Sep 26, 2015

An Open Letter To Gabriel Morris Regarding Teal Swan – UPDATE: Gabriel's Non-Response

Appearing at The Truth About Cameron and Celestial Reflections.

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UPDATE: Gabriel's Non-Response (See Below)


Recently Gabriel "Kundalini" Morris wrote a blog post taking me to task on my public statements about Teal Swan. He also challenged an upcoming release of an interview with Teal's alleged abuser. What follows is my response to his blog post.


Dear Gabriel,

Thank-you for initiating a public dialog regarding our diverging views on Teal Swan. I'd like to address a number of the points you raised in your blog post. I’m not going to address your speculation about what actually transpired between Teal and her alleged abuser and where she stayed and when, because speculation is all that it is. You’ve created a logical house of cards based entirely on Teal’s statements without even seeing what the man she’s accused of all these things has to say. You are welcome to read the interview with Teal's alleged abuser and draw your own conclusions. A number of the other questions you raise, however, I can speak to. I feel much of what you wrote misrepresented and misstated me. For that and other reasons, I feel the need to respond to your blog and let a clear public record stand. I will be addressing your points in no particular order.


You write:

"There wouldn't be much of a controversy surrounding Teal Swan if it wasn't for Cameron Clark. Cameron is, to the best of my knowledge, the only person who has actually met Teal and spent significant time with her, who is now publicly speaking critically of her. There are other critics certainly, but not people who have spent significant time with her and are now speaking publicly and forcefully about her."

Well, that’s awfully specific. So, only a person who has spent significant time with Teal and who is also speaking out “forcefully” is to be taken seriously as a critic? You seem to have narrowed the scope in order to deliberately exclude a slew of critics and disenfranchised followers. Many people other than myself have enjoyed condemnation by Teal and even death threats from her followers for critiquing and questioning her public record and behavior. You’re not even considering Fallon, her former live-in boyfriend, whom she publicly humiliated by proclaiming a psychopath and who has since written publicly about his experiences in her “cult.” There was controversy long before I spoke out, and no doubt, it would continue if I went silent tomorrow.

What about her followers? The vast majority of them haven’t spent significant time with her either. Does that make their fondness for her equally meaningless? Gabriel, you've spent spent far less time with her than I have. What does that say about your observations?

Sep 22, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Am I Really Talking to My Guides?

Many questions arise as humans open their awareness to the possibility of a world larger than the here and now. "How do I know I'm not making this up?" is usually the first question. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she draws on decades of experience and the wisdom of many colleagues to address listener questions about intuition, working with spirit guides, and how we make sure that we aren't just making this up. The deeper truth of working with spirit is that at times we do make things up, we can lie to ourselves, and then at times we are open and brilliant in our communication with the invisible world. The difference between delusion and inspiration is your willingness to learn new skills, to devote yourself to practice and discipline, and to sacrifice the self you have out grown for the person you could become.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Sep 15, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

What Does it Mean to Live in Your Body?

The strength of the earth element is seen in our relationships with our selves, our intimate partners, and our community. It speaks to what it means to truly live in our bodies and not in our heads. Where the earth element is weak and uncultivated within, we are uncertain and ungrounded, creating false structures to stabilize our lives. The more we lie to ourselves about our lack of true foundation, the larger and more complex the false life we are crafting becomes for the person we are not. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week for the final episode of our five part series about engaging with the seasonal spirits. The seasons draw the unique richness from each stage of the cycle of a year on earth. The earth element speaks to the quality of our center and stability of our relationships. This week we complete the cycle of how to work with the seasons openly and skillfully to bring a simple elegance, rich blessings, and a refinement of presence to the core of our lives.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Sep 8, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Community and the Trickster

"God lives in the heart while trickster dwells in the mind," is a teaching of the Kalahari Bushmen. When trickster is in the head it oversees the heart and leaves us feeling mixed up and frustrated. The remedy is to lift the heart through the heat of the dance so that it holds the mind, allowing the thoughts and feelings to work together in a good, clear way. This week we explore how the Bushmen investment in community life creates the context to truly lift the heart and bring the mind into alignment with right action. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she continues to explore the Way of the Bushman, clearly rendered in Bradford and Hillary Keeney new book,, and how we can use these teachings today. We can learn to step away from our alienation and disconnection when we know we need the community to be "fully cooked" the community knows it needs each individual in the dance to bring in the energy needed for healing.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Sep 1, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Way of the Bushman with Bradford and Hillary Keeney

The teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen or San are the oldest spiritual, shamanic, and healing practices in our world. The San do not believe that "words" can change the world. They give little importance to written words or fixed oral tradition, but emphasize the way n/om (the vital force or spiritual power or shaking medicine) touches us. Bradford Keeney's fieldwork with the Kalahari Bushmen (San) in Namibia and Botswana started over two decades ago. Today he is recognized as a Bushman healer or n/om-kxao and is able to participate in and have access to the world's oldest living religion and healing tradition. Bradford and his wife Hillary join host, Christina Pratt, this week to share their new book Way of the Bushman as Told by the Tribal Elders: Spiritual Teachings and Practices of the Kalahari Ju'/hoansi. Join us to explore the power and inspiration in the ancient wisdom of a people who have never declared war on other people nor harmed the planet.

