Sandra Ingerman.com

Transmutation News February 2010

I found myself called to write a lot this month. The Transmutation News became so long that I realized there was too much in it to be absorbed by readers and I also feared that our translators would have “a meltdown”. So I am posting half of what I wrote this month. And will post the second half of what I wrote in March. This month’s column is still long so take some time to absorb all that is being shared by other contributors and myself.


Let’s begin with Haiti for so many people have been called to do something in behalf of the people.

Besides sending much needed donations we can work together using light to help those in need. I wanted to share with you an email I received from Julie who is a wonderful shamanic teacher and practitioner on www.shamanicteachers.com. For her work really sums up how we can continue to work in behalf of the people and the land of Haiti. And it is work we can do when there are future issues coming up in other places of the planet.

Here is what Julie wrote:

“I just wanted to share what I've suggested to my students based on some journeys I've done around the earthquake in Haiti.
In my first journey on Wednesday, I saw a huge circle of light beings (like us) already there transfigured as we do in Medicine the Earth, and I joined hands with them. I saw the amazing amount of light being generated, surrounding Haiti and weaving a web of light that stretched out to touch everyone in the world who has loved ones there. I also saw an enormous light column in the center of the circle, and many souls were rising up into the light through this portal. It was amazing and beautiful and a great learning experience for me.

So I suggested that everyone journey to Haiti whenever possible, even for just seconds at a time, and join hands with the circle of light beings who are already there holding a vibration of peace, harmony and compassion. I stressed that they not focus on the suffering, but to simply drop their form and become pure, divine light, and to tone if practical.

In my journey on Thursday (yesterday) I saw a haze of light forming over Haiti, and within it the city of Port au Prince was already being rebuilt on the spiritual plane. And so we have the opportunity to join in the rebuilding by dreaming a new dream for Haiti. I have asked my students to hold a vision of a Haiti in which there is no poverty, where everyone has a home, safety, food, education, healthcare and stability. I also saw that in the new Haiti, the old ways were being reclaimed, and people were learning to live in harmony and balance with the elements and with the land, so they were no longer so vulnerable to hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis etc.

For the aid workers who are physically there trying to help, there is no way to escape the devastation of what has happened. But as light workers and dreamers, when we focus on the suffering, we feed the vision of a Haiti that continues to be devastated, poor, hungry, uneducated and unstable. Instead, we can use our powers of imagination and visualization to feed the dream of a new Haiti, one of where everyone has a home, food, jobs, healthcare, education and hope for the future.

So I just wanted to share this with all of you as another way we can help.”


Change is really speeding up isn’t it? It is quite fascinating to watch all the forces that are coming into play. On one level there are so many challenges people are facing. This has been a challenging winter for many around the world as the weather has been extreme everywhere.

On another level one can see that there are forces in motion to help to change consciousness in a positive way.

We have been working together as a global community for quite some time now with the Medicine for the Earth work. And some of the keys of our work have been:

 -The importance of honoring and respecting our connection to nature. For all of us reading the Transmutation News understand that we are part of the web of life and all life is connected.

-We have been working with our thoughts and words to align with a positive vision in creating a positive life for ourselves and all of life.

 -We have been working with the understanding that we are divine light and the world around us is a reflection of our inner state of consciousness.

-And another big piece we have been working with is that when we work together as a global community we tap into an exponential power to create change.


Although my new book How To Thrive in Changing Times was just published all these principles that I wrote about have been part of our work together for many years now.

And if you observe what is happening these same principles are being seeded in mass consciousness by popular writing and even by Hollywood.

Dan Brown’s book The Lost Symbol has been one of the best selling books this winter. I don’t know it’s ranking right now but it has been #2 on the Bestseller List in the United States.

Although his book is fiction and is written with the same formula as his past books, this book goes into some of the old teachings that are the foundation of freemasonry. And the running theme behind the story has to do with the power of our thoughts to create, the power of the divine within us, and the power of how we can change the state of world very quickly when we work together with group consciousness.

Then the movie Avatar came out. Yes, it is Hollywood at its finest. But it is also changing the consciousness of people who are coming to see it. Avatar takes you into another world where the indigenous people live in total respect for nature and harmony with nature. For it is understood that they are part of nature and the web of life and that nature is a powerful helping spirit.

