As I browse through my photos of my summer experiences, fond memories fill my mind. I have been home for just a few days and miss the island terribly. On my last evening on Kauai we had a traditional going away party, typical of how I conclude each of the workshops that I facilitate. Or so I thought it would be typical!

Island Energy

What a way to end the Advanced Shamanic Training workshop!

We started off at the octagon, which is in the Kahuna Valley. The energy in the valley is potent. It is at the base of the Makaleha Mountains, and from the valley you can see thousand-foot waterfalls pouring down the sides of the steep cliffs above. It is like being guarded on all sides by old wise warriors. The feeling of safety and ancient wisdom fills the air.

After taking in some much-appreciated beach time, we met back at the house to prepare for the going away party. Thanks to the women staying with me, the house was clean! In a matter of moments, salads were prepared, and what is known as “Toby’s juicy chicken” was on the barbecue along with a couple of racks of ribs.

As usual, the fun began right away as the additional participants arrived. I was quite thankful to have John Dumas and his beautiful wife Kana there. We also had the pleasure that evening of having the kava master of the island attend: my friend Gary Mack showed up with a cooler full of kava, so we indulged in this traditional Polynesian drink as the food was cooking.

Polynesian Beverage Kava

Toby and Gary drinking kava.

Kava is a traditional Polynesian drink. What we were drinking that night came from the island of Vanuwatu. It’s an interesting drink, coming from a plant related to the pepper family. It has a sedative and anesthetic property. With a rich, earthy flavor, what you drink is made from the roots of the plant. The kava we were drinking that night was prepared on the island, then sun-dried untill it became a powder. This powder was then mixed with water, producing a wonderful-tasting kava drink straight from the land of its origin.

Great thanks to Gary for bringing this wonderful beverage to all of our gatherings, and for providing me with a personal supply that I am now enjoying very much in Park City!

Spirit of the Aloha

After the kava, the food was consumed vigorously. Once it was gone, the drums came out! John manned his didgeridoo and flutes, giving us a powerful healing melody. The drums followed this melody to create a magical effect in the room. As the drums echoed off the walls, those who were listening could not help but start moving. And as John wandered through the room, connecting with each person by vibrating the drone of his didgeridoo into each one’s heart, the joy of the island expanded (a result of this can easily be seen on the faces of Danny and Tanis in the photo as they hijacked the cacao while we were playing).

Danny and Tanis pre-sampling the dessert!

All in all, it was a wonderful evening. Everyone was sent home with the magic of the island in their hearts, the rhythm of the drum resonating in their souls, with the beautiful drone of the didgeridoo grounding them firmly with indigenous energy, and the beautiful melodies of the flute inspiring their joy.

It was wonderful experience for all, made more profound than ever by my dear friends who brought the spirit of aloha in the authentic Hawaiian way.

I’ve recently released a new album called Tribal Medicine. This CD features healing rhythms that are intended to restore listeners’ hearts and souls as the sensations of the healing drum infuses the body.

Tribal Medicine offers inspiration through tribal connections. I’ve been told over and over again that while experiencing the album, a sensation of being present at an ancient indigenous ceremony often comes over listeners. It’s a powerful experience to feel the wisdom of African, Native American, and Eastern shamanic healing traditions through healing rhythms!

African Djembe Drums

Each track on Tribal Medicine supports a particular energy and offers different rhythms and sounds that, collectively, make the album a powerful healing experience. Let me tell you about my intentions with the opening track of the album, “Call of the Ancestors.” In the Dagara cosmology that my work is based on, the ancestors are those who have come before us, whose blood runs through our veins. Because we are part of them, they have a vested interest in our well-being. So they are the ones that we call to when we need help.

The chanting in “Call of the Ancestors” brings to mind a person in great need calling upon the ancestors in a language that is beyond words. It is a language of emotion and raw spiritual energy, calling for the ancestors’ help and guidance in life. The voices overlaid on the track are from different cultures: African, South American, and Native American voices all calling to their ancestors for healing of their minds, bodies, and spirits, as well as the world!

Listen to a sample of “Call of the Ancestors.”

Call of the Ancestors

Tribal Medicine features me, Healing Drummer Toby Christensen, on djembe drum and percussion, and the talented Rebecca Holt on vocal toning. Skilled artist Carolina Woodrich shared her stunning original artwork for the album!

To purchase a copy of this healing rhythms CD, please visit my shop. I invite you to engage your body, mind, and soul with the powerful rhythms of Tribal Medicine. Enjoy!

