Introduction

I discovered the work of anthropologist Felicitas D. Goodman in early 1993, and spent time learning from her and assisting her in 1994 and 1995. I earned certification as a teacher in 1996. Dr. Goodman died in March 2005 leaving a potent legacy behind. In July 2006, the first gathering of international teachers took place at the Institute founded by Felicitas just north of Santa Fe. There the teachers and board members wrote a new mission statement which sets the tone for the next stage of her powerful work to be of service to the world.

Mission Statement 2006

Cuyamungue Institute - the Felicitas D. Goodman Institute is a nonprofit educational organization founded in 1979 by anthropologist, Dr. Felicitas D. Goodman. The Institute's mission is to conduct research and to teach an ancient method using indigenous ritual body postures for integrating the world of spirit with contemporary life. In addition, it is our mission to preserve the Institute land as an environmental and spiritual sanctuary.

As I teach postures here, around the country and in England, I am moved time and time again by the power of these ancestral, planetary poses to inspire wisdom, to nurture reverence for our planetary home, and to rekindle the power of community. Since you, the reader, may not know what this spiritual practice called Ecstatic Wisdom Postures really is, please read on...

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The Call

nurture community, be more creative, broaden our views of what the mind actually is, expand our notions of reality, embrace the idea that everything really is connected,and reconsider what makes life fulfilling – scientists and mystics everywhere are even being asked to hold hands, while urban, western humans are being asked to remember our utter dependence on the very same Nature that we greedily and speedily destroy...like a cancer consuming its host. And what about that emptiness in the belly, the pain in the heart, the shortness of breath, the ache in the head and the ringing in the ears...those pervasive symptoms that something is not right, something inside is hollow that should be full...instead of another pill, where is a healthy dose of wonder, love and humor when we need it?

All this sounds like an evolutionary imperative to love life’s messiness, to find wisdom, and quickly, but how can we do it?

With a drum roll and trumpet flourish,
here come Ecstatic Wisdom Postures
bringing with them
potent gifts from our ancient ancestors
to the bodyminds of the present.

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The Discovery

Let me offer a bit of background. Hungarian born, Dr. Felicitas Goodman, anthropologist and scholar, died in March 2005 at the age of 91. She left a remarkable legacy behind. She named it formally Ecstatic Trance and Ritual Body Postures. (Because the words "trance" and "ritual" and even "ecstatic" often hold negative connotations in our culture, I am choosing to call this work Ecstatic Wisdom Postures. I'll explain why I use the word, "ecstatic" shortly.) In the early 1970’s Dr. Goodman discovered that modern urban humans can open long forgotten doorways to the spirit world by holding a posture of the body based on ancestral, globally distributed, artifacts while listening to rhythmic stimulation. This combination expands our consciousness, allowing us to glimpse the invisible realities supporting the world of Matter. In other words, we peek into the world of Quantum Physics, the same world modern Mystics and our ancient ancestors have known all along. This expanded awareness allows us to feel ecstasy - a felt-sense of connection with Great Mystery.

Dr. Goodman said, “In the long run...humans cannot tolerate ecstasy deprivation.”

What is this thing called ecstasy and why do we hunger for it? It is the energy of the body, the electricity, the invisible life force itself that surges with more intensity when we are in communion with that which is greater than ourselves. Webster’s Dictionary describes it as rapturous delight, a mystic or prophetic trance...intense bliss, gratitude and powerful emotion. The word, ecstasy, derives from Greek roots; Ek and stasis – loosely translated as standing outside, or beside, oneself. Bruce Wilshire in his profound book, Wild Hunger – Primal Roots of Modern Addiction describes it more fully: In Greek ek-stasis means a standing out from the points in space one’s body occupies. To stand out into the surrounding world and to be caught up and possessed by it. The world owns me and, in a strange sense, I own it.

When this happens, our ego lets go.

What a relief! At some level of consciousness the ego must know it is no match for these great powers surrounding us. It must get tired of trying to be in charge when so much of life is uncontrollable, paradoxical, ambiguous, even horrific. We waste a lot of effort and energy. Surrendering, though, doesn’t mean the ego leaves or dies. The ego simply changes jobs.

It can take on a more relevant and fulfilling function...that of side-by, not controller - the ego and the self walk hand in hand as witnesses to these expanded states. Together they embody these ecstatic experiences and decide on meaningful action and thoughtful response later, when we are again living in ordinary mind. Paradoxically this experience is both humbling and empowering. And I think that’s why we crave it.

We long to know there is something greater than our small selves. We yearn to know that we are connected to the Source of All, that we are connected to and comfortable with the real, unpredictable, juicy, terrible, awe-fullness of life. That is true empowerment. Wilshire says,

" ...addictions stem from breaking the participatory bond our species has had with regenerative source, with wild Nature...kinship with plants and animals, with rocks, trees, and horizons. Even terror is a bond with what terrifies.

