Gary whitewolf Woodings - tantric, Reiki master, Druid and Cherokee Fire tender

[nemesis]

I know next to nothing about this person other than what I have stumbled across online but I am concerned about a few things.

If we looks at one of Wooding's webpages here

http://www.theunitydrumdancetour.org/Page_3.html

There is the following information (the following is quoted under "fair use"):

About Gary Whitewolf Woodings

I was born May, 29 1960 in Anaheim California, and grew up with the commonly hidden heritage that has occurred within the United states. I knew little of my Native American heritage until I was an adult of about thirty years old.  After seeking spiritual connection through several churches, I finally found my way to the teachings of the Lakota nation and the Inipi (Sweat Lodge), where I felt at home. I soon learned to be a Fire Tender. This was the foundation of my spiritual birth and the roots of my connection to Creator/God, Mother Earth and All that is.

Though I was born of Cherokee and Irish decent I followed Lakota ways for more than a decade and still participate in those ceremonies. In 2001 I was invited into the Cherokee teachings in New York City with the Nuyagi Ketoowah Society, where I participated in Ceremonies from 2001 through 2002, before returning to New Hampshire.

I have also studied teachings from my Irish heritage and participated in Druid Ceremonies. In May of 2004 I joined Joseph Keane in a Sacred Sites Tour of Ireland, that truly awakened deep soul memories for me. I have studied metaphysics since 1997. I have studied and received my level two Reiki atunement (an ancient Japanese practice).

Since June of 2008 I have been practicing Ipsalu Tantra Kryia Yoga, while honoring the rest of my teachings. It was through this South Florida Tantrika Community that I met my beloved wife KaliShakti with whom I am now sharing this wonderful journey of Divine Love.  We are currently facilitating Tantra Kriya Yoga classes on a regularly scheduled basis in Arcata CA.

So, his native lineage is via the notorious frauds, of whom much has already been written here, the Nuyagi Ketoowah Society.

His lineage regarding tantra, is via followers of the notorious pimp guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh AKA Osho

Hopefully someone much more knowledgeable than myself will be able to critically appraise his claims regarding Druids and Celtic Revivalism.

I would be very interested to know more about this person and would be grateful for all and any insight or information that anyone can offer.

Some further links

http://www.myspace.com/healingwithspirit
www.livingtantrabliss.com
www.garywoodingshealing.com
www.kalishakti.com
www.garywoodings.com

[educatedindian]

And even that's not the end of what he claims to teach. At his site...

------------------

 I chose Transpersonal Clinical Hypnotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming, with master instructor Jack Elias. I followed that training with Past Life Regression Therapy, with teacher/author Henry Bolduc and Emotional Freedom Technique, with Gary Craig.
I moved to Florida, where I was introduced to Ipsalu Tantra Kriya Yoga, with my beloved and wonderful teacher Nayano Burdine....
The grand payoff of this journey of change and evolution culminated during my Level One Cobra Breath intensive. The blessing I speak of is meeting my beloved KaliShakti. Months later at the Level Two Cobra Breath Intensive we met again and fell in love....
KaliShakti and I consider ourselves Facilitators of Divine Human Empowerment....
My wife and I are now offering Tantra Kriya Yoga classes....
We also are providing Open Healing Circles, which are experiential introductions to our many healing modalities, at Isis Osirus Healing Temple...
We are also certified Supreme Science Qigong instructors...

--------

I count nine different claimed healing methods, therapies, or traditions, most as unrelated to each other as the Druid and faux-Lakota stuff are. He's bounced around from one dubious quick fix to another his whole life. Going to him for healing would be like going to a five times divorced marriage counselor.

And what he's been through which seems to have traumatized him to this day is what many others have been through. He describes what seems to be a bitter breakup of his marriage and losing (or quitting) his job as a cop, later followed by a fall on a construction job. He's not so much an exploiter as someone whose floundered around and fallen for empty promises repeatedly himself. Because in addition to the faux Lakota and Tantra ripoff stuff, the following stand out as either nonsense or harmful.

NLP is a technique cults often use for control, learning how to manipulate people with language.

Past Life Regression is also harmful. People are extremely suggestible under hypnosis, and this technique often implants false memories.

Emotional Freedom Technique is supposed to be acupuncture on your emotions, tapping on your body's supposed energy field to massage your emotions, believe it or not. It's pseudoscience gibberish.
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/can_we_really_tap_our_problems_away_a_critical_analysis_of_thought_field_th/

[Defend the Sacred]

I would assume he had a run-in with some of the Neodruid groups, some of which are genuinely revivalist, reconstructionist and preservationist in their approach, but more of which are fantasy-based, eclectic, newage hippie seekers who don't care much about the real traditions. Many are just Wiccans with made in India "Celtic" cloaks. Some of these "druid" groups rip off NDN traditions, and call anyone with an interest in any sort of Celtic spirituality a "druid". Whereas historically very few people earned that title of learning and leadership in their communities.

Anyone who thinks they can become a druid by attending a few Neopagan ceremonies and doing a spiritual tourism visit to Ireland is fantasy-prone at best, or simply lying. I've met the guy who took him on the tour, Joseph Keane. I knew he was going to spawn these types, and people have been keeping an eye on him.

I don't know if Keane is selling ceremonies (real or fake). He shows up to sell stuff at every Celtic festival and Highland Games that will have merchants. He is charming and has a lovely accent. He can captivate an audience. Americans for whom Ireland is an exotic, mystical, romanticized place are very impressed with that. Americans who did not grow up in or around any real Irish culture are as easily fooled about these things as are the Europeans who support the NDN frauds and exploiters. Unfortunately, despite his charm, when Keane does his storytelling and prints material to sell with his jewelry, he puts out tons of misinformation. I wandered into his booth once when he was telling his version of an Irish tale. He'd changed the traditional tale to better suit his ideas/marketing, added in new bits that helped him sell stuff, and did not recognize the Old Irish original. When Irish people have spoken Irish to him he's stared at them like they've grown a new head.

Just because someone has NDN blood, doesn't make them a Ceremonial Person. Just because someone has Irish blood doesn't make them a druid.

This guy Gary seems no more Irish than NDN. Looks like another white American newager with no sense of cultural integrity or boundaries.

And what on Earth is someone who claims to be Irish doing dressing up like this?



In the photo captions of his trip to Ireland he gets it all wrong, too. Calls Christian-era artwork "5,000" years old. And of course every random grave and tomb was that of a druid.    And you can be a drood, too, if you just pays yer money and goes "OM" on the graves of random Irish people. Maybe it would be good if some of those spirits followed him home...

[nemesis]

NLP is a technique cults often use for control, learning how to manipulate people with language.

Past Life Regression is also harmful. People are extremely suggestible under hypnosis, and this technique often implants false memories.

Thank you for your post educatedindian.

I share your concerns about NLP and hypnosis.

What concerns me even more is the combination of these things with pseudo-tantra.

This can lead to very serious abuses IME, although I know little about this particular pseudo-tantric group so cannot say with any certainty what is going on.

I remain concerned.  

Emotional Freedom Technique is supposed to be acupuncture on your emotions, tapping on your body's supposed energy field to massage your emotions, believe it or not. It's pseudoscience gibberish.
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/can_we_really_tap_our_problems_away_a_critical_analysis_of_thought_field_th/

Yes.  
 

Thanks also Kathryn.

I have some other concerns re this person.

I have to go out now but I will PM you later today regarding them.