Mineral is about communication; it’s about the stories that we live, that we think about, and that we speak about. Mineral is about connecting to your life’s purpose and communicating that purpose in the world.

This mineral ritual is powerful. Not only have I used it several times, but I’ve witnessed its efficacy in others. This ritual is profoundly simple and can change your life in a very short period of time. The purpose or intention of the ritual is to change the stories of your life that are not helpful, and to activate the stories that you would like to be living in present time.

A line in “Who Says,” the great song by John Mayer, goes like this:

Who says I can’t be free from all of the things that I used to be?

Rewrite my history.

Who says I can’t be free?

I love this line because it speaks a deep truth about how we can change the way we live our lives today and the things that we draw to ourselves. To be free of the things that we used to be requires the release of old stories. Once these old stories are released, it makes room for the creation of a new history! This can be profoundly healing and freeing.

Ritual to Rewrite Your History

So here’s the ritual. First, you need to find a rock. Any old rock will do—you do not have to go to the metaphysical bookstore and buy an expensive crystal. The Dagara people of Burkina Faso say that the stones are the beings that hold the stories of all humanity. We want to pick a stone that is going to hold the stories that we are ready to get rid of. Sit with the stone for a day or two, and go within yourself while thinking about the stories you hold onto and about the past that no longer serves you.

When the time is right, sit down with your stone and speak into it all of the stories that you are ready to release. Here’s the catch: when you release a story and give it to a stone, you can never speak the story again. So make sure that you’re really ready to get rid of that story. As you speak the stories into the stone, allow the energy of that story—whether trauma, drama, or any unhelpful feeling—to drain from you.

Once you have sufficiently released the story, go bury the rock in the earth and thank it for holding the stories you do not have to hold onto any longer. Now you can get some paper and began to rewrite your history. This can be very fun because you get to create whatever story you would like to about your past. As we undo the negative programming of the past and replace it with new information, the way that we live today changes.

In the song “Rock Star” by Nickelback, there are a couple of lines that hit home with some things I’ve heard from others and, quite frankly, some things I feel from time to time. The song is about a guy who wants to change his life but feels it’s too late, so he’s asking for help. The lines that stand out go like this:

…It’s like the bottom of the ninth

and I’m never gonna win

This life hasn’t turned out

Quite the way I want it to be…

So, the questions I ask myself and that I pose to you are: Do these lines relate to you? Do you feel like it’s the bottom of the ninth and you’re never gonna win? Has life turned out the way you want it to be?

The good news is that no matter what your life’s circumstance there are some very real and very transformative things you can do to change your life. One of the aspects of the West African culture that I’ve found to be the most powerful is ritual. I’m going to discuss several different rituals you can do to help realize your dreams and your intentions. The rituals will be in alignment with the 5-Element Cosmology that I’ve found to be profoundly life changing.

Rebalancing and Reconciling Our Lives

Water is the element we call upon for healing of the areas of our life that are preventing us from coming into alignment with our intentions. This is also the element we call upon for reconciliation; when we need to reconcile all the aspects of our life that are not in balance.

Water is also called upon when we need flow in the parts of our loves that seem stuck or unmoving, and we want them to flow smoothly and—as I like to say—“effortlessly and delightfully” towards our intended destination.

Water nurtures and feeds the earth, creating powerful growth and feeding the planted seeds, which grow into great crops of prosperity. We ask that the power of water feeds us so that the seeds we have planted will be richly fortified, and grow quickly and powerfully.

Transformative Water Ritual

The first step of this ritual is to find a flowing body of water—this could be a river, a stream, the ocean, etc. No matter what body of water you find, make sure the water is moving. I have found that a larger sized river is the best.

Next, go to the river with a pint of milk and—if you can—find Indian corn. Indian corn is the best, but if you can’t find it any kernels of corn in any form will do. Offer the milk to the water, as milk is nourishment. Then walk along the water tossing the kernels of corn into the water. As you do so, ask the water spirit to feed the seeds that have been planted so they can grow into healthy, vibrant crops of good health, overall prosperity, and well-being.

After you have performed this ritual, give thanks to the water, to the corn, to the milk, and, most importantly, to the ancestors. For the Dagara nothing happens without the blessing of the ancestors. Thank any and all members of your family that have come before you and now reside in the spirit world. These are your ancestors.

I will discuss more about the ancestors. For now do this ritual and thank both the elements and the ancestors. Stay focused and attentive to what you would like to produce in your life and take action towards that end. Watch things change!

Let me know of your stories of healing and transformation!

