Rae-ann Wood-Schatz "shaman", PersonalBestSeminars.com, the Creator's Code

[AnnOminous]

Check out the facebook page of this imposter:
https://www.facebook.com/raeann.woodschatz?fref=ts

Self-described as:  "I am a taoist, buddist, christian, shaman:)"
Owner-Operator of something called The Creator's Code

She has posted an open invitation to a sweatlodge ceremony on April 13, 2014 in Edmonton, Alberta:
https://www.facebook.com/events/843335659016638/
There are 529 people invited.
She uses propane in her sweatlodge?

We will need a fire crew, and preferably someone experienced on propane as I will be in Halifax for a Launch course. Terra will be up dance chiefing! Feel free to serve if you don't want to sweat!

When someone asks what they should bring to the sweat, a male gives these responses:

Towels .. And a sheet .. Maybe a blanket too ... Lots of water .. And a poach of tobacco ... .. And a clean mind ... Make sure all your shitty thoughts are gone before you even head out there .. And you can't go if your on your time of the month neither

Sweet grass and sage if you can find it .. If not no worries ...

And like a top and a summer skirt to wear in there .. Or like shorts and a tang top ... Also cloths that are easy to change in and out of .. Sweat pants hoodie etc .. You'll wanna dress warm for the ride home .. Anyways have fun little lady

Rae-ann responds that he's wrong:

Christina, you will get an email with all that is required closer to the date…as far as Stuart's feedback some of our tradition is different than what he shared, your moon time is not an issue, in fact we welcome women in their power, don't worry about sage or sweet grass we have some for cleansing, and the rest will come in the email:)

The blonde woman in front of the sweatlodge looks like photos of Rae-ann on her facebook page.

If anyone has some spare time, can we PLEASE shut this down.  This, besides being absolutely wrong is just plain DANGEROUS!!!!

[Just changed title to include her operations.-Al]

[AnnOminous]

Here is a link where she describes herself further:

Rae-ann brings to her clients 20 years of experience in the Humanities arena. Her educational background includes a BA in Psychology, Registration as a Clinical Hypnotherapist, a Certified Shamanic Coach and Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming. Her work experience includes several years working with abused women through the Calgary based Sheriff King Home and Peer Support Services For Abused Women. She has acted as a trainer and consultant for the HIV Peer Support Program, HIV Edmonton and Living Positive Associations. Her role at Personal Best Seminars is as a Coach and Mentor, a Facilitator of Level One, Two and Three. She designs and delivers workshops and teaches Hypnotherapy for Full Circle College of Hypnotherapy.

A link to her blog where she discusses "shamanic training":  http://www.raeannwoodschatzcreates.com/category/jays-blog/coaching/shamanism/

A link to complaints and warnings about Personal Best seminars, the previous name of Creators Code, which she is part owner of:
http://personalbestseminarsinfoyoushouldknow.blogspot.ca/2008/01/for-owners-of-this-course-it-is-about.html

A link to another warning about her work, which appeared in a popular Canadian magazine:
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/its-a-fine-line-between/

[AnnOminous]

I had to "join" her sweatlodge group in order to post a question.  I asked who gave her the rights to have a sweatlodge.

Her reply:

Rae-ann Wood-Schatz:   My teachers would say the call comes from within not from anyone and anything outside of you. My 'training' for the past 5 years has been with the Institute for Shamanic Medicine and I belong to the Rainbow Bridge Society, The traditions are primarily grounded in the Mayan and Toltec teachings.

What a nutjob!  Can I get some help with this one?

[debbieredbear]

Using propane for a lodge just makes me want to scream. 

[Sturmboe]

She has posted an open invitation to a sweatlodge ceremony on April 13, 2014 in Edmonton, Alberta:
There are 529 people invited.
She uses propane in her sweatlodge?

We will need a fire crew, and preferably someone experienced on propane as I will be in Halifax for a Launch course. Terra will be up dance chiefing! Feel free to serve if you don't want to sweat!

When someone asks what they should bring to the sweat, a male gives these responses:

And a clean mind ... Make sure all your shitty thoughts are gone before you even head out there...
Sweet grass and sage if you can find it .. If not no worries ...
. Anyways have fun little lady

What an appalled feeling she leaves with her invitation.
These words .... use the word shitty in an invitation for a sweatlodge .... they got no respect. Overbearing? Making fun of a sacred ceremonie by twisting them into a party?
The event seems to me like an very dangerous event noone knows how this will come to an end. And will this be a mass event with or without dead people?
I got no breath for leaving a scream out.

