About me ...

[Litsehimmel]

Hi,

I've been 'on board' for a while already but obviously forgot to introduce myself. My apologies.
The reason I joined this forum is to help shed light on practices and activities that harm either those that are subjected to them, or those whose name and culture is misappropriated. As I myself live in The Netherlands, and that country seems to be a particularly good breeding ground for 'plastic shamans' and Nonsense New Agers, I would like to offer my help in tracking and exposing frauds in that particular area.

As for my personal beliefs regarding healing, shamanism and the like: I've had my fair share of experiences, encounters and teachings. The one thing I have learned from them is that a true teacher, healer and/or helper does so from an inner urge to help people. He or she does not have a schedule filled with classes, DIY courses or anything resembling How To Be A Shaman In 10 Easy Lessons. And no, I'm not a facilitator, or therapist, or whatever. Not meaning that there aren't any good ones out there, just saying I'm not one of them.

Why am I doing this? Well, it's like this. I have been predominantly raised by my grandmother because my own mother simply couldn't cope. I think Nan would've been burned at the stake way-back-when for being a witch because of all the stuff she knew and did. She also told me to be aware that 'a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing'.  And that 'thoughts and emotions are like boomerangs; they always return to sender'. Good sound stuff which I taught my kids as well.
And it has made me extremely aware of those people with a little knowledge who are professing to be 'masters'. I think there are genuine folk out there who do not intend to harm people, but I'm afraid there's a lot more people out there who will gleefully take unwitting people for all they're worth. And if I can help put a stop to that, then great!

Saskia aka Litsehimmel

[Defend the Sacred]

Saskia, have you joined the board before with a different account?

[Autumn]

Saskia, have you joined the board before with a different account?

The prior Saskia lived in the UK and Saskia was simply her screen name:  http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3836.0

This Saskia lives in the Netherlands and that is her real name.  I don't think they are the same at all (but I could and have been wrong!)

Welcome, Saskia.  Have you run into Little Grandmother yet (since she recently moved there)?

[Litsehimmel]

I've joined the board with both the name Litsehimmel and re-joined just recently with the handle Lytse Himmel, but that last one hasn't been approved yet I think. I did that because I had lost my other registration data 

And even though my birth name is indeed Saskia, I am not the Saskia that has posted on here under that name.

[Defend the Sacred]

I've joined the board with both the name Litsehimmel and re-joined just recently with the handle Lytse Himmel, but that last one hasn't been approved yet I think. I did that because I had lost my other registration data 

And even though my birth name is indeed Saskia, I am not the Saskia that has posted on here under that name.

Ah, OK   We've had some glitches with registration at times, where we approve someone and send out the email inviting the person to activate their account, then we hear they either didn't get the email or had trouble logging in. We've upgraded the software here a handful of times in the past few years, and sometimes settings change a bit without us knowing it until someone reports a problem.

Sometimes we get banned users trying to join with proxy servers, so sometimes we have to make sure it's not someone who is going to troll or harass our members. Sorry if we seem hypervigilant at times, and welcome to the crew.

[Defend the Sacred]

Splitting relevant info into Crowther and "Amaya" threads. Navigation will be weird until everything is moved.

[Defend the Sacred]

Adar o'r unlliw, ehedant i'r unlle. Or the (rough) translation from this Welsh saying: birds of a feather

"A ddwg wy a ddwg fwy. - He who steals an egg will steal more."

[Litsehimmel]

Autumn ...

Whatever you do, LH, be careful.  You really do not know what LG's followers are capable of.

Thank you for the concern     Naturally I will be cautious, but - without boring you with the long and tedious story of my life - if push comes to shove, I have a few 'defensive skills' if people try and harm either me or my family. And I'm quite good at finding 'hidden' information on the internet. Things should be fine.

LH

[Litsehimmel]

Autumn ...

Fantastic!  It is obvious you are very skilled.

You will never hear me say that, unless it concerns multitasking in the sense of talking and simultaneously making somebody very angry   

I do know my way around the net and finding stuff. It's not a skill, it's just being incessantly nosey. It has its perks sometimes ...