There is an understanding of how sacred trees are and that there is a network connecting the roots of all trees where all kinds of communication happens.

And all ceremonies for healing are done in community and the group consciousness working as one is what creates successful results.

As I read and listen to stories of the impact the movie is having on people I hear things like:
- I want to live in that world. I want to create a simpler life.
- I want to connect with nature.
- I want to find a group to work with.

The movie goes into the shadow side of greed and how when we disconnect from nature we disconnect from the beauty of life. And money should not be a reason to destroy life.

So although we have been working with these same principles for years now just think of the many thousands of people who are now being opened up to these ancient teachings.

And it is also wonderful to hear how many children are being impacted by the movie and want to save the earth.

Powerful seeds have been planted into the psyche of mass consciousness. May the seeds take root to creating a true understanding of how we can truly join our hearts and minds together to shift the direction of the world and create a world we want to live in for ourselves, our children, our descendants and for all of life itself.


In How to Thrive in Changing Times and also my new book Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation co-written by Hank Wesselman I wrote about how working in community can create greater change then when we work alone.

You might want to look at page 137-138 in the section “Gathering Our Energies” in How to Thrive in Changing Times where I gave an example of the power of working in community.

Years ago when Santa Fe was very dry and we were in quite the drought I had been seeing all the trees where I live in their divine light. I couldn’t give them water but I could perceive them in their divinity.

One of the trees on the land where I live is a peach tree. I brought a peach from the tree to a Medicine for the Earth workshop I was teaching.

I had been transfiguring and experiencing the tree in its divine light for the entire summer. Sylvia, who uses the GDV camera at my workshops, took a photo of the energy field of the peach. And the field of the peach looked very good.

But after the peach was in the middle of the circle where 50 participants performed a transfiguration ceremony together the energy of peach was so much more vibrant.

See the results below.  You can also visit www.shamanicteachers.com and click on “photos/results” to see the peach as well as other results. And you can show the photos to others who you might share the work with.

In my extraction work my helping spirits had taught me to use the classic method of actually sucking the blocking spiritual energies out of the body of the client. It was like I was using “a spiritual straw” to do this and then I would spit what I had gotten into a bowl of water that was beside me. And then I would pray over the water and transmute the energy and give the “sacred water” back to the earth.

Anyway here is the point I want to make. I grew up in Brooklyn in a very conventional family. So as I would be performing my extraction work my rational mind would always come in and ask the question, “Have you completely lost your mind?!!!” For on a rational level and from my training of how one acts in our society what I was doing was simply crazy.

How I would handle this is when my mind would start to interfere with my healing work I would just say to myself, “What if this really works?”

This question would open up the possibility – quiet my mind, and frankly I do believe that it impacted the results of my work in a positive way.

Today one of the teachings that is coming out of quantum physics is that asking “What if…” questions does open up a doorway into the universe that helps to focus energies for manifestation.

This month experiment with “What if…” questions and notice if and how this way of working helps you when you start to question the efficacy of spiritual work and when issues of hopelessness come up.

Gail Walker is a dear friend and wonderful practitioner and teacher of shamanism. She often shares her thoughts with me after she reads something I have written. She has a great gift of working with metaphors and her communications with me always take me to a deep reflective place. Recently Gail me sent me the following on how the understanding of the power of working in circles can be woven together with some recent scientific discoveries. She plants some wonderful seeds.

“One way of bringing through formlessness into form is to assemble the pieces that are coming into the collective consciousness at this time.  These pieces may seem unrelated.  But just as we are guided on our paths by inner spirit, outer spirit guides us by revealing similar knowledge in different forms or professions. 

We can use these pieces like a Medicine Wheel to know the wisdom of the other directions and as well as our own and see the whole of the pattern that is coming into form.

In the January Transmutation News Sandra wrote that ‘Nature has been trying to show us that we are not living in a time where we can predict and therefore control what is happening.’  Since then, the earthquake in Haiti has occurred.

During this same timeframe, research has been published about how cancer cells may be contained and about how traumatic stress may be minimized.    The mechanics of our human bodies are revealing templates that are metaphors to explain how joining together in spiritual practice may heal the upheavals of toxic thoughts and toxic experiences.  This may be a time where a new and old wisdom are emerging in human consciousness as a new paradigm.  The paradigm would encompass movement, interaction, circles and how whole systems interrelate.  Body is a portal to the knowledge that is emerging [or re-emerging] into the larger collective consciousness at this time.

