Publications

Editor's Pick,
Body and Soul Magazine, Nov. Dec 2002

Profiles of Healing
edited by Bradford Keeney
Ringing Rocks Press in association with Leete's Island Books
Book and audio CD or DVD
10 volumes, 1999-2003
Hardcover $39.95
Paperback $18.95
ISBN various

Profiles of Native Healers
The Profiles of Healing series on native healers from around the globe is one of the most exquisite collections of pictures and prose in print. Editor Bradford Keeney, Ph.D., has gained access to medicine men and women in cultures as diverse as the Kalahari Bushmen and the Guarani of Paraguay's rain forest to make a record of the healing wisdom hidden in these remote locales. The healers speak for themselves, explaining their practices in their own words, says Keeney, "unfettered by Euro-American explanations and theory." Each book is designed as if it were a sacred talisman itself — with color photographs, drawings, and imprinted covers. Accompanying CDs present the literal voices of these healers singing, praying and telling stories. The newest additions to the award-winning series are Walking Thunder: Diné Medicine Woman; Shakers of St. Vincent (about mystical Caribbean culture); and Ropes to God: Experiencing the Bushman Spiritual Universe (available in January 2003), all from Ringing Rocks Press.

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Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality & Health Magazine, Fall 2002

Profiles of Healing
edited by Bradford Keeney
Ringing Rocks Press in association with Leete's Island Books
Book and audio CD or DVD
10 volumes, 1999-2003
Hardcover $39.95
Paperback $18.95
ISBN various

This extraordinary series of beautifully illustrated hardcover books with accompanying audio CDs was edited by Bradford Keeney for the Ringing Rocks Foundation, which supports the survival and future development of global healing wisdom through education, research, and special projects. The first eight volumes in the series are now available; six more are planned.

Keeney, an internationally acclaimed scholar, teacher of psychotherapy, and the author of Everyday Soul, speaks of the spirit animating this project: "Profiles of Healing was created to help bring forth the experience of sitting with a traditional healer and encountering the way she or he chooses to teach their cultural ways. Our ongoing book series enables the voices of traditional shamans and medicine people to be heard unfettered by Euro-American explanations and theory."

The time is ripe for this series given the modern world's catastrophic assaults on the Earth and general lack of reverence for nature. Indigenous peoples have long seen themselves as guardians of Mother Earth and the collectors of wisdom about her dowry of curative wonders. Shamans and medicine people always set healing within the larger context of their community and the Earth. Equally important are the rituals and sacred instruments used in their work.

"Shamanism is the medicine of the imagination," Jeanne Achterberg has observed. Keeney and others responsible for this project have picked up that truth and carried it into the design of these multimedia resources. Each volume contains soul-stirring quotations, personal narratives from traditional healers, and luxurious photographs. Accompanying each volume is a compact disc of prayers, sacred songs, ceremonies, and teachings. This is very appropriate given the importance of sound in the healing rituals of indigenous peoples.

Lakota Yuwipi Man focuses on the spiritual journey of Gary Holy Bull, a Lakota healer who has become a leader of the Sun Dance. Ikuko Osumi, Sensei: Japanese Master of Seiki Jutsu zeroes in on the energy practices of one of the most legendary healers in Japan. Kalahari Bushmen Healers contains accounts by twenty Africans who have mastered this art blending ritual, dance, and drama. Guarani Shamans of the Forest focuses on two shamans from the rainforests of Paraguay giving special attention to their healing songs. Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa: Zulu High Sanusi presents the life story of one of Africa's foremost traditional healers, a man who has made it his mission to retrieve the secrets of ancient sangomas and healers. Walking Thunder: Dine Medicine Woman revolves around this Navajo healer and her work with plants, paintings, and other curative tools. Shakers of St. Vincent examines the stories and rituals of a mystical experience called "mourning" as practiced on this Caribbean island. Ropes to God: Experiencing the Bushman Spiritual Universe showcases Bushman doctors from Namibia, Africa, who talk about their encounters with ropes and lines of light that enable them to ascend to the ancestors and the Big God in the sky.

Some Native American traditions proclaim that ancient wisdom must be maintained until Earth's children grow listening ears. This impressive series is a wonderful step in that right direction.

