Cafe

Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Why Do We Need Shamanism Now?

We need shamanism now for the same reason we needed it in the beginning. The "first shaman" came in many forms to many different peoples around the world, but they all came for the same reason: to teach us to be better humans. The humans couldn't figure out how to live here in a good way with the environment and they couldn't figure out how to live together without killing each other. Sounds pretty much like humans today. "This is why shamanism matters today," says host and shaman, Christina Pratt, "because it answers the question how? It gives us ways to transform." With all of the great people doing really good work today we have to remember that nothing will change until we all become different people. Join us this week as we explore how we can change ourselves to become the change needed in the world now.

Tuesday, December 29, 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.

Cafe

Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Unmasking the False Self

We are spirit incarnate. The first decision that we make in life, when we are very smart and still part of the Oneness, is to take a body. This body exists in an illusion of space and time, but a convincing illusion that we call life. We experience space and time and fear and love and we make up stories. Some of these stories become masks that we wear; the good mother, the best husband, the start-up billionaire, the disinterested in your world 'cuz I already know everything ayahuasca raver, the person you believe you should be, or the person you are afraid that you are. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores how to engage more deeply in our shamanic practice to shed these masks that we hide behind, step up to the calling of our true self, and respond as the medicine needed for the ills of our time.

Tuesday, December 22, 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.

Cafe

Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Peacemaking as a Spiritual Path with Stephan Beyer

"We all suffer. We are all sacred. We are all bound together. We are all fallible. We are all capable of redemption." And we are all capable of making peace. In his excellent new book, Talking Stick: Peacemaking as a Spiritual Path, author, educator, and peacemaker, Stephan Beyer gives us the guidance and practices necessary to use our shamanic skills to embody peace. Join us this week as Stephan and host, Christina Pratt, explore how our own hierarchical and transactional thinking propagates non-peace in our relationships day by day. Stephan explains that to become peacemakers, "We must learn to have a listening heart; we must learn to have an undefended heart; we must disarm ourselves. And then we can begin to disarm others."

This week's guest:
Stephan Beyer

Stephan Beyer Steve Beyer is a well known author and speaker about shamanism, spirituality, and healing. For more than forty years, has been fascinated by the sorts of anomalous human experiences that have been ignored, marginalized, and pathologized by mainstream psychology - meditation, hallucinations, lucid dreams, shamanic visions, out-of-body experiences, delusions, visualization, false awakenings, apparitions. Stephan holds doctorates in both religious studies and psychology, was a lawyer and a litigator as well as a wilderness guide, peacemaker, community builder.

Steve has doctoral degrees in both religious studies and psychology, and has taught as an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the University of California - Berkeley, and Graduate Theological Union. Expert in both jungle survival and plant hallucinogens, he has studied the use of sacred and medicinal plants with traditional North America herbalists, in ceremonies of the Native American Church, in Peruvian mesa rituals, and with mestizo shamans in the Upper Amazon, where he received coronación by banco ayahuasquero don Roberto Acho Jurama. The Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions at the Smithsonian Institution has praised his "unparalleled knowledge of sacred plants."

Stephan is the author of Talking Stick: Peacemaking as a Spiritual Path, Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon, and numerous books on Buddhism, Tibetan language and religion.

Tuesday, December 15 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.

The Taybor Revisited

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

A couple of years ago, I was brought up short by the realization that Space 1999 might just be more than a shallow, if entertaining, 1970s science fiction vehicle. An episode from the second season called "The Taybor" forced me to give the series a rethink. Specifically, elements of the subtext and imagery, in that episode, point directly to the Tibetan concept of the rainbow body.

I watched "The Taybor" again, recently, and realized that I still hadn't given the episode, or possibly the entire series, enough credit. I'd glossed over a number of details, allusions so direct it's hard to imagine they are not conscious and deliberate.

This analysis of the series addresses the possibility that it's not meant to be taken at all literally – that it only really makes sense if you assume some sort of divine intervention and higher purpose to Moon Base Alpha's unlikely journey across the space.