 A front page article in the 12/29/09 New York Times reported on an idea [proposed twenty years ago but now being accepted] that cancer cells cannot turn into lethal tumors without the cooperation of other cells nearby.  In essence cancer cells are influenced by relationships with other cells in their environment.  ‘It may also mean that cancers grow in part because normal cells around them allowed them to escape. It also means there might be a new way to think about treatment: cancers might be kept under control by preventing healthy cells around it from crumbling.’  The research is investigating the signals and interactions between the cells.   Further research is investigating how the environment of the cells can ‘defang or weaken’ cancer cells.


Some of the basic ideas in this research mirror shamanic practice.
A cell [or toxic thought] needs cooperation from neighbors [or repetition] to turn into tumor [or pattern].  A healthy community or cluster of cells might contain and hold the toxic cell, and only when this community breaks down might the cell become dangerous. The cells’ environment is constantly changing and being influenced by their interactions.   There might be a way to block the signaling of the toxic cell so it cannot recruit healthy cells.  Perhaps there is a chemical or energy flow in the ring of cells around the cancer cells that prevent them from becoming toxic, by signaling to them that they are surrounded.

Applying these concepts to shamanic practice makes clear the importance of circles.  The circles we sit in become wheels of energy that can whirl with the wind and swirl through time.  Circles can embrace, contain and perhaps restrain toxic elements. When we send our light/energy as embodied dense beings in a human vessel, we may be fortifying that healthy encircling that contains that which is toxic and signals it into stillness.

Sustaining the momentum of the circle is essential.  In our community’s work with the people, animals and land in Haiti, sustaining the focus and energy will keep the circle recharged and recharging and sending.   Circulating love and light to the people and the animals and the land will help contain or encircle the earthquake’s wake.


In The New York Times 1/14/10 article about limiting the aftereffects of trauma on our troops in Iraq, revealed that morphine treatment cut in half the number who developed posttraumatic stress.  The morphine reduced pain and scrambled recall.  Of special interest to shamanic practitioners the morphine also inhibited the production of norepinephrine, a brain chemical associated with fear, and mimicked the hormone oxytocin which cements human bonds and creates the feeling of love and well-being.

That morphine may prevent PTSD may be another example of containment.  By limiting norepinephrine there would be less flooding with messages of fear and repetitive alarm. The presence of a substance similar to oxytocin would reduce toxic isolation when  people feel a rupture with people or Spirit due to a trauma.  Instead there would be the sense of being encircled, that I am not alone in the world, that would surround and depotentiate the desolation.

Shamanic practices replicate these effects.  When we send our energy/light and hold some person or place in love we may be creating that oxytocin link and also be limiting overriding fears.


It is a time to wake up to body – as teacher, as paradigm, as connector, as source.  It is a time to sustain circles and circulate the energy as a wheel to swirl and encircle toxins with health and well-being to defang them.  It is a time to use community and connection to soothe fear and cement human bonds.
 
It is a time to welcome body as the standpoint with which we root the web of light.  When we embody Spirit, connect as circle and circulate embodied energy we can encircle toxins and serve the good.   In the paradigm where we are more embodied in our human vessels, we align more deeply with Earth as a living body.”


The full moon is February 28. Let us continue to join and hearts and light together in weaving a bright and joyful web of light within and throughout the earth.

I received wonderful feedback from readers from the Transmutation News about sending roots of light down into the earth that I wrote about in the January Transmutation News. I will repeat this instruction for you again here.

This was a suggestion from Kate in Delaware who meets monthly with a local group to weave a web of light:

“Instead of weaving the web of light up and out, we weave roots down into the earth. Once all the roots are joined with the light from everyone else the lights bursts forth from the earth and envelopes every being on the planet.”

Using the principle of as above, so below, as within, so without it is important for the spiritual community to develop the as within part. For many in the spiritual community have a tendency to leave the body during spiritual work. And the strength of our work is really fueled by our ability to stay embodied as a star shines from within. As Gail wrote above when we are more embodied we align more deeply with Earth as a living body.

Let’s try rooting the web of light into the earth. We want to really feel the web of light within and throughout the earth.

