Brant Secunda and Dance of the Deer Foundation

[Vihma]

Hi, after a long time, I returned with a question in my pocket:

Is anything known about this foundation?

http://www.danceofthedeer.com/

This seems to me all a bit awkward to fishy, because they are offering workshops in shamanism all across the globe, in lands like Greece and Italy. There seems even to be a center in Augsburg, Germany. Which to me seems really a bit awkward, because in all interest of the cultures and tribes in Amercia, why should I learn the so called shamanic ways of the Huichol? I do not belong to the tribe and my cultural heritage is European. From what I learned from reading through this forum is to be highly skeptic about offerers of "shamanic spiritual ways" who sell "native wisdom" to european searchers for a meaning in life.

[Defend the Sacred]

If you search the forum on "Brant Secunda" you will find lots of things about him as an exploiter and teacher of frauds. Secunda is a non-Indigenous man who sells fake Huichol ceremonies and "shamanic trainings." He used to be an associate of notorious exploiter Vincent LaDuke, aka Sun Bear

Here are some of the threads on Secunda and his group: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=54.msg181#msg181

[Vihma]

Thanks a lot for the help and information. They have an advertisement for their website that rolled through my wall on facebook via recommented pages.

And the name Sun bear rings a bell in my head. A shrill and nasty one.

[amorYcohetes]

My mom took me to the Kripalu Institute for my birthday at least 5 years ago - not for any training, but just for a peaceful weekend vacation with natural food and the chance to practice yoga.  They still send me their glossy catalog advertising all their trainings, some of which seem useful but many of which seem dubious.  Anyway I noticed Brant Secunda is teaching a class this summer for $230.  It's co-taught by trialthete Mark Allen and directed at athletic trainers (?).

[ShadowDancer]

Hello, my name is Terrie Victorino....Also, Brant Secunda who is a world renowned shaman and healer who founded the Dance of the Deer Foundation in 1979.

Domain Name: SHAMANISM.COM
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Registrant Name: Registration Private
Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Name Server: BEN.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
Name Server: KATE.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned

Dance of the Deer has numerous programs.  Some of them are password protected so the content is not visible.

http://www.shamanism.com/programs/upcoming-programs/

An example:

Shamanic Retreat & New Year’s Celebration

Life is a path that unwinds itself in a circle. It is a story in which every beginning is an end and every end is a beginning. The New Year is both an end and a beginning. As such it is the perfect time to set our intentions for what lies ahead. During these three days you will learn to focus your body heart and spirit in order to define your goals for the year to come.

However, the Huichol say that the power of intention is never truly realized until it is transformed into action. The exercises you will learn will empower you and provide you with the insight and guidance you need to bring your goals to fruition. They will also enable you to let go of what is holding you back. The New Year is an end and as such it is the time to let go of the old to make space for the new.

The tools you will take away will give you the strength you need to take the first steps towards your goals and will continue to sustain you throughout the year.

Registration Info

Dec. 30 – Jan. 3, 2015
Nevada City, CA

Program Pricing
 $990–$1525

Celebrate a new beginning and set your intentions for the year ahead.
Register Now
(888) 455-3337

*Family, senior, and student discount

Or this one in Germany. 

Retreat at the foot of the Alps

Take the time to step out of your daily routine, leave the hectic modern world behind and find new strength and meaning for your life during this 5-day retreat at the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany. Explore the beauty of the ancient Huichol culture and let ancient spiritual teachings empower you.

Brant Secunda has been teaching at ZIST since 1981 and co-founded the Conference for Humanistic Medicine with ZIST.  This famous retreat center creates the ideal setting for a spiritual getaway. Join us for an opportunity to awaken your soul and learn powerful, yet practical tools for personal and planetary transformation.

Spring Retreat

March 27 – April 1, 2015
General Registration Fee: €710*

Includes an unforgettable retreat experience, delicious meals, and beautiful accommodations.

