By Nils Skudra Recently I had the opportunity to watch The Horse Boy, a deeply intriguing and thought-provoking documentary on a couple’s efforts to find an effective source of therapeutic treatment for their young son on the autism spectrum. This documentary, released in 2009, provides a highly com…

By Steve Staniek I spent 40 years in Health Physics, protecting workers and the public against nuclear risks, and by the time I retired I was a stressed-out wreck. We moved to the country where I began to study shamanism as a path to healing. I took a couple of basic shamanic courses from FSS, and b…

By Steve Staniek We had retired from the constant noise of the big city to a quiet place in the country we called High Reach, where we learned that we were to become grandparents for the first time. Our son’s growing family would need more space during weekend visits, and it was time to finish the …

By Steve Staniek The forest has always been my spiritual home where I could feel safe and free. Perhaps it was my exposure to nature from an early age that raised my sensitivity to the energies around me, until I grew `into an environmental empath, that’s someone who can feel the presence of differe…

Autism, in these ancient wise cultures, is often called “The Shaman’s disease.” By Gonzalo Bénard Being autistic and shaman, I always found that they actually help and complement each other. In fact, in several ancient cultures, autistic people were seen as sacred and/or shamans … the sp…