similar practitioners. The common thread is an ability to apply the workings of the human mind to affect the body. The practice is used to heal and enlighten, doing so through ceremonies that can include rhythmic music and mythic journeys into the subconscious. For both the practitioner and the client, the process is a mental and emotional adventure with a spiritual goal; that is, for the shaman to help her or his clients transcend their ordinary definitions of reality, including the definition of themselves as ill. Contemporary shamanic practitioners, like those in tribal cultures, typically use aids, such as rhythmic percussive sound, fasting, spinning, dancing, or sweat lodges, to induce a change of consciousness or an ecstatic trance. Some cultures use plants, such as tobacco, psychedelic mushrooms, or peyote.
Tanya told us of Brian Swimme, a mathematical cosmologist, who believes that we are never isolated because we are surrounded by life, unlimited by space and time. We were created out of cosmic celebration of existence, and we need to see ourselves within an intelligent, living universe so that we will enhance this universe, not degrade it.
Our second speaker was Debbie DeRusha, who does intuitive and shamanic readings and energy healing. She teaches classes in feng shui, shamanism, and Reiki (she is a Reiki master). She assists her clients in realizing their sacred dreams and in uncovering their authentic self so as to become the Warrior that each of us is intended to be.
Debbie, referring to our lack of a microphone, said that she is used to bellowing because she has seven children, aged 35 to 17. Debbie became interested in nature while she was quite young. As an adult looking for greater closeness to nature, she was led to shamanism. Debbie’s mother-in-law was Native American, a member of the Onondaga Nation, so Debbie became familiar with their ways.
Debbie said that most Native American nations have two shamanic doctors, one of whom is called a “seeker.” These doctors travel and trade items of “medicine” with other doctors as a way of increasing their strength. They compare themselves to strands of hair: alone they are weak and easily broken, but many braided together are almost impossible to break. So, too, sharing their shamanic items builds up their shamanic strength. This idea resonated with Debbie’s heart, so she began her formal training at the Toronto Institute of Contemporary Shamanic Studies, attending there one weekend a month. During her time spent in Toronto, Debbie peeled off many layers, and she came to realize the specialness of each person and of the universe itself.
Debbie’s son named her “Dreaming Gypsy.” He had seen a documentary, and in it a Gypsy man was holding a child. Someone asked the man if this was his child, and he said, “Yes.” When the child left him and called another man “Father,” the Gypsy man was asked to explain. He replied that any child close to you is your child. Debbie has always believed that any child close to her is her child, and over the years she has accepted, fed, and housed stray kids who have stayed as long as nine months. Debbie learned this way of living from her Polish grandmother, who regularly received the benefit of yard work or housework done by the hands of wandering men. Debbie had been told by her cousin that her grandmother’s home was “marked” as one where these men would be welcomed and fed in return for their labor. But Debbie was confused that her grandmother served these men on her fine, Easter china. Grandma explained that these men were “beautiful people and they need to know that.”
Shamanism recognizes that we are all connected and a part of the universe. As such, shamanism celebrates rites of passage. Unfortunately, our modern culture tends to celebrate negative passages, such as the first high, the first drunkenness, the first sexual encounter. In past times, a newborn had his feet touched to the ground; then he was raised to the sky; and finally he was presented to the village with the announcement, “This is your child.” Children were taught that if something happened to your parents, you could turn to anyone else in the village. And if the village was gone, you could turn to the four directions to guide you. And each child learned the meanings of the directions: the south tells you who you are; the west is what you are creating in this reality; the north is knowledge of what is in your heart; the east is about new beginnings and spirituality. So these directions will guide your life’s journey.
In the past, a whole community of women would be available to raise the children. Today it is necessary for us to create our own community. Debbie celebrated her daughters’ first bleed so they would not be embarrassed by what is natural, and so that she could teach them to honor and protect themselves and keep their sexuality sacred. (After Debbie related this story, Judy Antoine suggested that she find a copy of My Little Red Book, by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, which contains 90 women’s recollections of their first menses.) Debbie teaches a class in rites of passage and has gone on many vision quests. It is beautiful what one can learn about oneself, she said.
When a grandson was upset, Debbie told him to go talk to a tree. When he insisted that trees do not talk, she told him to listen to a tree and write down the story that it tells. Still insisting that it would do no good, her grandson left for the outdoors; he later returned calmed but still unbelieving. Debbie subsequently heard from someone else about a wonderful story Debbie’s grandson had told, a story that came from talking to a tree. Debbie says we all have great stories and traditions. She enjoined us to see the beauty in nature, feel the beauty in our hearts, speak beauty, see and hear beauty, and leave tracks of beauty.
