Describes how shamanism is shaping Western healthcare and being shaped by it in turn. Offers a broad perspective on reintroducing soul into the healing process of western medicine, as well as clinical examples and practical strategies for healthcare and shamanic practitioners alike. Covers a broad range of healthcare settings: surgery, psychotherapy, rehabilitation medicine, family medicine, naturopathy, osteopathy, hospice care and a general medical clinic.
The rediscovery that each one of us can achieve the direct, transformative connection with the sacred realms lies right at the heart of the spiritual reawakening sweeping the Western world—a phenomenon explored by anthropologist Hank Wesselman, Ph.D., in his widely read book The Journey to the Sacred Garden. In Spirit Medicine, Dr. Wesselman is joined by his wife, transpersonal medical practitioner Jill Kuykendall, RPT., to present us with a cross-cultural consideration of illness, healing, and health care from the ancient wisdom of the traditional peoples. Spirit Medicine opens a window into a universal worldview that will help you: • understand the classic causes of illness—-an essential step in true healing; • work with the four levels of spiritual healing; • expand your connections to inner sources of wisdom and power; and • deepen your contacts with your helping spirits and healing masters. Spirit Medicine will provide you with the singular key to success that energy medicine by itself lacks. It will also provide you with a perspective derived from the Hawaiian kahuna tradition in which knowledge of the soul cluster, as well as the multileveled nature of reality, forms the foundation. Included is an experiential CD of shamanic drumming and rattling to be used with specific exercises and meditations designed to enhance your healing practice for yourself and others. Spirit Medicine reconsiders and reworks the time-tested techniques pioneered by the shamans of the indigenous peoples, providing nontribal Westerners with extraordinarily effective insights into healing and problem solving.
War. Rage. Magic. Love. In May 1756 war is formally declared between the British and the French. During this highly dangerous time, Isabella Sevens is travelling with her father to the British stronghold Fort William Henry. In the forest, Wusamequin, the young and handsome medicine man, looks to avenge the death of his wife and child at the hands of British soldiers. When Wusamequin spots Isabella and her father, he alerts his warriors to capture them. But Wusamequin is quite taken with how bravely Isabella battles. He orders the warriors to spare her and her tfather, and they are dragged back to their village. However, many members of the Mohican tribe still want them to be killed. In a desperate plea to Wusamequin, Isabella vows to stay as his hostage if he lets her father go.
Today our minds, our emotions, our relationships, and our bodies are out of kilter. We know it, but we tend to ignore it until something brings us up short--a worrying diagnosis, a broken relationship, or simply an inability to function harmoniously in everyday life. When things are a little off, we read a self-help book. When they're really bad, we bring in oncologists to address cancer, neurologists to repair the brain, psychologists to help us understand our family of origin. But this fragmented approach to health is merely a stopgap. To truly heal, we need to return to the original recipe for wellness discovered by shamans millennia ago: One Spirit Medicine. Through One Spirit Medicine, the shamans found that they could grow a new body that allowed them to live in extraordinary health. They learned how to switch off the "death clock" inside every cell, and turn on the "immortality" genes that reside in password-protected regions of our DNA. Cancer, dementia, and heart disease were rare. The shamans of old were truly masters of prevention. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience as a medical anthropologist--as well as his own journey back from the edge of death--acclaimed shamanic teacher Alberto Villoldo shows you how to detoxify the brain and gut with superfoods, use techniques for working with our luminous energy fields to heal your body, and follow the ancient path of the medicine wheel to shed disempowering stories from the past and pave the way for rebirth. Using the principles and practices in this book, you can feel better in a few days, begin to clear your mind and heal your brain in a week, and in six weeks be on your way to a new body--one that heals rapidly, retains its youthful vitality, and keeps you connected to Spirit, to the earth, and to a renewed sense of purpose in your life.
Are You Suffering from a Personal Energy Crisis? In this groundbreaking book, renowned educator, natural medicine pharmacist, and initiated shamana Connie Grauds helps you tap into the wellsprings of vital positive energy that lie within you——but are often blocked by the dispiriting negative energy of fear. Combining cutting-edge Western science with the ancient healing principles of shamanism, Grauds explains how fear and its side effects are at the root of a variety of ailments, from lethargy, depression, and insomnia to the most serious illnesses——and provides a practical program that will revitalize every area of your life. From restoring physical and emotional health to gaining harmony in work and personal relationships, here are exercises that will teach you how to: Eliminate energy-depleting habits and create new, energy-generating behaviors, identify your energy “leaks”, release stress and tension through a deeper somatic awareness and to restore the dynamic flow of energy through the eight primary entradas, or gateways: mind/soul, breath, water, food, exercise, nature, relationships, and altruism. In addition, Grauds shares personal experiences from her fascinating ten-year apprenticeship in the Amazon with a master healer. Now you can begin on a path of balance, wisdom, sanity, and self-knowledge that will support even the most demanding lifestyle and help you achieve the optimum health that is naturally yours.
