Awakening to the Spirit World The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation

Transcription

1 Awakening to the Spirit World The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation The word shaman means the one who sees in the dark. To practice shamanism is to open your vision to a world that is hidden from normal view so that you may enter the deeper reality of the unseen universe. With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman join a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders to present a comprehensive manual on the oldest and most reliable human technology for accessing the realms of spirit. Related Audio: The core of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation to communicate first-hand with your spiritual allies and discover your own power. Awakening to the Spirit World takes you through each step of developing a personal connection to your helping spirits to receive wisdom, insight, and healing energy. From an overview of shamanism, to your first journeys and encounters with your power animals, to expanding your skills and insight through long-term practice, here is an in-depth resource for the shamanic arts that includes: Creating rituals and ceremonies for healing and transformation Reconnecting with nature to heal ourselves and the planet Working with your dreams, songs, and artistic vision to strengthen your practice Traditional wisdom for children healthy rites of passage for each phase of a child s journey to adulthood Honoring the cycle of life and death shamanic practices to prepare for and celebrate our final transition in this life Building a shamanic community based on support and shared purpose Insights and practices from renowned shamanic teachers Sandra Ingerman, Hank Wesselman, Tom Cowan, Carol Proudfoot-Edgar, José Stevens, and Alberto Villoldo A CD of drumming to facilitate your shamanic journeys Shamanic Meditations Guided Journeys for Insight, Vision, and Healing by Sandra Ingerman W1420D / 2 CDs / 2 hours / ISBN-13: UPC: Also coming in August 2010 Soul Journeys: Music for Shamanic Practice Ingerman, Sandra US $24.95 / MM01464D UPC: Links to Author & Contributor Websites Sandra Ingerman (Santa Fe, NM) : www. To find a local shamanic teacher or shamanic practitioner who has trained with Sandra, please visit shamanicteachers.com. Hank Wesselman (Hawai i Island): Tom Cowan (New York s Hudson River Valley) Carol Proudfoot-Edgar, José Luis Stevens, PhD, Alberto Villoldo, PhD, Press Room: Page 1 of 7

2 About the Authors, is the author of Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self; Welcome Home: Following Your Soul s Journey Home; A Fall to Grace; Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins; Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner s Guide; How to Heal Toxic Thoughts: Simple Tools for Personal Transformation; and How to Thrive in Changing Times. She is also the author of lecture programs for Sounds True, including The Soul Retrieval Journey, The Beginner s Guide to Shamanic Journeying, Miracles for the Earth, Shamanic Meditations: Guided Journeys for Insight, Vision, and Healing, and Soul Journeys: Music for Shamanic Practice. Sandra teaches workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. She has trained and founded an international alliance of Medicine for the Earth teachers and shamanic teachers. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture, addressing the needs of our times. Sandra is a licensed marriage and family therapist and professional mental health counselor. She is also a board-certified expert on traumatic stress with additional certification in acute traumatic stress management. For information on Sandra s work, to see her articles on shamanism, and to read her monthly column The Transmutation News you can visit her website at. The Transmutation News is translated into seven languages besides English. To find a local shamanic teacher or shamanic practitioner who has trained with Sandra, please visit shamanicteachers.com., is an environmental and evolutionary biologist who did his undergraduate and masters degree in zoology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Hank served in the U.S. Peace Corps in the 1960s, living among people of the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, where he first became interested in indigenous spiritual traditions. He went on to receive his doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, and in that capacity he has conducted research with an international group of scientists for much of the past thirty-seven years, exploring eastern Africa s Great Rift Valley and Ethiopia in search of answers to the mystery of human origins. His expeditionary fieldwork has allowed him to spend much of his life with tribal peoples rarely, if ever, visited by outsiders, among whom he first encountered traditional shamans. Hank is also a shamanic practitioner and teacher, now in the twenty-eighth year of his apprenticeship. The books in his autobiographical trilogy Spiritwalker, Medicinemaker, and Visionseeker have been translated into thirteen languages and reveal the nature of his initiation into the shaman s world, documenting his investigations into a hidden reality that most of us have heard about but few have experienced directly. In addition to his scientific papers and monographs, Hank is also the author of The Journey to the Sacred Garden, a book with CD; Spirit Medicine (with Jill Kuykendall), a book with CD; The Spiritwalker Teachings (with Jill Kuykendall), a six-cd set with booklet; and Little Ruth Reddingford and the Wolf (with Raquel Abreu), a story for children. Hank has taught for the University of Hawai i at Hilo s West Hawai i campus, the Press Room: Page 2 of 7

