journal
What is Shaking Medicine?
June 29, 2010
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. Sometimes I may lightly shake parts of the client’s body to call up energy in service of transformation. When held in the en-lightened container of reiki and the subtle physiological and energetic effects of cranial sacral and Peruvian Light Body work, the results are often dramatic.
Bradford Keeney is the most noted teacher of shaking medicine in the West. He experienced ecstatic spontaneous shaking as a young man and then later began to explore this phenomenon in other cultures. Eventually, he connected with the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. They have been shaking on the same piece of Earth for 20,000 years and helped him understand this natural and powerful healing dance. Brad and his students, Bill Sutherland, M.D. and Andy McLure teach this practice that combines the spiritual traditions of the Bushmen, the practice work of the ancient healing art of the Seiki-jitsu, and more modern expressions of these and other ancient ways in weekend workshops. Bill and Andy will be in Kimberton, PA from August 27-28 teaching shaking medicine. For more information about their workshop, click here.