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Book Review by Joseph Kulin and Betsy Robinson
PARABOLA Magazine, Summer 2001

Profiles of Healing Series:
Gary Holy Bull: Lakota Yuwipi Man
lkuko Osumi, Sensei: Japanese Master of Seiki Jutsu
Kalahari Bushmen Healers
Guarani Shamans of the Forest
edited by Bradford Keeney
Ringing Rocks Press in association with Leete's Island Books
10 volumes, 1999-2003
Book and audio CD or DVD
Pp. 100-125
Hardcover $39.95
Paperback $18.95
ISBN various

THIS REMARKABLE SERIES of beautifully designed books on indigenous healers and shamans is a project of the Ringing Rocks Foundation, an organization that supports "the survival and future development of global healing wisdom through education, research, and special projects." Respect for these people and their cultures is reflected in the exquisite packaging: each volume is artistically presented, unique to its subject, and contains a CD of ritual music and spoken words by the participants. The Lakota book's CD features medicine man Gary Holy Bull speaking as he might if one were to visit him in his home, while the Kalahari Bushmen and Guarani CDs contain the ambient sounds of these people's environments, songs, and dances, and the Seiki Jutsu CD offers the practitioner's spoken life narrative. All of the books are edited by psychologist, teacher, and author Bradford Keeney.

The common feature in each volume is that the healers have the opportunity to speak of their lives, extensive training and practices unfettered by Western interpretation and analysis. Each participant greets the reader and offers to share sacred knowledge that has rarely been accessible to most Westerners due to a code of secrecy maintained by many indigenous peoples. One is moved not only by the generosity of the participants but by an almost palpable heartbeat that runs throughout the four books.

This heartbeat is a result of Keeney's ardent dedication to honoring these healers and their practices. These portraits are touching in their intimate simplicity, and one closes a volume with a lingering sense of having been in the company of extraordinary people - men and women of exceptional character, courage, and devotion whose motive is to bring our world into a better state of health and harmony.

No expense was spared in the production of these book and CD volumes, which are attractively presented in slip-case editions with outstanding photography and artwork, including text illustrations, full page and fold-out family portraits, and stunning photographs of ritual artifacts. Minimal but enlightening commentary is provided by editor's notes from Keeney, who in the process of producing this series was accepted as a friend and fellow shaman by many of the healers and initi­ated into their practices. Although the purity of expression in these books is their strength, the absence of objective commentary may be criticized by those who prefer such information accompanied by historical and anthropological comparison and analysis. There is no outside valida­tion of the claims of healing made by the shamans, nor of the miraculous tales of shape-shifting (e.g., the transformation of Kalahari Bushmen into "real lions.")

In the first volume in the series, Gary Holy Bull: Lakota Yuwipi Man, a Lakota medicine man tells his personal story of being initiated into the mysteries of healing and spirituality. At an early age, Gary Holy Bull was identified by his community as the holder of Yuwipi, one of their most powerful healing ceremonies. Mentored by the legendary spiritual elder, Fools Crow, he became a leader of the Sun Dance, which he has conducted for nearly two decades.

1kuko Osumi, Sensei: Japanese Master of Seiki Jutsu is the life story of one of the most revered healers in Japan, and is illustrated with rare photographs and audio recordings of an almost extinct Japanese practice. Ikuko Osumi has mastered the art of directly transmitting Seiki, or life force, into her clients - who, it is said, include many great leaders of Japanese traditional culture, science, and technology. The book describes the ways in which this energy is transmitted and how it is used in daily life to maintain health and well being. The similarity of Seiki healing to Reiki, another form of energy work with Japanese origins, begs for a comparison which unfortunately is not provided,

In Kalahari Bushmen Healers, twenty Bushmen healers from Botswana share their knowledge and wisdom of healing the human body, mind, and spirit. Illustrated with over one hundred photo­graphs and accompanied by a CD with live recordings of sacred ceremonies, this volume brings alive one of the oldest continuous healing traditions on earth.

Guarani Shamans oj the Forest focuses primarily on two shamans from the rain forests of Paraguay, Ava Tape Miri and Tupa Nevangayu, who reveal how the spirits of the forest taught them through visions and dreams to become shamans for their communities. In the included CD, these shamans sing healing songs and offer sacred prayers. Illustrated with color photographs, Guarani children's drawings, and rare images of their most sacred objects, this volume provides an inside look at the shamanic practices and culture of these vanishing tribes.

This continuing series (more than a dozen new volumes are in the works) is a fascinating introduction to authentic representatives of traditional cultures worldwide. Anyone who is interested in alternative healing modalities or shamanic practices - and everyone with sensitivity to the value and plight of indigenous peoples - will benefit by making themselves acquainted with these works.

Joseph Kulin and Betsy Robinson are on the staff of PARABOLA and are recent graduates of the 1M School of Healing Arts.

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