LH

[Defend the Sacred]

Try not to go off on tangents in a research thread, OK? We have private messaging and the etc section for that stuff. Tangents get moved to etc or people's intros. Kthanx.

[Autumn]

Sorry, Kathryn.  I will be more careful.

[Defend the Sacred]

Thanks, Autumn

[Ingeborg]

I'll put this here in order not to mess up another person's intro thread:

We Frisians - as a cultural group genetically different from the average Dutch person, with our own language and culture -

LH, I hate to rain on your parade, but Frisians are not genetically different from 'average Dutch', nor do they differ genetically from any other population in this world. Humankind share more than 99% of their genes. The distribution further is such that our next door neighbour, with whom we share culture, traditions, and language may be more distinct from us genetically, while someone living some 20,000 kms away from us can be genetically more similar. And this is true for every human inhabitant of this planet.

Last not least, genes are not linked to a person's ethnic affiliation. It is simply not possible to determine a person's ethnic affiliation by their genes. To imply this is not only BS, it's racist BS.

It makes one wonder: if you claim genetic differences between Frisians and Dutch, how come you joined a forum with predominantly ndn members, and what do you make of them in your variant of genetics?

[Litsehimmel]

Hi Ingeborg,

First of all, you're not "raining on my parade" as I'm not trying to stand out in any way. With regard to the Frisians being genetically different form average Dutch: naturally Frisians share the DNA of all other humans. Goes without saying. However, I meant that within the field of DNA haplogroup determination, the Frisians differ from the Dutch in that a commonly found marker called S21 is predominant in the Frisian population, and not within the Dutch population. And this can indeed be explained by the fact that the Frisians have been an ethnic enclave within Dutch territory for centuries, even after their dominance over much of Northwestern Europe came to an end. But I think we're entering in a scientific discussion here which is not for this forum. Let's just say I don't simply state things without it having a scientifically established base.

And why do you question the reason why I joined here? If I simply stated that I had an interest in ndn culture, would that be satisfactory? It's the reason you gave on April 1 2006. Or would the fact that I abhor people using other peoples' cultures for their own gain, without contributing anything to said cultures - as happens quite often with the Frisians - add further weight? Maybe adding the fact that I'm pretty good at researching and would like to help expose charlatans and the like would swing the balance in my favor? Perhaps showing that I went after Kiesha Crowther before joing this forum (a 2nd time) would plead in my favor?  (http://tinyurl.com/d27vyeb)

What did I do that you find it necessary to "go after me"? Oh, and being called "a racist" is something I really don't appreciate. It's actually the last thing that anyone can ever accuse me of. But if you think it's more beneficial and helpful to insult me and make sure I don't feel welcome anymore, instead of allowing me to help and expose charlatans using and abusing ndn culture, have it your way.

LH

[Defend the Sacred]

Ms. Himmel, Ingeborg is a long-standing, respected member of our forum. Some of our admin team know her in person. She has shown over the years what she's about and we know and trust her.

You are a brand-new poster here, who has already said some things that have concerned people. We do not know you. We do not yet know if you are an honest person. Every day we have people with questionable motives come here, especially Europeans. If you don't understand why we can't just take strangers' word for their motives, you need to read more about what we deal with here.

You should also know that we know you post in "shaman" forums. We know some of the things you've said in those forums. That makes your "interest in ndn culture" suspect. Many of us come from backgrounds where we were relatively (or very) ignorant about some aspects of NDN cultures. Many of us made mistakes. Those who come here and are honest and make amends for past mistakes do well. Those who we discover are abusing their contact with people on this forum in an effort to steal cultural property or pass as something they're not... things go very badly for them.  We don't yet know which type of person you are.  Just the fact that we're having to spend this much time educating you is taking away from the time we have to do the work we  need to do.

If over time you show you are committed to this work, and we see with our own eyes you don't have any other agenda, you will earn trust. That's how it works. In the meantime, do not insult Ingeborg. She is not "going after you" for no reason.