Metta Knowledge For Peace, LLC

About MettaKnowledge

MettaKnowledge for Peace is committed to healing the effects of trauma, violence, and conflict in our hearts, minds and bodies with the best tools from the western sciences, social sciences, psychology, Buddhism and the new shamanism in the West. More»

Register for Shaking Down Trauma, Finding Peace, a workshop for spiritual discovery and personal growth taking place October 29-31 at Bridge Between the Worlds outside Charlottesville, Virginia. For more information, click here.

MettaKnowledge for Peace publishes two occasional email newsletters, “Explorations in Kindness” and “Shamanism in a New Age.” Click here for the most recent “Shamanism in a New Age” newsletter.  For the archives of all past newsletters, click here.

About Rachel

I am an educator, scholar, writer and shamanic healer working to bring understanding about the causes and consequences of violence and conflict and in so doing, to help us all heal the world and foster peace.  My work is directly influenced by my lifelong spiritual practice in Buddhism and in new forms adapted into the West from indigenous spirituality, sometimes called shamanism.  I am actively involved in educating westerners about the power, truth and efficacy of the spiritual and healing practices of both indigenous peoples and their new forms in the West.  I seek to put these wisdom traditions on the same footing as Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, and the Muslim faiths.  Indigenous and shamanic spiritual traditions offer all of us something very unique in service of healing our world in these critical times. We need not let go of our own belief systems, religions, or cultures in order to benefit from their power. To this end, I also link the words and works of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other renowned peacemakers to the teachings of peace, healing and compassion found in shamanism and other indigenous wisdom traditions. more

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• Personal Growth
• Healing Trauma
• Spiritual Discovery
• Compassion Fatigue
• Animal Companions

News and Journal

• What is Shaking Medicine?

  When we draw upon the chi of the Earth through meditation, yoga, movement, or in hands-on healing, our bodies often heat up and even shake. This “boiling” energy, as the Bushmen call it, can be used in service of moving blocked energy and providing vital life force to a client. Sometimes I myself begin to shake, to make vocalizations and sing wordless chants when I am working with a client. More»

• Can Trauma be Healed with the Wisdom of Rattle and Stone?

  I came to the healing practices adapted from indigenous cultures through the path of trauma.  I suffered for many years with symptoms of PTSD as a result of childhood abuse.  While years of western psychotherapy certainly helped in the development of greater self-awareness and thus gave me the motivation to work on changing old emotional patterns, it was only when I started to explore body-oriented and energy therapies that I began to see truly enduring and deep shifts in my symptoms both short and long-term. I like to explain that I am an academic anthropologist who only reluctantly let go of a tenured position at a major research university to study shamanism full-time.  More»

• Taking Healing on the Road

  I am taking my healing practice on the road.  On Saturday, May 15, I will be offering 30- and 60- minute shamanic healing sessions at Sacred Circle Books in Old Town Alexandria, conveniently located in Northern Virginia.  Call 703-299-9309 to sign up for a 30- or 60-minute session.  On Memorial Day weekend, I will be a guest practitioner at Community Yoga Center in Cornelius, North Carolina. On Friday, May 27, from 7-9 p.m., I will be giving a talk and demonstration on “Healing the Light Body” on the energy medicine of the Peruvian Andes.  On Saturday, May 28, I will be giving 30- and 60-minute healing sessions.  For more information and to sign up for a session, call 704-491-4749 or email cyyoga.amy@gmail.com.