Shamanism For Ol' Shep

RELIGION IN THE NEWS

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This item is from Dog Fancy Magazine under the headline, “Coyote Medicine into the Spirit World,” by Lisa Hanks.  Shamans have been dispensing guidance, healing and wisdom gleaned from the spirit world for thousands of years.  Only recently have some veterinarians added shamanic healing techniques to their medical kits.  One such healer is Randy Kidd, DVM of Kansas City, Missouri.  “Early results with the cases I have treated indicate a great potential for shamanism,” he says, “especially when used alongside all the family members creating a balance between pets, humans and nature’s inherent ability to heal.Shamans are believed to access the spirit world through a mental journey to another dimension, an alternate universe or a collective unconscious.  They return with knowledge and power to spiritually heal all living things.  To reach this plane a shaman might use mind altering drugs, chants, dances, rattles, drums and rituals to reach a trance-like state, a jumping off point into the spirit world.”  Continuing to quote Lisa Hanks:  “I found myself, along with the audience, at an American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association Conference being guided into the spirit world by Doctor Kidd to the monotone beat of an Indian drum.”  He encouraged us to drop into a deep meditative state and envision a flight into a desert dreamland populated with powerful spirits.  Once grounded in this other worldly landscape we were to look around carefully noting our observations.  A veterinary shaman might discover on the other plane that a dog’s inexplicable illness results from spiritual trauma such as the family’s imminent breakdown, a destructive secret, or recent stressful events.  Its’ cure would be to bring peace to the family and ease the dog’s symptoms as it heals.  Often, the first animal you will see in the alternate plane is your power animal or spirit guide,” Dr. Kidd said.  “The guide might appear in the shape of an animal such as a lizard, coyote, snake, eagle, bear or a frog.  Power animals provide answers to pressing questions, predictions and clues, although answers are often symbolic in nature and not straightforward.  As for my journey to the spirit world, I had a nice meditative break and did indeed envision a desert landscape but my experience was obviously not as exciting as that of some other attendees.  One ecstatically described a vivid, dream like journey complete with ancient gnarled trees, flying animals, and a power lizard sunning itself on a rock.  As with all holistic methods, shamanic skills seem to be easier for some than others.  A shamanic veterinarian might use his or her spiritual insight to find additional diagnostic clues to identify and treat difficult-to-heal animal illnesses.  Shamanism attracts some holistic minded veterinarians because they do not focus solely on the immediate symptoms of a problem but the surrounding physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dilemmas that might contribute to it.  Holistic veterinarians are a unique, adventuresome group willing to try almost anything that might heal patients, a type of treatment Dr. Kidd called coyote medicine.”

Tom:

Now Dave, I know we went on and on with that bit of information but people think we make this stuff up.  I mean, here you have—this is a legitimate field of endeavor, veterinary medicine, we have lots of people who would say, this guy is a quack and that guy is—you know, they are into this holistic thing or whatever, but this is somebody with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine working on animals and he’s into this, big time, all the way. 

Dave:

Well Tom, it’s not only animals.  They are just kind of catching on in the animal world now.  They have been doing this with human beings for a long time and it has invaded the whole world of medicine.  Well, you have on TV, Art Ulene, I saw him the other night.  He’s a medical doctor, a medical consultant on some national network.

Tom:

Yes, ABC, he was with ABC and now I think he is with another network.

Dave:

Right.  He’s done this thing himself.  He went into this journey and his power animal, believe it or not, is a rabbit.  Anyway, he recommends this.  You have a number of medical doctors that are involved in this sort of thing.  Now, on the one hand you would ask yourself—I mean, this seems ludicrous—  First of all they start out in their imagination, they are imagining something.  It’s in the Christian world as well, inner healing.  I’m imagining myself and I’m imagining Jesus coming along and suddenly this Jesus takes on a form of his own and begins to move and act and speak to me.  So, on the one hand you would say, this is self deception, you’re imagining this but something begins to happen.  They do make contact with entities that do have a life of their own apart from their imagination, talk to them, guide them and it works in many instances, not in every instance.  I guess that’s what draws people to this.  Here’s sort of a hands on spirituality that I can prove.  It’s not a god that I can’t see, you know, who is far away and I pray to him and maybe he is going to answer my prayer and maybe he isn’t, usually he isn’t because his ways are not our ways.  But this is a hands-on thing—I can really get into this thing and I can really experience it.  This is, as you know, the most powerful occult technique, the fastest way into the spirit world is through visualization.  This is what he is talking about and you make real contact with spirit beings.  Now, of course, some of our young people experienced it first on drugs, LSD and so forth and that catapulted them into this landscape, this amazing landscape where they began to have these adventures and picked up these spirit guides.  It’s just indicative of the fact that somehow Christianity doesn’t seem to have the answers that people want because they want a god who will do their bidding.  And so now they are turning to another god, Satan, the god of this world, who deceives them into thinking that they can be in control and it works for animals, it works for human beings and so forth.  Tom, I am shocked, I am saddened, it’s heartbreaking, but this is what the pagan, this is what the indigenous people have been involved in for thousands of years.  So, I suppose what is so astonishing is that what we used to call superstition we’re now calling science.

Tom:

Right.  There are so many doorways into this.  I mean, you’ve got little Fifi—your poodle.  Who would expect that you could get caught up into, by taking to doctor so and so, who is such a fine veterinarian and he can handle all of these problems and he has such a new approach to all of this and you’re caught up into it.  If it begins to work, if the practical aspects appeal to you, you could get caught up in something that you may not be able to get rid of.

Dave:

You have to ask some simple questions.  If it works, there must be some power.  What is this power?  Is it of God?  Is this God?  No.  If you read the Bible this is not the way God works.  Then this must be a substitute for God.  This must be someone else and that someone else is Satan and you’re really on dangerous ground.  You had better be careful and you had better get back to the Word of God, be a Berean, find out what God himself says, don’t take our word for it and submit to Him.