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Dowsing and Shamanism: Ancient Practices Combine for Practical Uses by Elizabeth Cutting Dowsing and shamanism are two very ancient methods to seek answers from divine sources. Rarely have they been taught together. An upcoming workshop hosted by the Dowsing Society of Kansas City (DSKC) will teach these combined techniques. What is dowsing? "Dowsing is a visual expression of getting in touch with your subconscious and the higher powers. We use a very simple tool in which the response can be easily observed. Unlike meditation where we don't have anything confirming what we have in our head, with dowsing tools it is easy to see the simple answers," said Betty Hudson, current president of the DSKC. At the monthly dowsing society meetings, Alden Sharp is often the one who is available to teach dowsing techniques to newcomers. He answered some basic questions on dowsing. How did dowsing begin? Alden Sharp: It has been around as long as humanity has been here. There is not a society that we know of that has not used dowsing in some form or another. Back in my early days they called when someone was searching for a place to dig a well, they called a dowser a "water witch" and we used a tree limb. What kind of questions can be answered by dowsing? Sharp: You can ask any kind of a question you want to ask. You can find water, locate lost items, and determine health issues and cures. One really great dowser was able to locate a crime weapon that had been thrown in a river. Some things are more relatable to it than others. If you wanted to bet on a horse race or go to the boats or win the lottery, it doesn't come through as well. What are dowsing tools? Sharp: It can be a stick, or a pendulum (any weight on a string where the direction it swings gives the answer) or L-Rods or Y-Rods that swing in a direction to respond to questions. (L-Rods and Y-Rods are simple tools in the basic shape of a letter "L" or "Y.") How does one learn to do it? Sharp: A pendulum is often the easiest tool to start with. Many people ask if it is an appropriate time to dowse and request that all answers come from divine light. Ask a very clear yes-no question. Keep your mind focused on your question and watch the way the pendulum swings for your answer. You first determine your own direction for the pendulum swing yes or no. * * * * Jodi ShinKara Bottiger and John Livingston will teach "The Shamanic Dowser" for DSKC. They met when they took formal training at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. Both had childhood experiences that strengthen their spiritual practices. John Livingston of Oregon is a geologist, psychotherapist, shaman and gifted healer. His father was a prominent West Coast dowser and chancellor of American Society of Dowsers. "My father taught me to dowse when I was 16 years old," he said. "I didn't use it extensively until I became a geologist, used the dowsing to pinpoint the location of water wells. I was able to locate places that had the other geologists shaking their heads." Jodi ShinKara Bottiger of Kansas City is a healer and psychic and a member of DSKC. "I was born clairvoyant and have been working with spirit teachers all my life," she said. "When I took shamanic classes, I was able to put verbiage and training with the tools I'd been doing naturally. I was also born psychic, and born in a family that did dowsing. It was not uncommon for my grandfather to take me out and dowse for water or the best way to plant the crops in our garden." * * * * What is a shaman? John Livingston: I usually think of a shaman as a tribal person who has made acquaintance with spiritual teachers or helpers in other worlds. For thousands of years, shamans have provided spiritual healing for the members of their tribe by journeying to the rapid beat of drum or rattle, upon a request for help, to worlds of non-ordinary reality outside this Earth plane. There they meet with helping spirit animals and spirit teachers to obtain healing or answers to questions. Basic practices include soul retrieval, power animal retrieval, depossession (spirit release), and "ghostbusting" houses and land. When did you want to use dowsing and shamanism together? Livingston: Since I became involved with shamanism I've used the pendulum to give me rapid assessment of what healing work might be needed for a person, or the kinds of root cause issues that might be troubling them in their spiritual illnesses. I get answers that otherwise would need to be answered in a shamanic journey, which is a time-consuming process. With the pendulum, I can get rapid answers. It's a very handy technique. What is the main thing you hope to accomplish at the workshop? Livingston: