Native Healer: Initiation Into an Ancient Art

by Bobby Lake-Thom

Book Overview

An exciting glimpse into the world of Native American shamanism. Many today claim to be healers and spiritual teachers, but Medicine Grizzlybear Lake definitely is both. In this work he explains how a person is called by higher powers to be a medicine man or woman and describes the trials and tests of a candidate. Lake gives a colorful picture of Native American shamanism and discusses ceremonies such as the vision quest and sweat lodge.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0835606678
• ISBN13: 9780835606677
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: Quest Books (IL)
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Amazing.

This book is for holistic & spiritual people. It taught me some things I never knew. It also changed my perspective on lots of things..

first-hand account of native american medicine

Lake has studied with Lakota, Iroquois and Karuk/Yurok teachers (the well known Karuk medicine man Charlie Red Hawk was one of them). The author provides us with interesting information on native dreaming practices. Dreams have always been mportant to the Indans; consequently, sets of highly specialized techniques for lucid dreaming and efficient retrieval of the dream material (similarities to Tibetans here) can be found across many different tribes. "To become a medicine person", writes Lake, "you must have faith in the Great Creator, the dreams, the spirits, the good powers, and in yourself. At first dreams bring the calling and initiation into shamanhood; later they become tools for self-discovery, spiritual self-development, protection, diagnosis and healing." According to Lake, all illness has a symbolic component. "In order to heal the patient, the source of "stress" - the symbol, the physical object, the form of power and the fear associated with it - must be transformed and eradicated." Interesting stuff: to heal the patient one has to address both the physical and the mental/spiritual. Modern medicine (the "integrative medicine") is discovering the same thing these days. Nihil sub sole novum!The book provides specific information on sweat lodges, vision quests and on lake's training as a native healer. One basic message is that the path of a native shaman is filled with trials and tribulations. Lake has learnt his trade the hard way and he doesn't want the reader to forget it. For me, one of the highlights of the book is his interview with Tela Starhawk (his ex-wife), a formidable medicine woman in her own right, talking about female shamanic practices.What I like in this book are the descriptions of Native attitudes towards nature and life - the reverence for all living creatures and the sensitivity and awareness of the signs, through which nature speaks to us. I recommend it.

An interesting look into shamanic lifestyle...

I read this book for a research project I was on doing Native American Shamanism and found this book extremely helpful. Although it may not be a great literary work it is a wonderful source of information and insight into the rites of passage into becoming a shaman. The author, Robert Lake has had a vast amount of experience in the field, undergoing the rites and rituals of the shaman as well as being an observer. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Native American culture, especially shamanism.

Prepare to have your eyes opened.

I like this book; I am NOT entirely happy with it; but it is a well written volume.Page 7: "There is something different about a person who is meant to be a Native Healer. You are born with a special kind of power, gift, talent, and knowledge." _| I can not agree more. I received many beatings, and was put on medication (at the age of six!) for telling the truth about what was happening to me. It's as if you are living in the same world; but with a different set of rules.Page 7: "But a real medicine man should not have to identify himself as such. It is not the indian way." _| Medicine people will not identify themself as such for fear of offending their helping spirits.Page 12: "The path to becoming a Native healer is full of trials and tribulations, suffering and sacrifice." _| It takes time for the Shaman to develop compassion for their brothers and sisters; but I believe the Shamanic path is MUCH worse in the east (especially in the bible belt) than where medicine people are common.Page 15: "I have met people who claim they identified their "totem" through meditation or a tarot card reading, but they are only fooling themselves." _| I have never had a tarot card reading to discover my totem animal, so I will reserve comment. I CAN speak to discovering your totem animal via meditation. In meditation you will experience the totem animal you EXPECT. Your totem animal will NOT infrienge on your free will.Page 31: "To become a medicine man or woman you must be a lonely person because human beings won't really understand you." _| I think the author mis-wrote. I would substitute the words "lonely person" with the word loner. Just because a person is a loner; does not mean she or he is lonely.Page 35: "Some of the medicine people in the southwest use datura medicine." _| Datura is a halucinogenic, and will induce visions like other halucinogenics such as Peyote, Hayascua, and others. I do NOT recommend the use of halucinogenics. Anyone that can not journey in the spirit world without these crutches is not much of a shaman (in my opinion).Page 35: "but I did try peyote once with Stanley during one of his sacred ceremonies. I didn't like it at all. I got terrible headaches and was nauseated;" _| I have never used ANY halucinogenics, and never will.Page 60: "Anyone who is meant to be a medicine man or woman will know it sooner or later. He or she will be shown in dreams, instructed in dreams, then guided to an older medicine person who will intuitively "know"; and that person will become a mentor." _| This is not always the case. Many times the prospective medicine person is left to their own devices. If you experience things others do not; go in nature, and pray for guidance, then look for omens, and record your dreams (your spirit helpers can easily offer guidance through dreams).Page 61: "For me it became a calling into the medicine ways and an initiation into shamanhood." _| This Shamanic initiation idea drives me up a tree! A shaman can not make or

A helpful introduction Yurok spiritual beliefs

Since I have known the author personally for the past ten years,(and happen to like him a lot) this review should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the vitriolic way in which some other reviewers have responded to this book prompts me to write a reply.--It seems the baby is being thrown away with the bathwater. From a Western point of view, one could certainly interpret the moontime (menstrual) practices traditionally followed by the Yurok (and many other tribes for that matter)as androcentric and blatantly sexist. But Robert Lake, without pulling any punches, is simply outlining what he has learned from his apprenticeship with sixteen different elders (both male and female) and from the experience he has gained acting as a traditional healer.If people are interested in embarking upon a traditional spiritual path, there is much to be learned from reading this book. I learned most of its contents through direct contact with the author and his wife over a period of years. The book is practical, accessible, and provides an inside perspective on a dying cultural milieu. It is certainly worth a read.

Native Healer

This book contains rare and precious indigenous knowledge written in a very accessable manner. I found the descriptions of the trials a true medicine person goes through particularly interesting. As a female I was delighted to hear a wise elder describe the beautiful power of the female menses cycle, as well as the ramifications of the misuse of this power. The descriptions of the communication between the natural, animal and human worlds were very insightful.