Call us or register online.
(888) 455-3337

*Family, senior, and student discounts available.
*Price includes shared rooms. Private lodging options available.
*Price does NOT include airfare or transportation.

According to the website, Brant Secunda was taught by Don José Matsuwa. 

Don José Matsuwa is the renowned  shaman from Mexico who passed away in 1990 at the age of 110. He was a farmer, healer, and master ceremonial leader, and a revered and respected elder throughout the Sierras.

He dedicated his whole life to completing the sacred path of the shaman and it is his life and vision that are the inspirations for the Dance of the Deer Foundation. Before he died he left Brant Secunda this message: “I leave you in my place. Tell your people to pray and follow the deer all the way to their hearts.”

In the comments to a youtube interview with Brant it is interesting to read what Huichol people think of him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paBomgY2LYc

sudheesh ruby
2 years ago

Brant never mentions Peyote in any of his interviews. Peyote is a crucial part of Huichol culture that he purposefully overlooks. I lived in a Huichol village with Don Jose Matsuwa's grandaughter. She, and all the other Huichol's I lived with consider Brant a charlatan, and more than that, they call him "El Diablo"... "The Devil".

Anti You
2 years ago
 
This doltish white American is a charlatan, exploiting my people's ancient traditions while making unsubstantiated claims. There's a reason why Wikipedia took his page/entry down on the basis of fraud and self-promotion. I knew someone who was about to give this phony $6,000 for the "honor" of camping out with him.

Jose Malvido
8 months ago
 
"The keeper of the traditions"  The Huichol are the keepers of their traditions not someone financially benefiting from them.  ?

[Epiphany]

Brant Richard Secunda was born in 1952 https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KPNP-6C8

He claims that he took off on adventures when he was 18 years old, and that this eventually led to a 12 year apprenticeship with a shaman in Mexico. http://huicholshaman.com/huichol-shamans/brant-secunda

He would have been 18 years old in about 1970. The next 12 year span would take him to 1982.

Yet in Jan 25, 1978 he is listed in newspaper Independent-Journal as having just been awarded his B.A. in Spanish at Sonoma State College.

Maybe he could have done both, gotten his degree and spent some time in Mexico, but that is not how he presents his bio. He says he was in Mexico for 12 years studying shamanism, and that after his training, he returned to the United States.

[Autumn]

Thanks, Piff.

He would have been 18 years old in about 1970. The next 12 year span would take him to 1982.

Lots of things are not stacking up here.  Why would he have started the Dance of the Deer Foundation in 1979?

Brant’s apprenticeship culminated in a village ceremony in 1978. During this ceremony, Don José honored Brant with the gift of his ceremonial belt, which was given to Don José by his teacher. He then publicly announced that Brant would take his place in the world and certified him as a Huichol shaman and lineage holder. Over the course of his apprenticeship, Brant Secunda became the close companion and adopted grandson of Don José Matsuwa.
Today

Don José emphasized to Brant that the cultural survival of the Huichol people depended upon external awareness of the Huichol way of life. In 1979, Brant Secunda established the Dance of the Deer Foundation Center for Shamanic Studies to disseminate and preserve Huichol culture, practices, and traditions, and to provide direct assistance with the goal of promoting self-sufficiency and economic independence.

http://www.shamanism.com/brant-secunda/

He has been discussed on this forum several times over the years.  These are the main threads:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3990.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=54.msg181#msg181

[ShadowDancer]

He has been discussed on this forum several times over the years.  These are the main threads:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3990.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=54.msg181#msg181

That is odd. I searched the forum both on his name as well as the foundation's name.  Nothing came up which is the only reason I started this thread.  Can someone combine posts into one of those?

[Autumn]

That is odd. I searched the forum both on his name as well as the foundation's name.  Nothing came up which is the only reason I started this thread.  Can someone combine posts into one of those?

You need to be on the Home page when you search.  You were probably inside one of the threads when you searched.

