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Sonny the boy wonder! |
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My Journey |
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Patricia White Buffalo was raised in the Santa Clara Valley of California before it became known to the world as Silicon Valley. Although urbanized, it still retained a strong agricultural presence in large areas throughout the valley. Surrounded by the hills in the distance and orchards that bloomed each spring, Patricia felt very connected to the Earth. As the valley changed with new industries, she slowly changed with it. The orchards were replaced by asphalt and buildings and the sweet smelling air replaced with smog. The valley once burgeoning with the fruits of the Earth was now burgeoning with the fruits of technology and a detachment from Mother Earth. The technological revolution had begun with the advent of the first personal computer, and with it, a fast paced insatiable drive for those in the valley to do more and to have more. Eventually, Patricia’s connection to the Earth and its Spirits was lost and she, too, was accelerated into this new way of living with the belief that success was based on material acquisition. By the age of 29, Patricia was working for a technology company and was in partnerships with two businesses while completing her education at San Jose State University majoring in Psychology. She was living the American dream of achievement and success. The stress of these achievements was high; she eventually became lost in this high pace world. Slowly her spirit began to die and an empty sadness grew within her. Her material possessions no longer fulfilled her and her achievements seemed meaningless. Then what seemed to be the worst turn of events happened: Patricia was laid-off from her job, and her businesses failed. This forced her to sell her home and most of her earthly possessions were lost. Her sense of loss and despair were great, her sense of what life was about and her place in it was destroyed. Little did she know that this great loss would become the catalyst that began her spiritual journey. One of the first steps on this journey was moving to the town of Monterey along California’s coast. Being close to nature and the ocean proved healing, connecting her once again to the Spirits of the Land. Rebuilding her sense of self and life from the inside out, she began studying metaphysical literature and working with her first teacher, Ginny De Angles. Ginny introduced her to the basic laws of metaphysics, astrology, the chakra system, the Tarot Deck, and the spiritual teachings of Ernest Holmes, author of The Science of Mind. Patricia also learned basic meditation techniques, daily prayers, and affirmations to begin disciplining her mind to focus on the present moment. Shortly after ending her work with Ginny, Patricia met Amitá, who became her next teacher. She opened the door to Shamanism for Patricia by taking her on guided journeys where she would enter altered states of consciousness. Guided outwardly by Amitá and inwardly by her power animals and spiritual guides, Patricia discovered and healed deep childhood traumas. She was being transformed by this work. Patricia continued to learn how to reconnect to this magical Shamanic world and integrate the healings into her life. This began her process of healing the past and creating a new beginning. At the end of their work together, Amitá gave Patricia her spiritual name, “WhiteBuffalo”, which means “abundance of light”. Through the process of self-healing and her work with Amitá, Patricia’s own Shamanic nature first came forth. During an evening workshop of drumming and movement, Patricia suddenly went into an altered state as she heard the drumming. She began chanting and dancing in a very traditional Native American way, something she had never experienced before. It was this experience that brought Patricia’s childhood connection with nature back to life for her. The earth, the trees, the ocean and the sky all spoke to her. The animals and birds greeted her. At first she was frightened and tried to run away but the communication continued. Finally she stopped and embraced this relationship, connecting her more deeply to Mother Earth. During this time of self-discovery, Patricia came across the book, Hands of Light by Barbara Brennan, Ph.D., a study of the Human Energy Field and its relationship to health and disease which combined spirituality and psychological processes with hands-on-healing. She was intrigued by Brennan’s scientific background. This satisfied Patricia’s logical mind for more tangible knowledge of the realm of metaphysics. She enrolled in the Barbara Brennan School of Healing (BBSH) and began formal training in the Healing Arts. The four-year program required a deep level of personal transformational work with a combination of energetic exercises, personal therapy, and receiving and performing hands-on healings. She graduated in 1993 and entered the teaching program. She became a teacher at BBSH as well as becoming one of the program’s Assistant Deans. Patricia wished to expand her knowledge specifically in the area of psychosomatic work. She became aware of how her own physical body’s structural holding was not in pace with her mental, emotional, and energetic bodies, even though she had several years of personal process work. Patricia was inspired by John Pierrakos’ work, the founder of The Institute of Core Energetics, and with his vision of supporting the transformation of all obstacles which block contact with one’s own “Core” (“Core” refers to the true authentic self). She enrolled in the Institute’s four-year program that specializes