[educatedindian]

Trained by exploiters, posing as a shaman, ripping off clients/marks, and running a dangerous imitation of a sweatlodge. Any one of these are reason enough to move her to Frauds.

Here's the Creator's Code nonsense, basically some hokey networking (maybe) posing as enlightenment and doing good.

-----
http://www.creatorscode.com/creation-faqs-ask-you-shall-receive
Q “What do I get for my membership?”
• Monthly Creation Circle meeting
• Monthly live webinars...
• Digital resource library...
• Three complimentary tickets to The Gift (A 3-day transformational course): One for you, one for someone close to you and third ticket for a friend in another geographic location - to help the movement expand.

....the next steps including filling out an application and a $97 >>>non-refundable<<< application fee.
....The Creators Code will review your application and will try to match you to a CC...
Note: We do NOT guarantee a match or that you will be accepted by any particular Creation Circle Leader or Creation Circle

----
The tickets to the Gift are a Personal Best seminar.

RAWS also was trained by this bit of hokey cultural appropriation.

-----
http://samuraigame.org/about-the-game/
Participants in The Samurai Game® cross a psychological line and step into the unfamiliar simulated world of the medieval Japanese Samurai.  They form two competing samurai armies and engage with their teammates and opponents in symbolic battles.... 
Participants are encouraged to summon forth their “warrior” spirit with courage and determination.

[Defend the Sacred]

RAWS also was trained by this bit of hokey cultural appropriation:

-----
http://samuraigame.org/about-the-game/
Participants in The Samurai Game® cross a psychological line and step into the unfamiliar simulated world of the medieval Japanese Samurai.  They form two competing samurai armies and engage with their teammates and opponents in symbolic battles.... 
Participants are encouraged to summon forth their “warrior” spirit with courage and determination.

That's one of the things James Arthur Ray put people through at his "Warrior" retreat where he killed those people. He used  a version of it to mess with people's heads and make them turn their decision-making ability over to him.

[Autumn]

I had to "join" her sweatlodge group in order to post a question.  I asked who gave her the rights to have a sweatlodge.

Her reply:

Rae-ann Wood-Schatz:   My teachers would say the call comes from within not from anyone and anything outside of you. My 'training' for the past 5 years has been with the Institute for Shamanic Medicine and I belong to the Rainbow Bridge Society, The traditions are primarily grounded in the Mayan and Toltec teachings.

What a nutjob!  Can I get some help with this one?

This is where she got her "training" to conduct a sweat lodge:

http://www.shamanicmedicine.ca/about/

I don't really see anything on their website about sweat lodges, but maybe I am missing something.

This appears to be the Rainbow Society she mentioned and their mission statement seems to reflect what she stated in her Facebook response:

The teachings and the use of ceremony for transformation are tools too valuable not to go out to more and more people. This knowledge already comes from many sources. When people use the healing tools they can be honourable, responsible, and impeccable; we guide and support this process in individuals and communities. People can also share the knowledge and tools with others so our healing can spread more quickly.

Knowledge belongs to the people, not to any particular path with heart. Métis spiritual teacher Hyemeyohsts Storm once challenged a student, demanding, “Is this knowledge yours or does someone else own it?” He went on to ask, “Who owns the math you learned? Do you need permission to teach it? Is it yours to use?” It is in the spirit of service to the healing and evolution of our species for the greater good that the RBCS shares wisdom and healing technologies mined from the history of human experience.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rainbow-Bridge-Ceremonial-Society-RBCS/132804373530457?id=132804373530457&sk=info

[Sturmboe]

maybe you can see something on this youtube page?

 Hochgeladen am 25.05.2007

Sue Moondragon summarises The Four Directions of the Medicine Wheel. Sue works with a contemporary mix of ancient Native American and Celtic Medicine teachings and includes many modern influences. See website www.dawnstar.org.uk for course details and please email all comments and questions about the video to info@dawnstar.org.uk

Video produced by Dragonlionheart Productions (Doug Lyon).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEAHk0pB2SQ&feature=youtu.be

I can´t see the video, it loads and loads and loads...

[debbieredbear]

http://www.rainbowbridgesociety.com/newsletter.htm

The newsletter for the rbs, has a list of sweats you can attend.

[AnnOminous]

Darn I'm so sorry to have missed her "sweat" today.  I received these further details from Rae-ann:

Conversation started Wednesday
Rae-ann Wood-Schatz
09/04/2014 22:07
Rae-ann Wood-Schatz
Sweat Details
Arrive at 12 p.m., Fire Crew at 9:30 a.m..- you will have an opportunity to spend time grounding with the Dance Chief (this will be my second time as Dance Chief, Terra will be in the lodge with us), then you will go into the sweat lodge at approximately 1 p.m.
 
