APOLOGIES

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

There was no profit. I never received anything for this except a lot of hatred. I don't have an Amazon book store.
That was all my brother's stuff.

There is no shaman in my book. My book is a book of my own personal opinions and beliefs. I mentioned a "shamon" in my book as being a friend, but she isn't, and she isn't. She's a menace. When I knew her she didn't have workshops or charge people because she said it was against her ways.. but she was full of new agey things.. and well, imo, full of sh*t too. I was never one of her students. When we met, she told me I couldn't be a friend AND a student, so I chose friend. I didn't feel I needed a "teacher" as I have my own beliefs and wasn't interested in living via someone else's beliefs. IMO, she's an idiot, and I haven't had anything to do with her since 2008.

I replied to Al about all of this when I first joined the forum, so I'm not sure why it's a surprise to you Kathryn.

OMG....

I was also under the mistaken impression that she had taken down that awful site and was no longer selling that shameon book. I see I was mistaken. You can't have it both ways, Critter. You can't claim to be helping fight fraud while you're promoting it, and profiting off it. This is not OK.

Who's the "Shaman" in the book?

Also by recommending books by misappropriators, and selling them via her Amazon bookstore, she is profiting from this (mis)appropriation when people buy via her website.

edited to remove personal information - sky

[Epiphany]

Critter, you're not making sense.

You say you are embarrassed by your book. But you haven't taken it off the market.

You don't want your full name posted here, you say you don't feel safe. Yet your surname is listed for your book How To Live How To Die. With your surname it is easy to find out your full name. 

In 2007 you were described as the webmistress of Nagual Net, and you gave another site permission to "post the Tensegrity Seminars and Interviews with Castaneda that were once posted on Nagual Net".

If you don't feel mentally stable, you need to get help. Telling us here about your past breakdowns and challenges doesn't help us, or yourself. If you don't feel physically safe, if you are being stalked and harassed, you need to contact the police.

If you don't want to be associated with your book, take it off the market.

[Ari]

Critter, you are not kind and compassionate. Don't play fool. I had many more than one private chats with you and I can testify: you were in Castaneda warrior games up to your ears and you are responsible for enabling those games. People like you don't come out of it. Just like sociopaths can not be cured except if on the early stages of the disease. I'm not wasting my time on following your show here because I do not trust ANYTHING you say. Quit addressing to me.

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

Epiphany:

My book was never mentioned by title until today.

Yes, my brother died in 2002, in 2007 I was getting rid of the site and someone wanted those things to put on their own site. I didn't have the understanding of cultural theft in 2007  as I do today. Or the understanding of exploitation. I was clueless about these issues.

I feel mentally stable now, I'm sorry though, if my explanation of my mental state at the time of writing my own book is not helpful. At least, one may know where I was at when I wrote it, If I had been in my proper mind, I would not have written such personal information in a book.

 It's my own personal thoughts, if someone wants to read them, I don't mind. As I said, I've come to terms with it, and have accepted it as part of my time here in this world and I don't feel any reason to hide it, although I don't "market" it. I don't go out and try to sell it, it's just there and I don't mind that. I have no reason to be disassociated with it. It's there, and that's all it is .. is there. I don't publicize it or anything. I feel it's wrong to hide it, so I leave it there but don't publicize it is what I meant when I said I don't market it.

There's nothing Native American or any other indigenous culture in my book. It's all my own views, from my own experiences
 
Al asked me about my website and my book when I first joined. I told him about it. If he thought I was an exploiter then why didn't he post it all at that time? I answered all his questions thoroughly and even provided more information than he was asking for.

[Ari]

Did she tell she does not want her real name posted here? Look at her signature with link to her brother's something. There it is. She is posting it herself every time. My point is: anyhow we don't know if this is her real name. 

[Defend the Sacred]

Critter, we found that stuff, you didn't disclose it. When last confronted on it, you told us you were taking the stuff down. You played stupid and said that you didn't know how to take the pages down and you'd have to get help from someone with webcrafting skills. You pretend that to keep a domain you have to have that evil site up. Now, when challenged publicly, you admit you know how to go in and delete it.

Take. That. Shit. Down.

Now. All of it.

You're an exploiter, spreading lies about NDNs, and betraying the people here who tried to help you. You have taken up so much time and energy here, and now this.  Your posts don't make sense because you are not an honest person. You've told too many lies and now they're all crashing into each other.

[Defend the Sacred]

I just went back over the private communications some of us have had about Critter. Critter, you lied to Al. You told him you'd already taken this crap down.  I should have checked before now. I should have known we couldn't trust your word.

Critter, with your sig line, and the domain, a simple google search turned up all sorts of disturbing stuff. Be glad I've deleted most of it from this post. I apologize to the board for not staying on top of this. It was already obvious a lot was wrong. I should have never assumed Critter had told the truth. About anything.

This was my assessment of your site and situation back when we first discovered it, and I'll post it publicly here now:
_______________________________________________________________________

Go here http://www.nagual.net/ and click on links. On the right is a drop-down menu for "Shamanism". Links to Harley Reagan's Deer Tribe.

Under "Eastern", links to Osho sites. "Nagualism" has all kinds of Castaneda cult predators. Also in "Shamanism" are random pages about Native people. Normal NDN people (a woman who had a gastric bypass operation? why here?) mixed in indiscriminately amidst shameons and predators like Reagan and Castaneda.

