Pete Bernard

[Jim Tree]

Hi All,
Has anyone heard about this guy. He claims to be "The Algonquin Shaman." That alone cries twink. Thanks,
Jim

[debbieredbear]

Found this:

http://www.algonquinshaman.com/

"Pete Bernard is an Algonquin Indian (Anishinabek) from the Algonquins of Pikw? kanag? n First Nation in Pikw? kanag? n, Golden Lake, Ontario. He has been a student and practitioner of Algonquin (Djasakid) and Inka Shamanism for many years, is a Practitioner and Instructor/Healer II for Taiji Five-Element Qigong, Integrated Energy Therapy® (IET) Practitioner, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Practitioner, Magnified Healing® Instructor/Practitioner, and Traditional Healer."

[walking-soft]

Seems we have shamans coming out of the walls

htt://www.byregion.net/community/categorypages/Shamanic+Healers.html/

I do know there are shamans in some tribes but you will never know who they are, they do not walk up to you and say I am a shaman!! or Medicine man it just is not done if someone says that to you run because it just aint so!! I had a man approach me at a pow wow and tell me he was a shaman and stated" I am a shaman and I may not be able to communicate well as I spend all my time in the other world" I stated "ya right maybe you should go back there". As for this Bernard guy and all his "credentials" you do not go around teaching people "how to be shamans" and you certainly don't charge for workshops as he does "Healing Journey" $750 for 10 sessions, "The release of the Past" $375. shown on one of his pages on his web site. That in my opinion makes him a fraud and once again exploiting Native American Traditions, not to mention the harm all these "workshops" can bring to people, mentaly,physicaly and spiritualy.
Forgive my spelling. We are given specific gifts and traditions are handed down to us for the People to be shared freely and no charge is ever asked. Out of respect a gift of tobacco or cloth should be offered.or food or even a gift of money to help with gas and travel.


well enough, it seems I'm very upset with all these fakes today and rightly so!!!!

[educatedindian]

Is there anything he does not claim to be?Selling  Himalayan juice, Qui Jong, "luminous healing" Chakras,  and "Inka shamanism". And what seems really contemptible to me, hospice work with those in the final stages of dying.

Also some bad poetry of his that suggests he's pretty much a white pagan in what he believes.
http://www.ilovepoetry.com/viewpoem.asp?id=71349
"In the Arms of the Goddess    
By: Pete Bernard
In the Arms of the Goddess
I remember those days my Beloved
When we danced in the teardrops of the Goddess
And the only Angels I had ever seen....
All was warmth, and that night, we slept in the arms of the Goddess....
And from your eyes will fall the rain, and the Angels will come....
And once again, we will dance in the teardrops of the Goddess....
- Pete Bernard (Shaman)
 About this poem:  
Inspired initially by the death of my best friend Christine Dube, and realized when I began walking the Spirit Path on my journey through life, and in Shamanism."

[Durare]

Saw some local adds for 'Algonquin Shaman' and did some research.  Found Pete Bernard's website and a link to 'The 8th Fire - School of Algonquin Shamanism & Healing Arts'

www.the8thfire.com

Seems he's running this program as well.

Later

[Smart Mule]

From the website -

Students are educated in the Lineage of the Bernard Family and it’s traditional teachings, and train in the Djasakid (jee-sah-ki) (or tent-shaker) tradition. These teachings include energy medicine (The Great Fire), extractions, journeying, retrieval of power, soul, destiny, prayer, ceremony, ritual, and much more.

It disturbs me that they are teaching shake tent tradition.  I've been present at shake tent ceremony and this isn't something that you can learn to do safely in the two years that the propose. 

[Skippy]

As a former student of his, I can attest to the fact that he is indeed a "shame on". He took courses from the Four Winds Society as well as many other courses and blanketed as "Algonquin" and changed wording around for the ceremonies. Unfortunately those ceremonies are now nothing more than rituals. I could say more but will not in this post. And oh, his course structure has now changed to "Earning the Light". http://www.algonquinshaman.com/earningthelight.html
We already are the Light.
The ones who have caught on to him and left, have truly "graduated".

[karen mica]

Lol, how on earth do these people find the time for all of this stuff?
Seems to me, it takes a whole lifetime just to get yourself straight, never mind having the time to go around selling "ideas" or making up new ones for other folks.

[TaiChiJohn]

I'm new here, and I am going to say up front that I joined just to post here, in this thread about Pete Barnard.

I met Pete about eight years ago and from what I saw he is as he says. That doesn't make him what no person could possibly be, but I do think that he is presenting himself truthfully in what he does. Pete has for many years conducted ceremonies at the start of the male sugar season for local people who have sugar bushes (stands of maple trees where maple sap is collected to make maple syrup) so he does indeed perform in a traditional capacity. He also contributes to programs that help disadvantaged First Nations youth, so he is indeed an integral part of First Nations culture.

I attended a demonstration Pete gave locally, wherein he physically pumped himself up using breath energetics before dispersing that energy into the room. I felt the energy pass into the room; but I also had my body tensed in a certain way and I could see Pete react when that energy bounced back to him from me. I don't think that had happened to him before but it confirmed to me that what I felt wasn't limited to my own perceptions. When I later contacted Pete about making a donation (because I could see he was authentic) he asked me to donate the money I was offering to the library where the demonstration had been held.

I can't do what Pete did that day, and I have been studying and practicing taijiquan and quigong since 1983. My academic background is in post-structural philosophy, and I sometimes publish in peer reviewed online journals (such as Issue 23 of Rhizomes, on Gilles Deleuze and Photography - my name is John Morton). If pressed on the matter, I would say that skills such as Pete's derive from training that cultivates an ability to make use of neural structures called microtubules; and like any training, anyone can do that but only after a long period of concerted effort.