Virginia (Kiki) Waldron is a certified consulting hypnotist who is also certified in past-life regression and life-between-lives spiritual regression. She specializes in age regression. Kiki has a private practice, the Rose Heart Center, in Fayetteville, New York, where she works with clients using past-life regression, spiritual regression, life-between-lives regression, pre-life selection, and communication with spirit guides, angels, and animal guides. She also offers workshops and teaches classes on these topics as well as on reincarnation and karma.
Kiki had a less formal introduction to shamanism. She was attempting “to figure out spirituality,” but she kept finding that the paths she was trying were too limiting and not answering her questions. As a certified hypnotist, she had been using hypnosis as a tool to help her clients since 2000. She had also been running a study group of esoteric explorers who were delving into matters of spirituality. A couple from Wolcott attended one of the esoteric explorers’ meetings in 2003; both the man and the woman were practicing shamans, and they brought along drums, rattles and books. After a wonderful evening, Kiki surprised herself by asking to become their student. They helped her connect to her spirituality and find her place in life. What became clear to her was that her previous work had been shamanic, although she had not known it. So this new path was natural and obvious. It has allowed her to find her role in the natural world, a pursuit that has been (and here Kiki was at a loss for the right word) fulfilling, satisfying, and so much more. Kiki uses shamanic practices all the time, both professionally and personally. This has been a journey that she can take alone or with others; she can be at any location, not just at some “holy” place.
Sabra Reichardt asked Kiki to explain more about the clients who come to her private practice; specifically, what types of issues they need help with. Kiki responded that her clients need help with current life issues, such as finding their life path and being all they can be when they feel blocked in some area. She said she cannot help with severe psychological problems because she is not a doctor. Kiki’s approach is not medical; through past-life regression, she leads the client’s higher mind to regress to the source of the problem. Kiki illustrated with an example from her own life. Before starting her own training, she went to someone so that she could experience a past-life regression; she wanted to find the source of some problems that were affecting her personal relationships. During this regression, she experienced a former life as a person who guts and dries fish in an ancient Japanese village. The smell of fish in her current life had always affected her so strongly that she could not even be in the same room with someone eating fish—or in the same bed with her husband if he had eaten fish. The regression helped her recognize the association between her current-life revulsion for the smell of fish and her shame at having had such a lowly position in a previous life; this recognition connected her to an understanding of her own spirit, and the smell no longer affects her.
Debbie added that she and Kiki sometimes work together. She told the story of her son having had his palms read: his left palm indicated that his spirit was planning on leaving, while his right palm indicated great plans for the future. This seeming contradiction became clearer when he attempted suicide. Debbie said that subsequent to her son’s suicide attempt, Kiki asked her if she had questioned him about what he had felt when he almost died; Debbie replied that she had been so happy he was alive, she had never asked. When Debbie passed along Kiki’s question to her son, he said he would be willing to have Kiki help him discover why he had stayed. The answer he found was that it was the unconditional love of his family and his desire to give back to the world that facilitated his recovery and helped him learn why he is here. Today he is studying to be a filmmaker in San Francisco, and all his work, in one way or another, is about spirituality.
Kiki explained that psychopomps are guides that escort souls from their earthly reality into the light of the next world. When a person dies, and his or her soul leaves the body, the soul usually goes Home, sometimes needing help from a spirit guide who serves as a conductor. Kiki described her own experience of her spirit encountering the souls of terrified small children who had died in the Katrina aftermath. Because these children did not understand death, their souls had become “stuck,” staying in the active realm and unable to move to the afterworld. They needed to be comforted and helped to let go, to feel safe in journeying to their unremembered Home, assured that in a future life they could complete the current-life tasks that had been cut short. Kiki also told of a deceased spirit who felt she was not “good enough” for heaven, so her spirit energy stayed here. Kiki helped her realize that there is no judgment, and that it was safe for her to go Home. Kiki has these encounters through her spiritual consciousness, without a need for her body to travel. When asked how she recognized that the children were stranded, Kiki said, “You just know. You feel it.” She was physically in Wolcott when her spirit traveled to New Orleans.
Debbie added that the body is a vessel. The spirit can travel (astral travel) when it perceives chaos and other spirits in distress. When the spirit is in the body, vibrations are lower. When the spirit is freed in an ecstatic trance, induced by chanting, meditation, or dreaming, it can open up to other spirits in need.
Debbie also explained that it is possible to plan on connecting with others while in a dream state. She and her sister, who live far apart, find the ability to meet like this to be a gift. Later, when they compare the various aspects of their meeting, some details may differ, but their overall experiences and communications are the same. Tanya said that this is an example of entrainment, when the vibrations of two people are in tune, so they have the same experiences in each other’s reality. When the spirit comes back to the body from the other reality, the person has the sense of waking up.
