Foundation for Shamanic Studies

     Although I'm a spiritual eclectic, my deepest heart connection has always been to shamanism. One thing I love about shamanism is that it is entirely experiential. If anyone tries to tell you about shamanic theory, run fast. There are no theories! 

Cat with Michael Harner at Esalen (1992).

Anything I tell you about shamanism must come from my own experience. In the shamanic worldview, if I experience something, it's real. This includes all levels of experience, not only consensus reality.

Since I was a little girl, I've always known that dreams and imagination and other-world experiences are just as real as the world I was allowed to talk about at the dinner table.

     In those days, I didn't have a framework for talking about this, but the knowing was there all along. It's in my blood. 

     In 1974, when I was twenty, I started journeying informally and met my first power animal. Several years later, a shaman connected me to the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, which was founded by Michael Harner.

     After that, my study and practice of shamanism grew tremendously under the compassionate tutelage of the Foundation's faculty, most notably Michael Harner and Sandra Ingerman. I am deeply indebted to these two extraordinary mentors. 

     Michael Harner, Ph.D., is a world-renown shaman, teacher, and author of many books, including The Way of the Shaman. Michael came to shamanism via anthropology, which gave him a vehicle to study tribal cultures all over the world. Over many decades, Michael gleaned the shamanic techniques that are universal to all cultures across time. 

     This cross-cultural shamanism is a legacy that belongs to all of us, and the Foundation for Shamanic Studies is dedicated to making these universal techniques available to anyone who wants to learn them. In addition, the Foundation is involved in many diverse projects, such as scientific research, interdisciplinary collaboration, interspecies communication, and grants to support present-day shamans as living treasures. 

     Check out their Web site for more information about their wide array of programs, workshops, and resources. 

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Johanna Hoeller, D.C.

My dear friend and longtime colleague, Greg Ostergaard, first told me about NUCCA chiropractor Dr. Johanna Hoeller in the summer of 2002 on a walk around Greenlake in Seattle (see my interview with Johanna).

I'd known Greg for 20 years by then, and I trusted him implicitly, so I listened with rapt attention as he waxed poetic about Johanna and said that she had "fixed his neck."

     Now, you must understand two things about this. One is that I'd never heard Greg talk enthusiastically about any bodyworker in all the time I've known him (that was usually my department). Second, it was highly unusual for Greg to use the word "fix" in regard to anything, because in our work as helping professionals, improvement is generally as good as it gets.

     Therefore, when Greg said that Johanna had "fixed his neck," I stopped walking and looked at him in amazement. "What do you mean, she fixed your neck?"

     Greg then described Johanna's exacting X-rays and her equally exacting atlas-vertebra adjustment that involves barely a discernible touch. Since I had long since abandoned the "no pain, no gain" theory of healing, Johanna sounded like the doctor I'd been waiting for. However, after 25-plus years of chronic and debilitating neck pain and countless thousands of dollars spent on numerous conventional and alternative healing professionals, I was skeptical that Johanna could help me.

     After all, I'd worked with many other kinds of chiropractors, I'd been treated by many extensively trained physicians and osteopaths, and I'd worked with more alternative-medicine practitioners than I could remember. Even cranio-sacral work (which I love and had been receiving for two decades from Upledger-trained professionals) never provided more than a few hours of relief from pain, though it did offer many other benefits.

     In any case, Greg and I parted ways that day at Greenlake with my interest piqued, but with my skepticism intact. How many times had I gotten my hopes up, only to have them dashed again and again by treatments and procedures that offered no relief, or at best, a temporary respite? The truth was, I wanted structural change, and I didn't want to go to anybody who would require endless treatments (and endless payments) to keep me functional.

     Greg assured me that Johanna did the bulk of her work in a handful of sessions over a couple of months, with only occasional adjustments after that. That information piqued my interest even more, but since I couldn't afford her services at the time, I tried to put her out of my mind. My efforts to stop thinking about NUCCA work failed, however, and I finally realized that I couldn't stop thinking about Johanna because I was supposed to go see her.