In such moments we are ‘out of ourselves,’ ecstatic, spontaneous, full of the swelling presences of things. Addictions try to fill the emptiness left by the loss of ecstatic kinship. They are substitute gratifications that cannot last for long—slavishly repeated attempts to keep the emptiness at bay.

Finally, they drain the body of its regenerative powers."

Wilshire ends his book by saying, “Awe undermines addiction.”

In a world where most of us westerners live in urban environments with climate controlled spaces, virtual realities, and technological expectations of never being alone with ourselves, it is hard to find wild nature. Awe eludes us. Birthing offers it sometimes. Passionate, authentically loving ‘sexing’ does too. Many spiritual disciplines offer bliss as a goal, but lose their followers along the ascetic path leading to the destination. Sometimes a sunset or a great storm reminds us that we are part and parcel of this wild thing called life. Risk-taking sports offer the adrenalin rush portion of ecstasy, but in general awe is hard to come by.

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The Gift to the Individual

What a wonder it is that Felicitas Goodman discovered a simple, efficient, reliable process which:

hones our nervous system,
inspires imagination,
unleashes creativity,
enhances our immune system,
altars our brainwaves,
releases our own natural stress-reducing hormones,
changes our heart rates,
provides insight,
modifies blood pressure,
nourishes love,
balances brain hemispheres,
reanimates cellular, evolutionary memories,
produces unitive consciousness,
feeds the soul,
nurtures the spirit,
requires and enriches community,
and offers visions of worlds outside our typical modern perceptions.

In short, her discoveries, based on our ancestral biological heritage, allow our bodyminds to remember truths with a capital T and to experience direct communion with our own spiritual source, ergo ecstasy and awe.

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The Gift to Community

In addition Ecstatic Wisdom Postures spark the dance of community. The Posture experience reaches potency only in community AND the community thrives with the intimacy of individuals journeying together in non-ordinary reality. There are two key aspects: One is that according to Dr. Gunter Hasffelder, Director of the Institute for Communication and Brain Research in Stuttgart, Germany, listening to live drumming and rattling is more intense than listening to a CD because "... people who want to come into a different state of consciousness are connected by Delta waves. Therefore, they build up a powerful potential, more than a single person is able to manage...Drum and rattle are the media to synchronize the vibration for the group. If there is the leadership of drummer or rattler missing, i.e. when you hear a CD, then, you cannot buildup the feeling of community so well.

Each person in the group falls back on him/herself and doesn't have a connection to the collective unconscious...It is important that someone acts in the middle, one who can hold and lead the group energies and group consciousness. Then all can steer to a common aim, otherwise these energies get lost. if this doesn't happen, you cannot deepen your experience."*

The second reason the group is essential is this: The full extent of the posture's power is revealed only when we share our stories afterward. Then we learn not only that there really is something about the human body that is hard-wired to experience ecstasy but also that the body posture physiologically, somehow, does open a specific doorway to another world. That's magical all by itself — chin-dropping-mouth-hanging-open-awesome — but often the full meaning of my personal experience doesn’t become clear until I hear someone else’s story. A piece of my puzzle lies in someone else’s hand. In other words, each individual contribution expands the possibilities for everyone else...illustrating the power of synergistic community...this is potent when we consider we still live in a competitive, individualistic cultural matrix.

This is not to say that Postures are not useful when held alone...they can be, but not as a daily practice, the way yoga and meditation are often practiced. Postures are too stimulating for that...the bodymind needs time to integrate the experience.

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The Gift to our Time

Can you see how Postures offer a "technology" to fertilize the insights and to nurture the changes called for—so our species can mature evolutionarily? Most of our wisdom keepers haven’t yet heard of this additional, very precisely relevant, path for supporting our growth. Dr. Goodman guarded the practice for a long time. She considered Ecstatic Trance and Ritual Body Postures sacred, serious work and kept it pure and aligned with her theoretical insights. For more than thirty years, Felicitas made it difficult for people to find the Cuyamungue Institute near Santa Fe where she used to offer a few workshops every summer. She refused to advertise and didn’t want a website.

Consequently, the people who now carry her work on as certified teachers are a hardy, committed lot for only those who were determined and passionate found her. Approximately twenty certified teachers live in the U.S., maybe twice that number in Europe. Thus the next generation, of which I am one, is ready to bring this potent practice into the world. In fact the first international gathering of certified teachers met in the summer of 2006 at the Institute.

End note: It is probably no accident in this time of planetary peril that the potential for a true global village

is very real. A thousand and more years ago, each tribe probably worked with only two or three postures. We now work with approximately sixty. . I think the Spirits are telling us something!