This week's guests:
Bradford and Hillary Keeney


Bradford Keeney, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned spiritual teacher, shaman, traditional healer, creative therapist, and improvisational performer. Recognized as an ecstatic spiritual teacher and healer by numerous cultures, Keeney became a n/om-kxao (healer) with the Kalahari Bushmen. He is the subject of the book, American Shaman: An Odyssey of Global Healing Traditions written by psychologists Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson, which won a Best Spiritual Book of 2005 award from Spirituality & Health magazine. Keeney is the author of over 40 books including Bushman Shaman and Shaking Medicine.

Hillary Keeney, Ph.D., is a distinguished scholar, author, teacher of creative transformation and improvisational movement, and the co-founder and president of The Keeney Institute For Healing. She is the author of numerous books, the most recent co-written with Bradford is the critically acclaimed, Seiki Jutsu: The Practice of Non-Subtle Energy Medicine. Her scholarship has made contributions to the study of interdisciplinary pedagogy, social cybernetics, creative therapeutic practice and training, ethnographic study of healing traditions, qualitative research of communication, and dance.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Aug 30, 2015

Graham Hancock on Dreams and Awakening

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.




Graham Hancock's agile and inquisitive mind is on full display here, demonstrating, once again, why his many books have inspired so much interest and controversy. This interview covers a lot of territory, focusing almost entirely on his more recent work and interests.

Hancock has spoken many times of the importance of states of consciousness other than the "alert, problem solving state." Here he talks about how hard it is for "dreamers" in western civilization. I can strongly relate to his stories of criticism by teachers for being a dreamer. My introduction to this academic assault on the imagination started in the first grade, when I was struck daily with a ruler for "daydreaming." Hancock refers to dreams of horn and dreams of ivory. This metaphor traces to book 19, lines 560-69, of the Odyssey, in which Penelope questions her dream of Odysseus's return.

Stranger, dreams verily are baffling and unclear of meaning, and in no wise do they find fulfillment in all things for men. For two are the gates of shadowy dreams, and one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those dreams that pass through the gate of sawn ivory deceive men, bringing words that find no fulfillment. But those that come forth through the gate of polished horn bring true issues to pass, when any mortal sees them. But in my case it was not from thence, methinks, that my strange dream came.

The image is powerful. It suggests that all dreams are of the same substance, but that the false, illusory dream is cut off from its original state. The horn is a solid expression of a vortex. As I wrote here, the horn of plenty, cornucopia in Greek, is a symbol of manifestation into the material world. It seems to me that dreams of horn are soulful dreams, connected to our spiritual origin.

Aug 25, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Schizophrenia and Shamanism with Dick Russell

There are many ways to look at the symptoms that the dominant, contemporary culture diagnoses as mental illness. Illnesses of the spirit or the soul can be more clearly seen through the lens of a culture that values both. When we look at schizophrenia through the lens of a shamanic culture we can see something entirely different than a sever mental illness. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, and her guest, award-winning author and environmental journalist Dick Russell as they discuss his new book, My Mysterious Son: A Life-Changing Passage Between Schizophrenia and Shamanism. In this book Dick shares his journey with is son, Frank, beyond the Western medical model that diagnosed Frank as schizophrenic and into the realms of shamanism. Dick shares their experience together forging a healing relationship with the renowned West African shaman, Malidoma Patrice Somé.

This week's guest:
Dick Russell


Dick Russell is an award-winning author and environmental journalist whose new book, My Mysterious Son: A Life-Changing Passage Between Schizophrenia and Shamanism, is a memoir of his journey with is son, Frank, beyond the Western medical model, which diagnosed Frank as schizophrenic. Dick shares their experience together and their forging a healing relationship with the renowned West African shaman, Malidoma Patrice Somé.