Drumming in Africa with Malidoma Some'

People ask me all the time, “How did you get into doing what you do?” I was recently on HayHouse Radio on John Holland’s Show and it came up again so I’d like to share with you a bit of my story…I call it…

What Zombies Taught Me About Transformational Drumming

Toby Christensen, here. In 1999, I had the privilege of traveling to Africa and living for a month with the Dagara tribe. I immersed myself in their culture and cosmology, experiencing both profound rituals and their realities of day- to-day living. It was an amazing experience.

Malaria Times Two

Returning home was pure culture shock. I arrived in the U.S. with two strains of Malaria, so I was going in and out of 105- degree fevers twice a day for about ten days. It was a very difficult time. As I began to recover, I started to have a recurring dream.

Before describing the dream, I’d like to share that when I was a young child, I used to have nightmares about zombies coming to get me in the night. I’d scream at the top of my lungs for my parents to come and save me. These were horrifying dreams, and they happened many times.

Lucid Dreaming Nightmare?

OK, back to 1999. As I recovered from Malaria, I began to have a recurring dream. I was standing in the middle of a grass-covered football field surrounded by a huge but deserted sports stadium. It was nighttime, but the arena’s overhead lights illuminated the field. I was lucid, knowing who I was and that I was dreaming.

As I stood in middle of the field, I began to wonder what I was doing there. I became aware that I had my djembe strapped on. All of a sudden, the grass before me began to push up to form a small hill. Then the newly created mounds of earth began to tear apart and these filthy, rotting hands clawed out of the soil. A monster crawled out of the hole, stood, and stared at me. It was just like the zombies in my childhood nightmares.

I Stood Over the Zombie and Began to Drum

Doing Ritual With The Elders

The zombie flailed toward me, his arms outstretched. As he got closer, I could see that his right eye was decomposed, hanging out of his skull. He stumbled right up to me…but instead of me feeling any fear, screaming, and running away, I instinctively started to drum. As soon as he heard the drum, he laid down on his back in front of me. Somehow I knew to stand over him and begin to drum. The rhythms I played weren’t of any specific form; just intense, intuitive patterns that arose in my dreaming. As I drummed, he began to be restored. After a spell, he jumped up, looked me in the eyes—his eyes clear and filled with life—and said, “thank you.” Then he ran off, vibrant and transformed.

As I stood on that football field, the scene continued to repeat. These mounds would push up from the surface, boney fingers would tear open the green grass, and the zombie would run toward me. Paradoxically, I remained relaxed and centered. When they arrived, they would lay down and I would restore them to perfect health by playing rhythms on my djembe. They’d jump up, connect with me in gratitude, and run off. The scene would repeat until I awoke.

Just Another Pizza Dream?

Rousing from my dream state, I sat up in bed and said aloud, “What the heck?!” After pondering for a minute or so, I assumed I must have eaten something strange for dinner. (I sometimes refer to that kind of experience as a “pizza dream.”) Well, the following night I drifted off to sleep and once again became lucid. I had the exact same dream. When I awoke, I began to sense that I must have been receiving some kind of message.

In The Sacred Cave

“The Ancestors Are Giving You…”

The third night I had the same dream. When I woke up, I decided to call one of my trusted African teachers. At that time, was working with Malidoma Somé. I called and reached him looking for direction and sympathy, sharing my dream of drumming over zombies and watching them be fully restored.

My teacher, in their African way, said, “I can’t believe it! You don’t get it! You are being shown exactly what you are to do!” they took a deep breath and continued. “Toby, the ancestors are giving you clear instructions. You are being shone one of the gifts that you can bring to the world. You are being given an aspect of your life’s purpose.” They paused, and then said in an even stronger voice, “And I don’t want to talk to you again until you are doing it!” Then they slammed the phone down and a dial tone met my ear.

We Can Take Action Without Knowing All The Details

Malidoma and I

I trusted My teacher’s potent advice and decided to take action. I didn’t know what I was doing, but that was OK. What I did know was that in the dream I drummed over people…well, zombies…and they would get better. During that time, I was taking a shamanic training course. On my lunch breaks I would ask people, “Could you lay down and let me drum over you and afterward tell me if you feel anything?” Most people agreed and I stood over them, playing on my djembe whatever rhythms somehow felt correct. I was surprised when people began to share stories of powerful transformations. I had no mental frame of reference about what I was doing. I was simply drumming as the dreams had shown me.

