Comments on: My Reflections on The Sweat Lodge Tragedy

By: mike

mike — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:33:13 +0000

I have been sweating for 30 years and yes….you know when someone has love as the center of their intentions. I was trained by a naive american elder and worked very hard as his apprentice for 23 years before I poured water in a lodge. It is so important to keep a ceremony humble, lovng, open and rspectful for all participants. I also teach junior high students so “teaching” can be a really good thing when we as teacher coninually learn and stay open to what we should always be learning…..which in my soul means love within and share and listen to all that creator has in the world for us to experience. One of my medicine leaders says “open your spirit ears to listen and open your spirit heart to feel “. Yes it is a shame what happen to those people in Sedona….as soon as I say the plastic on the lodge it rang out loud to me “What are they doing? A lodge has to breathe”. You never use plastic tarps on a lodge as it traps all the CO2 in and does not allow O2 in. Spiritually also….pryers can’t go out and spirit can’t come in. Yes ego and any leaders……really good leaders are the most humble and comfortable with themselves….so find this and you may have found a good leader. Good prayers and blessings for all!

By: denise

denise — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:00:10 +0000

Mark:
Just wanted to say that I, too, not being a Native American, appreciated being invited to participate in a sweat ceremony run by native americans. My experience was very positive. I participated to help celebrate and show gratitude for my son’s first year anniversary of sobriety after a few harrowing years of drug addiction. Being a very claustrophobic person, it certainly was a major event for me. I was so moved by the whole thing that I returned to my hotel room and wrote a detailed description of the experience. This happened 4 years ago, but became the title chapter of my first book, released just last month, called “SWEAT: A Practical Plan for Keeping Your Heart Intact While Loving an Addict.” I used some of the tools I talk about in my book to get me through the sweat and that experience made me realize that these tools really do work under stress and chaos. Anyway, I had the same experience you did with kindness, no judgement, no money, and gratitude and spirituality.

By: Mark Ament

Mark Ament — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:33:41 +0000

NEWS FLASH James Ray Arrested