This place - TrAfo Seminar House - has come up in the research on Benjamin Cloud several years ago (cf
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1401.0 ), and as they are still operating and selling ndn ceremonies, I suppose they merit their own thread.
Premises are owned and run by the Dengel family, that is Sabrina Dengel and her husband Marcel Dengel; they have got three children.
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/ueber-uns.htmlAccording to their own account, they have been operating the house since 2003. The Dengels married in 1995. Ms Sabrina claims that „Marcel is the artist in the family – he brings colour into our every-day life“, while she was „more of a head-oriented person, she is writing books and does the seminare programmes“.
In her „About me“ section, Ms Sabrina names as her teachers
Buckshoot Knight/Lakota, South Dakota, Ben old Feather Cloud/Crow Montana, Jeanne Ruland, Antara Reimann, the Allamanic Custom Community, my Aunt Esther and all other people whom I meet in my life. […]
At Trafo, I lead the evenings of Shamanic Journeys, sweatlodges, medicine lodges, women's days, the studygroup „Path of World Wanderers“ and many more.
http://www.xing.com/profile/Sabrina_DengelIn her XING profile, Ms Sabrina says she was born in 1970 and is a „skilled worker in gastronomy“ (this is Euro newspeak for a waitress) with the following core areas:
Open Drum Evening, shamanic work, the study group, earth and medicine lodges
According to the TrAfo website, the Dengels offer and lead the following seminars:
The so-called study groups
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/lerngruppen.htmlOur study groups are process-oriented trainings which will accompany you individually for one or two years. We are working in small groups with a max. of 15 participants.
Several seminars offered belong to this programme, e.g.:
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/lerngruppen/pfad-der-weltenwanderer.html„Path of the World Wanderers“
Direction: Sabrina Dengel
In many cultures, shamans were and are called World Wanderers […]
There are various shamanic techniques, the use of which may be learned by most persons. It is a possibility of spiritual self-experience, self-discovery, and self healing to take this path. […]
This two-years' study group covers 8 modules plus an additional seminar during the first year. […]
Some of the modules are:
A Basic Seminar (basics of the shamanic world view, smudging, power animal dance)
Module 2 – Soul Country and Soul Garden
Module 3 – Working with Elements
Module 4 – Power and Proctection (4 days)
Sweatlodges are sold by Trafo:
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/offene-gruppen/schwitzhuette.htmlSweatlodge – Cleansing ceremony
Direction: Sabrina or Marcel Dengel
Dates 2012:
Oct 20, Nov 3, Dec 21, Dec 22
2013:
Mar 29, Apr 28, May 26, June 15, July 6, Aug 31, Oct 26, Nov 30, Dec 21.
They are announcing nine dates for sweatlodges for 2013, basically one each month with the exception of January, February, and September, usually on a Saturday. In 2012, they did an extra lodge on Fri, Dec 21.
The price tag is € 55 per person, or € 89 per couple.
Dengel also sells „medicine lodges“:
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/rituale/medizinhuette.htmlFrom the way they are done, medicine lodges are particular cleansings. In summer 2009, I was given the task to do this form of sweatlodge from now on by my allies. Since then, I have done several medicine lodges. I will obey the task and do four open medicine lodges per year.
The medicine lodge will be done with a max. of 11 participants. Part of the exchange for these lodges will be donated to Ben Cloud Medizinhorse[sic] (Crow) and his family in Montana.
The price tag is € 144 per person incl. Dinner, the exchange for couples is € 233.
Another lodge sold is the „Children's Sweatlodge“:
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/offene-gruppen/kinderschwitzhuette.htmlDirection: Sabrina & Marcel Dengel
Children in a sweatlodge? Does that work?
Yes, most children love the sweatlodge. Each year during our summer camp, we do several children's sweatlodges.
Very small children, from one year or 18 months on, go into the lodge with one or both parents. Older children who are somewhat more courageous may go on their own. The ceremony will be adapted to the children's age, if necessary we will also take a candle into the lodge. The background of a sweatlodge will be explained in a manner suited for children.