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The Practice

It’s easy to begin. It’s preferable to invite a few friends to join you in your exploration for the reasons noted in the section on the importance of community, but if that’s not possible, you can certainly begin on your own. Either way, make sure you have a private space and uninterrupted time. Turn off the phone!

Begin by asking a few questions. For example, what is it that pulls you right now, what needs might you have, how does spirit want you to serve...these questions help you determine which posture to choose. Using one of the available books, pick a posture and read the instructions for how to hold it. Here for example is the Bear Posture, one of the ones found most widely on the planet and still in use today. The earliest record of the Bear Posture is from 6000BC. The images here are from Nana Nauwald’s book, Ecstatic Trance.

Stand with your feet straight ahead and your legs hip width apart with the knees bent slightly. Cup your hands as if you are holding an egg and place them across your belly. Belinda says, " Position your hands so your folded fingers form a tall triangle over your navel. The first joint of the index finger of each hand should touch to form the apex of the triangle, with your thumbs resting one in front of the other, not one on top of the other." According to Nana, the thumbs rest on the fingers so there is a difference of opinion. Only your own experience will tell you w hich exact pose works best for you. Tilt your head back to look at the seam where the ceiling of the room meets the wall. Close your eyes, relax your jaw so your mouth may hang slightly open.

After you have practiced holding the posture, take some time to create sacred space:

smudge yourself or each other, then call to the spirits, the ancestors, the directions and then spend a little time calming the “monkey mind.” Generally we spend five minutes either in silence, drumming/rattling, or singing/chanting. When you feel ready, assume the posture and hold it for fifteen minutes while listening to the drum/rattle which holds a rhythm of 210 beats a minute. When the drumming stops, move out of the posture and take a few minutes to record your experience in whatever way works best for you. I recommend journaling because a written record holds a wealth of information revealing your development as you practice over time. Drawing is also a wonderful tool, as is authentic movement. After you have embodied your personal experience, it is time to share in the group. “Magic” generally happens!

For those of you new to establishing a safe container for sacred work, please don’t hesitate to contact me. (deborah@athanorarts.com; 406-726-0030) There is not space here to do justice to the importance of beginning and ending each session with ceremony and gratitude. Open hearted intention is the key!

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Bibliography

Should you want to read:

• Ecstatic Body Postures – an Alternate Reality Workbook – Belinda Gore, PhD
• Where the Spirits Ride the Wind- Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences –by Felicitas Goodman, PhD
• Wild Hunger – Primal Roots of Modern Addiction – Bruce Wilshire
• Voices of the First Day – Robert Lawlor
• The Cosmic Serpent – DNA and the Origins of Knowledge – Jeremy Narby
• Well of Remembrance – Ralph Metzner
• Way of the Wyrd – Brian Bates
• Living Druidry – Emma Restall Orr
• The Two Million Year Old Self – Anthony Stevens
• Transform Yourself – Patrick Marsolek

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Interview

To listen to a new radio interview about my work and Postures go to www.HealthyLife.Net. Click on Archives. Scroll down to Inspiration and Motivation: click on Dr. Pat: Scroll down to 8/07/06, Deborah Milton.

Contact Deborah to receive a copy of the interview by Nana Nauwald with Dr. Gunter Hasffelder – Cuyamungue Institute Newsletter, Vol 22, #2, May 2000.

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Workshops

Introductory and Advanced workshops happen at the Cuyamungue Institute in the summer and occur in other places all year. I offer workshops in Montana and am willing to travel. I incorporate Postures as an iintegral part of the process in other workshops as well, and they can be very useful in personal consultations.

Other Posture related events will soon appear here. Please check back again for more details and dates.

I am open to teaching Postures wherever a group expresses an interest. I prefer to offer weekend workshops but am open to evening presentations, which can include a slide show. Fees vary. Please don't hesitate to contact me.

There are many ways to approach this work . A basic introduction is always possible. This work is developmental so after an introduction, weekends devoted to advanced topics such as Healing, or Spirit Journeys or Initiation expand us farther, take us deeper, offer a rich foundation for continued growth, and foster community.

Two of my current favorite subjects for introductory workshops are:

Exploring the Noetic Realm with Ecstatic Wisdom Postures.

Almost forty years ago, anthropologist Felicitas D. Goodman, PhD, discovered the power of holding a posture of the body while listening to drumming/rattling to expand our consciousness in a reliable and safe way. The posture, based on ancient artifacts from around the globe, opens very specific doorways to non-ordinary reality and the rhythm alters our brain waves along with other physiological responses. Ecstatic Wisdom Postures allow us to trust the body/mind’s knowing and the spirit’s compass, showing us worlds beyond our imaginations, the realities beyond our typical senses that are no less real than this world of matter. The combination of rhythm and posture expands our perceptions and takes us to the world Black Elk described as the “world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. This is the real world that is behind this one. . .” and the world which we might call “noetic.”