And let’s continue our transfiguration in behalf of our global community as is written up on the Transmutation News page of this site under Creating A Human Web of Light.

The instructions for our full moon ceremony and for our monthly group healing in behalf of our circle are also written up in How to Thrive in Changing Times.

I am getting such wonderful feedback on this book. I recently gave a copy of the book to a nurse who seemed interested in it. When I saw her after she read the book she told me that she is a staunch Republican and bible thumping Baptist and that she is very close minded. She just loved the book!! And she asked me for a copy of How to Heal Toxic Thoughts.

My intention with writing both of these books was that they would cross over into more of a general population. The feedback from this nurse I took as a great sign.


I am also delighted to announce that my book Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation and my new audio CD program “Shamanic Meditations: Guided Journeys for Insight, Vision, and Healing” will both be out February 28. They are available for preorder on Amazon now.

Hank and I did a great radio interview on Conversations with Michael Stone in January. Michael Stone has some incredible guests on his show and his focus is on environmental issues. You should definitely check out some of his upcoming shows.

Here is the info if you would like to listen to the interview we did:

Direct link:
http://arewelistening.net/podcasts/ShamanicJourneying.mp3

Main web link:
http://arewelistening.net/listen.htm

Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman (Sounds True February 28)

The word “shaman” means “the one who sees in the dark.” To practice shamanism is to open your vision to a world that is hidden from normal view so that you may enter the deeper reality of the unseen universe. With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman join a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders to present a comprehensive manual on the oldest and most reliable human technology for accessing the realms of spirit. The core of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation—to communicate first-hand with your spiritual allies and discover your own power.

Awakening to the Spirit World takes you through each step of developing a personal connection to your helping spirits to receive wisdom, insight, and healing energy. From an overview of shamanism, to your first journeys and encounters with your power animals, to expanding your skills and insight through long-term practice, here is an in-depth resource for the shamanic arts that includes:

-Creating rituals and ceremonies for healing and transformation.
-Reconnecting with nature to heal ourselves and the planet.
-Working with your dreams, songs, and artistic vision to strengthen your practice.
-Traditional wisdom for children—healthy rites of passage for each phase of a child’s journey to adulthood.
-Honoring the cycle of life and death—shamanic practices to prepare for and celebrate our final transition in this life.
-Building a shamanic community based on support and shared purpose.
- Insights and practices from renowned shamanic teachers Sandra Ingerman, Hank Wesselman, Tom Cowan, Carol Proudfoot-Edgar, José Stevens, and Alberto Villoldo.
-A CD of drumming as well as other shamanic instruments to facilitate your shamanic journeys.

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“Shamanic Meditations: Guided Journeys for Insight, Vision, and Healing” (Sounds True March 2010)

The first meditators in history were the shamans, whose practices for contemplation and connecting with the divine are echoed in virtually every spiritual tradition today. On “Shamanic Meditations”, Sandra Ingerman invites you to return to the source of human spirituality—and experience for yourself the enduring power of these ancient practices for healing, guidance, and awakening. With seven guided meditations—called “journeys” in the shamanic tradition—from a renowned author and teacher, this two-hour program features:
• An overview of shamanic principles—understanding journeys, the three spiritual realms, and your helping guides
• Encountering your Power Animals—companion spirits from the Lower World that offer healing, protection, and support
• Meeting your Upper World Teacher—a spirit in human form who provides insights and higher wisdom
• The shamanic initiation into oneness, connecting to nature through the Middle World, learning to see through “spirit eyes,” and more

As Sandra Ingerman explains, the surging interest in shamanism in the West arises from the personal, intimate relationship with spirit that these practices offer. “An increasing number of people feel a deep need to connect directly to the web of life,” she explains. With “Shamanic Meditations”, listeners now have a complete guided program for beginning their own exploration of the shamanic path—and tapping into the spiritual field of awareness that unites all living beings.


I have been asked to be a guest on many radio interviews to speak about my new books. In January alone I was a guest on 7 radio programs.

And I have more radio interviews lined up for February too. If you would like to learn more about the interviews – how to listen to them and how to download them – please click on Radio Interviews on the homepage of www.sandraingerman.com.