     To make a long story short, my longtime partner, John Giovine, and two other close friends gave me a wonderful birthday present the following January (2003)Þthey paid for my initial sessions with Johanna. You'd think I'd have been hot to go, but I remember dragging myself into her office that day for my X-rays, grumbling with skepticism.

     On the day I went back to see my X-rays and get my first adjustment, I was in so much pain that I could hardly walk, and I certainly couldn't move my head without wincing. I remember groaning to myself and thinking, "Oh, this will just be another waste of money, and it's not going to help me."

     Believe it or not, I left her office that day holding my head high. I walked and almost danced down the street through the crisp winter air singing and laughing. I was blown away! I was blown away because I'd seen the before-and-after X-rays of my first adjustment with my own eyes.

     These X-rays showed me quite graphically how much change had been effected by Johanna's gentle and exacting work that day. Apart from the X-rays, though, I was blown away because I could feel that my head was on straight for the first time that I could remember in my adult life.

     There are a million more stories to share about my work with Johanna, and I wish I could tell you more of them. One thing I do want to say--in all fairness--is that my own kind of spinal misalignment is one of the hardest kinds to fix and one of the hardest kinds to "hold" (as in staying adjusted). This makes sense to me, considering all the head injuries I've sustained in my life, not to mention personal stress and three decades of work in a profession that involves helping people overcome many different kinds of pain.

     As a result of my particular misalignment and my chosen profession, I sometimes need an adjustment more often than other people might. Even so, the number of NUCCA adjustments I need is miniscule compared to the number of treatments required by any other doctor or bodyworker I've ever consulted. In addition, Johanna's adjustments actually work and they gently restore spinal alignment in a matter of minutes without any physical force or discomfort.

     Finally, my body's memory of balanced alignment has strengthened dramatically through NUCCA work, so I recover from physical and emotional stress more easily now, thus requiring fewer and fewer adjustments over time. This latter benefit is, of course, one of the main intentions of NUCCA workÞnamely, that it find the source of pain, fix it, and then leave the body alone to do its own healing.

     Before I stop waxing poetic about Johanna and her work, I've just got to tell you about her work with my partner, John. I've known John since 1983 and we've been together since 1987. In all that time, I've always known John to have a noticeable "swayback" at his lumbar region, and his shoulders also hunch over a bit, as if he's carrying the weight of the world.

     I've even seen his childhood pictures, and since the swayback is visible in his photos as a boy, I figured it was some kind of congenital defect or something. On top of this lifelong misalignment, John has been an import mechanic with his own shop since 1980. As a result of being 6'2" and having to bend over and crawl under cars for all those years, he developed degenerative disc disease and has been in terrible chronic pain for many years.

     When I told John about Johanna, he was even more skeptical than I had been, since he'd also been to countless doctors and tried many different treatments over the years, without any permanent relief. In addition, he didn't quite understand how adjusting the atlas vertebra could restore alignment of the entire spine and thus help his lower back. Even though I told him that Johanna herself came to NUCCA work because it had alleviated her own lumbar problem, John still didn't believe that NUCCA work could help him.

     In talking with John about his skepticism, I realized that he was in the same position I had been in the months before I first saw Johanna, so I offered to cover the cost of his initial work with Johanna. Since he then had nothing to lose, he agreed to give it a shot.

     When John came back from his first adjustment, I was stunned. The sway in his back was GONE and his shoulders were straight. In all my 30-plus years of work in the healing business, I'd never seen anything like the change I saw in John's body that day. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I don't think I would have believed it myself!

     With John's permission, I spoke with Johanna about her work with him. She said she'd probably need to do just one other adjustment, and then she thought his alignment would be quite stable. I thought, yeah right, but I didn't say anything. Even so, I had deep compassion for the incredible amounts of pain that John had suffered for more than a decade. Therefore, I secretly hoped that Johanna would in fact be right, so John could get better.

     It was just as Johanna said: John had only two NUCCA adjustments and that's all he needed. He has even been able to run again (one of his passions), after years of being told by his physician that he should not run at all, due to the degenerative disc disease. Amazingly, Johanna had told me that she thought John would be able to run again, and she was right.

