Mar 28, 2021
And The Journey Begins
What I am learning from the legit shamans
My husband was diagnosed with ALS recently and his health took center stage in our lives. In addition to the standard allopathic medical route for treatment, I immediately called upon the energy medicine community, full of contacts and methodologies I have collected and studied for decades.
By way of background, in the mid-1990’s, I read the books of Caroline Myss, beginning with Anatomy of the Spirit, when I had to find a way to cure myself of an undiagnosed chronic-fatigue-like illness that plagued me and sapped all of my strength while I had an energetic toddler to raise. My physicians were supportive but puzzled and could not diagnose me. It was at that time that my study of energy medicine began.
My journey was long and seemed endless, including homeopathy, yoga, macrobiotics, acupuncture, reflexology and physical therapy among other modalities. Finally, by about 2001, I felt well. I never took my health for granted after that.
Once I was fully recovered, I was hooked on alternative medicine and the concept of healing in general, and followed and learned from local yogis, nutritionists, fitness gurus, mystics and healers. Fortunately I live in a populated cultural area offering all of this, but I also found inspiration online. As a student I was ready, and teachers appeared.
On my path I learned of the The Four Winds shaman training founded by Dr. Alberto Villoldo. I had heard a podcast with Dr. Mona Lisa calling it the only legitimate shaman school in the world.
I did not endeavor to learn shamanism, but I soon came across a few special people trained by The Four Winds, and I remain in awe of their processes and practices. I had read Steven Pressfield’s intriguing account (see below) of visiting the Masai and his experience with their shaman.
I happened to study the lives of Saints Clare and Francis online recently with a young lay Franciscan, Nina Hirlaender, who embraces a form of celtic shamanism based on nature. She has also trained at The Four Winds and has no qualms incorporating it into her Catholic Franciscan life.
St. Francis is practically the patron saint of nature, after all.
Tiffany Cooper, known on facebook as Yogamour, is an admired and beloved intuitive yoga teacher in Bucks County, Pennsylvania who has studied in South America at The Four Winds. She is also a gifted practicing shaman. I wrote her in the first weeks of the diagnosis to book the shamanic healing sessions for my husband.
Immediately she identified the emotional and psychological influences in his energetic field that she can see have disrupted his health.
She knew nothing about my husband or his background from the Old Country, but she saw and reported burdens he was carrying based on being a son of Italy and the overwhelming crunch of emotional loss his extended family experienced when he left their village for America 40 years ago.
She set to work clearing the disruptions from his field with shamanistic practices including meditations, song, rattles, a drum, chakra clearing. The energy vibes were palpable. Lights flickered for heaven’s sake and a lightbulb blew.
I wrapped my hands around my husband’s feet while he was stretched out during the three energetic healings and prayed and watched Tiffany work. I was fascinated.
My husband, day by day, feels better.
Among other recommendations, including a regular meditation practice, Tiffany taught us three yogic healing mudras of the hands to incorporate. They overlap with meridien tapping sequences of Chinese medicine I learned from my acupuncturist Dr. Xiao years ago.
“If I had a shaman, I would have breakfast with him every morning and whatever he told me to do that day, I would do it.
Better yet, I wish I was a shaman.” — Steven Pressfield
