Lesley Crossingham

[educatedindian]

Got a request about her. She's mentioned briefly as the author of an article here.
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3416.msg29417#msg29417
As you can see, she reported on the controversy about Australians claiming to be teaching Crow ceremony.

The request I got mentioned that Crossingham herself used to run a Seven Arrows course based on H Storm's falsehoods. But she doesn't run those courses anymore, no mention on Crossingham's site.

She does sell totem readings, Nuage knockoffs of spirit guides.
http://lesleycrossingham.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=56

She still sells a book where she claims to have been trained by unnamed medicine women.
http://www.lesleycrossingham.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=4&category_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=64

But most of what she claims on her site is both very vague and ridiculously overblown.

"Lesley Ann Crossingham is an internationally recognised spiritual artist, clairvoyant, author and teacher. She has seen angels, spiritual guides and departed loved-ones since the age of seven. Lesley has travelled the world, studied on every continent and in all
major schools of thought. She is a fully awakened Master Teacher."

All schools? That's some ego.
What she teaches is quite a hodgepodge, totems, alchemy, astrology, and here, Mary Magdalene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inmbFP7HZhk

ETA- Crossingham responded to an email of mine.

-------
Lesleyann Crossingham contact @ lesleycrossingham.com.au
I am familiar with Hyemhyoyosts Storm and love his book Seven Arrows, but I actually learned this tradition directly from two Cree Medicine women in Northern Alberta, Canada, where I lived at the time. I also studied, briefly, with Sun Bear who used to live in Washington State. The book is my personal journey with these two Medicine Women one very hot Alberta summer way on back in the 1980s!
Hope that helps,
Blessed be, Lesley

-------
IOW she claims expertise in spirit guides/totems based on a few months, "briefly" studying with an exploiter, and being familiar with another exploiter's book.

[Pono Aloha]

Notice that these people always name the frauds they "studied" with, but never the real medicine men or women that they claim to have met. Two possible conclusions. Either they did not meet them, and are lying. Or they did meet them, and by not naming them they are engaging in cultural genocide. There was a very good TED talk by an anthropologist on this issue that applies to every nuage exploiter. He said:

   Now, I was paid in dollars as a consultant, and I looked at my income tax return and tried to ask myself: "Is there a line in my return, which shows how much of this income has gone to the people whose knowledge has made it possible? Was it because I'm brilliant that I'm getting this reward, or because of the revolution? Is it that I write very well? Is it that I articulate very well? Is it that I analyze the data very well? Is it because I'm a professor, and, therefore, I must be entitled to this reward from society?" I tried to convince myself that, "No, no, I have worked for the policy changes. You know, the public policy will become more responsive to the needs of the poor, and, therefore I think it's okay." But it appeared to me that all these years that I'd been working on exploitation -- exploitation by landlords, by moneylenders, by traders -- gave me an insight that probably I was also an exploiter, because there was no line in my income tax return which showed this income accrued because of the brilliance of the people -- those people who have shared their knowledge and good faith and trust with me -- and nothing ever went back to them.

http://www.ted.com/talks/anil_gupta_india_s_hidden_hotbeds_of_invention.html

[educatedindian]

Crossingham contacted us. Here are the emails between us, first her, then us, etc.

-----------

Hi,
 
I notice that I am unable to join your forum because you have blocked me. Please remove my email address from your site as this is an infringement.
 
You also have several errors:
 
 1) that I offered a workshop based on H. Storm's teachings -- I never, ever have. never will. ever. I have merely read his book and enjoyed it, nothing more.
 
 2) that I reported on some Australians being taught Crow ceremonies (I assume he meant that they were taught by Joe & Josephine Crowshoe!) Not the case as this article was written in 1988 and this couple claim to be with the Crowshoes in 1989 -- a full year or so after this article was printed. It was printed in Windspeaker Newspaper based in Edmonton. I was a staff reporter on this newspaper at the time. I do not know the couple in question...never met them...probably never will.
 