Pete isn't something that can't exist but I do sincerely believe that he has cultivated a potential that is inherent in all of us. He is what he says he is, but some people may think that is something other than what it is possible for a person to be.

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

I could see Pete react when that energy bounced back to him from me. I don't think that had happened to him before but it confirmed to me that what I felt wasn't limited to my own perceptions.

You could see? That is your perception, is it not?

Everything is limited to our own perceptions, and perhaps the hardest thing to learn is that 99.9% of everything we feel is what *we* feel, what *we* think, what *we* perceive, what *we* believe. Projecting onto others what we ourselves feel, think, perceive, and believe, is normal. The con twists that and makes their believers believe they (the followers and the leader) are something more than the norm.

I had every shred of trust in my self twisted by such a con game. All I can say is tread carefully, people who have an inkling don't advertise it, and those that do are not worth the loss that will come.

[Autumn]

I'm really confused here.  This is a really old thread and I read the entire thread and went to the 8th Fire website.  Is Pete Bernard now calling himself Tsho-Ten?  http://www.the8thfire.com/#!teachers

As to TaiChiJohn's comments, I am not too impressed with playing ping-pong with energy.  We all do that on a daily basis.  When you walk into a room, and someone is in a bad mood, you pick up on that immediately.  When we talk about someone having "charisma," we are picking up on their energy.  And what I have learned about Mr. Bernard from the thread, he has studied many types of energy work.  When someone does that, I always wonder, "Didn't it take with the first try?"  Why do you need to keep earning "certificates" of different types of energy work?  There is only one energy and we are all in it.  There can only be one explanation to me (and this is my humble opinion, of course) and that it is to try to impress others and to make money from it.

As to Critter's comments about perception, I totally agree.  I would have to wonder if the other people in the room with TaiChiJohn and John Bernard had the same experience as he did.  If not, then that was their experience.  I feel that the "placebo effect" has been proven over and over as a valid part in healing and the only explanation for that is that you are "perceiving" that something will heal you and it does.

[Autumn]

I'm answering my own question again.  Pete Bernard and Zsho-Ten are the same person:  http://www.facebook.com/events/337165399705599/

When someone keeps changing their identity, I just gotta wonder!  The training (which is a total mish-mash of everything is $850.

[TaiChiJohn]

As I mentioned, I am new here; and while I am no stranger to the kind of people who make money preying on the needs and desires of others through the use of obfuscated, crypto-fascistic structures of power and knowledge, my impression from meeting Pete Barnard is that he is legitimate and sincere.

In reply to one poster, no, energy work does not "take" at the first sitting: it isn't like taking a pill, it demands long and dedicated training. Often, the transmission of techniques is so tentative over long periods of time (centuries) that it does take a dedicated practitioner many attempts from several directions before they find an approach that works well for them. 

Yes, I am aware of the difference between perception and imagination: Jean Paul Sartre nicely circumscribed that distinction back in the 1940's. Yes, I am aware of the sensations that energy causes in my own body: practicing taijiquan (tai chi) for almost 30 years now, I am very sensitive to the flow of forces that transverse my own body while practicing a set. I am not talking about anything mystical here, but simply about inertia and force and waveforms that are the same amplitude as the medium they are passing through (solitons).

Again, I don't know what people expect from a person like Pete Barnard, but to me it appears he is simply trying to pass along what he has learned and put into practice for himself. That kind of material isn't of interest to everyone, and there are many who would discount the basic concepts involved because they do not fit into their culturally defined world view, but I think it is a mistake try and place Euro-cultural determinations onto another culture's translated concepts and then say "Oh but that's wrong" because often it is the translation and the application of foreign concepts which are misguided.

[Superdog]

While, I'm not a huge fan of it of the way he does things, when possible, I try to defer to how the people someone claims to represent feel about them.  In this respect I'm adding this to the conversation.

I'm uncertain if this site is the official site for the Pikwaganagan First Nation, but I don't see any reason to believe it's not either.  This page offers several short blurbs on distinguished members.  Pete is mentioned just the way he presents himself.
http://algonquinsofpikwakanagan.com/people.php

"Pete Bernard

Pete Bernard is an Algonquin Shaman who provides healing services at Pikwàkanagàn, the National Capital Area of Ottawa-Gatineau, and in Brockville and other locations by request. He has studied and practiced Shamanism for most of his life, in both the Algonquin (Djaskid, or Tent Shaker) and Inka Traditions, and provides people with various forms of Spiritual Healing & Energy Medicine to deal with emotional, spiritual, and physical wounds or conditions, in order to bring about healing into their lives. Pete provides Shamanic Healing Services to Elders, Youth, and all members of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn, along with anyone else who requests a session, usually by appointment. See his website at: www.algonquinshaman.com"


For me...that says a lot.  If his community accepts the way he does things, then he's not presenting himself fraudulently.

Superdog

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

My experience, for whatever it's worth, is that mixing money and advertised title into the 'work' is a bad combination.  I cannot say this person is or is not what he says. That wasn't the point of my previous post.

Well, part of it was.. there are cons out there, some that even do have ability, that utilize normal perceptual abilities of human beings to cultivate loyal followers and believers..

But my main point is that, I have met people with 'gifts' so to speak, ability, and they have all become twisted by either incorporating money or title or both into their lives, into the scheme of things.

I stay away from people pronouncing their self and especially those charging a fee for what is free. Spirit, energy, teaching to others what Spirit (or whatever one wishes to call that immensity) has shown, taught, or given to them is the purpose, not money making or being titled.

Spirituality, or energy work if you are not prone to thinking in terms of anything divine, should never have a price tag on it, nor should the carrier walk this Earth with advertisement of their stature, as that, to me, twists it into something dark.

This is my own opinion, based on my own experiences, after having witnessed it too many times.