We are going to teach the people how to do a shamanic journey, find their spirit teachers and comfortably use dowsing tools to heal and answer questions. Different kinds of charts will be brought to help with all walks of life. Do people have to be psychic to learn these techniques? Jodi ShinKara Bottiger: I've found that 95 percent of people can do this even if they don't have any psychic abilities at all. It is a step-by-step procedure to learn how to take your mind into a place of peaceful rest and allow a spirit teacher in non-physical to come work with you. The workshop, "The Shamanic Dowser," will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, October 20, at the NE Johnson County Building, 6000 Lamar in Mission, Kan. The cost is $33 for members of the DSKC, $44 for non-members. For more information, call Betty Hudson, president of the Dowsing Society of Kansas City at (816) 350-7496. Elizabeth Cutting is a writer, astrologer and seminar presenter. She can be reached at (816) 532-4727. Copyright 2001 Elizabeth Cutting NEWS BRIEFS FROM THE HEARTLAND "Gifts of Pluralism" Conference Cleveland Chiropractic recognized Wellness center moves "Gifts of Pluralism" Conference KANSAS CITY -- Never before in the history of metro Kansas City has such a multi-faith gathering been planned as the "Gifts of Pluralism" conference scheduled for Oct 27-28 at Pembroke Hill School Ward Parkway (State Line) Campus. The school is donating its facility for the conference. Convened by the 12-year old Kansas City Interfaith Council and co-sponsored by three other organizations -- Kansas City Harmony, the regional chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice, and Spirit of Service -- religions represented run from A to Z, American Indian to Zoroastrian. "In deepening our own faiths by learning about others, we will help shape of the future of religion here," said the Rev. Vern Barnet, DMn, whose organization, CRES, is managing the conference. The conference features include: • Workshops, displays and a notebook about the many faiths in the community • Panels on the wisdom of the faiths on environmental, personal and social issues • Non-profit organizations answering, "What is the role of religion in the community?" • Many opportunities for personal exchange across faith boundaries through a method called "Appreciative Inquiry." • A concluding Joint Declaration, with ideas developed by the conference participants, which will chart how religious groups can more effectively work together in the future. "Working together over the years, the members of the Council are clear that we do not seek to blend our faiths together or to invent a new one, but rather to strengthen the place of each of our traditions in the community through mutual stimulation and cooperation," Barnet said. "We now have an historic opportunity to address the problems of secularism with rich and varied spiritual resources right here in the heartland." Council members overseeing the conference are Kara Hawkins (American Indian), Barbara McAtee (Bahá'í), Lama Chuck Stanford (Buddhist), the Rev. Dr. Wallace Hartsfield (Christian -- Protestant), Chancellor George Noonan (Christian -- Roman Catholic), Anand Bhattacharyya (Hindu), Rabbi Joshua Taub (Jewish), A Rauf Mir, MD (Muslim), Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa (Sikh), Ali Kadr (Sufi), Ted Otteson (Unitarian Universalist), Mike Nichols (Wiccan), and Daryoush Jahanian, MD (Zoroastrian). Uma is the regular Council observer for Vedanta. In addition, representatives of the three denominations with world headquarters here are official Council observers for the conference planning. They are the Rev. W. Grant McMurray (Community of Christ), the Rev. D.r William C. Miller (Church of the Nazarene), and the Rev. Sharon Connors (Unity). Also supporting the conference are Ed Chasteen, founder of Hatebusters, and Maggie Finefrock, president of The Learning Project. Representatives from the larger community also have provided input into the conference. The Council is planning to attract 150 Christians and 150 participants from non-Christian faiths. Welcome are lay and professional religious leaders, educators, students, HR managers, medical workers, and anyone interested in experiencing the religious diversity of the heartland. Extensive information about the conference program is available for downloading by visiting the conference website, www.cres.org/gifts, by phoning (913) 649-5114, or writing CRES at Box 4165, Overland Park, KS 66204. Wellness Center Moves SHAWNEE MISSION, Kan -- Robin Chiropractic & Acupuncture Center has moved to a new, state-of-the-art wellness center located at 7410 Switzer in Shawnee Mission, just one-half block from