With the two children's sweatlodges this year, we want to encourage families with children to experience this wonderful ritual together. Older children or youths may go to the adult lodge. It is up to every person to chose.[...]
Dates: Sat July 6, 2013
Sat Aug 31, 2013
Exchange: € 21.- per child above the age of 5 incl. dinner
Dengel offers „women's days in the circle of the year“
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/offene-gruppen/frauentage.htmlThese days are for all women who want to work in a more intense way with the Female Power and the Mysteries of the Goddesses. During the year, we will learn about the teachings of the Goddesses and their message for us women.
Working with the uterus power, drum journeys, lead meditations, ritual work and much more will bond us to our original womanhood and savageness. We will explore our roots, our bond to mother earth, our relationship to our female ancestors and will get into contact to the Goddesses we are associated with.
Marcel Dengel does „Men's Days“:
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/offene-gruppen/maennertage.htmlThis is also a one-day seminar:
The issues will develop in Talking Circles, in nature, prior, during and after a common sweatlodge, a ritual which we will create together.
Trafo now works with another shame-on, an Austrian by the name of Georg Gschwandler, who also does the Spiritcamp, along with the Dengels.
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/gastreferenten/georg-gschwandler.htmlGschwandler is portrayed as:
„Healer and author, teacher, and sweatlodge leader.
On the shamanic path to the centre after a serious disease for twenty years.
Initiated as a healer shaman by his friend and teacher Don Enrique, a shaman and Ayahuasquero of the Shuar Indians (Ecuador).
Initiated Curandero (healer) into the healing traditions of the native curanderismo of Mexico, he has been passing his knowledge for more than 15 years in consultas and seminars.
Warrior work in terms of Nagualismo is another field of his activities as a „rememberer“.
He also worked years to develop the method of „Rational Energetics and Basic Energy Body Work“ which he also teaches.
Since he uses terms like "nagualismo" and "warrior work", Gschwandler also read Castaneda and integrated some of Castaneda's ideas.
Gschwandler offers several more seminars at Trafo, e.g.:
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/sommerprogramm/visionsfindung.htmlUtiseta – Finding a Vision
Direction: Georg Gschwandler & Sabrina Dengel
[…]
Finding a vision is a physical challenge, e.g. due to fasting. You will be subject to the weather in nature. Without tent, without a fire or torch, without food – on your own. Please take this into consideration when deciding to do this week! […]
Date: July 19-25, 2013
Exchange: € 610.-
Exchange for couples/friends: € 1,076.-
Small group of max 5 participants
Other seminars done by Gschwandler are titled „The Five Vessels“
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/seminare/die-5-gefaesse.htmlCalmness, strength, consistency, clarity, and love
To discover these five fundamental structure and fill them with life energy is the content of this seminar. It is the 5 Vessels which define our resonances and lead and direct our reactions and actions. They, and their mutual relationships, also direct our personality. What would strength be without calmness? Love without consistency, or consistency withour the other four structures?
We will discover these 5 Vessels, work with them in practice and learn methods suitable for every-day use which enable everyone to direct their life energy consciously into these structures. […]
Exchange: € 377.-
Gschwandler further does „Rational Energetics“, a series of seminars which he promotes as a vocational training, at Trafo premises:
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/lerngruppen/rational-energetiker.htmlThis training is explained with a considerable amount of Nuage fanfare, including the buzzwords „direct energy work“, „personal energy work“, holistic, „effective energy management without loss of energy“, removal of blockages, increase of perception, „direct energy management, treatment, development without time loss“. The training will take 120 hours including an exam. Some of the issues taught:
„Basic knowledge of the energy body, anatomy of the energy body, its pathology and perception
Ways of energetic treatment in theory and practice, Techniques for personal use, Ritual work and spiritualty in the context of Rational Energetics, Individual advancement of the participant in the sweatlodge“.
