Hi everyone,
I hope it's okay for me to post here, even though I'm not Native American. I'm a native German, now living in the US. I found this forum by googling Pushican/Lightning Bear and read about him in your "Frauds" segment (
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=614.0.
I know (or used to know) this man personally and thought you might be interested to learn about the viewpoint from the other side of the fence, from one of the people who believe(d) in him and other fraudulent NA "teachers."
Here's my personal experience with Lightning Bear aka John Colbert:
I met Lightning Bear first at a spiritual conference in Duesseldorf, Germany, where he gave a lecture on NA beliefs and spirituality. Among the other speakers was Craig Carpenter, who professes to be the "ambassador" of the Hopi (I don't know if that's true, but it lent the whole event definite credibility).
I was fascinated by Lightning Bear and his teachings and began attending workshops with him, in which he talked about traditional NA living, women's moontime traditions, etc.
At those workshops, I met some of his German "students"... he said he was a spiritual teacher who was taking on a limited number of students. "Applying" for this involved the traditional gift of tobacco; being a student wouldn't cost anything in itself, but students were expected to attend at least some of his workshops and lectures, which, of course, required a fee.
He handed out papers to his students, with exercises that were supposed to help us connect with nature and the Great Spirit -- e.g., finding your power spot, do a naked full moon walk, etc. He also offered "NA initiation rituals," among them healing ceremonies, a ceremony to make a commitment to serve the Great Spirit, a puberty ceremony, and so forth.
The "commitment ceremony" was the first one (I never got any further). I haven't talked about this with many people, but I figured you should know what was going on in these rituals. He didn't talk about what would be going on in the ceremony ahead of time; he said those ceremonies were sacred (and secret) and should never be divulged to "outsiders."
Per Lightning Bear's instructions, I had to shave off my pubic hair in advance of the ceremony and "purify" myself by fasting for a day and doing a ceremonial bath. When I got to his place, he led me into a room with candles, incense and a blanket on the floor. I had to undress and lie down on the blanket. He smudged the room and both of us with sage and asked the Great Spirit to approve of this ceremony. Then he said he would "mark" me with the marks of the Great Spirit -- which was done by lightly scratching my breasts with an eagle's talon and a bear claw. Thereby, he said, I would be initiated into the Bear Clan (which he supposedly was a part of), and whenever I needed help, I should touch the scratch and call on the bear, my new totem. It hurt a little, but he had talked so much about sacred NA rituals in his workshops (the Sun Dance, etc.), and it seemed many of them involved great pain, so I wasn't too worried about it. He made me speak after him, making a firm commitment to the Great Spirit to serve Him and His cause. And that was pretty much it.
On the way home, I felt strange. On the one hand, I felt elated about my commitment to the Creator, on the other -- due to past experiences with sexual harassment -- I was wondering if this had been a real NA ceremony or if he had just made it up. However, since the whole ritual hadn't felt like there was anything sexual to it (he didn't touch me, except with the talon and bear claw), I consoled myself thinking that it was probably OK. My notion was reinforced when only a few days later, I started receiving prophetic dreams and "messages from Spirit," often concerning total strangers, that proved correct every time.
The atrocities you read about in the German newspaper clippings were part of Lightning Bear's "puberty ceremony," by the way. He said in his teachings that -- unlike indigenous peoples -- white Westerners didn't have any rites of passage anymore, and thus women and men had lost their way, living their whole lives in confusion as to their identity and purpose. Through a puberty ritual, this rite of passage could be regained and positively influence one's life. He didn't say what that ceremony involved, though.
When I heard much later, after he'd been arrested, that he'd pierced his students genitals and sewn shut their vaginas, I was mortified. And that was pretty much the end of my "apprenticeship." End of story.
However, many of his female students actually stuck with him and defended him. They said the "white people" just didn't understand the NA ways, and that the "puberty ceremony" had liberated them and made them feel stronger than ever.
You're probably laughing your butts off about the naivety of the dumb Germans. And rightfully so, at least in part.
But I want to give you an idea how something like this can happen. It is true that Germans (and many white Americans, too) seem to have a strong liking for the Native American belief system, and I'm certainly one of them.
Some posters here seem very frustrated that their faith "is being taken away from them." They suggest that European paganism provides its own versatile belief systems, and people should adhere to one of those instead of NA beliefs.
Frankly, that saddens me. I do understand the bitterness of many NAs due to the past (and ongoing) injustices committed by white people. And I completely agree that NA beliefs have been "adopted" and warped beyond recognition by self-appointed New Age gurus and fraudulent "Native American shamans."
On the other hand, shouldn't everyone be able to choose their own beliefs? Anyone, for example, can convert to Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and so forth. Why shouldn't that be possible with the Native American ways?
Personally, for me European paganism doesn't hold much interest. There are too many gods and goddesses, elaborate rituals with dozens of props (candles, herbs, chalices, cauldrons, ritual knives, etc, etc), and lots of what I would call "ceremonial hocus pocus." In comparison, the Native American way is beautifully simple and straight-forward.
Another thing is that European paganism was almost wiped out through the Inquisition. What you see today in the pagan cults is at the most a couple of hundred years old, and often the invention of "modern people." For example, the principles of Wicca were put down by Gerald Gardner in 1954, and no one has been able to prove that what he established are really traditional teachings. In contrast, again, Native Americans have had their knowledge and ceremonies for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. And even though much of it was suppressed and rooted out by the white settlers, it seems that some or much of the old wisdom is still there.
I think in these times of political and economic unrest and uncertainty, Peak Oil, earth changes, pollution, etc., millions of people are waking up to the fact that our materialistic, capitalist lifestyle is not sustainable in the long run. And they're looking for something better, something that reconnects them with Mother Earth and the simpler life of the ancestors.
I know how you guys feel about this, but when you hear those stories of simpler times, when women were revered as sacred and elders were respected and listened to, when a woman's moontime was viewed as a time of great power instead of a "curse" (as it has been in much of the Western world), when the connection with nature and the Creator were not just reserved for church on Sundays, but an integral part of daily life, you can't help being intrigued. And I know many, many people who feel the same way.
The only people alive today who still represent this kind of life are the Amish and indigenous peoples. So that's where people look to, to find a new (or old, if you will) identity. And they ARE willing to be taught. Unfortunately, there are so many quacks and charlatans out there, and so little known about the true NA ways, that it's very easy to fall prey to someone like Grey Wolf and Pushican.
I do hope that there might come a time where Native Americans will be able to take the lead and start teaching white people in the old ways -- how to live in community instead of competing in the modern rat race, how to peacefully coexist with nature instead of raping and pillaging her, and how to make the world a better place.
I'm telling you, the time is near, and so many people are ready; they're just confused and don't know whom to believe and whom to listen to. What's lacking is authentic teachings. You NAFPS people could do great things for mankind, if you would only set your pain aside and step up to the plate. The world is ready for you.
