Just finished a 9-week late night course with Lewis Mehl-Madrona, in which indigenous therapists from all round the world were interviewed about their work. It is the 3rd such course I have been on in the last 18 months (they started as a result of lockdown), and it really has been fascinating. We recently skipped the odd week while Lewis went off to post-lockdown Sun Dance :)
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| Lewis and Barbara |
A lot of the talk was around the generations-old psycho-spiritual damage that has been done to indigenous peoples by colonisation, which is a psychological, as well as a political, term. And the ways they are developing to deal with it.
I think it can really broaden our perspective on what this shamanism thing (a word Lewis avoids) is about. To be maybe controversial (which as you know I tend to avoid 🤣), their approach is almost the opposite of our 'person walks in, you ask the spirits what to do, you do it, and send them on their way', which I have always found astonishingly superficial, though it was neverthless what I was taught in so-called 'core' shamanism. No, you need to spend the time to get to know the person deeply, you need to know their culture and history, and you need a full human relationship with them (therapists also take note.) For more on this, see Eduardo Duran's 'Healing the Soul Wound'. And 'Coyote Medicine' by Lewis Mehl-Madrona.
Anyway, for the next course (starting in September) Lewis will be inviting a range of speakers on indigenous philosophy, which for me is absolutely fascinating. The basic standpoint from which the healing work has been presented is 'Two-Eyed Seeing', which is pragmatic and of modern indigenous origin. It seeks to use what works in both modern and traditional ways, without either approach standing in judgement over the other. Philosophically, this is known as 'Explanatory Pluralism'. Our culture elevates tunnel vision, the idea that there can only be one perspective. So it is bracing for the soul :)
If you want to come on Lewis' next course - and I do recommend them as a way of broadening our vision of Shamanism - then join his mailing list here: http://www.coyoteinstitute.us/
Two-Eyed Seeing was brought to all of us by Albert Marshall, a Mi'kmaq Elder living in Eskasoni, Cape Breton, NS. I'm sure my friend will be interested and pleased to hear that his innovation is bringing First Nations medicine to a broader audience.
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