Why Shamanism Now - A Practical Path to Authenticity

"Modern shamanism is alive and thriving," says shaman, Betsy Bergstrom, our guest this week. "There is a wonderful blending of ancestral and ancient knowledge with new experience." Bergstrom's practice of Heart Centered Shamanic Depossession defuses much of the fear that people feel around the shamanic work of clearing and depossession. Bergstrom specializes in "unraveling thoughtforms and curses," which is a way to draw the energy and power from things that have previously bound us and utilize that energy to revitalize our choices and our future. Clearing, extraction, and depossession comprise a sorely misunderstood aspect of shamanic healing. Bergstrom, a truly inspired and gifted healer in this area, will help us to understand how to compassionately clear what isn't ours, allowing us to come out from under the shadows and connect with our most powerful Ally-ourselves. Join me as this gifted shaman speaks of her path and the unique gifts she brings to her students and clients.

We continue in our four-part series exploring war and shamanic healing with our guest, Ed Tick, author of War and The Soul. Dr. Tick specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war. There is a journey warriors must walk to heal and truly return to themselves, to their families and to the larger community. Today our focus is on the lessons Dr. Tick learned from traditional warrior healing practices in the indigenous cultures of Greece, Native North America and Viet Nam. By working effectively and deeply with these traditional shamanic practices Dr. Tick has experienced a “rediscovery of the path of medicine healer of warriors.” This Memorial Day please forward this message to those you know who have been touched by war. Let us all come to understand the path of healing for warriors and our part as the community that welcomes them home.

We continue in our four-part series exploring war, the soul and shamanic healing with our guest, Ed Tick, author of War and The Soul. Dr. Tick specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war and violence. (Part 1: Feb 25) This week Tick will share his inspired work in Viet Nam where indigenous shamans are using shamanic techniques to assist in the location of MIAs and creation of peace for the spirits of the dead. These indigenous practices also create a way for families to finally grieve and heal the loss of their MIA loved ones. Come join us in the discussion of what shamanism brings to the healing of people and the land where the bodies of the MIA of both sides lie hidden. Explore the challenges is this particularly frustrating wounding of war and the amazing ways closure, release and peace can be found with the aid of the shaman.

This week we explore the lifeway of a shaman and what that can still mean today in this world of advertising, misinformation, and workshops on every corner. “The shaman isn’t made. The shaman is sent as an answer to a prayer.” These are the teachings of our guest, Reverend Shaman John-Luke Edwards, MA, PhD. that prayer may speak the needs of a community, a place, a time, or perhaps even a person. The loss of ancestral wisdom as the shaman attempts to adapt to contemporary life may mean that he or she cannot be the answer they have come to be. Dr. Luke is an ordained shaman of The Wolven Path, which is a rebirth of an ancient Celtic/Druidic form of shamanism. Shamanic Clergy illuminate the path for others by setting their own hearts and souls aflame; they share, teach, and proclaim the Shamanic way of living. We will discuss the uniqueness of this path, the power of ritual to transform, and the dangers of social niceties along the path of the contemporary shaman.

Initiation is the thing we most need from shamanism and are least willing to receive. Much has been written about initiation in psychology, shamanism, and the writings from men’s and women’s groups. Most of it misses the point. Initiation isn’t a form or an ancient ritual. Initiation is a function. It’s a transformation that requires context, fear, and surrender to be present in large amounts. Initiation can happen spontaneously or within a traditional practice, however it rarely happens on purpose. It is required to move a human from child to adult or an adult onto a path of mastery. Join host Christina Pratt and explore why life certainly teaches us, but rarely initiates us—(If the school of hard knocks could do that, the planet would be over run with wise, compassionate elders, passionate, joyful adults and children who are safe and free to truly be children.) Let’s discuss what we need to create and to over come to reintroduce initiation into contemporary American culture.

Shamanism and medicine are blending in a variety of unexpected places across American. This week Alan Davis, MD, PhD, medical director for Quinney Rehabilitation Institute, discusses the merging of these medicines. Davis has been studying core shamanism for a decade. Join us as we discuss how this successful MD came to core shamanism and why he finds great joy and community in this part of his life. We will explore how these disciplines are blending and enriching each other. Davis is also the president of the Board of Directors of the Society of Shamanic Practitioners (SSP) here in the US. The SSP is "an alliance of people deeply committed to the re-emergence of shamanic practices that promote healthy individuals and viable communities." Their annual conference will be held June 18-21 at Menla Mountain Retreat in the Catskills Mountains. Alan will discus Bantu Medicine men, the "Temple of Spirit", a Corn Oracle and other adventures available at this year's SSP conference.

There are certain life experiences and traumas that contemporary medicine says people can't or won't heal from. Shamanism suggests that people can't heal from these events using only contemporary medicine. In other words some wounds are taken in at the soul level. It takes soul medicine to heal them and shamanism offers us this medicine. The hard stuff happens for several reasons: too deep, too pervasive, or too frightening. When events are so intense, fast, or life threatening they cause soul loss and we are left feeling a deep hole, a loss of self, or PTSD. When we weave a web of poor choices, addictions, and too much of the wrong kind of help the problem becomes too pervasive to transform by conventional means. When we must face the Unknown or our fear of Death to cross the gap between where we are and the healing that we need it can be too frightening. Join us as we discuss how shamanism uniquely transforms the hard stuff with ease into soulful healing and great gifts.