3 University of California at San Diego, California State University at Sacramento, American River College and Sierra College in Northern California, and Adeola Odutola College and Kirigi Memorial College in western Nigeria. He currently offers training workshops at many internationally recognized centers such as the Esalen Institute in California and the Omega Institute near New York. Hank and his family live on their farm in Honaunau on Hawai i Island. Visit their website at. About the Contributors Tom Cowan has been a shamanic practitioner for more than twenty-five years. He has studied with and taught for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. He is the author of several books on shamanism and Celtic spirituality including Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit; Shamanism as a Spiritual Practice for Daily Life; and Yearning for the Wind: Celtic Reflections on Nature and the Soul. Tom is a minister in the Circle of the Sacred Earth and is on the board of directors of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. He offers shamanic training workshops and spiritual retreats in North America, Central and Eastern Europe, Ireland, Scotland, and England. He lives in New York s Hudson River Valley. His website is Carol Proudfoot-Edgar has taught shamanism since In addition, her specialties include Bear Medicine, Spirits of Place, and developing women s circles and Teachers. For twelve years she has led a group of women physicians in integrating shamanism into both their personal and professional lives. She has been a teacher for the Department of Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In addition, she considers one of her primary roles to be that of ceremonialist. Carol is an explorer who perceives her work to be that of assisting individuals to probe beyond the known realities and to venture outside the usual parameters for contextualizing and manifesting the future. Carol says that through such explorations, Spirit can meet us, and together we can construct a web of compassion and joy that can hold and support the divine nature of every being and element on this great Earth planet. Since 1995, Carol has been involved in developing nonprofit organizations that will coordinate the efforts of individuals seeking to bringing change that is grounded in shamanic consciousness. She is especially interested in using technology to further coordinate work around the globe. Her websites contain a broad range of her shamanic material and listing of Circles working together: José Luis Stevens, PhD, is the president and cofounder of Power Path Seminars, an international consulting firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is an international lecturer, organizational consultant, and executive coach to professionals in a wide variety of fields. He uses his knowledge of shamanism and indigenous wisdom to advise and assist leaders to make difficult life decisions and to develop life strategies. José and his wife, Lena, have completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol maracame (shaman) in the Sierras of Central Mexico; in addition, they currently study intensively with Shipibo healers in the Peruvian Amazon and Incan shamans in the Andes. Press Room: Page 3 of 7

4 José often speaks on the subject of the indigenous wisdom of shamans and how this knowledge applies to the modern world. He is on the board of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners and is co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Shamanic Education and Exchange. José is a licensed psychotherapist with more than thirty-five years of experience specializing in understanding personality. He is the author of ten books and numerous articles, including The Power Path: The Shaman s Way to Success in Business and Life; Transforming Your Dragons; Secrets of Shamanism; and Praying With Power: How to Use Ancient Shamanic Techniques to Gain Maximum Benefit and Extraordinary Results Through Prayer. Learn more at Alberto Villoldo, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and psychologist who has studied the spiritual practices of the Amazon and the Andes for more than twenty-five years. While at San Francisco State University, he founded the Biological Self-Regulation Laboratory to study how the mind creates psychosomatic health and disease. Founder of The Four Winds Society, he instructs individuals throughout the world in the practice of energy medicine. Alberto has written numerous bestselling books, including Shaman, Healer, Sage; Yoga, Power, and Spirit: Patanjali the Shaman, and Courageous Dreaming. See his website, for more. Press Room: Page 4 of 7

5 Suggested Interview Questions Below are topics that the authors can discuss during an interview. Contact Shelly at to schedule an interview or request excerpts or articles. 1. How can shamanism contribute to the healing of the planet today? And what are some simple practices listeners can incorporate into their lives that holds some of the wisdom of shamanism as a way of life versus a series of methods and techniques. 2. What are the principle values of a shamanic lifestyle that one could practice without becoming a shaman? 3. Why did you write Awakening to the Spirit World? 4. How is it different from your previous shamanic journeying books? 5. Why is now the right time? 6. Where can people go to learn more about shamanism? 7. What are you reading these days? 8. What spiritual or philosophical questions are you asking yourself these days (what are you working on, personally)? 9. What does each of the contributors bring to the book? 10. What are some misconceptions about shamanism? 11. What do you see as the connection between your book s subject and the concept of the 2012 shift in consciousness? 12. For Sandra: Could you tell us more about the documentary films you re involved with, The Invocation by Emmanuel Itier and his upcoming film, The Goddess. 13. For Hank: You ve mentioned that you see the shamanic journey as a form of meditation and a gateway to transformative experience. How do you think this book is in alignment with yoga and today s transformational community? 14. Why do you think today s people are in need of mystery and meaning in their life? Press Room: Page 5 of 7