In our tradition many people sweat naked (it demonstrates humility and what it is like to be without ego as you emerge from the lodge which resembles the womb of mother earth), if you prefer feel free to wear light clothes or a bathing suit, just make sure they are cotton (made from nature).  Many people wear a robe or something over top of themselves and take that off inside the lodge after the door closes as it is dark when that occurs.
It is okay to have a water bottle inside the sweat lodge, just don’t drink from it during ceremony, between  rounds is fine.
There is NO CHARGE for the sweat, we do ask for a donation to help pay for expenses for the lodge (propane, construction of the kiln, the dance chiefs gas).  $10 is the recommendation and is only a humble request.
You should also bring 4 gifts from the heart (can be anything that is heartfelt) for the people doing care for the fire and for the dance chief.  I usually bring $5 bills as I know these people do this type of service often and trinkets can fill a house.  Everyone can make use of a $5 bill.  But this is truly just a suggestion, some of you have great skills and talents and may want to offer something else!
You should also bring 4 small pouches of tobacco, a pinch of tobacco in red cloth is the tradition.  This goes to the fire crew and the dance chief as well.  They will often use these in pipe ceremonies etc.  A small pinch wrapped and tied in red cloth, as you tie the cloth put a prayer in for those who are serving.
At the end of the sweat it is important to do care for your bodies, so bring extra water and a snack that can be shared by all.  There will be approximately 25 people. 
Directions to the house are as follows:
From North Edmonton take the Yellowhead  east to RR213.  There is a small sign that says Uncas 8km.  Go South on RR 213 until you come to a small sign that says Farrell Properties, (it is quite far, you will pass Uncas School, if you hit the railroad tracks just before Wye Road you have gone to far).  Go east into Farrell Properties, stay to your right around the loop road.  Our house is #97, big log house right in the corner. 
From South Edmonton get onto Wye Road, go east to RR 213, left on RR213, first right into Farrell Properties and then follow the directions as above.
Home number is 922-6965 if you get lost, although often no one is the house to answer the phone

Such a disappointment that I don't get to be NAKED in a FAKE SWEATLODGE with a FAKE WHITE SHAME-ON who uses a PROPANE KILN to heat the stones where 34 PEOPLE (latest count on the facebook page) get to take in their WATER BOTTLES to "sweat" with a SECOND-TIME (I'm sure she meant second rate) "DANCE CHIEF".

By my estimations, 34 people paying the "suggested" $10 a head = $340 for the "lodge."
The suggested gifting of $5 for 4 people by 34 participants = $400 to split between the "dance chief" and fire-tenders.  Or I should say "kiln tenders."

She can stick her "heartfelt humble requests" and her little plastic pipe in her death-trap tarp-covered fake sweatlodge and rotate.
I truly feel sorry for every sucker in there today.

*admins please feel free to remove directions and phone number at your discretion

[kitten42]

Speaking as a Christian, you can't be a Taoist, Buddhist, Christian and shaman all at once.  Nor can a Christian conduct any kind of ceremony within our own religion without serious qualifications.  I can no more conduct Communion than I can conduct a Lakota Sundance, because I am a layperson.  However, I can participate in Communion where I cannot participate in a Sundance because I am part of a particular Christian community.

I understand that many people have been harmed by expressions of Christianity by people who were bad at being Christian, and either this is a continuation of that or she just has no clue what Christianity means either.

[Sturmboe]

Rae-ann Wood-Schatz
In our tradition many people sweat naked
There is NO CHARGE for the sweat, we do ask for a donation

I am often alienated how words are chosen to ask for optional things, like donation, gifts etc.
I got another feeling and this is not free, optional or self-determined: Participants were being coerced and obligated because the concerning issue is something with higher power the participants are maybe too frightened to challenge... and they cannot understand indeed.
There seems also the wish of participants not to imperiled the success of a ceremonie by one´s own malepractice, what will concern the group not just one single person. And can they cause for distrust in someone else....? Well, a guilty conscience seemes to be sure when they look ahead. How can they bear these responsibility about the matter they cannot understand.
In this way to exert mental pressure on participants it is difficult for them to resist.
No doubts, not questions, no challenges ... although Sue Moondragon calls something "tradition" what can never be traditional: "a contemporary mix of ancient Native American and Celtic Medicine teachings and many modern influences, ..." , a sweat lodge with native background given with false color and misleading ways.

Coerced, obligated, exert mental pressure and guilty conscience leave more than fear and blindness.