My Calling

I returned from work to find a note on my kitchen counter that read simply, “Chris, call Christy” with a phone number. What was remarkable about this note was that my friend Christy was dead. She had died two months earlier of a drug overdose. I had attended her funeral and paid my respects to her family.

When I questioned my housemate, who had not known Christy, he agreed he wrote the note but explained he was sleeping when the phone rang so he did not recall the conversation. Huh? I looked in my address book and sure enough, it was Christy’s old phone number. Call her?

I sat down in my meditation area and prepared myself. Fifteen days previous, I had been struck by lightning in my back yard, knocked unconscious and had a classic near death experience (tunnel/peace/light). Since then, if I tried to meditate, I was interrupted by two native men who spoke to me and taught me their strange but interesting perspectives. Guardian angels had been a wonderful fantasy as a young Catholic girl but this was different, no wings or halos.

I took three deep breaths, closed my eyes, then “Christy?” The two natives appeared and motioned me to follow. Christy sat on a foggy hillside. She looked horrible. She was still in her drugged stupor and did not even acknowledge me. The natives told me to put my arms around her. After a moment she recognized me but was still very incoherent. I went back to her four more times over the next few weeks and with much sadness she became alert and aware of what she had done. She cried and cried about the two young children she had left. She could visit them but she could not hug them or touch them or talk to them. Finally, I was instructed to take her to the “door”.  Christy’s grandmother appeared with a glowing smile. Christy’s face lit up with joy and then they were gone.

After six months of these out of ordinary reality experiences I made an appointment with a therapist. I explained that I seemed to be having psychotic episodes and that I wanted a referral for medication as well as therapy. Instead of the atheistic, scientific response I wanted, he said, “No, this is interesting. Let’s work with it.” Two months into therapy he called me at 9:30 at night. “I know what it is! I know what’s happening to you! It’s called shamanism.”

Shaman what? In 1997 I had no concept of such a thing. And now, decades later, I cannot imagine life without it!

 

My shamanic training includes:

  • Three-Year Program in Advanced Shamanic Initiations and Shamanic Healing through the Foundation For Shamanic Studies
  • Soul Retrieval – Sandra Ingerman
  • Weather Shamanism I, II, III and IV – Nan Moss and David Corbin
  • Advanced Depossession and Curse Unraveling – Betsy Bergstrom
  • Wheel of Life Two Year Middleworld Training – Betsy Bergstrom