     As of this writing, it's been many months since John's initial two adjustments. He went in last week to check in with Johanna, since it had been so long since he'd seen her. She measured his alignment and found that he was still holding it, so she did not adjust him. That's actually another beauty of NUCCA work. Alignment (or misalignment) is measurable using a couple of simple, noninvasive tools and techniques, so it's easy for Johanna to see if an adjustment is necessary.

     To conclude, let me say that I ended up interviewing Johanna about her work (again, it's at http://drcat.org/articles_interviews/html/johanna.html). When I saw what she did for John and me, and when I learned more about the significant differences between NUCCA work and other forms of treatment, I felt it was my responsibility to share this information with as many people as possible.

     In my business, I rarely use the word miracle, but I do think NUCCA work is miraculous, because it actually delivers what so many other forms of healing work only promise. That is, NUCCA work restores the body's own ability to heal itself by restoring the body's alignment and therefore, its balance. Johanna would be the first to say that she is not the source of this healing miracle; the body is.

     If you decide to see Johanna, please tell her I sent you and give her my best. Oh, and one other thing. If you don't live close enough to Seattle to see this master of the NUCCA trade, feel free to visit her Web site at http://www.psbl.com/hoeller or call her office at (206) 547-6370 to obtain a personal recommendation for a NUCCA practitioner in your area.

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John Giovine: The Honest Mechanic

It all began one day with an "Import Car Care" flyer that had been placed under the windshield wipers on my car. It was late summer of 1983, and I had just moved back to Seattle after being away for a few years.

I was looking for a new mechanic—which is always a rather scary proposition for a single woman—when John Giovine's brightly colored flyer appeared out of nowhere one morning, as if on cue. I still remember the day John walked into my house when he came to drop off my car and deliver his bill after the first time he serviced my car.

     There was this moment—now etched in my memory forever—when we stood in the threshold between the kitchen and the living room in my home in Wallingford, facing each other in close proximity. I distinctly remember the feeling I had at that moment, and I remember thinking, "Who IS this guy?!"

     It was as if my body knew that the man standing before me would become my life partner years later. It's just that my conscious mind was still in the dark about it!

     As it turned out, after John had been my mechanic for four years, I finally got up the courage to ask him out. Yes, you heard me right. I made the first move—and at the time, it was perfect that way for us both.

     John and I started dating in July of 1997 and I guess you could say we never stopped. In our early conversations (during a wild courtship that took place in three different states over two years), we discovered that we'd both had the same "love at first sight" crush on each other.

     A few years into my relationship with John, I started writing his ads for him. When I changed the "Import Car Care" headline in his ad to "Honest Mechanic," his business skyrocketed. I knew exactly what people would go through people's minds when they saw the words Honest Mechanic: "What? An honest mechanic? Are you kidding?!"

     I know Honest Mechanic may sound like an oxymoron, but John is truly honest, and he's a damn good mechanic. I've seen lots of people bring car problems to John that no one else can figure out, and he somehow figures them out!

     On the rare occasion that he can't troubleshoot a solution, he doesn't charge for his time. His integrity as a businessman is unsurpassed, and his skill as a master mechanic is truly awesome.

     Yes, I'm biased. But I would still bring my car to John even if he wasn't my partner, because he's the best mechanic I know. I swear that people sometimes have car trouble just so they can come and see John!

     If you want to read more about the wonderful way John works with people, you can check out my tribute to him in the latter part of an article I wrote called "All the Money Belongs to God: It Just Gets Recycled."

    You can also read "I Love John Because He Treats Me Like a Dog" and "A Warrior Dog's Last Dance" to get more glimpses of John as a person.

     If you live in or near Seattle and you'd like to make an appointment with John for your car, feel free to call his 24-hour voice mail at (206) 325-5377. Be sure to tell him I sent you, because every time John gets a referral through me, he gives me an extra kiss of thanks!

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Michael Tomlinson

Michael is one of the most high-integrity human beings I have ever known. I first started paying attention to him in the late 1980s and he just keeps getting better–not only in terms of the beauty and heartfelt depth of his music, but in terms of his talent in many other realms.

Michael is also a truly wonderful writer and a damn good storyteller, and he's one of the funniest people I know. I can always count on him to make me laugh out loud, with or without the accompanying act of rolling on the floor.

