Bobby Lake-Thom - Call of the Great Spirit: The Shamanic Life and Teachings of Medicine Grizzly Bear

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my children, Frank Kanawha-dedali, Chaygam-em, Moon-Raven, and Wind-Wolf. It is also dedicated to my brothers Ron Lake and Mike Thom; to my nephews and nieces; to Dad Charlie and Cora; to some special former college students (who have now gone on to become professionals in their fields) by the names of David Shaw, Art Martinez, Deanie Ron Davis, David Tripp, Loren Bommelyn, Michael Hazel, and Ken Jernberg; and to a whole number of Native American students across the countryI am proud of you all! And to the many Indian students who have gone into the fields of natural resources and health sciences: May you never forget the cultural, spiritual, and traditional-religious Native perspective of your heritage and culture as you attempt to study, preserve, and protect the environment, sustainable resources, and ecosystems of this sacred Mother Earth. Remember, our traditional Indian way is holistic in approach and method!

I extend special appreciation to Assistant Professor Tami Haaland at Montana State UniversityBillings for her editing; to my longtime colleagues in the profession, including Jack Norton, Sr., Jim Swan, Mike Brown, Tom Pinkston, John Veltri, Jerry Roybal, and Bob Ulibarri; and to all my former patients and the people who have participated with me in the past decades in sweat lodge rituals and Earth-healing ceremonies. Please remember to pray for the Earth and do Earth-healing ceremonies across the World, at least on Earth Day. If we dont pray for it, we are going to lose it.

With ancient prayers and a sincere heart I give special honor, recognition, and appreciation to the following Native Elders and medicine people who taught me so much, and who helped advance my spiritual growth, development, and understanding.

Beeman Logan (Seneca medicine man)
Mad Bear Anderson (Tuscarora medicine man)
Rolling Thunder (Cherokee medicine man)
Calvin Rube (Yurok Indian doctor and mystic)
Charles Red Hawk Thom (Karuk medicine man and mystic)
Dewey George (Yurok holy man)
Bonita Masten (Yurok medicine woman)
Georgina Matildin (Hupa medicine woman)
Florence Shaunessey (Yurok Elder)
Thomas Banyaca and Dan Katchavanaga (Hopi mystics)
Florence Jones (Wintun Indian doctor)
Rudolph Socktish (Hupa holy man)
John Fire Lame Deer and Martin High Bear (Lakota medicine men)
Mamie Kapris (Yurok Elder)

Preface

The information you will read here will probably be considered fiction by most people because they have very little knowledge and experience with the world of spirituality, psychic phenomena, and Nature. But to me, it has all been real. What might be considered supernatural to one person or group of people may, indeed, be very natural for someone else. So in this respect, perhaps what follows is more of an autobiography than fiction.

As you read, you will find yourself entering into a new and strange world, a world that has existed for thousands of years, despite any influences or changes by modern, scientific thinking and behavior. If you find some things unbelievable because the cultural context in which they occur is different from your own, dont feel embarrassed. There are also not that many Native American people today who are aware of these realities because they too have become assimilated into the artificial world of Western society. They have lost contact with the mystical and magical side of Nature and the Earth, their traditional-culture ways, and their indigenous forms of knowledge and philosophy.

Unfortunately, most people, Indians or otherwise, have become removed from the spiritual side of their own heritage, culture, environment, and ancient systems of knowledge. It is not their fault. They were forcibly removed from it, and Western society even passed laws to keep them from having the opportunity to learn and practice it. So now when it does come up to haunt them, they dont know how to respond to it except with fear, denial, or some form of defensiveness. Some of the more educated Native people try to cover it up with verbal reactions rather than truly reflect upon it. They try to rationalize that such knowledge and realities are simply a form of New Age hype, Indian romanticism, or shamanic hucksterism. But sooner or later some form of spiri tuality and supernaturalism will come back into our lives and we will be forced to either deal with it, or try to hide from it. I know because I was one of these kinds of people myself. And we all have phantoms in our lives to deal with, sooner or later.

It really doesnt make any difference what your race, nationality, culture, or religion is. We are all part of this Earth, and the Earth is both physical and spiritual. It is full of spirits, powers, and forces. Not all of them are good. And they can take many different forms, whether in our mind or manifested in the physical environment. They can appear in dreams and visions, or be seen in a psychic way. They can help us or harm us, or even leave us alone. They dont affect everybody and they dont affect us all the time. But when they do affect us, for whatever reason, what can we do? Who can we talk to for help when we become scared or worried, and feel stress? How do you tell your parents, mate, family, friends, colleagues, peers, that you are being tormented by a ghost? How do you tell your priests, preachers, ministers, or even therapists or physicians that a strange force, being, entity, or creature from Nature has been stalking you, tormenting you, and making you sick? How do you tell people that you have had encounters with ghosts, spirits, forces, and strange entities; or that you had a vision, premonition, or spiritual encounter that was real, whether it had a positive or negative effect upon your life? Who will believe you in Western society? It is like trying to tell someone that you were abducted by alien beings and experimented upon, or like trying to tell a friend or professional that a family member has molested you. They just dont want to hear it, they just refuse to believe it, because they arent educated enough to handle such beliefs, possibilities, or realities. And yet such things do happen, dont they?

I dont know if there really is a God in the sense that Christianity has tried to impress upon us. Some anthropologists have claimed that primitive cultures and indigenous people didnt believe in a God, per se, that they worshipped a variety of gods and deities. And yet most tribal Elders and medicine men and women from different tribes that I talked to in my search for the truth all seem to have a special version of the word Godthe concept of a Supreme Being, Infinite Ruler, or Great Spiritin addition to the other spirits they historically identified, related to, and perhaps worshipped. And these godlike spirits, or deities, had their ranking order within the spiritual system of the Universe. But I have come to learn the hard way, through disease, accidents, dying, death, doctoring, questing, and perhaps destiny, that there is, indeed, a Great Spirit, that can manifest Itself in whatever form It wants, be it a higher or lower form of spirit, multiple spirits, or Supreme Spirit. And I also know that if this Great Spirit can talk to Moses through a burning bush, to Job through a whirlwind, to Noah through a cloud, or to Mohammed in the form of a Hawk, and to Buddha as a Deer, or to Ezekiel via a giant wheel in the sky, then It can also communicate to our Native American people or anybody else, for that matter, through an Eagle, through Lightning and Thunder, a Bear, a fish, a bug, a mountain spirit, an ancestral ghost, a vision, or perhaps even a UFO. As a consequence, I too, like my ancestors, am lost for words to describe It, other than calling It the Great Spirit. To some people this term might seem a little too much like a Hollywood stereotype, even blasphemous. However, I can think of no other way to describe the strongest and most creative force in the world, the highest form of infinite intelligence, the greatest multifaceted spirit that permeates all living things, from the microcosm to the macrocosm. Maybe it is just a matter of semantics and cultural perceptions, or just plain ignorance. Define It how you will, in whatever way or term you feel comfortable, but if you dont learn anything else from this book and the teachings here, I hope you will be sensitized enough to at least come to the realization that there is a supreme or ultimate reality that we, as spiritual beings, can turn to when all else fails us in life. This TRUTH can only be discovered in a natural and spiritual way, or what you might call a psychic and supernatural way; it cannot be discovered by any artificial, scientific, or rational means. And, this Great Spirit has the power, wisdom, ability, and energy to create or destroy, to terminate or heal.