Hello,
I am new here and registered specifically to ask this question so that I may understand.
I have noticed that a number of the people I know doing good ceremonial and spiritual work who help a lot of people are listed here as "frauds."
I am wondering the purpose and intent of this forum and website because this is confusing to me. I was hoping someone could explain.
There is one person I know listed here, for example, who I would prefer not to mention. I have personally witnessed many of hundreds of people come through his ceremonies. He is a white person who shares a community chanupa in a weekly ceremony and offers huachuma healing ceremonies on some weekends. He has been doing this for many years and has been trained by native healers, who I have noticed are also listed here. He doesn't do things in a strictly traditional way because he is not working with native people. I know that his mission is to get as much medicine in as many white people as possible to affect change in the world in a collective way. Although he has a decent house and everything he needs materially, he is not a rich man and lives a humble life of constant service. Many other close-to-70 year olds are sitting around watching TV and taking naps, or traveling on their pensions, not sitting up all night with their aching bodies doctoring people, counseling them and cleaning up vomit.
I have watched so many people come through his NAC and get healed of addictions, clean up their lives, repair broken relationships, wake up their families, recreate community and heal the lost sense of tribe that so many of us feel, graduate beyond the self-focused healing and into stewardship with the people and the earth and peel away layers of cultural conditioning having been born into white American culture but with good hearts and good intentions to go on and support the causes of the indigenous people.
It is not perfect and it is certainly not the way things were done in a different time. But it is a way that is serving the place and time that he finds himself in, and I see him as a gateway healer, a first level medicine person, a bridge between cultures and a doorway in for people who would otherwise be kept distant from these healing ways and this level of consciousness.
The importance of those who keep the old ways in the purest manner is obviously crucial. The people like the Kogis and Arahuaco, for example, who are doing work that helps everyone in existence. But also it seems helpful to have these people who are really on the front lines, in the darkest of places - American cities, doing this work. It is hard to dwell in the dark places without getting some of the sludge on you, and sometimes they have do wear the costume of the people they are trying to heal so that they can blend in and get close to it. To me that is better than crying too far from the listener and not effecting change. Not better than other ways but just a different and necessary approach given the challenge.
It is a kind of spiritual MacGyvering, working with what you have in the best way you can. A real tool would be better but sometimes you have to do what you can with a paper clip and a piece of string to get the job done. Sometimes doing something is better than doing nothing.
It does actually feel like a lot of projected hate and negativity in many of the criticisms I read here and makes me wonder if this is the dark side working in some clever disguise to confuse people.
I am not native, but I share the grief that we all feel when we have awakened to what has happened and where we find ourselves at this time in our humanity. I have personally devoted myself to supporting and living this way of life, to learning and doing it completely on my own, without a culture to identify with or a family who supports me. I am ever taking more steps toward that as best I can given what I'm surrounded with. And often with opposition because I am white but I do it quietly and without need for validation.
We all share the same human failings, fears and ego and what is the point anymore to this divisiveness and separation? It feels like such a drain.
I feel sad that these few people who are doing such powerful and important work in the world at this time to help people are so criticized and pulled down for their efforts and imperfections. Many of the native elders I have met and worked with are they same way, but they are not criticized because they are native. This is not a glamorous or lucrative path. I can't imagine who could be doing this for any kind of glory. Healing work is a dirty and often thankless job.
Can someone please explain to me what I am missing here to put my heart at ease?
With love and respect.
LM