in body-psychotherapy. Core moved beyond the common goals of therapy. It established a unified and holistic process that connected the Mind, Emotion, Will, Body, and Spiritual Self into a whole expression, thus unifying the whole being. Core awakened the emotional state of the body and integrated it with the flow of all the bodies. Patricia graduated in 1995 and became a Core Energetics Therapist. Towards the end of her studies with BBSH Patricia was guided once again to explore her Shamanic roots. She moved to Madrid, a small town in the middle of the New Mexico desert. She lived one year there where she spent hours walking and sitting in the vast deserts, deepening her connection to the Spirits of the Earth and further developing her knowledge of Shamanism. She performed the sacred art of creating power objects such as drums, rattles, pipes, and smudge feathers for ceremony and healing and practiced rituals on the land as well. One daily ritual was the creating of a “power shot” on the land. By sitting on her favorite rock high above the desert plane and calling in the four directions asking for guidance from The Spirit of Desert each day, she would hear the same message: “You are to learn the meaning of solitude, to be able to sit so quietly that you can hear your own breath, to become still within yourself that you may know who you are. Only then will you be able to become one with our land”. One day as Patricia sat on her rock a great silence came over her. All she could hear was the sound of her own breath. Her spirit expanded until she became one with the land and she embodied the gift that the spirit of the desert was trying to give her. She became the desert, a quiet, silent giant that only had to whisper to make her intention known. This profound experience created a deep connection to the Mother Earth. Her time in the desert had been completed. Patricia was guided to return to California and felt called to share her rich Shamanic experiences. She founded the “Winds of Change,” a group of Shamanic healers coming together to create transformational journeys through sound. Their special “Medicine” was the use of chanting and spontaneous vocalization along with rattle and drum to create a healing sound field. Simply by sitting in the sacred sound energy, stagnant negative energies cleared and could soothe one’s soul. These sound journeys energetically shifted the state of the body, mind and spirit. The “Winds of Change” performed for 8 years and hosted “Awakening Our Earth Heritage and Spirit in Concert.” Continuing her quest for psycho-spiritual teachings, Patricia enrolled in The Center for Intentional Living, a three-year program covering the full-spectrum of psychological principles from early childhood development through the separation-individuation process, and into adulthood. The program included the study of object-relations theory, trauma, aging, and dying. This program gave her the in-depth psychological training and application she needed for her own growth, and the growth of her clients and students. It also gave her the ability to apply and integrate psychological principles and development with spiritual transformation. She graduated from the program in 1998. Patricia still felt a void in her own development not yet filled by all her training and personal work. This void guided her to find her next teacher, Dona Monterelli. Dona’s knowledge of healthy ego development combined with her ability to hold a sacred space that reflected essence and love helped Patricia through a profound spiritual emergence and rebirth. Through this awakening, the doorway to Patricia’s heart opened and she experienced a deep longing to reconnect to her True Nature. She felt guided to study Eastern Spirituality and to “sit” with several Indian Guru’s. The first was Guru Mayi at the Siddha Yoga Meditation Ashram in Oakland, Ca. She then traveled to Germany to see Mother Mira, and finally her quest led her to India to see Sai Baba. It was at this time that Patricia experienced her most profound ego death. Rising at four in the morning, standing for hours in line with hundreds of people, sitting for hours on a cool cement floor, and taking her turn to crawl on her knees to receive Darshan from the Guru started the process. Then while suffering from a deathly flu in the vast desert of India with its striking poverty and its endless cycles of life’s impermanence, did she see the hopelessness of fighting our inevitable death. With a roar of fury and anguish, she gave up her need to separate from a God whom she believed had abandoned her, and realized that the only God she was abandoning was herself. This realization ignited a deeper awareness of her connection to the Divine within. Love and devotion to God filled the final void. Patricia returned from India full of desire for a devotional practice. This desire led her back to Guru Mayi, also known as Swami Chidvilasananda. Patricia has been devoted to the Path of Siddha Yoga since 1997 practicing mantra repetition, meditation, and devotional chanting. Patricia now resides on the coast of California in the town of Soquel with her dog Sonny where she enjoys nature at her door step with her family of owls that hoot at her at night and the deer that greet her in morning. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing where she is presently a senior faculty member and teaching a graduate course. She has a private practice and facilitates workshops internationally. Patricia is currently producing World Music Healing Events with the “Heaven on Earth Ensemble” which will be touring throughout the United States. ■
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About Patricia White Buffalo |