     When Michael performs on stage, his storytelling skills come out between songs the way stars come out when night falls. Then when he sings, Michael is genuinely with his audience in a way that makes you feel happy just to be in his presence, because he's clearly having a good time being in yours.

     In addition to his gifts of music and writing, Michael has been a wonderful compatriot for me in the land of independent publishing. Since he was producing his own work long before I independently published Dr. Cat's Helping Handbook, I've looked up to him as a sort of "big brother," who has continually inspired me in the world of publishing.

     In addition to his gifts as a multi-faceted role model for me, Michael has been a steadfast supporter of my own work in the world. He has written me personal notes of thanks over the years when he has been inspired by one of my articles, and he gave me a beautiful and unsolicited endorsement for Dr. Cat's Helping Handbook (which is included in the back-cover endorsements on the second edition of the book).

     Michael is a true gem of humanity, and I hope you have a wonderful time exploring his Web site, listening to his music, and attending his performances!

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National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC)

Marilyn Milos, R.N., founder of NOCIRC.

There are few things I hate, but involuntary circumcision is one of them. The crusade against involuntary circumcision is one of my passions and I've been writing about it since the late 1980s. In fact, the first piece of my writing to hit the Internet was an interview-essay against circumcision, which was first published by The New Times and was later made available on NOCIRC's Web site. 

NOCIRC was founded by Marilyn Milos, R.N., whose personal story about her own sons is enough to break the hardest of hearts. Out of ignorance, before she knew any better, Marilyn had her three sons circumcised. Later, as a nursing student, she witnessed the horror of infant circumcision for the first time. It changed her life, and she went on to found NOCIRC, which now has more than 50 centers in the United States as well as centers in 14 other countries. 

     The U.S. is the last country in the world that routinely circumcises the majority of its male infants for "medical reasons," despite the fact that this surgery has been proven to be unnecessary. Many physicians, including the late Dr. Benjamin Spock, have publicly denounced this inhumane practice. 

     I don't know what it will take for this country to wake up. Our hypocrisy about human rights astonishes me. Many Americans recoil in horror when they hear about female circumcision but they don't extend the same compassion to baby boys. They discount the pain of infant male circumcision, and they deny its long-term physical and psychological effects. To me, this is the worst kind of ignorance, because it fosters cruelty. 

     Think about it. We take helpless baby boys, strap them down to a board (or hold them down, in the case of certain religious rituals), and then we slice off the most exquisitely sensitive part of their sexual organs. This "expendable" piece of foreskin would become 15 square inches (when erect) of pleasure-stimulating penile tissue if the boy was allowed to reach adulthood intact. In circumcision, this multi-purpose protective tissue is cut off without the baby's permission and typically, without anesthesia. If this isn't horrific, I don't know what is. 

     If you have even an inkling of confusion about this brutal and unnecessary practice, I encourage you to explore the information and/or videos available through NOCIRC. If you are already against circumcision, but you have friends or family who are not knowledgeable about it despite a coming child, I urge you to respectfully discuss the matter, so they can make a more informed decision if their baby turns out to be a boy. 

     If you do discuss circumcision with expectant parents, you may encounter resistance, denial, or outright indignation. Many parents believe it's their right to have their son's genitals altered according to their personal preferences. Such parents may become incensed if anyone questions the humanity of their choices. However, someone has to advocate for the rights of helpless infants who cannot speak up for themselves. If that someone is you, NOCIRC can help you know what to say. Check out their Web site for information and inspiration. Every baby matters!  

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Robert Koch, Vedic Astrologer

It's not often that you meet a man who feels like someone you've known for a thousand years. When I first met Robert in the spring of 1995, I felt as if I was looking into the eyes of a soul brother and a fellow spiritual warrior. For reasons I could not explain, I felt as if I could trust him with my life.

I'd heard about Robert a few years before we met. A man with whom I was doing professional consultation told me about this Vedic astrologer who could accurately predict the timing of one's death. At the time, I thought, "Wow! That's amazing!" But I didn't think I wanted to know about my own death timing.

