"Shamanism and the True Nature of Health" with Michael Dunning on October 18 "Why Shamanism Now?"
On her radio show "Why Shamanism Now? A Practical Path to Authenticity", teacher, author and founder of the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing Christina Pratt talks to Michael Dunning about health and nature from a shamanic perspective.

JERSEY CITY, NJ, October 12, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Streaming live on the Co-Creator Radio Networkon Tuesday, October 18, at 11 a.m. Pacific time/2 p.m. Eastern time, on her show "Why Shamanism Now?: A Practical Path to Authenticity," shaman and founder of the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing Christina Pratt welcomes Yewshaman Michael Dunning, who tells listeners, "Health is divinely given, as is the consciousness with which to perceive it therapeutically. Thus Health in an embryological context exists before development of the human nervous system and prior to the expression of the genes."

In this episode of "Why Shamanism Now?" titled "Shamanism and the True Nature of Health," Dunning talks to Pratt about his experiential understanding of the ancient shamanic practices to perceive of and learn about Health from the natural world. From this view, health is not something that comes and goes as we "catch" colds or "get" cancer, but health is innate, divinely given, and part of our nature. The practices of Yewshamanism, given to Dunning by the yew tree, can be embodied by anyone who is prepared to shift their perception back into Nature and Health. Dunning founded the Sacred Yew Institute as an educational body with which to explore and teach these connections.

Dunning talks to Pratt as part of a series of "Why Shamanism Now?" episodes sponsored by the Society of Shamanic Practitioners (SSP). Throughout this series, Pratt explores how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things—the living and the dead, the humans and nature, and the technological world and the spirit world—are profoundly out of balance. It is the ancient role of the shaman in all cultures to tend the balance of things, and the question is asked: how are these shamans meeting this extraordinary need today?

Christina Pratt is an authentic, non-traditional contemporary shaman. In practice since 1990, she specializes in mending the soul and transforming the parts of life that feel impossible. A teacher of exceptional clarity, humor, and inspiration, Pratt brings the power of shamanism into the practical grasp of anyone willing to take responsibility for improving the quality of their life. Her well-received book, An Encyclopedia of Shamanism (Rosen), is an 800-page, two-volume set with over 750 in-depth entries that clearly discuss the basic concepts of shamanism, methods, and traditions of over 50 different shamanic peoples. Pratt is the founder of the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing in Portland, OR, and New York, NY, creator of the original Foundations of Shamanism and Shamanic Healing course at the University of Minnesota, and a frequent and honored speaker for the American Holistic Medical Association.

Michael Dunning was born in Glasgow, Scotland. After graduating from the Edinburgh School of Art, Dunning taught himself to play the double-bass and by the early 1990s was performing in Europe and Japan with the award-winning experimental musical theater group, The New Theater (TNT). He has also worked for a non-profit arts organization in Edinburgh, where for 14 years he developed arts programs for adults with a history of mental health problems. In 2003 Dunning emigrated to U.S. where he teaches yewshamanism throughout New England. He also practices and teaches as a biodynamic craniosacral therapist. Dunning believes that the yew tree was once regarded by the indigenous shaman-healers as a great source of occult knowledge holding an ancient and embryonic language of healing and rejuvenation. An account of Dunning's experiences under the yew tree can be read in the book, Soul Companions: Conversations with Contemporary Wisdom Keeper, A Collection of Encounters with Spirit, by Karen Sawyer. Many years later Dunning discovered that craniosacral therapy, and particularly the biodynamic model, provided him with a contemporary healing modality that related to some key embryonic aspects of his shamanic work.

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