Shamanic Sound Intensive

I was honored to have 12 people here to join in exploring how love, sound, spirit and intention can work to bring about miraculous effects in healing.

We…

experienced a new “hollow bone ceremony”, sang from the heart, embarked on a Celtic Soul Revival Ceremony, worked with our voices, bowls, rattles. We did an inipi and were in a deep communion with spirit.

It was amazing how tightly woven we became, early on (Immediately, actually, right from the Casting of the Circle ceremony).

I am going to be posting people’s remarks (if they want me to) here about the weekend… I am still basking in the wonder of it all!

Great gratitude to the compassionate ones that came to heal and teach us.

——From Kristen——————:

“I had an absolutely stunning, amazing weekend at our intensive. As the past 2 days have unfolded now back home, I am noticing distinctly in the contrast of home how deeply connected we all were to Spirit all the time during the weekend. Like it was a transformation the instant we all gathered in circle Friday night & we were held, cradled, nurtured, contained in compassionate, helping, loving, transformative Spirit the whole time together. It was amazing, delicious, treasured, happy, healing, joyful, and also incredibly natural–like once you open to Spirit & remain open, it is absolutely always present & available. To be in a community where ALL of us were connected to Spirit & to each other was that much more powerful–exponential. My experience of our sweat lodge ceremony on Sunday was truly a transformative culmination for me as well. Thank you for providing this amazing container for all of that Spirit connection & experience!”

New Messages from Old Stones

I rode my bike up to the top where I could see Mount Hood. She is the source of all of the grandmothers (stones) that I will use in the  Autumnal Equinox Inipi (Sweat Lodge) i will be pouring tomorrow. I thought she could give me some more guidance about the lodge. I journeyed with my helping spirits to the sound of my dog Bodhi panting (did not have my drum, rattle or advil bottle with me–panting dogs work well, btw).

I journeyed down into the core of Mt. Hood. The master stone grandmother was there. The first thing she did was throw stones at me. My first reaction was to duck in fear. Immediately she showed me /told me how silly it was to be afraid, especially in the upper world of non-ordinary reality. So i let her hit me the next time and the next, and at the margins of the hole the stone left, light penetrated and grew. Wow, it was almost the opposite of the process of soul loss, where injuries cause loss of light.

She said that this is a part of the process of enlightenment. Facing fears, standing with faith while the spirits throw things at you that you can indeed handle. When we have a critical mass of soul essence, these shatterings and challenges cause the light to grow! of course!

Then my spirits began ripping me apart. Ehis was a dismemberment…they said that shattering and the resulting enlightenment is inevitable.

And the message for the people in the lodge–do not fear the stones and what they bring. They are here to help of course!

Sound healing class is coming around again

I am particularly excited about this fall, as my next gathering/facilitating of shamanic sound healing is coming…i wanted to share the gems that people shared with me about their experiences last spring…always good to know what impact the healing is making in the world. and for people who are thinking about taking the class, this is what people had to say. no editing was done…

Reflections on the Course: Healing through Sacred Sound and Song:

What was the most important thing(s) you walked away with from this course?

To always remember to sink down into my heart before I open my mouth

Experience using my voice in a powerful, healing way and knowing what it feels like to channel another being through voice and body.

• how sound impacts my/our emotional states
• how the throat chakra and speaking out/singing/vocalizing were common threads for healing with our group, and how the spirits instructed you Lauri to guide us to new places of growth
• how my/our helpers are just waiting to be invited to assist
• how love blends with sacred sound with intention to bring healing
• how vibrations clear blockages, open up new spaces, balance, equalize, heal, calm, ground, remind me/us to wake up/be awake!

how each sound healing medium has different spirits, songs, healers for all of us – matching the individual person

For me it was the reconnection to journey work. It was my original shamanic work and the reconnection was powerful for me. And to tie that in with sound healing, the song doctoring felt very powerful, but more importantly, the process of opening myself to Spirt for healing sound, original sound.

The realization of how powerful sound healing is and has always been in my life.

What aspects about the course made this possible?

The journey work and experiment, practice, experiment, practice  …

Having opportunities during each class to use my voice during a “healing trade” with another classmate and most of all by having the opportunity to use my voice for hours during the community healing night.  I was really able to step into the flow, anchor in my confidence and get my ego out of the way as the night went on.