3) My book is about me, and my experiences. I do not claim it to be an anthology of Indian teachings. I did have these experiences during my tenure at Windspeaker Newspaper, owned at the time by Bert Crowfoot. Please check their archieves and you will see many stories written by myself.
 
4) I have studied in all schools, but I don't say I am a master of all schools. I am still a student, as are we all. I do not offer "native American style" teachings, and never will.
 
I therefore humbly request that you remove the errors and distortions asap.
 
thanks, Lesley crossingham

-------

Ms Crossingham,

I am an admin at NAFPS. I am unable to find any record of you signing up for membership. If you would like to try to again I will gladly approve an account for you.

Regards,

Sky

--------

Ms. Crossingham,

There is not one single lie nor disortion in any of the information written about you.

There are clearly some deliberate misreadings by you of what was actually written, as well as some falsehoods from you.

There was no effort to keep you out of NAFPS. None of the admins were ever aware you tried to join.

We in fact welcome all further information that may clear up these matters. Many others who have been written about on the site have also joined to give their side, and we welcome your joining and posting.

Numbers below are in answer to those to your own in your email.

1. We have an account of someone who took part, along with others, in a course you gave on the imposter H Storm's fraudulent version of Cheyenne teachings. We also reported there's no other evidence of the course now.

2. You made here a series of assumptions there that we never made.

3. Again, you assumed things said about you that never were.

4. And again, you assumed things were said about you that never were. It is rather ludicrous you claiming to have been trained in "all" schools. It's also incredibly ludicrous you claiming to be a master teacher on your own site, and now backtracking on that claim in your email.

We made no errors. You did.

It's rather telling that you do not object to the two matters we most strongly objected to about you: that you give totem readings, a New Age distortion of Native traditions about spirit guides, and that what you teach is largely a confused hodgepodge of many traditions.

Again, you are free to give your side when you post on the site.

Al Carroll, moderator

[educatedindian]

Second set of emails.

-------
 
I refer to a segment on me, Lesley Crossingham. It is filled with errors and lies (as I mentioned below) I therefore respectfully ask you to remove it from your site. I tried on five separate occasions to get to the forum but obviously my name is blocked. I basically agree that there are many people out there abusing spirituality, however, there is absolutely no need to make up lies and false stories based on here-say. It is clear that someone who wants to blacken my name is using your site to do so. Because they could not find any genuine dirt, they simply made it all up.
 
The annoymous person contacted me, did not tell me they were going to use my private email on a website, distorted my reply and did not tell me why they wished to know the information.
 
Thank you for your prompt response and thank you in anticipation of your action to remove the lies written about me.
 
I have already made an official complaint to Google so I hope I do not need to take this any further.
Best wishes, Lesley Crossingham

-------

There's three more lies from you.

There was no anonymous person contacting you.

The quote of you was direct, word for word, cut and pasted.

Nothing was made up.

All of the emails will be posted online so that all can see your practice of serial lying.

Al Carroll, moderator

-----------

Here's Crossingham's response to my original inquiry. As you can see, she referred to me by name. So much for "anonymous."

Note her high opinion of Sun Bear and selling ceremony at workshops.

----------

Hi Al,

I studied the traditions in the traditional way. There were no “workshop/seminars” or western organised weekend retreats or the like. In those days you simply asked to learn and offered services such as house cleaning in exchange. I didn’t even know there was any other way to learn as I had never been to any new age festivals or even knew they existed. The teachers who taught me would never offer western style workshops, and certainly would never be interested in the internet or computers. They never, ever received payment for any of their teachings as it is against their tradition.

Yes, I know about Sun Bear, but nonetheless, he was a lovely man who was one of the first to pull the traditions into western style workshops etc. He is long passed over, and I prefer to think only of his good points.