Debbie mentioned an Iroquois custom. For three days after a person’s death, people take turns staying with the body, with someone being awake at all times. This is to ensure that the deceased’s spirit will move along to its Home; the spirit may be fearful of leaving, so the wakeful one gives permission to leave and adds helpful prayers. After ten days, it is permissible for the spirit who has passed to come back to visit.
Sharing
After our three speakers had concluded, the audience was filled with even more questions!
Danya Wellmon asked, “Where does the soul go after death?” Kiki replied that we are eternal; our soul exists before and after the body. We become physical here in earth school in order to help each other, to serve, and then we go Home. Our goal is to become more connected to our spiritual home, find soul awareness, and become whole.
Debbie added that we are co-creators of what is before us. We are given many lifetimes to learn our lessons. On the other side, we still teach and learn, but life here is more challenging and intense.
Tanya shared notes from her own journey that she had taken with her teacher, her goal having been to see where souls go. “My totem animal came and took me to my spirit guides. I became a bear. During a dance I became smoke and rose to become one with the universe, where I felt peace and connectedness. I began the dance of the universe along with all the other elements of the universe. I was wearing a cape with stars and moons on one side and sunlight and warmth on the other side. I danced through the universe, dancing to a drumbeat and wondering if I did it right. I became Ursa Major, a confirmation that I was a part of the universe. In my travels I recognized the presence of Jesus, Buddha, my grandmother, and other family members, intimate connections to the universe.”
Judy Antoine related stories about her husband’s Haitian heritage. He remembers sneaking out as a child to attend some Voodoo rituals, which always intrigued him. His parents, who were Christians, did not approve; their negative feelings about Voodoo were reinforced when they came to the United States. Judy’s husband began to read about Voodoo and has learned that it has many positive aspects; he appreciates the participants’ ecstatic experiences as well as the dancing and drumming. Judy spent a month in Cuba studying Santeria, a faith tradition in which the Yoruba religion brought from Africa is merged with Catholicism. She explained that the flowers, beads, and symbols that surround the statues of their saints are indicative of the African origin of beliefs that have been submerged but not lost within Christianity.
Leonora Monkmeyer asked if there is any scientific proof of the reality of shamanism. Kiki responded that information gathered in the spirit world has been confirmed through documents in this world. Robert L. Snow is a detective who was determined to disprove the theory of past lives. In Looking for Carroll Beckwith: The True Story of a Detective’s Search for His Past Life, he tells the story of his past-life regression experience, then goes on to detail his search for the facts of that past life, a search that proves the accuracy rather than the fiction of the life.
Terra Harmatuk added her own experience with past-life regression. Having had severe asthma and seemingly “allergic to everything,” she entered a past-life regression with the intention that she would go where she needed to go in order to heal herself. She found herself in a poor shack, grieving for a husband who had not returned from the sea; eventually she died of tuberculosis, an infection that typically affects the lungs. Once Terra had returned from that regression and understood the source of her breathing problems, she never suffered from them again.
Kiki added that illness may be a lesson that we need to care for ourselves properly. Regression brings the past into our conscious mind, facilitating healing, since it is the unacknowledged that causes harm. Debbie agreed. “Awareness heals,” she said, and brings a person’s power back. Psychologists have had much great success with past-life regression.
Ann Port asked if it is possible to do past-life regressions using surrogates with permission. Kiki does not recommend it. She said that if you can change yourself, it will affect your relationships with others. Debbie agreed, saying that we are like a mobile: movement in one element will cause movement in every other element. She quoted a Chinese saying, “Heal the mother, you’ll heal the daughter.”
Betsy Wiggins asked about end-stage dementia. Debbie said that persons with dementia are astral-traveling: their spirit has moved on, but their body has not.
Sabra talked about solutions that come in dreams. Then she commented that after this life, she wants to be a soul who welcomes stillborn babies Home. Kiki described a camping experience, during which four of seven campers dreamed of elves that had come to visit.
In closing, Kiki took out a drum and invited each of us to select a drum or rattle from the pile that, for the entire program, had been tantalizingly arrayed in the center of our gathering. She announced her intention to drum for peace, and she asked us to join in, because intention creates reality. She asked us to contemplate what it means to be at peace with ourselves and our neighbors and to become aware of our internal conflicts. She started drumming at the pace of a heartbeat. Then, for the next several minutes, as we drummed and rattled along, she subtly varied the rhythm, pace, and intensity, and we became immersed in our music.