A Shamanic Perspective on Schizophrenia

What does a father do when hope is gone that his only son can ever lead anything close to a "normal" life? That's the question that haunted Dick Russell in the fall of 2011, when his son, Franklin, was thirty-two. At the age of seventeen, Franklin had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. For years he spent time in and out of various hospitals, and even went through periods of adamantly denying that Dick was actually his father. Desperately seeking an alternative to the medical model's medication regimen, Dick introduces Franklin to West African Dagara shaman and writer Malidoma Patrice Somé, Phd. Somé helps Franklin in a way Western medicine couldn't, bringing to light the psychic capabilities behind the seemingly delusional thought patterns, as well as his artistic talents.

The Dagara people of West Africa have an entirely different view of what is actually happening to someone who has been diagnosed as "mentally ill." In the shamanic view, mental illness signals "the birth of a healer," explains Somé. Thus, mental disorders are spiritual emergencies, spiritual crises, and need to be regarded as such to aid the healer in being born. What those in the West view as mental illness, the Dagara people regard as "good news from the other world." The person going through the crisis has been chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needs to be communicated from the spirit realm.

A different perspective opens up very different possibilities. The Dagara people use ritual to relieve the suffering at the core of "mental illness." According to Somé, ritual can open the way for the individual's healing relationship with helping spirits that supports a cure or definitive movement out of the "mentally ill" state of being and back into the world as an individual better equipped than most to give their gifts to the world. To learn more, look inside Dick Russell's memoir, "My Mysterious Son: A Life-Changing Passage Between Schizophrenia and Shamanism."

Painting the Landscape of Your Soul

Damini Celebre, is a fine artist, art educator, acupuncturist, a shamanic practitioner, and now, an author. In her new book, Painting the Landscape of Your Soul: A Journey of Self Discovery, Celebre combines her two passions, creative arts and healing arts, to synthesize a unique approach to awakening your creative self. Painting the Landscape of Your Soul engages and reawakens your innate creativity as a path to self discovery. This book is a step-by-step journey of empowerment, reclaiming your inner self with paint and paper. It incorporates trusting your intuitive voice with deep, underlying principles of healing such as energy medicine and shamanism. Pablo Picasso was once quoted as saying, "The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." According to Celebre, the practice of art allows our soul's to talk to us, to be clear, and to illuminate the path of our soul's true purpose. More than a book about art, this is a much needed book about using a very innate form of expression to discover our true self. Celebre's book is available at Amazon.

"Solfeggio Shamanic Journey" Single Release

I am pleased to announce the release of my new single "Solfeggio Shamanic Journey." Solfeggio Shamanic Journey combines trance inducing drumming and synthesized Solfeggio tones with callback for shamanic journeying. Preview the entire 20 minute single on YouTube and try a shamanic journey. If you like it, you can download Solfeggio Shamanic Journey for $0.99 at Amazon and iTunes.

This recording was made using a frame drum and a composite of synthesized Solfeggio tones in a mathematical sequence to induce brainwave entrainment. Solfeggio frequencies make up the ancient 6 note (hexatonic) scale thought to have been used in sacred music, including the beautiful Gregorian Chants. The chants and their special tones were believed to impart spiritual blessings when sung in harmony. Each Solfeggio tone is comprised of a frequency required to balance your energy and keep your body, mind and spirit in perfect harmony.

Furthermore, within the composition, the tones exert the binaural beating phenomenon, adding to the overall effectiveness. Binaural beats recordings are designed to stimulate the production of brainwaves associated with shamanic states of consciousness by presenting the brain with two tones close in frequency, one to each ear. The two hemispheres of the brain detect the difference between them as a third frequency, and then entrain to this binaural beat rather than the audible tones. Click here to learn more about shamanic journeying.

Shamanizing at Bigelow Hot Springs

Bigelow Hot Springs

I love to camp and shamanize. For the past week, I have been camped on the McKenzie River near Bigelow Hot Springs, which is located on Deer Creek Road about 58 miles east of Eugene, Oregon on Highway 126. Bigelow is one of the few wild hot springs that you can still enjoy without paying any kind of fee. It is a small thermal spring that pools inside a beautiful riverside grotto. The spring emanates from the back of the grotto, so it is the warmest part of the pool. The best time to use this pool is when the river is at its lowest, during the summer and fall. The spring is popular on weekends, so weekdays are the best time to visit. Since it is a day use area, it is open dawn to dusk.

I love soaking at Bigelow early in the day, near sunrise if possible. I like to lie on my back in the back of the grotto and meditate to the calming sound of the current rushing over the river rocks. I just allow the current to carry me away on a journey into myself. It is a blissful place to go. I get in touch with my spirit self and the spirit of the place.

Every place on the planet has a spirit. From the wildest of forests to urban landscapes, every place has a spirit that oversees its life force. Healing the land involves actively working with the spirits of the Middle World in a collaborative way to clear negative energetic imprints, to harmonize what is out of balance, and to restore energy and life force which has been lost.

The energy of the place where I camp is balanced and harmonious, making it a good place to do shamanic work. When I arrived at my camp this spring, I discovered the claw marks of a bear on a cedar tree on the west side of my campsite. I found bear tracks around the camp. I frequently have encounters with bears at my medicine camps. I love bear energy and work with it often in ritual and ceremony. I like to drum the bear-beat and sing a bear chant. Whenever I call in my spirit helpers for help and healing, Spirit Bear comes immediately.

Each morning, I arise early to greet the sun with song and prayers. I then cook a simple meal of oatmeal with raisins and green tea. Throughout the day I play flute, drum, and sing as the mood strikes me. After sunset each evening, I begin another round of shamanizing. I open portals to the spirit world with drum, rattle, and flute. I call in the spirits and improvise an evening of shamanic music. I approach them with humbleness and humility, becoming like a hollow bone through which their life force may flow to be used as needed. Alone in a riverside camp, I offer myself as a vehicle of healing. That is how I choose to relate to the spirit world.

At the end, after dedicating the power which has been generated by the performance, I close the circle. I then crawl into my sleeping bag; physically tired, yet spiritually vibrant. My heart is wide open and blissful. Where the McKenzie River wraps around my camp, the soothing sound of the water lulls me into a peaceful sleep every night.