their previous location. The new center will provide centralized check-in and check-out, client access to care information, fully integrated wellness care, participative healing, an assigned case manager, educational classes in our spacious classrooms and a complete team of complementary practitioners. Offices are cluster-constructed in "pods" to deliver their proprietary integrated wellness model approach to healing and health. Pods include chiropractic, Chinese acupuncture, and massage therapy. The lower level of this 8,000 square-foot center includes movement classes such as Yoga, Pilates, Qi Gong; wellness classes, currently conducted by Carondelet Health (St. Joseph Health System & St. Mary's Hospital of Blue Springs); Connection discussion groups on topical issues; and assorted, requested classes based on issues that face clients' lives. "There are many good business reasons for our center to move," Dr. Michelle Robin says, "but the most compelling reasons are for our clients and our vision for the kind of care our team is dedicated to providing." The center is a realization of a long-held dream of Dr. Robin's to deliver an integrated wellness model that includes the client, allows the client to determine the level of wellness they desire, and facilitates the client taking a proactive approach to their health needs. For directions to the new center, call at (913) 962-7408. Cleveland Chiropractic recognized For encouraging online use KANSAS CITY -- Cleveland Chiropractic College recently was honored during the first quarter of the 2001-2002 school year for the high percentage of its students who request financial aid via the internet as opposed to typical procedures using paper. A reported 88.7 percent of Cleveland Chiropractic students completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form online, rather than on paper. The college was given the E-Commerce award by the Office of Student Financial Assistance of the U.S. Department of Education. "Financial aid makes it possible for many students to reach their dreams of becoming a health care professional," said Dr. Carl S. Cleveland III, present of Cleveland Chiropractic College. "Providing convenient website access is an effective way to make the transition easier for students and potential students to achieve their career goals." Cleveland Chiropractic was founded in 1922 by the Cleveland family, and it is recognized as a major chiropractic institution, with campuses in Kansas City and Los Angeles. Spiritual Community celebrates 20th Anniversary TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- The 20th annual Light of Christ Community Church Conference is scheduled October 28 through November 4. This year marks the 20th anniversary for the church, as well as the intentional community of Sparrow Hawk Village in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In 1981, mystic, author and spiritual teacher Carol E. Parrish followed her guidance and moved her esoteric school, now known as Sancta Sophia Seminary, from Sarasota, Fla., to a beautiful wooded mountaintop in northeastern Oklahoma that had long been considered sacred due to its high energy ley lines. The founding of this unique village gave many people the opportunity to taste community -- a re-emerging approach to contemporary life. "We believe that community can make a shift in the human condition," Rev. Parrish explains. "Love for one another underlies modern community in the same way survival did in ancient times." The featured speaker at the 20th annual conference in Sparrow Hawk Village is John White, a leader in the field of consciousness exploration. This two-day event, Self, Cosmos, and Consciousness: The Theory and Practice of Enlightenment, will offer abundant opportunity for personal discovery. Through dialogue, lecture and experiential activities, participants can explore their own path of spiritual progress, as well as chart human evolution as it gradually leads to planetary transformation. Some of John White's 15 books include The Meeting of Science and Spirit, The Pole Shift, and What Is Enlightenment? As Light of Christ Community Church celebrates 20 years, its founder and pastor, Rev. Parrish, rejoices in her 30th year of ministry. She invites all to come experience the vision that is now anchored in the foothills of the Ozarks. Land development is still an option in the village; please inquire for more information. Guests are always welcome to the seminary that is open to all who seek personal growth, ordination, or various certifications and degrees. To receive more information, call (800) 386-7161, e-mail Registrar@sanctasophia.org, or visit www.sanctasophia.org. |
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