If you are meant to find such a teacher you will be guided to them. If you are meant to learn from books and western style workshops, you will be guided to them.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful,
Best wishes, Lesley

[Superdog]

Her book Sacred Circle has a sample page:

http://www.lesleycrossingham.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=62&Itemid=61

Reading it, I can't help but think:  "What an uninteresting work of fiction".  It's obvious she's been around a reserve or two, I don't doubt that, but she get the cultures she is writing about so wrong it's hilarious.  What's also obvious is she is still an outsider to those communities. 

She does list names of teachers.  An elderly Blackfoot man named Medicine Bear and an old Cree Woman named Apehta Tipiskaw Kimiwan or Midnight Rain.  However, any other details in the sample are pretty ambiguous.  e.g. "A soft summer drizzle misted my windscreen as I drove onto the remote Indian Reserve in Northern Canada. "

I have a feeling she's experienced at dealing with people who question her as well.  The insistence that she is blocked from the board even after being told more than once that there is no indication of her trying to join has a bit of a dishonest ring to it.  She is a journalist after all and wrote four books.....hard to believe she is soooooooo unsavvy about the internet or about discussion forums.  I'm just not buying it.

One of her blog posts here has her praising the Dawn Star Teaching Lodge (which a bio in one of her books says she's a member of and where she was given a pipe and made a medicine woman). 

http://www.lesleycrossingham.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74:the-sacred-rainbow-pipe&catid=38:lesleys-blogs&Itemid=70

"Each pipe has a mission or a focus. The Sacred Pipes of the Dawn Star Teaching lodge were brought to the world by the Dawn Star man. A lodge or teaching circle was formed and these pipes were passed down to the dozens of teachers and ceremonial leaders.

Six or seven years ago, or thereabouts, one of the elders had a vision. She was shown that during the final months/years of the spiritual awakening in this world. The Sacred Pipes would gather and speak to one another right across the world, energetically. She was asked to create twenty two brand new "rainbow" pipes, to acknowledge the vision of Black Elk. Of course, her vision occurred long before the infamous 2008 GFC or many of the earth changes we have seen in the last few years. Clearly the elder was being fore-warned about these events."

From what I've seen, this seems to be a descendent of Twyla Nitsch's Wolf Clan Teaching lodge.  Can't verify that for certain, but things seem to be adding up.

Superdog

[Superdog]

This bit of info is a bit comical.  Lesley also sells CD's full of "Native American traditional chants", which they are not even close.  So bad...and if you lived in America...illegal.

Here's an example.  Her album "Skyloom"
http://www.lesleycrossingham.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=7&category_id=3&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=65

"SkyLoom is a powerful CD of Native American Indian traditional chants, along with contemporary songs written by Lesley. Lesley is joined on the CD by South American shaman drummer, Alexandra Butterfly Woman. The songs are a weaving of spiritual chants calling upon healing for Mother Earth, and songs that help us engage and encourage the spiritual energies of the animal spirits"

Which also includes a free song book:
http://www.lesleycrossingham.com.au/images/stories/pdfs/skyloom_songbook.pdf

The first song listed in the book is "Altar Song":
"This song is a simple chant, invoking the spirits
of the four winds to join us as we prepare
and centre ourselves for ceremony.

Yo way hi yi yi yi yihe
Yo way, hi yi yi hi way doh
Yo way hi yi yi yi yihe
Yo way hi yi yi way doh"

AND....if you were wondering what this sounded like, here it is in performance at a Star Nation ceremony in Stonehenge this past September:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI5fBGSO56o


Like I said....comical.  Lesley...it's not looking good for you.  Time to come clean...

Superdog

[earthw7]

i should of never watch that are these people crazy

[curiousbystander]

I'm not sure that these people are crazy Lesley - there are several people in your local community who know all too well that you promote a broad spectrum of skills and abilities and skills, and in reality, are spiritually and professionally lacking in the delivery. The message associated with spirit guide drawings are generic, non specific and actually show errors, eg refer to a male when the person is female, suggesting these are generic interpretations, slightly altered for each person.  The skills in the area of publishing are amateur at best.