     A while later, I was sitting in my office working with a counseling client. She started talking about her astrologer, who had been a Vedic monk for twenty years, both here and in India, before leaving the monastery to pursue his profession in the midst of ordinary life. Turns out that this former monk was the same man who knew how to predict death timing.

     That did it. I mean, I'd been a student of death's teachings since I was a little girl, so Robert's work with death intrigued me. Since I'm a monk at heart, though, it was Robert's monastic past that got me to his doorstep.

     I set up an appointment with Robert to have my chart done. I'd consulted a number of good astrologers over the years, but they were all coming from a Western perspective. I was curious how my chart would be viewed from a Vedic (Hindu) perspective.

     Let me tell you, it was a completely different experience. I've always benefited from my Western astrological consultations, but once I experienced Robert's in-depth Vedic perspective, I was forever spoiled. For me, it's the difference between a personality-based reading and one that is centered in the soul. Why would I settle for half the cake when I can have the whole shebang?

     Besides, I found out from Robert that the Western system of astrology is about three weeks off from what the stars are actually doing. I figure if I'm going to tune into "the big guys" (as I affectionately call the planets), I may as well consult a system of calculations that is reality-based.

     My first reading with Robert was quite literally life-changing. When I first sat down, he told me some things about myself that my shamanic teachers had told me years before—things so deeply personal that I had told no one except my closest intimates. Needless to say, this got my attention.

     One thing led to another that day, and somehow, Robert and I both knew that it was right for me to know about my death timing. I set up another appointment for that purpose. On May 4, 1995, over the course of an hour, Robert carefully explained a synopsized version of the extraordinarily complicated calculations he had undertaken at my request, in order to discern the timing of my death.

     That's a whole story in itself, believe me. In fact, I wrote about it later, in a series of articles on death. Robert is the astrologer I refer to as "Rishi" in that series.

     Fast forward now to current time. Robert will no longer do death prediction for anyone. That door has closed. In any case, there are endless things to talk about with Robert, and I encourage you to go for it if you're intrigued by anything I've said about him.

     For the first few years after I met Robert, I got a reading every year or so, but now I treat myself to a consultation every quarter. Not only is Robert's perspective exceedingly valuable for business and personal planning, but the bottom line is, I just love talking with him. He's like an oasis in the desert.

     His compassion, respectfulness, and intelligence are exceptional. His understanding of life's experiences—whether spiritual or mundane—is broad and deep. And his humor is unsurpassed. I laugh about things with Robert that I can laugh about with no one else.

    You can learn more about Robert—including how to set up an appointment for a reading—by visiting his Web site.

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RESOURCES at THE ZERO child abuse child advocacy orgs child care child labor child pornography child safety child sexual abuse child soldiers children & medication contact legislators domestic violence donations/volunteers "false allegations" foster care hate crimes health care hotlines human trafficking infant abandonment juvenile justice legal resources lesbian, gay, bi and transgender mental health missing children pain management parenting resources pets/assistance animals sex offenders sexual assault stalking un convention on the rights of the child victim resources youth violence GO! The Official Website of Andrew Vachss

Alice Miller (author, educator, child advocate, and one of my longtime heroes)

Anne Wilson Schaef (author and educator)

Animal Communication (Mary Getten)

The Bright Side: Wings of Support (resources for body, mind, and spirit)

Claudia Black (author and educator)

The GLBT Resource Page

A Guide to LGBT Health Resources

Intact America (Dedicated to protecting infants from involuntary circumcision)

Ira Byock, M.D. (physician, author, educator, and expert on palliative and end-of-life care)

Laura Davis (author and educator)

Lucia Capacchione (author and educator)

Mark Robert Waldman (therapist; associate fellow at the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania; co-author with Andrew Newberg, M.D., of the book "How God Changes Your Brain")

National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males (NOHARMM, dedicated to ending the inhumane and unnecessary practice of involuntary infant circumcision)

People's Memorial Association (Nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to providing respectful, dignified, and inexpensive end-of-life care)

Protect (a national, nonpartisan, pro-child, anti-crime membership organization dedicated to the protection of children)

Susan Slotter and Soulscapes (fine art photographer, artist, and workshop leader)

Renee Locks (artist and calligrapher of "Brush Dance" fame)