As an evening experiential presentation, Deborah will provide an overview of this timely spiritual practice, including a slide show of some of the artifacts we use as Postures. Time for questions will be followed by a simple ritual to establish the sacred space for holding a posture and then sharing experiences afterward. It’s useful to bring a journal and pen to record your experience.

As a weekend workshop, there would be expressive creative opportunities, visually, verbally and playfully, to acknowledge and absorb the "gifts" from this remarkable world beyond our rational minds, thereby enriching the ordinary lives of our body/minds.

Traveling the World Tree

For millennia, humans all over the planet devised cosmologies based on the Tree of Life to make meaning of the infinite, seemingly chaotic cosmos in which we live. Modern technology, cultural belief systems, and “civilization” have all diminished those innate capacities to know the worlds beyond our typical senses, our rational minds. One particular set of Ecstatic Wisdom Postures, those called Spirit Journeys, allow us to explore the three major realms of the Tree of Life: the roots going deep into the fecund darkness of animal spirits and the realm of the dead (lower world); the trunk showing us the invisible realms that support this visible world of ordinary perception (middle world); and the branches, where we can journey far into the Star Nations where the original blueprints for all life are held.

Ecstatic Wisdom Postures reanimate our birthright as humans to experience the invisible realities beyond this one of matter. The Postures of the human body, based on ancient artifacts, often pre-agricultural, have been found in sacred sites around the world. By replicating a posture and holding it for fifteen minutes while listening to a drum/rattle, we open a door directly to our deeper body’s wisdom and experience expanded consciousness, what we call non-ordinary reality or the noetic realm. This reality enlarges our perspective, renews our connection with the vast web supporting all life, and awakens our ecological unconsciousness where we can heal the fundamental alienation between ourselves and the ground of our being.

Dr. Felicitas Goodman, who discovered Ecstatic Postures, said, “One of the most pervasive traditions of

shamanic culture is the insight that there exists a patterned cosmological order, which can be disturbed by

human activity.” By journeying into these worlds of the Tree of Life, we humans, even today, have an opportunity to make things right again, healing ourselves in the process. As a weekend workshop, there would be expressive creative opportunities, visually, verbally and playfully, to acknowledge and absorb the "gifts" from each of the three worlds of the World Tree, enriching our lives by relating to the cosmos.

As an evening experiential presentation, Deborah will provide an overview of this timely spiritual practice, including a slide show of some of the artifacts we use as Postures. Time for questions will be followed by a simple ritual to establish the sacred space for holding a posture and then sharing experiences afterward. It’s useful to bring a journal and pen to record your experience.

• May 31 to June 3rd, 2007 - Crossing the Threshold - Stepping into Greater Authenticity with Patrick Marsolek - Boulder Hot Springs, MT. Cost: $360 - 495 depending on lodging.
  For complete description click here.
  
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• February 21st, 2008 Awakening Consciousness/Quickening the Body - An Introduction to Ecstatic Wisdom Postures at the Women's Club, 2105 Bow St. between Kent and Central. 7:30 to 9 PM. Fee is a donation.
  
  Anthropologist Dr. Felicitas Goodman discovered drawings, carvings and sculptures left behind by our ancestors in ceremonial sites around the globe based on specific postures of the human body. Often the same posture was found in widely separated localities and cultures. When we moderns imitate one of these ancient poses and hold it while listening to the rhythmic stimulation of drum/rattle, we can enter highly specific altered states of consciousness, reliably and safely. This is the visionary world, the invisible, energetic reality which supports this one. By traveling to these realms, we might tremble with life force, open to healing, activate chi, solve problems, awaken vision, experience bliss and a connection to all life, inspire creativity and encounter the sacred.
  
• March 8th, 2008 - Remembering our Native Roots - European Ecstatic Wisdom Postures at Athanor Arts in Evaro. Direction sent with registration. 10AM to 4:30 PM. Fee: $55.
  We are All Natives—peoples original to the earth. As immigrants on this continent we have lost our sense of sacred relationship to the ground we walk upon. Postures help us remember our own primal reverence for the divinity in all things—the waters, the winds, the mysteries of fire, the starry expanses above our heads and the regenerative ground beneath our feet—all the things on which our lives depend, of which we are made.

  Postures awaken our own native connection to Source and nourish ecstatic experience—filling our senses, nurturing our souls, and allowing us to fall in love with the untamed realities of living and dying, to embrace full heartedly the wild nature inside us. As we heal our split selves, we light a beacon for others who long for authentic, passionate, and creative living—aliveness that is embedded in community, nature and culture, providing a robust world of wonder for the ones yet to come.

   

  

You can also contact Deborah for more information or to register for a workshop.