He Was Dying of AIDS

A woman who reported a profound breakthrough from one of these early sessions referred a friend to me who was dying of AIDS and had been told he had a very short time to live. When we met, he shared that his viral count was over 40 million and his T cell count was virtually undetectable. He could only  get out of bed a day or two a week, and then, for only short periods of time.

We did a drum session, and afterward he was energized, sensing that some of his health had already been restored. We ended up doing a series of sessions, connecting every week for a month, every two weeks for three months, and then once per month for a total treatment time of six months. After our drumming work together, his medical tests showed his viral count was zero and his T cell count was 870. We were amazed and profoundly grateful for the healing that occurred. I still hear from him regularly, and his healing status is always stable.

The Fire Of The Drum Burns

Doors Open

Those early sessions opened the door and the phone started ringing with people wanting to experience the transformational, healing power of the drum. I worked in my local region throughout the rest of 1999 and 2000, began traveling part-time in 2001 to 2003, and then sold my restaurant and coffee shops in 2004 and began to travel full-time. In 2009 I traveled three hundred days, sharing the Healing Drummer work far and wide.

I’m humbled by the enthusiastic response to Healing Drummer Private Sessions. I can’t tell you how great it is to connect with so many people and be of service by doing what I love.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed answering a number of questions about the Healing Drummer Private Session work. I hope you find the information helpful, and please let me know if you have any questions. My contact info is at the end of this special report. I’ll be delighted to provide any information you need in order to decide if you would like to schedule a time to work together.

Check me out at www.healingdrummer.com and to schedule an appointment shoot me an email to toby@healingdrummer.com

Stay tuned for Part II there is more to come.

Here is a little taste from the intro of my new book. Stay tuned for more …

In 1998, I went to Africa. In my wake across the Atlantic, I left a flotsam of failed relationships, addictions, dead dreams, phenomenal financial success and catastrophic financial failure. I had recently been homeless; everything I owned destroyed by fire a short time before. So that by the time I arrived in the heart of West Africa, I was an empty man – no sense of home, no identity, no purpose, and no material wealth. A being starving for something different, looking for answers to questions I didn’t even know I had been asking, seeking a different way to pattern my life that brought both the success and the happiness that had eluded me.
And it was there in Africa, in the tiny country of Burkina Faso, that I encountered a way of being that helped me recognize what belonged in that void that haunted me every minute of every day. It was there in Burkina that I reconnected with my purpose, with my heart, and with the drum.

It was both a blessing and a curse living in a village without running water or electricity. As is their custom, they welcomed me like their own. For two weeks, I ate what they ate, drummed with the tribal drummers, slept on the ground among the people, joked and cried with them and generally experienced first hand the spirituality, community and teachings of the Dagara people. In doing this, they helped me re-birth my genius into the world again. For that gift I am blessed and grateful.
My purpose in writing this book is to share what I learned during my stay in Burkina Faso. I will also share what I have learned in my fifteen years of putting those Dagara teachings into practice personally and how I have adapted those teachings to flow more easily with a Western mind without diminishing their effectiveness. The tools are deceptively simple, but phenomenally powerful and profound. These principles and truths will help you fill your own void, will help support you and celebrate you in discovering your own genius. They will help you see that deep within you resides a power to help you express this genius. The power that holds this magical place is the realization that you are intrinsically good and choose to create life-affirming situations in your life.

Blessings,
Toby

This blog is the operations central for the HEALINGDRUMMER WORLD PEACE PARTY that will take place December 20th. For the past three years I have ended every event with a few minutes of DRUMMING FOR PEACE. What I mean by peace is summed up in the statement below. I’m not asking anyone to change their mind or agree with me in every way I only ask that we focus on our similarities so strongly that we have no time to fight about our differences! Check Back for details.

To honor this passionate cause I produced a CD called World Unity. The following are the words on the jacket. The song posted is Wake Up! It is my call for people WAKE UP to PEACE!!!

“This CD is dedicated to the Peacemakers of the world. It is for those who realize that we are held lovingly in the arms of the universe, and that since we are here not only to survive, but to THRIVE together, then we must begin to act with peace and harmony in all that we do. This is to act peace with the air, the water, the land, the animals, and with each and every one of our fellow humans. May we all find through this music the ability to focus on our similarities so strongly that we have no time to fight about our differences! WORLD UNITY is WORLD COMMUNITY”

Let’s make it happen!

It is with this intention I ask you all to join me in a wold wide campaign and join the HEALINGDRUMMER WORLD PEACE PARTY! Stay tuned and enjoy the music. I will post new tracks every 2 weeks!

