At the age of 25 I was standing in the kitchen over looking the Pacific Ocean in my beautiful Laguna Beach home making dinner for my then fiancé. A thought came to me that affected me deeply. I thought “is this it? Is this all I am supposed to do with my life?” I was engaged to a wealthy man, didn't have to work, spent my days working out, shopping with my girlfriends and traveling.
It was at that moment that I KNEW this wasn't what my life was supposed to be. I started searching for answers. I read everything I could get my hands on. Spirituality, Aromatherapy, Crystals etc. At this point I had grown apart from my fiancé as I was starting to become a different person, really I was becoming the person I was meant to be.
We parted ways and I moved across the country to New Jersey. I went to school and became a massage therapist and every free moment I had I read more books. Subjects including; Energy Healing, Reiki, Qigong, Yoga then one day it happened. I had an OBE (out of body experience) I found myself floating above my body, this was quite a shock, then before I knew it I was back in my body. I however felt different, my body was buzzing, all my senses were heightened including my intuition and I just didn't feel “normal”.
At the time I was frequenting a lot of local book stores (it was my favorite past time). So following my intuition, the next day I got in the car and went to a new book store. I found my self looking over the titles of the books on the bookshelf when a lady with beautiful silver long flowing hair walked up to me, pulled a book off the shelf, handed it to me and said here dear this is what is happening to you. The book was titled Energies of Transformation by Bonnie Greenwell. I took it home and read through it in a matter of days. It all made sense.
This was 1997 and I had a home computer and started searching the web for everything I could find on Kundalini. At this point I started reading more about Past Lives as I started to have my own spontaneous memories. The searching continued, I was consumed by reading about Near Death Experiences, Star Beings, Star People, Native American teachings, Animal Communication, you name it I read it.
A few years down the road I read an article by Sandra Ingerman regarding Soul Loss. I read the page that listed “symptoms of soul loss” and I thought oh my gosh this is me. I have to read her book. So again I found a new bookstore that just happened to be down the street from my house. I went inside and asked the gentleman behind the counter if he had Sandra's book, Soul Retrieval. What do you know they just happened to have one copy left and to boot he told me he was trained in Soul Retrieval. How synchronistic was that! I read the book in a few days and called the gentleman to make an appointment.
It was November of 1999, my birthday was coming up and I decided to treat myself. It was a gift I will never forget. I didn't feel that different upon leaving the appointment, I even chuckled a little because I thought “did I just get duped?” Upon awakening the next morning I knew something was very very different. So much so that I picked up the phone and called the practitioner. He reminded me again there would be an adjustment period and everything would be fine.
One thing I knew for sure was that there was something to this work called Soul Retrieval. So once again I started researching and reading everything I could get my hands on regarding Shamanism. I read Hank Wesselman's trilogy and decided I was going to give this “journeying” thing a try. I purchased his book; Journey to the Sacred Garden, which also had an accompanying drumming CD. I put my CD player on with headphones and followed the directions of the book and to my pleasant surprise I met my power animal right away! I doubted the authenticity of this since it happened so easily for me. At this point I had moved back to California so I once again started searching the internet, this time for a local teacher. I wanted to make sure I was doing it right. Well sure enough the journey at the shamanic circle at her house happened just as easily and again met my power animal along with a spirit helper. I was hooked! I continued to do journeys at my home and then once in awhile would join local shamanic drum circles. Nine months later I found myself sitting in a group of fellow seekers at Esalen in northern California. listening to Hank Wesselman and Jill Kuykendall giving an introductory talk for our week-long intensive that was to begin the following morning. That week was life changing. I finally found my path, my way of being in the world, my home.
It was at that moment that I KNEW this wasn't what my life was supposed to be. I started searching for answers. I read everything I could get my hands on. Spirituality, Aromatherapy, Crystals etc. At this point I had grown apart from my fiancé as I was starting to become a different person, really I was becoming the person I was meant to be.
We parted ways and I moved across the country to New Jersey. I went to school and became a massage therapist and every free moment I had I read more books. Subjects including; Energy Healing, Reiki, Qigong, Yoga then one day it happened. I had an OBE (out of body experience) I found myself floating above my body, this was quite a shock, then before I knew it I was back in my body. I however felt different, my body was buzzing, all my senses were heightened including my intuition and I just didn't feel “normal”.
At the time I was frequenting a lot of local book stores (it was my favorite past time). So following my intuition, the next day I got in the car and went to a new book store. I found my self looking over the titles of the books on the bookshelf when a lady with beautiful silver long flowing hair walked up to me, pulled a book off the shelf, handed it to me and said here dear this is what is happening to you. The book was titled Energies of Transformation by Bonnie Greenwell. I took it home and read through it in a matter of days. It all made sense.
This was 1997 and I had a home computer and started searching the web for everything I could find on Kundalini. At this point I started reading more about Past Lives as I started to have my own spontaneous memories. The searching continued, I was consumed by reading about Near Death Experiences, Star Beings, Star People, Native American teachings, Animal Communication, you name it I read it.
A few years down the road I read an article by Sandra Ingerman regarding Soul Loss. I read the page that listed “symptoms of soul loss” and I thought oh my gosh this is me. I have to read her book. So again I found a new bookstore that just happened to be down the street from my house. I went inside and asked the gentleman behind the counter if he had Sandra's book, Soul Retrieval. What do you know they just happened to have one copy left and to boot he told me he was trained in Soul Retrieval. How synchronistic was that! I read the book in a few days and called the gentleman to make an appointment.
It was November of 1999, my birthday was coming up and I decided to treat myself. It was a gift I will never forget. I didn't feel that different upon leaving the appointment, I even chuckled a little because I thought “did I just get duped?” Upon awakening the next morning I knew something was very very different. So much so that I picked up the phone and called the practitioner. He reminded me again there would be an adjustment period and everything would be fine.
One thing I knew for sure was that there was something to this work called Soul Retrieval. So once again I started researching and reading everything I could get my hands on regarding Shamanism. I read Hank Wesselman's trilogy and decided I was going to give this “journeying” thing a try. I purchased his book; Journey to the Sacred Garden, which also had an accompanying drumming CD. I put my CD player on with headphones and followed the directions of the book and to my pleasant surprise I met my power animal right away! I doubted the authenticity of this since it happened so easily for me. At this point I had moved back to California so I once again started searching the internet, this time for a local teacher. I wanted to make sure I was doing it right. Well sure enough the journey at the shamanic circle at her house happened just as easily and again met my power animal along with a spirit helper. I was hooked! I continued to do journeys at my home and then once in awhile would join local shamanic drum circles. Nine months later I found myself sitting in a group of fellow seekers at Esalen in northern California. listening to Hank Wesselman and Jill Kuykendall giving an introductory talk for our week-long intensive that was to begin the following morning. That week was life changing. I finally found my path, my way of being in the world, my home.