The UCSB Global Medicine Project Presents:
A GATHERING OF SHAMANS
Plant Spirit Medicine of Indigenous Peoples
April 18-21, 2008

On April 19, Toltec Shaman, Maria Teresa Valenzuela & Plant Shaman, Eliot Cowan will join other Shamans from the Huichol and Chumash cultures. During an intense weekend experience in the pristine Arroyo Hondo Canyon, they will introduce us to the ancient practices of Plant Spirit Medicine. We will learn to develop intimate relationships with sacred plants and how they are used in the healing traditions of these indigenous peoples. To prepare us for this experience, Eliot Cowan will give a talk at the Wake Center on April 18, and on the 21st Maria Teresa Valenzuela will guide us to a deeper understanding of sacred medicinal plants and ancient prophesies at her Mind SuperMind lecture at the Lobero.

In order to confirm and reserve your participation in this amazing gathering, please confirm your tickets as soon as possible. On March 11 the conference will be announced to others and sell out quickly. Specific details and biographies are on the following pages. See you in the Canyon.

- Dan
Dan K. Smith, Ph.D., Director
UCSB Global Medicine Project
College of Creative Studies

Conference Schedule

The lecture presentations on Friday and Monday nights are co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara Community College Adult Education Program. Tickets for those events will be included as part of your conference registration packet which you can pick up at Eliot Cowan’s lecture on Friday April 18 at 7pm.

Friday, April 18, 7:30 p.m.
“Plant Spirit Medicine: The Way of the Shaman”
A presentation by Eliot Cowan, Plant Spirit Shaman
Location: Thornton Auditorium - Wake Center
300 N. Turnpike Rd. Goleta, California.
Attendance at this lecture is mandatory for those participating in the Plant Spirit Medicine Experience on Saturday and Sunday. Two contact hour CEU’s are available to MFTs, LCSWs, RNs, LVNs, and CNAs. Charge: $8 (CNAs are free).

Saturday, April 19, 10:00a.m – 9:00p.m.
The Plant Spirit Medicine Experience with the Shamans will take place in the Arroyo Hondo Canyon Preserve, located approximately 18 miles NW of Goleta, just off Highway 101. Drive three miles past Refugio State Beach Park. Look for Emergency Call Box 402 and a sign indicating road to the right. Drive one mile more and look for the balloons tied to a mailbox at the driveway entrance to the Preserve. Follow the signs, park your car, and pick up a map. You will need to walk a 1/4 mile trail to the clearing where we will join the Shamans around the Fire Circle, and be welcomed by Chumash Elders, Art Cesnaros and Tataucho Muhuawit.

Sunday, April 20, 10:00am-5:00p.m.
Day two in the Arroyo Hondo Canyon will begin promptly at 10a.m. We will continue our sessions with the Shamans as we develop knowledge, understanding, and abilities in the art of healing with Plant Spirit Medicine.

Monday, April 21, 8:00p.m, at the Lobero Theatre
Mind-SuperMind presentation:
“Alliance of Sacred Medicine Plants & Ancient Prophesies”
By Maria Teresa Valenzuela, Toltec Shaman
“The ancient prophecies of indigenous peoples, which refer to this present time, are optimistic about ‘waking up the heart of humanity’. In this awakening, we must learn to surrender our illusions or ego-driven limitations to experience the ‘Great Shift’, a transformation of consciousness, a change from destruction to unity, resulting in humanity serving the greater good of all through an awareness of our interconnection with all beings.
During this critical, transformative period in history, the shamanic, sacred medicine plants are forming alliances among themselves to serve humanity. These sacred plants are our ‘Allies’, and will make it possible for us to give new meaning and purpose to our lives. They will provide us with the key to transform our illusions in order to embrace humility and compassion. These sacred plants can help us to experience a rebirth and to remember our eternal divine nature”.

-Maria Teresa Valenzuela

Conference Registration

The brief Conference Registration Form and, if desired, payment for CEU’s can be completed and presented at the Registration Table the night of the first lecture presentation by Eliot Cowan, which begins at 7:30p.m. at the Wake Center. Please come a bit early (7pm) to take care of business. At this time you can pick up your reserved ticket for the Plant Spirit Medicine Experience in the Canyon as well as tickets for the Mind-SuperMind lecture presentation by Maria Teresa Valenzuela, taking place on Monday night, 7:30p.m., at the Lobero Theatre.

As always, with Global Medicine Project events, the fees are kept as low as possible, so as not to be a financial burden.
The price for the entire conference, including dinner on Saturday night is $121. Please bring your own lunch and bottled water on both days. Camping in the Canyon will not be permitted. You may purchase tickets by calling the UCSB Associated Students Ticket Office 10-4pm at 893-2064, or go in person to the A.S. Ticket Office in the University Center and pay by a check. Students at UCSB or SBCC with Student ID’s can pay a discounted price of $76 at the Ticket Office.

The Global Medicine Project and this conference are made possible by a generous grant from the Rudi & Berta Schulte Angels Charitable Trust. We are also deeply grateful for the additional support of this conference from the Tomchin Family Charitable Trust.

BIOGRAPHIES OF PRESENTERS

Indigenous peoples developed special relationships with the spirits of plants, through which their healing properties were revealed. Eliot Cowan has devoted his life to becoming a Shaman by living and studying with the Huichol people of Mexico. He developed his healing work by serving as an apprentice with the late Don Guadalupe Gonzalezs Rios, an eminent Huichol Indian Shaman. On the occasion of Don Guadalupe’s retirement in 2000, he ritually recognized Eliot as a guide to shamanic apprentices in the Huichol tradition, an unprecedented honor for a a non-native.

Through his research, authorship, and healing practice, Eliot Cowan has reestablished the ancient practice of Plant Spirit medicine, which will enable us to create a new bond with the natural world and its healing properties. The prominent African Shaman, Meladoma Some’ wrote: Eliot Cowan has charted the territory for a medicine of the past and the future. He restores one of the vital links which is the healing power behind our relationship with the plant world. His teachings embrace the core of deep healing”.

Maria Teresa Valenzuela, Toltec Shaman

Maria Teresa Valenzuela is an indigenous traditional healer and  spiritual teacher. She comes from a lineage of shamanic healers and curanderas of the Sierra Madre,Chihuahua, Mexico, where she was trained in the shamanic traditions of her grandmother and her father. She possesses a wealth of
 knowledge in Meso-American prophesy, wisdom, myths, and traditional forms of indigenous medicine and healing. As a "Mujer de la Medicina" she has worked with shamans in Mexico, Peru and Equador, as well as with the indigenous elders from the Mayan cultures of Guatamala. She is highly respected as a healer, spiritual teacher, storyteller and scholar. Presently, she is traveling a great deal to give talks in the indigenous voice on ancient MesoAmerican Prophecy as pertinent to these times in which we are living.

We are deeply honored by the presence of Scott Sheerin, who is a Huichol Shaman, and will be serving as a guide in helping us to understand the Way of Plant Spirit Medicine.

We are also deeply honored by the presence of two local Chumash Elders, Art Cesnaros and Tataucho Muhuawit, who are very knowledgeable about the healing plants of this region, will share their wisdom with us, and welcome us to their sacred land on Saturday morning.