• Lauri, as an instructor, you took time to listen for guidance & assistance, to trust and take risks
• group openness to trust, ask for assistance, take risks

Journeywork, the tools you brought to class, and your willingness to share your gift – very inspiring.

The journey work and the practical applications, working on other people.

Most surprising lesson(s) from the spirits:

They are patient and if I forget lessons, they will teach them to me again … I was going through old journals and read notes from the Women’s Retreat at Hidden Lake and I received the same message from “Momma Bear” as I received during this class

They can’t do anything on earth without us humans!

• the healing song sung to me – all of the words in the song individually had deeper, hidden meanings that matched my helpers, my healing, and animal guides I had been working with previously this year

woo hoo hoo!  (see flicker website with photo of Short-eared Owl named “woo hoo hoo”)

That they came so easily.

How easy the connection is.

How do you think this work will play out for you—will you use it in your personal life? Professional life?

I am integrating sound in all aspects of my life … in my wildest dreams I would never have envisioned singing a baby into the world or singing and humming to a dying person … my 10 month old grandson loved playing with my rattles, bells, etc …

I’ve already used it in my personal life by voicing, from an empowered place, what I see from my heart.  In the past I would often choose to stay quiet or edit myself for fear of the “consequences”.  I often find that the person I am speaking to can really hear me because I am coming from a heart-felt place without doubting myself.

This class has helped me in my professional life as a healing arts practitioner.  I now have more confidence in my connection to helping spirits and translating the information they want the client to receive.  I have also incorporated spontaneous vocalizations in my practice.

• continue to hold intention to open up in sound & song healing

introduction of various sound healing modalities into clinical setting

I think once one experiences this work it is impossible to be conscious and not have it affect daily life in some way. Some days when I don’t notice sound it is a mechanism to make me more conscious. So, yes I use it in my personal life and have already used it with clients.

I know I will use it personally and professionally but don’t know how it will play out yet.

What characteristics about the way the course was taught/facilitated worked best for your learning?

Lauri you teach from the heart … I really appreciate the way you encourage everyone to trust the spirits and try “new approaches” … to just step out of the way and let spirit guide the work … Your approach has freed me to have the courage to use sound and to make sounds … to surrender to the process and understand that it is not possible for me to “know” or anticipate the outcome because when I get out of the way the outcome surpasses my wildest dream.

Additionally your candor and sharing of personal experiences enriches the learning process.  For me it provides insights to the behind the scenes activities and heightens my awareness … your talking about spirit’s instructions for class … supported my learning and surrendering process …  it helped me trust and I’d find myself thinking .. oh this is what Lauri means.  Your laughter is a wonderful reminder not to take things to seriously and that laughter is right up there with chicken soup as a cure all

The journey work and the hands-on experience with voice and instruments worked well for me.

• * Immediately moving into experiential mode with drumming, song doctoring, journeying, playing with different instruments & honoring what they wanted to teach us.

The natural progression of the class and your willingness to follow guidance from Spirit.

The practical applications, hands on working.

What would you like to see changed/improved to help the next students have a better experience?

On one hand a 10 week commitment for me is a long stretch … on the other I love all that you cover and the 10 weeks allows for a wide range of experiences …

One more night with the crystal bowls!

A break with snacks that students provide. I think this work makes us hungry and I know it affects my blood sugar. But in any shamanic class I have attended. that had such breaks I think the energy stayed stronger for the whole group. Also, a class roster. We weren’t sure the best way to contact you when we had to miss.

Even if class lasts a little longer, a break with a wopula (sp?), share food, etc. Could just be a short one.

What would you have liked that you did not receive that would have made the experience more complete?

Can’t thing of anything except more time …

I would have appreciated a bit more work with my voice/song doctoring.

Can’t think of anything. I am really challenged around allowing my voice to emerge and think it will just take time and more work.

The experience felt complete for me.

How, if at all, are you changed by having taken this course?

When I am making a decision about investing my time … be it in taking a class or spending free time … my question to my self is .. Does it make my soul sing?  I would never have used those words or known that feeling if it wasn’t for your classes

PS

Lauri, I received the following note from my friends who attended our last class … thought you’d like to see it

And last night, I felt like every time someone was receiving a healing, their intentions were shifting and moving and healing aspects of my Being, as well.  And Laurie is such a grounded, strong, Wonderful Presence!