"If we wish to understand shamanism, we most know energy. If we wish to understand orgasm, we must know energy. If we wish to understand God/Source/Goddess, we must know energy.” These are the wise words of our guest, Kenneth Ray Stubbs Ph.D. Stubbs creates a ceremonial path to energy, wisdom, and intent for students enrolled in his shamanic training and for his clients. His focus is true transformation, saying, “...not all change is transformation. Only when we change intrinsic structure of something do we literally have trans—formation.” To do this we must learn to access and use our transformative sexual energy or fire. Stubbs will discuss how this energy supports true transformation, the four elemental manifestations of sexual energy, and other adventures along the path of the Sexual Shaman. Stubbs is presenting the 4th Annual Conference on Shamanism and Sexuality on September 10-13. Listen and learn of the many paths of transformation the conference offers this fall.

Shamanism’s great gift to us today is divine inspiration with direct application. This paradox in particularly helpful when we finally commit to untangling our passion from all of the misinformation, confusion, and shame we have heaped on it. Our passion is a gift from the Divine given to guide us naturally to our soul’s purpose. This current time of collapse and chaos is an excellent opportunity to recreate your life based on what is essential, that which abides, and that which you have passion for. So the question is: “What is your True Passion?” In this program we will discuss using shamanic skills to live in a way that you can let love be love, sex be sex, and dreams be dreams, so that your passion is freed to do what it is designed to do, naturally guide you to the energy of your soul’s purpose by burning true as you move into it and leaving you cold as you move further from path. Join us as we explore shamanism, passion, and sex as expressions of our destiny.

Sandra Ingerman, our guest, is recognized internationally for addressing the needs of our times directly by bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture. She is the author of Soul Retrieval, Medicine for the Earth, and How to Heal Toxic Thoughts, among other fine books and she teaches workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. Sandra will discuss where shamanism is and where she would like to see it go in the future. We will explore the challenges contemporary shamans face, like surrender, freedom, and letting go and what it takes to transmute toxicity in the environment, both internal and external. We will discuss the untapped potential in shamanism and shamanic healing. What would this esteemed and experienced contemporary shaman like to see that isn’t happening yet? Come listen to Sandy's clarity about today and her vision for the future of shamanism and the planet.

Courageous Heart Series—Part 4 of 4: The Vision of the Seer Shamanism as a spiritual practice allows us to gather and cultivate the powers of the heart: love, wisdom, power, and vision. Vision allows us to see through our lies and self-denial to see our True Nature. Our True Nature resonates with our calling and our soul’s longing express the unique energy of this lifetime. When we slip into fear and begin to doubt the vision we see only what is wrong and what is not working. We loose the resonance of our soul’s purpose and the larger vision that supports it. Shamanic skills allow us to reengage the clarity of the heart and it resonance with the truth. Truth telling brings us back to our True Nature. From our True Nature we can work with spirit to learn to craft the Big Dream from which reality is created. The challenge of the Seer’s heart is not “what is my purpose?” but “which of all of these wondrous visions is the one vision the sings with the greatest resonance in my heart?”

Courageous Heart Series—Part 3 of 4: The Power of the Teacher You have the gathered the love of your path (Healer) and the wisdom to guide you along it (Warrior). But where is the power to make it real? The power comes from the Teacher’s ability to see through his/her own stories to the deeper truth to the soul and it’s longing. The shamanic skills of the Strong Heart are used to transform all aspects of self that have become righteous, positional, judgmental or controlling. Walking the path of your soul’s purpose demands passionate commitment to the process without attachment to the outcome. Teacher cultivates a robust relationship with the Unknown and the fundamental truth that All is One and there is no separation. Having exposed the lie of separation, the Teacher brings Balance, Wholeness, and Trust to the life expression of the Authentic Self. The strong heart of the Teacher gives us access to our power to step into our own self-mastery and sovereignty.

Courageous Heart Series—Part 2 of 4: The Wisdom of the Warrior So what does it take to live your life with a courageous heart? To choose to live fully and completely, to disconnect yourself from the seductions of the day, and to surrender to the call of your soul is nothing short of an act of spiritual warriorship. And not one act, but the ongoing actions of a person oriented in life to face his/her fears willingly and then do whatever it takes to walk the path. The path of the Spiritual Warrior moves in the Emotional Body and cultivates mastery of self through the willingness to look honestly at what lies in the Shadow. Shamanic skills allow us to transform the enemies we find there into an ally. These allies return to us bringing our humor, sensuality, innate gifts, sexuality, and other passionate aspect s of the self we have judged harshly. “What would you do today if you knew you would die tomorrow?” If the answer is “nothing,” your courageous heart awaits.

Courageous Heart Series—Part 1 of 4: The Love of the Healer So what does it take to truly and fully live a life of Authenticity and Purpose? It isn’t enough to start focusing your intention now and using your mind to make a new life happen. There is a place for the mind and its clarity. However the much more powerful organ of manifestation is the Heart. This week we begin a four part series exploring the four aspects of the self that must work together for you to discover your soul’s true purpose and life it. The heart offers powers to clear out of addictive patterns. This gives us access to shamanic skills to work with Life—Death—Rebirth intentionally to clear the way and create energy for the new. As we manifest the new, fear, resistance and Shadow always arise. We will explore the many ways that looking at fear and shadow from a shamanic, not a psychological perspective, can make the path through that scary place obvious, probably challenging, but ultimately joyful.

War occurs in an altered state as does the wounding of body and soul. The experiences of war can only be understood from an altered state, and given this, their true healing comes through altered states. The medicinal use of altered states is the realm of the shaman. Our guest, Dr. Ed Tick specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to bring healing to veterans, communities and nations recovering from the traumas of war and violence. Join us as Dr Tick speaks from his award-winning book War And The Soul about his groundbreaking work in healing of veterans. “We can create reconciliation and restoration practices that directly redress the wounds against life that oppress the veteran…Then the spirits that were loosed during the war—whether of the survivor or the slain—may find peace, meaning, and lifelong alliance. Then the veteran may make the return journey home and the healer too will be transformed.”