Peace

Well it’s been a while since I did an update. I feel sometimes like I am a super ball bouncing faster and faster between the walls of the world! Sorry of those who do not know what a super ball is. I am dating myself.

Just finished a great trip to the east coast and then on to Cincinnati. The Shamanic training courses are rocking and I am having a BLAST!

I have been hearing so much about the incident with James Arthur Ray I think it is an important issue to address. My heart goes out to those affected by it and the traditions that have become affected by it as well. Regardless of my destain for those who feel as though they know what is right for everybody and feel they have the answer for the world , I do not believe there was intent of harm in that sad incident. Only profound ignorance and irresponsibility. Having had the privilege of studying with many very powerful indigenous teachers I have learned one very important thing. NEVER GIVE YOUR POWER TO ANOTHER PERSON!! Some teachers, especially in the west feel as though they have the entitlement to be a guru. That they in some way know better than you what is your path. I have seen them come and go, I have seen them amass wealth and file for bankruptcy. Have great volumes of followers and then die alone a short time later. Please Please Please own your own power and keep yourself safe in any and all situations. The situation in Sedona was an unnecessary tragedy of overbearing power and egotistical manipulation. Please always trust your own heart and hold your own power!!

It was my pleasure this winter to escape to sunny Santa Fe New Mexico to present at the International Sound Healers Conference. In addition to being exposed to some great healing modalities and a wonderful sponsoring organization I had the opportunity  to jam with a group of vendors in the booth area. I played with Flutes, Gongs, a Pipe Organ and even a Harp! It was a wild time. Here is a little clip of what would spontaneously erupt through out the day!

The guy playing flute was so cool. He and his mother make the most amazing bamboo flutes. I of course had to have one. So when I get good enough to play in public, I’ll lay some licks down for you! Don’t hold your breath. The harp player is out of the frame but he had beautiful harps of all kinds and played brilliantly.

I also had the pleasure of hanging with some of the sound healing greats like Don Campbell, author of “The Mozart Effect”, David Hykes, Tom Kenyon and Siberian Shaman, Nikolay Oorzhak.

I also got to jam with Christine Stevenson and Kim Atkinson. We were able to commandeer a room at the hotel and turn it into a chamber of sacred rhythm!! What a blast.

When I get the video from my presentation I will post some of the highlights. It was an honor to be included with so many amazing people who are bringing healing transformation  to the planet with sound.

As summer fades and the coolness of fall encroached on our warm sunny days I review the blog entries from Hawaii and it seems like a long time ago and yesterday simultaneously. I have been back on the road and am so pleased at the way things are developing around the country.

The release of World Unity has really created a stir and has opened doors for us to be involved in an international program to promote peaceful and powerful leaders from the youth of our planet. UNITY is the key. I was facilitating with Dr. Shelly Stelzer. As we were merging healing techniques from various cultures someone in the class asked about mixing modalities from different races of people and cultures.

I thought her response was profound. “There is only one race and that is the human race. There is only one true color an that is red, it is the color of the blood that runs through the veins of each and every person on the planet.” In my work with cross-cultural organizations I remember this as we begin to discuss the events in the world. We must think and act globally. The issues we face are not confined to only one race or nation. I love the words of a Michael Franti song:

Please tell me the reason for the colors that you fly. Love just one nation and the whole world we divide. We can chase sown all our enemies, bring them to their knees. We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can’t bomb it into peace.

My intention for the remainder of the year and 2009 is to bring the healing drum to as many countries as possible and drum in unity with as many tribal and cultural people as I can.

At the World Unity CD release party in Cincinnati I was blessed to have a great jam session with a cool cat from Nigeria. Another awesome synchronicity that has happened is a connection to a great ritual master and shaman of plant spirit medicine. His name is Fabaku and he is guiding me into some powerful indigenous teaching and the use of powerful medicine from Africa, South America and Mexico. As the world unifies to bring healing to the planet our own personal lives become richer as well.

I am very excited as well to be working with Flaco, a powerful brother from DC who is mentoring youth and guiding them through powerful initiations and rites of passage. We were fortunate to have him at an event I facilitated in Alexandria Virginia. As you can imagine, the drumming was fierce!!! Thank you my brother for blessing us all with your magic!!!

Here Flaco and I get ready to rock a group in Alexandria VA.

I am off to Canada next and am looking forward to connecting with our neighbors to the north, spreading the power and unity of the drum with all I meet. Stay tuned for a report from Calgary.

Peace and Blessings to you all!