I have had amazing openings in my consciousness and am embodying my truth in a much greater capacity.  I was able to shed fear of using my voice which is a vital part of my creative expression here on earth.  Because of my experiences in this class, I had the opportunity to, in a safe space, open and use my voice as a sacred mode of healing that allowed me to re-member and re-connected to wisdom I gained in past lives where I used vocalizations as a crucial part of healing for myself and others.

I am continuing to learn about my helpers and how they assist me in the midst of my healing work.  I am learning how I may use my voice, various instruments and sound healing.

Every Thursday after class the energy in our house was different, better, lighter. We got more done, got a long better, felt lighter and happier. Now, when things feel heavy or difficult it is a reminder to reengage.

I feel more centered, more educated in the fact of how important sound healing is and always has been in my life.”

thank you dear ones…looking forward to more nourishing sound with people and spirit. yay! i get to do this for a living!

More on soul retrieval: response to a client’s inquiry

I had a client email me the other day with the following concern:

“I’ve been doing some reading regarding soul retrieval and it seems that the missing soul parts are frequently not willing to come back but during my session all three seemed quite willing – do you know why that is?  Also, was there any story to go with when the soul loss took place?”

My response to this:

I have NEVER had soul parts that were not willing to come back to any client. Perhaps I am not working with people who are as lost or ill as the person who has made that remark in their writing.

Soul parts are perfect and all knowing. They present themselves in response to our prayer that ones that are retrieved are the ones that most need to come back at this time. This prayer is very important in the intention of the ceremony, and it is possible that the person you are reading soul retrieval stories from may not state this formally.

When my spirits bring back the soul parts, they usually highlight the qualities that that soul part brings potency to for the whole of the soul. Too often people are stuck in their stories, so my spirits have chosen to highlight the qualities the soul parts impart an elevated level of in the person, and NOT the story. Too often the story is painful and is the reason the soul part left in the first place. It is the way the soul part has persevered in its perfection that is most important, and the tender aspects of the soul it was seeking to protect in its leaving that is most important. Listen to your s.r. recording to find the qualities, not the story.

Also,   the medicine the power animal brought back for the integration and weaving of the that soul part into the whole of the soul, tells its own story of strength and power. As you listen, align with the energy of those power animals, as they will tell you what it is that is most important for you to hear. Meditate on each animal and open to its messages. They will amaze and astonish you !

Late night satisfaction with life

the spirits come dancing when singing to them
a gateway opens and succulent benevolence comes streaming in
a wish a hope a yearning a pleading
is food for the beloved unseen compassionate ones
who wait for us to call for miracles
applauding the courage, licking in the tears
the change so desired unknown
earned
reveled in
unfurling
the healing ripples out into the universe
one soul at a time

thank the gods for this way of shamans and love, sound and song

thank the gods for this good day, awakening, divine, luscious life lived

through sight in the dark from the heart

True self

I have had some experience with the true self as a concept and an experience over the years…some vague, so not so vague.  Sometimes i felt like it was a cliche-like topic circling my periphery. But then a deeper truth pushed in to me the other day.

I was doing a soul retrieval with a client the other day. What was revealed to me was that the true self is that self of ours that is absent of soul loss. When we have soul loss, the personality develops coping mechanisms that mask the true self, often beyond conscious habitual recognition.

When I ask the spirits to have the client merge with their true self during soul retrieval, a deeper healing unfolds. The true self helps teach the soul and the rest of the being what it is like not to have soul loss, and what it is like not to have the personality/behavioral/thought form patterns that have arisen due to soul loss…Cool I thought. Now I get it…

Thankful and Looking Forward

Looking forward to some great retreats and events in 2009.

We will have at least two shamanic sound intensives, a new intuitive cooking and eating retreat (YUM!), soundpod is back (monthly free sound healing sessions), birding weekend (a cross between sound healing and nature awareness).

We will also be having gatherings to explore soul constellation work, two silent retreats…and of course, spring and fall renewal retreats. We will be pouring 4 of the 8 LightSong Community lodges here on the equinoxes and solstices.

For those who want to design their own personal retreat, we will be offering shamanic healing, sound healing, food therapy, soul constellation work, meditation coaching…and oh so much more.

Check us out at Hidden Lake Retreat. Give yourself a personal time out…www.hiddenlakeretreat.org

relax, reflect, rejuvenate.

Walking and Dancing with the ego

Walking and Dancing with the ego

I had an interesting experience this summer that sent me on a new belief system trajectory about the ego. The final outcome of learning from the spirits is that the teachings I have received about working with the ego in healing have shifted. It’s a dance, not a war.