The idea that the Moon could be thrown from its orbit to drift at speeds allowing it to cross interstellar space in time periods of weeks or months is difficult and often impossible for many viewers to accept. The mass of the Moon is so large and its orbit around Earth so apparently firm and the force of a series of atomic explosions so more likely to obliterate the Moon than to blast it out of orbit, that the imaginations of many of even the most ardent science fiction aficionados were challenged beyond their limit to stretch, despite the fact that the planet Pluto is credibly posited by scientists to have been a satellite of planet Neptune that broke away from Neptune and settled into an irregular orbit around the Sun. And then there is the difficulty that some people have of assimilating the prospect of such an event being caused by human error. Most people prefer to think of future, technological man as incapable of contributing to a disaster of such magnitude.

Cafe

Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Solstice Fire, Fierce Love

In this time of profound ignorance justified as American politics, escalating racial violence, homicidal cyber bullying, and ever-present aggression against women, it is easy to forget that ritual matters. It is easy to forget, in the face of humanity's collective madness, that love matters and that ritual can bring our love to bear on the world. "Humans carry the triple fires of passion, truth, and clarity," explains host and shaman, Christina Pratt. "They are all required in equal parts to muster the fierce love necessary to be the medicine for the people and for our time." We go to the fire in ritual to renew our own fires, to release the things we carry that block our flames, and to let go of the things we do that put our fires out. Join us this week as we explore the approach and embrace of our winter solstice fire in ritual.

Tuesday, December 8 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.

Today's Forecast: Dizzy

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

... with increasing chance of lower back pain, headache, and occasional piercing tones.

I rarely do these energy forecast type things, but the last few days have been so strange, I thought it merited mentioning. I've been having bouts of vertigo and some other symptoms, which tends to happen before things like earthquakes and other disasters, but sometimes connected to nothing I can pinpoint. It's been sort of constant, so that I only realize how dizzy I am when I'm walking across the room and realize I can only walk on the diagonal. It's a very strange feeling. Over the past few days, though, I've spoken to numerous people who are having these symptoms, particularly the dizziness and sense of dissociation.

I have no idea what this may be connected to. In terms of earthquakes and the like, the predictive capability is nil. I only see the connection when something happens and the symptoms suddenly abate. So, as a tool, it's pretty worthless. I am fairly certain it's in some way connected to magnetic fluctuations on the planet and the natural disasters are also symptoms, not really the cause.

I'm not going to pretend I really know what's going on. I just wanted to put it out there, because I know, for a fact, that I'm not the only one who's experiencing this right now.

Cafe

Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

The Lost Art of Sleep with Dr. Rubin Naiman

Sleep is profoundly peaceful. In this time of escalating racial violence, cyber bullying, and aggression against women, we have no frame of reference for the serene, peaceful, and ineffable nature of sleep. Half of the adults in America struggle with sleeplessness and the related health risks while children stay up all night online, unlearning their natural ability to surrender into sleep. As a whole, our culture has lost the art of sleep and with it, our access to our deep dreaming and yin restoration. Our guest, Dr. Rubin Naiman, explains "our challenge is to appreciate the physiological mechanisms of sleep without sacrificing its essential transcendent qualities. ... we must learn to be comfortable with its mystery." Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, and her guest this week as they explore finding, befriending, and entering again into deep intimacy with sleep and dreaming.

This week's guest:
Rubin Naiman, Ph.D.

Psychologist, Rubin Naiman, is a sleep and dream specialist, who has worked for most of 20 years to offer sleep and dream health services and products. He has written numerous books, created audio CD's, and given hundreds of public and professional presentations on a wide range of topics related to sleep and dreams, spirituality, stress, psychological aspects of illness, consciousness, creativity, and shadow work.

Dr. Naiman has maintained a private psychology practice for more than twenty-five years and has worked as a consultant to businesses and organizations. He completed his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University and the University of Arizona where he received a B.A. in Anthropology with honors and high distinction. He completed his M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling also at the University of Arizona, and earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Alliant University (formerly U.S.I.U. and C.S.P.P.) in San Diego.


Tuesday, December 1 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.