Here are some other announcements:

I was introduced to a CD that a shamanic practitioner loves to use for her transfiguration practice. The CD is titled “Wavepool: The Deep Relaxation Soundtrack”. The CD was created by Robert Rand.The CD is filled with the intention of healing through deep relaxation. And Robert created the CD after years of immersion in the disciplines of acoustics, music, polarity therapy, as well as meditation and study of the wisdom traditions.

Robert Rand traveled with his recording gear to beaches along the New England coast, he found at last the vision’s surf sound with no audible man-made sounds in the area. Following the field recording, working as a musician and a polarity therapist he created and mixed in deep, slow melodic textures to evoke the feelings and quality of stillness and potential experienced during the vision.

I was gifted with a copy of the CD and I found that it is not just a beautiful CD to listen to but it also supports a deep and profound state.

I have a variety of CDs I have listened to when I transfigure. But I notice that my energy often feels ungrounded and a bit “jagged” when I return back. In listening to the “Wavepool” I find myself going to a deep inner landscape where I can experience my spiritual light and divine nature while staying in my body. So when I come back I feel filled with light and extremely grounded at the same time.

Other therapists who have given Robert Rand great feedback and use “Wavepool” in their practice are massage therapists, osteopaths, and acupunturists.

“Wavepool” evokes a wonderful non-ordinary state.

To find out more about this CD and to order it please visit:
http://deeprelaxationmusic.com

Dr. Erica Elliott is a brilliant physician in Santa Fe who specializes in helping people with chronic conditions which have defied western medical approaches. She draws from a broad background of personal experience, knowledge and expertise. She is teaching a four-part teleconference/seminar that begins in April 2010.

Dr. Erica Elliott is a friend of mine who has a wealth of information to share with people who don’t feel well physically. Erica is a compassionate healer and brilliant communicator. She is grounded with her research and how she shares what she knows. She is deeply loved and respected here in Santa Fe as someone who can help those problems other practitioners have given up on. She also has a great sense of humor and an incredible adventurous spirit and passion for life.

I think the depth of her understanding of what is happening with people’s health today combined with the information she will be sharing in her tele-seminar will create an incredible space for how to care for oneself during this time on the planet.

Karen Furr is sponsoring and doing the ground work for this teleconference/seminar series beginning in April.  To find out more information about this 4-part series, please contact Karen at karen@spiritdrum.org or (928) 606-4611.


I am on the board of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners and I wanted to announce the conference the SSP is putting on this year. It should be a great event!
SELF IN SERVICE
June 3-6, 2010
Kennolyn Retreat Center
Santa Cruz Mountains, CA
This new conference marks the beginning of the Society for Shamanic Practitioner's efforts to establish Shamanism Without Borders.

We will explore different shamanic ways of being in service, with a specific focus on healing the trauma of the land, the people and the animals in the local area.  During the conference, small groups will visit sites to do healing work.  On Saturday, we'll move into working on healing personal trauma.  In both cases, participants will learn models and tools to take home and apply to their practice.  We will also use the opportunity to talk as a group about the ways in which Shamanism Without Borders can manifest and to share and develop knowledge in this area.

Our work will include learning ways to:
** assess the nature and extent of trauma
** engage with the Spirits and Beings within the affected environment
** create a team of helping Spirits
** apply specific healing methods appropriate to the place and Space
** develop groups that can be response teams to such disasters
** discover the different healing approaches for working directly or remotely
** employ ceremonies that support and bless the healing work involved
** discern the applicability of our experiences to traumas in other areas
** help create a guidebook for the practice of Shamanism Without Borders
** tend personal issues that arise in doing this work

We look forward to gathering a powerful group!
For information and to register please visit:
www.shamansociety.org


Judith Orloff has a new revision of her book Second Sight: An Intuitive Psychiatrist Tells Her Extraordinary Story and Shows You How to Tap Your Own Inner Wisdom (Three Rivers Press). The book includes the riveting story of Dr. Orloff’s exile between two worlds – the intuitive realm and mainstream medicine. And in the book she also teaches effective ways to cultivate your natural intuitive abilities.

Dr. Orloff’s book will be out March 1.


And lastly, for those of you living in Santa Fe or near Santa Fe I wanted to let you know I am doing a lecture on How to Thrive in Changing Times at the Ark Bookstore on February 6. You can call the Ark for more information at: 505-988-3709.