I was supporting a very big ceremony (Vision Quest) with my brother. We were supporters in camp. We are brother and sister in song, part of an extended traditional family. We sing sacred songs together. There is a rule pertinent to another ceremony that is gender-based. We did not know it was in play at this ceremony. My desire to sing and support was strong, but was in a way that I did not know violated this rule. Ego-based, as all desires are, I “broke the rule” anyway. Shortly after this “transgression”, the reprimand came from the family elders. It was a big, upsetting deal to all of us. Tears and apologies followed.

Later in the week when the questers came down from the hill and were in lodge; one of them spoke their story. Great help and healing had come through the singing we did (during our rule-breaking session). Much power was felt and experienced through this singing, and the medicine that went up to the hill was exactly what was needed by that person, who had been suffering. It all made sense to me as I listened to this dear one tell their story.

What the spirits showed/told me about this is that the ego is an important ingredient to life as humans on earth. It has kept us alive and in constant inquiry –that is where many life- or conscious-saving questions arise. Perhaps more importantly and newly illuminated was how the ego moves us around in time and space to make us available to help with healing. Our egoic structures reinforce motivations that make us move around in time and space socially, and put us in places where we can do work. Yes, we move to the beat of our heart, too. And, the ego is often involved in the assessment and choices we make.

They (the spirits) also showed me in a more clear way than what I had previously conceptualized, is that the desire to “do away with ego” or quell the ego is almost akin to saying that we do not wish to fulfill the contract we made to be spirits in human form. Being human means having an ego that helps us navigate through the physical and social world. Saying we deny this ingredient to our humanity is like saying we might as well be pure spirit, which is not what we agreed to when we incarnated.

Healing and bringing pure information and divine power into ordinary reality DOES require that the ego not be projecting itself into this stream of light when we are being conduits of this light. This takes years of training and initiations in a process I call “personality purification”, so there are few intrusions of personal stuff in the hollow bone as power moves through us. It is a beautiful dance, of honoring all of who we are, and asking that the ego steps to the side in the process of bringing forth that divinity. To deny any of our humanity can cause soul loss, incrementally…another topic for later.

As time progresses, the ego in its original form has become somewhat imbalanced in its control over our lives, emotions. So we invite it to be just one of many elements in our walk. Bow and ask our heart to lead the best it can, while honoring all parts of the dance.

Shamanic Sound Healing: Message from an Emerging Healer

I have been doing some Spirit writing from some of the journeys in and out of class (Healing Through Sacred Sound and Song, A LightSong Course Taught by Dr. Lauri Shainsky), as they relate to what I am moving through personally. I guess this class is opening the door to my own personal healing and that will hopefully open doors to healing within my ancestral lines, especially with my daughter. I know this is also the door for bigger work down the road.

The Song–To the Depths of Emptiness

I was taken to a cave, to the void where there was nothing but darkness. I am a visual journeyer so this was frustrating as I kept wanting to be shown something. I felt like I was just led to nowhere. I couldn’t even tell if I was still on the journey. So I just lied there, and asked: So now what? Is this it? They said yes. They said stop looking and listen. I did and heard nothing. I was actually pissed off. I asked again, is this it? They said yes. Then, after awhile they said “This is the place sound is born”. Then we were called back. It felt so frustrating. It wasn’t the same place of quietness and solitude that I have been where you feel expansive and blissful. This place was empty to its core! It had no feeling, no sound, no light, no sense, no space. I am still sitting with it. It was actually a little scary to think about. Like I never acknowledged that there could be such a place. It reminds me of an agnostic death, where when you die, that’s it.

Singing the soul forward

My benevolent helpers have shown me this beautiful process which they help me perform at the end the soul retrieval ceremonies they perform through me. They call it “singing the soul forward”.

They have instructed me that an effective way to integrate the recently-retrieved soul parts into the wholeness of the soul. It involves helping each retrieved part re-experience all of the events that the rest of the soul has experienced since that part was lost from the whole. The benevolent ones give me a unique song for each person, which is sung while the events are vibrationally infused during the integration and sealing process. This part of the ceremony “catches the soul part up” so to speak on what the rest of the soul has experienced, so it, too, gets to experience the history of, and become integrated into, the wholeness of the soul.

Thoughts? Experiences? you can also email me at lauri@hiddenlakeretreat.org