May 26, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Shadow, Sex, and Shamanism with Marsha Scarbrough

Where people gather in community there is Shadow, even in spiritual communities. Where there is unacknowledged Shadow there is sex, often good and exciting, and usually inappropriate. At its worst this Shadow driven sex moves hand in hand with great abuse of trust and misuse of power and it tears spiritual communities apart. Author Marsha Scarbrough shares her passionate, sexual, painful journey in her new book Honey in the River: Shadow, Sex and West African Spirituality. Marsha explores this all too common experience with honesty, vulnerability, and maturity so that we can get past our overly simplified victim/perpetrator stance and see the movement of spirit, shadow, love, and the Trickster in the mix. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, and her guest Marsha Scarbrough this week as they discuss shadow, sex and the Trickster and their movement in our lives.

This week's guest:
Marsha Scarbrough


Marsha's new book, Honey in the River: Shadow, Sex and West African Spirituality, takes us on a breath-taking journey of love, passion, sex, betrayal and ultimately, healing in the world of powerful rituals, dance, African drumming, mythological archetypes and sacrifice. She is a freelance journalist, who has had over 75 articles published in national magazines such as TV Guide, Body & Soul, Natural Home & Garden and Millimeter: The Motion Picture and Television Production Magazine.

Her first book, Medicine Dance: One woman's healing journey into the world of Native American sweatlodges, drumming meditations and dance fasts, published in August 2007 by O Books, John Hunt Publishing, was named First Runner Up for the 2009 Zia Award by New Mexico Press Women as well as a finalist in USA Book News National 2007 and 2008 "Best Books" Awards and the 2008 New Mexico Book Awards.

Along the way, Marsha traveled with Buddhist teacher Joan Halifax, danced with movement guru Gabrielle Roth, earned a brown belt in karate from martial arts legend Tak Kubota, participated in indigenous healing ceremonies of dance and sweat lodge and produced workshops for a Nigerian master drummer. Marsha and her book can be found on her website: www.marshascarbrough.com.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

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May 19, 2015

Shadows Before Suicide

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.




I've always found the theme song from M*A*S*H to be darkly compelling. Beautiful and melodic, it is an oddly seductive paean to ending it all. Reading the latest from the marvelous Gaby Petris, it occurs to me that for many people, Teal Bosworth Scott Swan's relentless obsession with suicide has a similar allure for many of her followers. She is far more dangerous. When she speaks of suicide as, not only painless, but blissful, she does so without tongue in cheek. Hers is a kind of siren song pulling her many suicidal followers closer and closer to the rocks.

I want to show you a precarious vortex that is massing around the teacher Teal Swan. Within it suffering people seeking an answer are circling. I want to communicate a sense of its dangerous undertow. That pulls people in. And under.

I first became aware of Gaby's writings, when her first post on this topic was recommended to me in a comment on my last post on teal. It is also must reading. When I learned that she was working on a more in-depth piece, my only question was, how can I help? Together, Gaby and I sorted through screenshots we've both collected of Teal Tribe discussions about the suicide option, and about the 22 year-old triber who recently took his own life.

When I really delve into the patterns of teal's communication with her flock, the picture that emerges always proves to be so much worse than I'd thought. I am eavesdropping, I know, as I look at these snapshots of Teal Tribe conversation. I am not a tealer or a triber. I am an observer, a rubbernecker, watching accidents occur in slow motion. And it is an awful thing to see the train coming and be so unable to stop it.

Teal Tribe is brimming over with creative, intelligent, even brilliant, people. Many are also wounded and vulnerable. And, far too many are suicidal.

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

How the Trickster Teaches Us

In shamanic cultures around the world it is the Trickster who made the world as we actually find it; not a perfect Eden, but complex, messy, beautiful, and painful. It is the crazy logic of the Trickster, life saving and sacrifice demanding, that can help us to navigate where our blindness, deafness or simple stubborn refusal to do what we know we need to do gets in trouble. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, in this replay of a favorite show on the Trickster. Author Lewis Hyde writes, "The Trickster cannot be trusted. It is a contact that puts us slightly at risk; we open ourselves to disruption whenever we call on him." But it is that opening that allows miracles, the impossible, surprise and the reversal of fortunes. The Trickster reveals the short cuts that allow us to get to the full, loving expression of our soul's true purpose in spite of ourselves.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

May 12, 2015

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Around the Web, Around the World


"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

How to Receive Shamanic Healing

What are the ethics for receiving shamanic healing? Much is written about ethics for practitioners, but is it really ethical to drop all the issues of your life in the lap of any healer and ask them to heal you in one session? Is it ethical to get angry about a session when the healing offered doesn't play into the story you carry about your woundedness? Is it ever ethical to ask for healing, which is always an effort of energy expended, without offering anything in exchange for the healing energy spent on you? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the very prickly issue of the ethics for receiving shamanic healing. This week we slash expectations for magical cures and effortless life changes in the hopes of revealing how contemporary people can come to an ancient healing form prepared, informed, and ready to do what is needed to follow up responsibly.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

May 5, 2015

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Around the Web, Around the World


"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

The Gift of Shamanism with Itzhak Beery

Every human has the ability to imagine, to learn from dreams, to feel insight and intuition, and to "see" at a distance. "These many forms of visioning are our birth right and they enable us to fully connect to the universe," explains our guest Itzhak Beery, an internationally recognized shamanic healer and teacher, the founder of ShamanPortal.org, and cofounder of the New York Shamanic Circle. Itzhak joins host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week to discuss his new book, The Gift of Shamanism: Visionary Power, Ayahuasca Dreams, and Journeys to Other Realms. Itzhak feels that the Big Shutdown of the Senses in today's media driven, virtual world causes personal and community memory loss that results in the lost of trust in our senses and our innate selves. He feels shamanism reconnects us with nature and our deep inner experiences of wholeness.

This week's guest:
Itzhak Beery

Itzhak Beery is an internationally recognized shamanic healer and teacher. He is initiated in Andean and Amazonian shamanism and has trained intensively with other elders from South and North America. He is also an accomplished visual artist and owner of an award-winning advertising agency in New York City.

Itzhak is the founder of ShamanPortal.org and cofounder of the New York Shamanic Circle. He is on the faculty of New York Open Center and his work has been featured in the New York Times, films, TV, and webinars with Evolver network.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

Log on to Listen
Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

May 2, 2015

In Which Michael Shermer Finds the Time

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.



As I noted here, Rupert Sheldrake challenged professional skeptic Michael Shermer to a debate in 2003. He accepted. And now, a mere twelve years later, that debate will take place.

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, who was caught giving critiques of  Sheldrake's work without reading it, agreed to debate Sheldrake... if only he could find the time.

In March 2003, Dr Sheldrake challenged Shermer to a debate, which he accepted, and several times and venues were suggested, but all were rejected by Shermer. As of 2009, the debate has still not taken place.

Well, better late than never. The dialogue, hosted by TheBestSchools.org, commenced on May Day with opening statements from both thinkers.

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