[Epiphany]

Secunda's claimed bio has changed over the years, this is what he said in 1997:

In 1970, 18 years old and fresh out of a New Jersey high school, Secunda traveled to Mexico in hopes of finding Castaneda's fabled Don Juan. Following the advice of a schoolteacher in Ixtlan, Secunda set out on a five-day trek to find a Huichol tribe that might be able to help him complete his quest.

Secunda spent 12 years as an apprentice to the Don Jose, who died in 1990 at the age of 110. Secunda says he spent the first six years of the apprenticeship full-time with Don Jose and the last six years commuting back and forth between Mexico and the U.S. He established the Dance of the Deer Foundation Center for Shamanic Studies in 1979 and based it in Soquel in 1981.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/03.20.97/hometown-9712.html

So that would put him full time in Mexico til well into 1976. But he earned his B.A. in Jan 1978, in California. Which would mean he earned his B.A. in about a year and a half?

[Defend the Sacred]

Main threads merged. Info in Huichol thread still in archives: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=54.msg181#msg181

[Epiphany]

Entity Name:   HUICHOL FOUNDATION
Entity Number:   C3097201
Date Filed:   04/23/2008
Status:   ACTIVE
Jurisdiction:   CALIFORNIA
Entity Address:   4401 CAPITOLA ROAD, SUITE 6
Entity City, State, Zip:   CAPITOLA CA 95010
Agent for Service of Process:   BRANT SECUNDA
Agent Address:   4401 CAPITOLA ROAD, SUITE 6
Agent City, State, Zip:   CAPITOLA CA 95010

http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/

--------

They have the US trademark for "Huichol Foundation"

---------
http://www.huicholfoundation.org/

They also sell "Shaman Chocolate" http://www.shamanchocolates.com/about. They claim that all profits go to support three villages.

Inspired by a visionary dream, Brant Secunda, Shaman, Healer and Ceremonial Leader in the Huichol Indian tradition, created SHAMAN Organic Chocolates as a way to provide on-going financial support so the Huichols can continue to live in their traditional ways, keep their ceremonies, and create their visionary artwork.

By providing an outlet for their artwork, giving back a portion of the tuition from each seminar he leads, and through the sale of SHAMAN Chocolates, Brant Secunda provides continuing economic support that enables the Huichol to continue to live in their traditional ways – to stay Indian.

http://www.shamanchocolates.com/huichol-indians

I think this is just part of Secunda's ongoing efforts to be seen as the expert on supposed Huichol shamanism.

 

[theredhairedcrow]

Brant Secunda just finished a seminar/lecture even in Berlin, Germany, 17-18 August 2016.  https://www.shamanism.com/programs/berlin-lecture-seminar. They are still actively working selling ceremonies and profiting from their "heritage".

[theredhairedcrow]

Huichol Shamanism: Ancient Wisdom for the Modern World. Join Brant Secunda and explore the origins of healing. Learn about the ancient energy medicine found within indigenous societies and discover how traditional shamanic healing modalities are being integrated into modern medicine.

This is a rare opportunity to experience the sacred Dance of the Deer Ceremony from the Huichol tribe. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer period, as well as a traditional ceremonial blessing.

https://www.shamanism.com/programs/berlin-lecture-seminar

Location of event: http://www.bebop-berlin.de/

Registration Info

August 17+18, 2016

Lecture

Wed. 7:00pm –  9:00pm
Registration: €25*

Seminar

Thur. 10:00am – 5:00pm
Registration: €95*

Register Now
+49 (0) 821 – 24 32 330

*senior and student discounts available.

[AuthenticallyConcerned]

February 2015 Brant Secunda visited New Zealand, offering sweat lodge (for a fee) and Dance of the Deer (free with paid entrance to a weekend event).

When I asked under whose authority he has permission to offer sacred lodge, he said he had been assisting (I think it was a Cree(?)) elder with sweat lodge for years and 'when he saved the elder's wife's life with his medicine, the elder gave him permission to conduct sweat lodge'.

{Disclosure: I am a non-indigenous white-person, with sympathies and support to the rights of indigenous peoples to their culture and practices.}