[Mary Jane]

I was one of the people that did the Seven Arrows Course held be Lesley Crossingham in Melbourne. I still have the paperwork and course guidelines to prove it existed. I find it interesting that she says it is a lie. The course was held in Collingwood. I was under the impression that her knowledge came from an approved source. I really enjoyed the course, it helped me through a hard time. However, she did market the course as though the information was official lineage teachings. How was I supposed to know any better? Or any of the other people either? She was always respectful of her references but she did speak as though she was an authority on the matter.

[Mary Jane]

The Elders she would refer to were Grandfather Joe and grandmother Josephine black foot nation. I believe Grandpa Joe visited her at her shop on Smith St in Collingwood. Also she spoke of Grandmother Mirriam. We were never given any further information than that. Even after asking.
Not sure about the ones referred to in the book. All her teachings were 100% focused on NAI lineage teachings until later on in her career when she shifted focus to other areas, I believe she has turned back to the NAI teachings according to her website.  I'm not sure why she says she does not offer NAI circles, that is all she does.  Perhaps revealing the source of the teachings is in her interest, if you have nothing to hide then why hide it. This woman has left a trail of destruction behind her and has ruined many peoples lives. If truly a medicine woman, why is this the case? I thought the NAI teachings were about building people up, not cutting them down and charging them for the harm.

[Defend the Sacred]

-------
Lesleyann Crossingham contact @ lesleycrossingham.com.au
I am familiar with Hyemhyoyosts Storm and love his book Seven Arrows, but I actually learned this tradition directly from two Cree Medicine women in Northern Alberta, Canada, where I lived at the time. I also studied, briefly, with Sun Bear who used to live in Washington State. The book is my personal journey with these two Medicine Women one very hot Alberta summer way on back in the 1980s!
Hope that helps,
Blessed be, Lesley
-------
IOW she claims expertise in spirit guides/totems based on a few months, "briefly" studying with an exploiter, and being familiar with another exploiter's book.

Two unnamed Cree Medicine women in Alberta... that's Lynn Andrews' fictional story.

"brief" "study" with Vincent LaDuke... probably just means she went to a couple of his "Medicine Wheel Gatherings."

The first song listed in the book is "Altar Song":

"This song is a simple chant, invoking the spirits
of the four winds to join us as we prepare
and centre ourselves for ceremony.

Yo way hi yi yi yi yihe
Yo way, hi yi yi hi way doh
Yo way hi yi yi yi yihe
Yo way hi yi yi way doh"
Like I said....comical.  Lesley...it's not looking good for you.  Time to come clean...

Superdog

"Blessed Be," an "Altar" where you "invoke" the spirits, where you "chant" nonsense and "centre" yourself... That's the way Neo-Wiccans talk.

I had to stop watching the white people gibberish debacle at Stonehenge. Those people actually believe that's a Native song?! 

[earthw7]

i wonder if people know our song are words that have meaning not a chant

[debbieredbear]

i wonder if people know our song are words that have meaning not a chant

earth, my experience is that even when TOLD that the songs have words and meanings, they just don't care. Understanding that there are actual words and meanings to the songs, interferes with their fantasy ideas about NDNs. And when I say my experience, I mean by personally trying to educate people that the songs are not chants. No, they just don't care. One person said that NDNs just "need to get over it."

[curiousbystander]

Does this page invite Lesley to be answerable to these issues?  Apparently she's great at dodging and weaving; cutting people off and being unavailable when the hard questions are asked.....

[curiousbystander]

Mary Jane - Can I ask what you mean by this line - 'This woman has left a trail of destruction behind her and has ruined many peoples lives' - can you give examples?  I have heard of several unsettling incidents now and I'm curious as to her pattern and how she gets away with it .....