Russell is the author of twelve books, including several New York Times best-sellers and the "Eye of the Whale," named a Best Book of 2001 by three major newspapers. He has written dozens of articles about other environmental issues, for publications ranging from The Nation to Parenting, and served for eighteen years as a Contributing Editor for OnEarth (formerly Amicus Journal), the award-winning quarterly publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He has also been a recipient of the National Coalition for Marine Conservation's Golden Swordfish Award (1984), and is an active member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and PEN USA.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Aug 18, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Shamanism and the Mess of Love

Humans are messy. And love is one of the messiest bits of human life. So what do we really mean when we strive to rise to shamanic principles for living, like loving all life or mediating our power through the heart? What does love mean from the fundamental perspective of Oneness, not separation? How do we need to understand love to become truly new people crafting a new world story? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the ways shamanic practice can change our understanding of love from one of pop song, emotional drama or the intellectual labeling of distinct kinds into the current of life itself. True shamanic practice requires a level of intimacy in action that contemporary people find offensive to their sense of individuality and ego. Yet climbing over that offense and stepping into the fear it is hiding is necessary if we are ever to allow our soul to truly love.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Aug 11, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

How to Manifest Your Calling: Myth Busting

Rebuilding a new life from the rubble of your old one is at once an exciting and a scary prospect. Whether you tore your life apart on purpose or your life self-destructed for you, you are still faced with the same challenge: How to create a new life of greater alignment, abundance, physical health, and soul-nourishing meaning? Nothing will send you down the rabbit hole of popular culture's myths about living the life you want than googling "how do I live my soul's purpose?" Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she looks at the most common myths about what it takes to create a life that is aligned with your soul's calling and shares the wisdom gained in two and a half decades assisting people in using their shamanic skills to be clever and courageous in creating a life of meaning a purpose that is better then they imagined.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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Aug 5, 2015

"Witchcraft" Blamed for Grisly Murder

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.




This is how it starts, people. A grisly crime in some sleepy, provincial community, a proximal association with an astronomical event, police officers with notions, credulous reporting by so-called journalists, and it all adds up somehow to an occult ritual.

Numerous news outlets are breathlessly reporting a "Wiccan Ritual Killing" in Pensacola, FL. That Wiccans don't ritually sacrifice people and that nothing about this crime appears in any way ritualistic, notwithstanding.

This NBC article was floating down my Facebook timeline this morning.

A triple homicide in Florida is suspected to be a "Wiccan ritual killing" related to the "blue" moon, police said Tuesday.

The three victims, all from the same family, were found after a welfare check on Friday, July 31, said Escambia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Andrew Hobbes.

"It appears that this might be connected to some type of Wiccan ritual killing and possibly tied to the blue moon," Hobbes told NBC News.

. . .

When asked how the evidence suggests these are ritualistic or Wiccan killings Sgt. Hobbes said, "The injuries to the victims, the positions of the bodies and also the person of interest right now is also a practitioner." 

Aug 4, 2015

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

The Spiritual Awakening Guide with Mary Shutan

There are many different types of spiritual awakenings, from kundalini rising to shamanic initiations and everything in between. This often misunderstood range of human experience is explored beautifully and thoroughly by spiritual healer and author, Mary Mueller Shutan, in her new book The Spiritual Awakening Guide: Kundalini, Psychic Abilities, and The Conditioned Layers of Reality from Findhorn Press. This guide is unique in helping the reader to understand what experience they are in the middle of and how to shape the experience into a meaningful transformation. Drawing from her extensive training in multiple healing forms, Mary joins host, Christina Pratt, to share the different layers of going to sleep, the many ways we wake up, and how to free your awakening process to become the direct revelatory path it is meant to be.

This week's guest:
Mary Shutan

Mary Mueller Shutan is a Spiritual Healer who focuses on helping others work with their spiritual awakenings, spiritual callings, and psychic abilities. She is a painter and the author of The Spiritual Awakening Guide: Kundalini, Psychic Abilities, and The Conditioned Layers of Reality from Findhorn Press. Her focus in all of her work is on the understanding that the spiritual is part of our daily lives, that we are meant to have emotions as well as physical bodies, and that we can have deep compassion and love for even the darkest aspects of ourselves.

Since she was a child Mary has been highly sensitive and creative, with the ability to see, sense, and interact with the spiritual realms. Over a ten year period she focused a tremendous amount energy into finding out how to work with her sensitivities and abilities. This led her through four years of Chinese Medicine school and certifications in Upledger-style and Biodynamic CranioSacral therapy, Asian Body Therapy, Massage Therapy, Zero Balancing, Reiki and Energy Work, Rootwork, and Meditation. Mary also has intensive education in different forms of bodywork, energy work, folk magic, occult practices, and shamanic/spiritual healing.

Mary is particularly known for her distance healing work. Her focus is on Dark or Middle World work- trauma and emotional release, spiritual clearing and protection, spirit release, past life and ancestral healing. She also teaches individuals who are called to this type of work to become safe, effective, and powerful practitioners.

Mary runs a personal blog (www.maryshutan.com/blog) that covers a variety of thought-provoking spiritual subjects and offers email based programs and individual consultations worldwide to people experiencing Kundalini, Spiritual Awakenings, Psychic Abilities, Shamanic callings, and other spiritual experiences to learn how to understand and navigate their experiences and abilities.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific

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