Critter is recommending and selling books by Harley Reagan, Alberto Villoldo, Lynn Andrews, Hey-whatever Storm, Mary Summer Rain, Jamie Sams, Castaneda, Tom Brown and Sun Bear, among others. Her own book, currently for sale, talks of being trained by a "shaman." [Real name of Critter] is a liar. She is here befriending Native people while exploiting behind their backs.

I support the Native movement to keep their beliefs safe and sacred.

no one has the right to take those beliefs and bastardize them.. 

And there is no time in my life where I didn't despise this new age movement
thing that is so full of BS it's pathetic.

I will forever fight this misconception that the spiritual can be made into a
material gain. 

And, I will forever support the indigenous peoples of the world their rights
to their beliefs and fight the misappropriation and bastardization of their beliefs.

BUT, Critter's website, where she sells these books via Amazon.com, is a who's who of exploiters and pretendians. She promotes these books, and gets a cut from Amazon whenever they're bought via someone clicking through from her page:

http://www.nagual.net/books/shamanism6.html
Song of the Deer: The Great Sundance Journey of the Soul by Thunder Strikes (Harley Reagan)

http://www.nagual.net/books/shamanism5.html
Dance of the Four Winds: Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel by Alberto Villoldo
Island of the Sun: Mastering the Inca Medicine Wheel by Alberto Villoldo

http://www.nagual.net/books/native3.html
Medicine Of The Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship by J. T. Garrett
Meditations With The Lakota: Prayers, Songs, and Stories of Healing and Harmony by Paul Steinmetz

http://www.nagual.net/books/newage.html
Medicine Woman by Lynn V. Andrews
Flight of the Seventh Moon by Lynn V. Andrews
Mother Earth Spirituality: Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and Our World by Ed McGaa
Native Wisdom: Perceptions of the Natural Way by Ed McGaa
Seven Arrows by Hyemeyohsts Storm

http://www.nagual.net/books/newage4.html
Spirit Song: The Introduction of No-Eyes by Mary Summer Rain
Dreamwalker: The Path of Sacred Power by Mary Summer Rain

http://www.nagual.net/books/newage6.html
Walk in Balance: The Path to Healthy, Happy, Harmonious Living by Sun Bear
The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology by Sun Bear and Wabun Wind
Dancing With the Wheel: The Medicine Wheel Workbook by Sun Bear and Wabun Wind
Earth Ascending: An Illustrated Treatise on the Law Governing Whole Systems by Jose Arguelles
The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology by Jose Arguelles
Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date by John Major Jenkins

http://www.nagual.net/books/divination.html
Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals by Jamie Sams
White Eagle Medicine Wheel: Native American Wisdom As a Way of Life by Wa-Na-Nee-Che and Eliana Harvey

http://www.nagual.net/books/divination6.html
The Native American Tarot Cards and Book by Magda Weck Gonzalez and J. A. Gonzalez

http://www.nagual.net/books/dreaming2.html
Dreaming With the Wheel: How to Interpret and Work With Your Dreams Using the Medicine Wheel by Sun Bear and Wabun Wind

http://www.nagual.net/books/shamanism.html
Grandfather by Tom Brown
The Quest by Tom Brown
(four more pretendian books by Brown)

http://www.nagual.net/books/shamanism2.html
The Way of the Shaman by Michael J. Harner

Actually, no food and/or water for a few days can alter the mind, making it more receptive perhaps.

I don't believe in using drugs though, I'm just saying that you can't blanket state that any "medicine"
type person using a plant is not who they are.. 

http://www.nagual.net/books/shamanism3.html
Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens by Peter T. Furst
The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms by Terence K. McKenna
Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge by Terence K. McKenna

Then there's the whole Castaneda section: http://www.nagual.net/books/nagualism.html

I found not one book, post or article on her entire site that speaks out against cultural appropriation or debunks a single plastic or pretendian. Indeed, her website is dedicated to promoting everything she grandiosely claims to be fighting against, recommending "great books" by exploiters and channeling seekers into the jaws of predators like Harley Reagan. I feel sorry for her, with her psychiatric issues, but this is just terrible.

[Mahekun]

Well...gee.

Let me point out the kind of damage this literature causes, critter: An upcoming pow wow in my area is requesting that vendors must show proof of native ancestry. I have never seen this before. There has been so much appropriation and non-natives hawking pseudo-spiritual stuff that our people can no longer trust each other, let alone those who are clearly non-native. How sad is that.

[Epiphany]

I usually think I know crazy when I see it here on the forums.

Originally I did not understand that by indulging crazy white racists here, thinking they could actually learn something if they were pampered and encouraged to stay - that I was part of the problem. Once Diane laid this out for us, I understood.

Now I can see that my wish to get information (like in Darby's case - I thought asking him for specific details on his ancestry might be helpful) isn't necessarily helpful either and can end up just indulging crazy badly behaved white people once again.

[Sparks]

I am bumping this thread and am going to link to it from the "How to be an Ally" post as I think it's instructive.

I think this stuff is still very instructive, and I learned a lot from reading the threads mentioned here:

I am adding some links to other threads here that illustrate some of the Do's and Don'ts as they have manifested on this forum.

APOLOGIES - http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3750.0

This was pretty much the last thread in what some of us have come to call, The NAFPS Race War of 2012. It took place over a few threads, most of them linked below. While it was stressful and exasperating, I think we also had some good discussion of white privilege, along with some illustrative examples. Here's how it started:

Member Intros - Gwaewael - http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3739.0

The word "Indian" is much maligned. - http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3741.0

Do I have this right? - http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3744.0

I think non-Natives who are new to the forum, and who may be baffled by our culture here, may find this helpful (if at times cringe-inducing).