During the twentieth century, American Indians across North America organized protests against traditional museum treatment of Native materials and the Native community. In response, museums began to change their methods. Spirited Encounters provides a foundation for understan...
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, this brilliantly reported and beautifully crafted book explores the clash between a medical center in California and a Laotian refugee family over their care of a child.
Love and Spirit Medicine chronicles the author’s mystical journey through the end of her marriage and into a focused, shamanic exploration of entheogenic mushrooms. A love relationship unfolded during that time, sending her into a dark night of the soul. Shonagh continued her shamanic explorations with the plant medicine, and discovered a well of resources. Using the mushrooms as a portal to the spirit worlds, Shonagh experienced a profound transformation of consciousness. She realized that the ceremonial use of sacred mushrooms offered a powerful path in her spiritual exploration. Each journey brought her into direct connection with the realms of the sacred. Through these journeys, she cultivated relationships with otherworldly beings that nourished her on a soul level. Through her desire to know Spirit and experience deep connection, she ultimately discovered her own divinity and her connection to the All. “Ultimately, this is the story of my journey into Self. It became necessary for me to fall in love with the mystery of my own being. My experiences with the mushroom medicine have cultivated an intimate relationship with Mother Earth and a coterie of spirit beings. Through the use of sacred mushrooms, I have experienced an expansion of consciousness I never thought possible. It has deepened my sense of belonging within a vast universe of countless realms. This medicine is a potent portal into the world of the spirits,” she writes in the introduction. Shonagh forms a unique relationship with the spirit world that has been made possible through her mushroom journeys. Like many traditional shamans through the ages, she finds herself to be a conduit for Spirit, thereby bringing through wisdom and guidance for herself and her community. She is eventually led into a very ancient practice as a “medicine oracle,” and her life is forever changed. Love and Spirit Medicine is an unusual love story; a tale that exemplifies what is possible through the reverent use of plant medicine for healing and transcendence on every level of our being. It’s the story of a woman who ultimately discovers her journey is not about finding a soul mate, but coming to know and love her own soul.
Spirituality and religion are fundamental to all human cultures. Yet in the helping professions, whose shared objective is to promote human well being, questions of spirituality have often been avoided. Now we are increasingly realising that scientific materialism and individuality have failed to meet enduring human needs for meaning and connection. Evidence mounts for the importance of spirituality for prevention and intervention in times of crisis, distress and illness. Many professionals find themselves ill-prepared to respond to the spiritual needs of their clients, and to negotiate encounters with people from unfamiliar faith traditions. Spirited Practices shows how it is possible for professionals to think critically, and be open to spirituality at the same time. Professionals and teachers from diverse faiths and fields of work, including social work, health, psychology and ministry explain how they have integrated spirituality into their work. Spirited Practices is inspiring reading for anyone in the helping professions seeking to develop a spiritually aware practice. 'It invites us to look honestly at ourselves and our own practices through learning about those from other professional and faith backgrounds.' Richard Hugman, Professor of Social Work, University of NSW 'A much needed forum for practitioners from diverse professional and spiritual backgrounds to address the challenges and rewards of spiritually-sensitive practice.' Leola Dyrud Furman, Associate Professor Emeritus of Social Work, University of North Dakota
Inside these pages are woven together the voices and stories of many people whose lives have been touched by plants in general and plant spirit medicine in particular. These include contributions from some of the many wonderful herbalists using plant-based medicine in a way that goes beyond the physical, biochemical model. The stories are arranged in chapters that take the reader on a journey to discover this medicine of our time. It is sometimes said that in the time of greatest need there is the greatest help, and plant spirit medicine has certainly emerged at a time of great need and challenge, and it is taking root and growing. The plants themselves, sentient and alive, are calling to many to awaken to a deeper experience of the energy of nature and of our human place in it. This can be felt and understood in direct relationship. The elemental forces that manifest the seasons offer a doorway to move into this perspective. For all the many reasons people may seek out the medicine, there will always be something deep and interesting to learn from an experience of it once we have made the connection. Anyone can learn to communicate directly with plant spirits and befriend them in a way that opens rich dimensions and, over time and with persistence and patience, a quiet revolution of perspective can result. Becoming a healer, however, and practicing as one is a more committed business that requires dedication, perseverance, and sacrifice. It also holds many rewards. Plant spirit medicine offers the healer the framework of an elegant and rigorous methodology within which to access and effectively channel the energy of the astonishing realm of plant spirits. In the unfolding of our own journeys as healers and receivers of the medicine we witness an unfolding of consciousness in ourselves and our patients that offers something truly hopeful for the journey of the planet.