The price tags:
Practice Day Rational Energetician: Exchange € 144 including food
Exchange for the entire training: € 2,872 including accom and food
The target groups are thus described as:
Therapists from the fields of Manual Therapy (e.g. massage therapists, chiropractics, physiotherapists, and hospital personnel)
therapists from other fields (e.g. psychotherapists, life counsellors, mediators...)
as well as persons from the fields of Reiki, Shiatsu, Bach blossoms, liththerapy, meditation, Yoga, geriatric care, and many more.
It is quite evident that, despite the explanation that no particular vocational training or other knowledge was a prerequisite, the main target group are persons with at least a decent income.
Dengel has been organising the summer camps with Gschwandler for several years now; they are still called „Spiritcamp“. The ad for the 2013 camp reads.
http://www.trafo.or.at/cms/angebot/veranstaltungen/sommerprogramm/spiritcamp-sommerlager.htmlThe programme of Spiritcamp refers to our domestic roots here in the region of the Alp mountains. Shamanic journeys, talking circles, Women's and Men's Days, sweatlodges, experiences of nature, creative realisation of own ideas, ceremonies and much more will accompany us during this week. The week is always done with a main topic which participants will be told at the first day of the camp.[...]
The following may be done on request:
youth initiation ceremony for boys and girls
Guided vision quest
Day of ritual devised collectively
Prices for the camp have been raised for adults and children aged 5 to 18, while charging for children younger than this has been dropped:
Exchange rates for the camp
Adults € 288.-
Children from 12-18: € 144.-
Children from 5-12: € 89.-
Children up to 5: no charge
Family Exchange: Families/single parent with 2 or more children may apply for a 13% reduction of camp fees.
Exchange for food and accom:
Catering will be done by Berghaus Zimba and consists of an extensive buffet breakfast, light meal during the day, dinner.
With accomodation in the house:
Adults: € 266.-
Children 6-12: € 196.-
Children up to 6: € 140.-
Accom in own tent or camper:
Adults: € 196.-
Children 6-12: € 140.-
Children up to 6: € 98.-
Sabrina Dengel also frequents several German language Nuage forums using the nicks of „nanabuc“ or „FayInanna“. In an Austrian Nuage forum, she explains about her training as a shame-on and her teachers:
http://www.esoterikforum.at/forum/showthread.php?t=170977&page=14User FayInanna, registered 2009
Date: June 16, 2012, 18:51
Well, just for fun, cos I got nothing to hide.
I am called a shaman – my training started 29 years ago and still continues. So the first call came when I was 13 years of age.
My teachers, chronologically:
Life itself
The spirits from Otherworld
My great-grandmum – healer, herbal woman
My mother
My stepfather
My siblings
My instructors and training employers who taught me to serve, in my bread-and-butter job as a cook and waitress
My aunt who still makes me reflect until today
Buckshot Knight - Lakota – Dogsolder [sic], Sooulkeeper [sic]
Jody T. Gaskin - Ojibway - Songwrither traditional Dancer [sic]
Moses Big Star Cheyenne – Medicinman [sic]
Valruna und Brandolf Loacker/Höss - Alamannen
Ben Cloud - Crow - Sundancechef, Medicinman [sic]
Antara Reimann – healer, shaman
Jeanne Ruland – healer, shaman
Massimo - Peruvian Ahayuscero
Rubeen [sic] Orinella – Peruvian shaman
Alfrede [sic] - Peruvian Paco
Georg Gschwandler - Rational Energetician, Curandero
Total expenditure during the last 29 years – seminar fees, donation to Native [sic], plane tickets to learn in Montana, Amazonas, Andean mountains, accom and food.
Estimated € 30,000.-
Self-awareness:
Participation in traditional Sundances in America incl. four days without food, without drink, and women's pircing[sic]
Several Vision Quests without food or drink, in several places, up to four days
Participation and leading of approx. 500 sweat ceremonies in different traditions
Participation in different ceremonies in the Amazon and Highland regions
Errrmmm, this will be about the basics, I will refrain from mentioning „lesser“ incidents like near-death experience, severe illness, to be almost blind and today being able to see again.
Now, is this a vita allowing me to call myself a shaman?
Rgds,
Fay
