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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Rising Up When Life Falls Apart

How do you rise up when you have lost more than you thought you had to lose? How do you avoid the contemporary pitfalls of falling into a deeper pit of depression, grasping for anything to make it look better than it is, or recreating a shiny new version of the same life you had before? We have to find an ignored inner self who stands between the Lost One who doesn't know how to go forward and the Blissed One who just wants to stay in the flow. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores how to go forward and cultivate a truly new life from the rubble of our old one. By co-creating with spirit through our shamanic skills we can use the dynamics of physical life to ground our visions in reality and the patterns of our emotional life to expose false beliefs. Then the mind can balance the discipline and imagination necessary to rise up anew.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
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Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Contemporary Gender Issues and Shamanism

Gender is a charged issue in the contemporary world and will continue to be as long as we think we understand gender when we don't and believe that others "should" be like us when they are in reality unique. For many bringing shamanic skills to bear on the issue only confuses things. It is important to remember that from an understanding of reality based on Oneness like the understanding shamanism offers, gender is a non-issue. Gender variance is expected and accepted in ancient shamanic cultures without pause. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores how we can use shamanic skills to work with the four wisdoms to understand and align our own gender expression with our deepest truth and find the deep damage that is always at the root of our intolerance.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
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The LHC and Another Mystery Particle

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

Here's where I pretend to understand quantum physics well enough to relate some very important news. The Large Hadron Collider, which enabled the detection of the elusive Higgs boson, or "God particle," has also revealed the pentaquark. It is effectively a new state of matter.

In 1964, two physicists - Murray Gell Mann and George Zweig - independently proposed the existence of the subatomic particles known as quarks.

They theorised that key properties of the particles known as baryons and mesons were best explained if they were in turn made up of other constituent particles. Zweig coined the term "aces" for the three new hypothesised building blocks, but it was Gell-Mann's name "quark" that stuck.

This model also allowed for other quark states, such as the pentaquark. This purely theoretical particle was composed of four quarks and an antiquark (the anti-matter equivalent of an ordinary quark).

I was just the other evening listening to an older interview with William Henry, in which he touched once again on the LHC. Henry has noted the similarity between the LHC and the 8 spoked wheel of Mayan prophesy.

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Change and Transformation — Using Shamanic Skills

Shamanic teacher and author, Christina is a skilled shamanic healer who weaves her authentic shamanic experience, extensive training, and experience with shamans from Ecuador, Nepal, Tibet, and Africa into her contemporary practice. She has been in practice for 20 years, specializing in soul retrieval healings, soul part integration, and ancestral healing. She is the director of the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing in Portland, Oregon.

Monday, July 13th, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
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Cameron Clark On Not Being a Victim

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

This is a really great, in depth interview with Cameron Clark. Her months long experiment in living and working in Teal Bosworth Scott Swan's "intentional community" has been previously discussed in a lengthy interview posted here and in the Cameline video posted here. This discussion brings much needed clarification of some of the finer points of her experience and perspective.

Cameron endured a great deal in a relatively short period of time, including not so subtle pressure to kill herself. Despite all this, she says that she has never considered herself to be a victim. She feels she made choices and learned valuable lessons. So, I thought it was awfully funny that the Ask Teal episode posted the following weekend dealt directly with victimhood. That whole idea of not seeing yourself as a victim? She's against it.

For a true believer in the "law of attraction" to stand against the idea of personal responsibility requires some rather profound convolutions of thought.

The unhealthy Ego is concerned with power. Not the good kind of power (like empowerment), the kind of power that needs something to be less powerful in order to feel powerful by comparison. And the ego can gain this power by being the good guy. People who are trapped in victimhood mentality are after the kind of power that belongs to someone being righteous or good. But the ego that is concerned with being righteous or good needs someone to be the bad guy to exist. Similarly, an ego can gain power by being the victor. People who are trapped in victor mentality are after the kind of power that belongs to someone superior and strong. This kind of person cannot ever admit to vulnerability. This kind of ego may be unwilling to admit to any negative emotions at all. Or it may not have a real problem with expressing anger or negative emotional states that it perceives as strong, while refusing to admit to negative emotional states that it perceives as weak. This ego crumbles at the thoughts of admitting to fear and especially hurt. Admitting that their feelings got hurt is like a death sentence. This ego thinks that by denying vulnerability, especially any notion of victimhood, it is a victor. It was won.

See? Feeling like a victim is bad, except when it's good.

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Psychopomp-to Conduct the Souls of the Dead with David Kowalewski

Not all who die leave the realm of the living easily and these souls need help. From the beginning of people the shaman has served this role, the "psychopomp," and transported the souls of the dead home, assuring their safe and complete journey through the death process. Each traditional culture defines the psychopomp's work in its own way, influenced by that culture's beliefs about the soul, death, and the process of dying. However shamanic people hold the universal belief that the souls of the dead need to move on to the Land of the Dead or they become a source of stress, physical illness, and mental distress for the living. As our world continues to amplify the conditions that cause a soul to need help crossing-violent death, unlived lives, despair, addiction, and spiritual ignorance-those who are able to escort the soul are needed even more. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt and her guest, David Kowalewski, Ph.D., psychopomp, university professor, shamanic healer, speaker and author.

This week's guest:
David Kowalewski

Dr. David Kowalewski is a Professor Emeritus, teacher, author and shamanic healer. He has been trained by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and indigenous shamans from many traditions, including Native-American, Celtic, Tibetan, West African, Huichol, Incan, and Mayan.

He has written articles and books on his shamanic work. His work has been featured in Journal of Contemporary Shamanism, Journal of Shamanic Practice, Sacred Hoop, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Review of Religious Research, Journal for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies, International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, Journal of Church and State, and elsewhere

He also speaks publicly on shamanic healing, Deep Ecology, Plant-Spirit Medicine, Developing Your Paranormal, Mystical Wildlife Tracking, and Discovering Your Destiny, based on his university courses, conference papers, and publications in ecology, religion, psychology, and education.

Tuesday, July 7, 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.

Sea Change

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

When I was a kid, I got into an argument with some of the grown-ups at my church. (Yes, I have always been as I am today.) I had been at a youth service where we had sung fun, kid-friendly songs instead of hymns. One of the songs was "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love." These are the lyrics.

We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord

And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love

We will work with each other
We will work side by side
We will work with each other
We will work side by side

And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love, our love
By our love, our love, by our love, our love, by our love, our love
By our love, by our love, by our love, our love
by our love